I went into one of my local guitar shops and checked out the pedals today. Their selection was limited to MXR, Boss and TC Electronic. How do they compare to other brands?
Those are all good pedals. The way I see it there are two kinds of pedals. There are the mass produced factory pedals you named, which are solid dependable pedals. Which many famous artists use live on stage.
And there are boutique pedals. Which are just as good in every way. But which cost 2 to 3 times as much (sometimes even more), and when you look under the hood you'll find that they are almost
all modified Boss, MXR and Ibanez pedals anyway. Swap out a resister and cap here and there and voilá, Bob's your uncle. At 2 to 3 times the price. There was a time that 95% of all overdrive pedals out there were all modified copies of the Ibanez Tubescreamer. You name it, it's probably a tubescreamer. The tubescreamer, the fuzz face and the big muff are probably the most copied pedals out there.
Humor me as a complete novice when it comes to this, but what are the most "vital" effects to have? I know Tourist listed a few. Anyone else have thoughts? And what brands tend to work best?
Tourist probably nailed it on the head, overdrive and delay being the most common. But keep in mind, it
totally depends on your personal tastes. Lots of people love compressors, I hate compressors. Lots of people love wah pedals *cough* Kirk Hammet *cough*, I can't be arsed about them. Fuzz? Could be fun for a song or two, but give me hi-gain overdrive any time. And some people do absolutely nothing with delay.
That is why I said to get some cheap 2nd hand multi-FX unit. Use it to find out what your tastes are in FX, and only then go find the pedals that will satisfy your tastes. Of course, if you have the spare cash about to buy the Axe FX 2 from the start you're probably set for the next decade.
And if you are good with a soldering iron the sky is the limit. Most pedals that are out there have been traced and you can find layouts of them so you can build them yourself. It usually costs me about $50 to build a pedal from scratch. Or modify that Boss or MXR pedal to make them sound like a boutique pedal? You can even get complete kits to make your own pedal, including well known mods from place like buildyourownclone.com or generalguitargadgets.com.