What was your first pedal, after doing your research, was the one you really wanted to buy?

EdGrip

I research everything endlessly before buying. I'm one of those. The first pedal I bought was a Marshall Jackhammer, but I remember lots of deliberation going into the second pedal purchase - a Boss V-Wah - because it was a far greater investment. I later lent it to someone, never saw it again, and wasn't that bothered.

BintyTwanger77

RAT. Still love mine.

dogload

Back when I bought my first pedal at the age of 15 I had very little idea of what I was looking for and ended up getting myself a cheap, Japanese made fuzz/wah pedal because I wanted distortion. Mind it didn't matter coz there wasn't much in the way of research materials except for what you heard on records and word-of-mouth. Which accounts for my second purchase- a Boss CS-1 (it said 'sustainer' on it so I thought I'd get lovely long notes...) which I do still have on my pedalboard.

These days I pore over reviews and spec-sheets for ages to make sure that what I want is right before making a purchase (yeah, that works!), but I really do wish I'd hung on to that old fuzz/wah!

professorben

Drew_fx;1098505" said:

I've sold nearly every pedal I've ever owned. Twice.



lol.

So it's you that's scammed me on eBay!!!!

MattG

MXR Stereo chorus, still have it so i must like it!

Marktigere1

DM2W

Ro_S

Hmm, this is hard to answer.

I've been buying effects pedals since the early 1990s.   In the pre-internet days it wasn't really possible to do any research. For me at least, it was just a matter of going to the local music shop and seeing and choosing between what they had.  I can only recall brands like Boss and Ibanez in such shops, along with cheap Rocktek and Arion plastic things.  

I recall enviously looking at glass cabinets with Boss pedals that were virtually all beyond the pocket of a teenager. About the only Boss pedal I could stretch to affording was a Boss DS1; I bought it and took it straight back cos I didn't like it. (1992 ish?) I then lucked out on an Ibanez wah-fuzz.  

I only really started having access to the internet at places of employment.  At the time, the user reviews on Harmony Central seemed the most useful resource for researching pedal purchases.  When I wanted my first delay pedal, those reviews put me onto buying a Boss digital delay. 

When I was seeking affordable stuff, the Harmony Central reviews directed me towards the best of the early Danelectro pedals, like the French Toast, PB&J, Daddy-O, DanEcho.  

Obtaining Electro-Harmonix stuff - and certainly trying it out - used to be very difficult. I don't think any shops in the UK stocked EHX stuff back then - I'm referring to circa 2000. I bought an EHX Graphic Fuzz, but that was a shot in the dark mostly.  That's still one of the most expensive pedals I've ever bought.  I rarely buy new. I also wanted, and bought, an EHX Pulsar tremolo - and an Akai Intelliphase analogue phaser. 

My earlier internet research put me onto early prominent boutique brands like ZVex, Fulltone and Voodoo Lab.  I bought a pre-owned Fuzz Factory, as that seemed the fuzz pedal to get.

   

I did not have the internet at home until about 2004, around the same time YouTube started. I got into buying stuff on ebay then. Researching pedals has been a whole lot more easier due the internet over the past 10 to 15 years. 

I've always tried to research potential purchases as much as possible.  In more recent years I've had a very much clearer and better informed idea about what pedals I like and want. Some examples of specific pedal models that have strongly been on my radar in this period - and some of which I've bought - have been:   

EQD Hoof Reaper dual pedal; Blackout Effectors Musket Fix'd fuzz dual pedal; Prescription Electronics Experience; Barber Trifecta; Plum Crazy Fuzzy Lady; ZVex vexter Wah Probe; Way Huge Swollen Pickle reissue; Catalinbread Merkin; EQD Crimson Drive; EHX Freeze, and Cathedral reverb; Vox DelayLab; Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter tremolo; Catalinbread Pareidolia; Lumpy's Lemon Drop.  

And, more recently: 

Blackout Effectors Whetstone phaser; Way Huge Havelina; Catalinbread Karmu Suture; TC Spark Booster; Black Arts Toneworks Black Forest; EQD Night Wire; David Rolo Twin Peaks tremolo; EHX Deluxe Big Muff; Stone Deaf Trashy Blonde; and Moog MF Drive.

fretmeister

Mine was a Boss CE-2 Chorus that I got in about 1989 ish.

Sassafras

You can research pedals till you're blue in the face but no amount of youtube demos and lists of transistors, capacitors and ICs will tell you how they'll sound in your hands and with your gear.

When I started out a long time before the interweb the only way was try them out and that's still the most reliable indicator of whether they'll suit you or not.

Research is vastly overrated. 

You can waste so much time on it these days and still be none the wiser.

I miss the pre-internet days.

DesVegas

Sassafras said:

I miss the pre-internet days.

What method are your torturers using to force you on here every bloody day? 

I hope it's nipple clamps

lasermonkey

Carlsbro Alu Series Flanger. Yeah, it's big, ungainly and can't be run from an adapter, but my God, it sounds lovely!

Sassafras

DesVegas said:

Sassafras said:

I miss the pre-internet days.

What method are your torturers using to force you on here every bloody day? 

I hope it's nipple clamps

Boredom is a great motivator to my using the internet.

bobthemerciful

Ibanez DCL. Research was going into every shop in the west end and trying em all (1985). Still have and use it at every gig. Got the DCF too, but G System won't power em both and haven't really missed it. Tend to have it on most of the time, as a very subtle chorus that you don't really notice til you turn it off. Suppose I'm a bit odd in that I like chorus in front of the amp as well as in the loop, tho don't tend to have the G's chorus and it on at the same time.

earwighoney

A Boss DD-5 aged 16 in 1998 when I first heard Mogwai (Ten Rapid).  I read in an interview they used a DD-3, and about that same time I saw a used DD-5 in my local guitar shop and bought it.  

sweepy

Mine was the old mains powered Big Muff Pi Deluxe, then a late 70's Tubescreamer iirc

impmann

Dod Stereo Chorus pedal.

My mum bought it for my 15th birthday.

I still have it.

Pete24v

In the 90s when I heard SRV had passed away guitar world did a special magazine dedicated to him. The last page was about tube screamers, about the same time ibanez reissued the TS-9.

I was 16 at the time, and my parents got me one for Christmas. I gigged it for ages until the drive pot started acting a bit weird. Then I bought a ts808 and had Analogman mod it (I'd had the Analogman kit fitted to the ts9 a few years before)

Recently fixed the TS-9 and sold the 808.

Still sounds great.

NickL

Crybaby, which I bought from Coda in Luton some time in the mid '90s and still use.

Ro_S

NickL said:

Crybaby, which I bought from Coda in Luton some time in the mid '90s and still use.

I wish I'd just bought a crybaby at the time I needed a new wah to replace a Ibanez WF10.  Instead I tried to be clever and bought an Akai W1 Variwah, and later a digital Boss PW10 V-wah.

Laurie

Freekish Blues Alpha Drive Thaddeus Hogarth (deadly tonez!)

I spent countless hours researching this awesome OD pedal and trawling cyberspace for every drop of information on it. But, at the end of the day, it was the Andertons/Rob Chapman YT video which 100% sold me on it.

I mean, Rob Chapman calls it, "One of the best blues pedals ever!" - He ain't wrong, either.  This pedal ownz!!