Pedal Line Up

Well, I just got into tube amps and pedals at the beginning of September. I sought a lot of advice on this forum over the course of a few threads and I think I've finally nailed it. Most of what I got were a result of suggestions by many here. I'm pretty confident that I now have what it takes to tackle most forms of rock and other.

I decided to buy locally as I feel I can return very soon if I didn't like something. As a result, I was subject to current stock. I didn't get exactly what was suggested in some cases, but close.

Due to an illness, it went pretty slow and I have not cranked it up yet, but I like what I ended up with, even with some brief and slgiht volume increases. Without further adeau, the collection and my thoughts on them. BTW, this all goes into a Fender Blues Deluxe Re-issue.

Boss CS-3 Compressor. A pretty nifty pedal. Sort of tightens up the sound some, I guess is how it would be described. I have not messed around with it much at all, but when I do, I like what I can get. It's a matter of application at this point.

Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion. A Christmas gift from my son who, while on a quest for a DS2 was told that they were discontinued. However, this does what I want it to do. My goal for this was heavy dropped tuning dark metal. One trip through my ESP with dd pickups and discovered it did the trick. I was not thrilled with any of the rhythm distortion as much, but had a plan at that too. Besides, I really didn't play with it long enough.

Electro Harmonix Lil Big Muff Pi I know, this is not exactly what was suggested, but I didn't think it as very different according to the reviews and marketing hype. Short story, They had this one and not the other. So, I bought. I've only got about 5 minutes on this, but I can tell already that it's what I'm looking for. It has that 70's fuzz I was looking for. Tough to explain. Almost like it's distortion without the muddiness?

Ibanex Tube Screamer Ts9DX This was not the one I intended to buy. I walked in looking for the higher end Ibanez Tube Screamer or the Behringer one many have suggested as being just as good. I plugged this in and struck one note. That was it. I knew I had it. Messed around this morning after the family left and really like it. Amazingly, my previously feeble attempts at doing Dire Straights' Brothers In Arms licks turned out to be rather decent. Then, messing around a couple of pentatoinic scales sounded a lot better. Good screaming pedal this one is. Curiosly, it has 4 modes. Mostly sound the same, but minor differences make it enough to be interesting. I'll need to explore for a while.

Boss GE-7 EQ Last, but not least. The EQ. Quite an amazing tone shaper. I'm quite confident that I will muddle with this quite often. I've already found a home for the settings when I'm wailing on some open-g Stones stuff on my keefo-caster.

So, that's about it. I do have maybe one bad purchase. A BBE Green Screamer. I'm sure I'll find a niche for it someday. I'll probably plug it into the set-up in the home office where sits a modified MIM Strat and a Fender FM212R amp.

I really like the collection as it is right now. Aside from the delay/echo and chorus/flanger worlds, I've got pretty much what I want. Going forward, who knows. I hope I'll find a spot in each pedal that can handle most of the songs I want to do with it and hence, leave it alone. Dreaming, I guess. Once I've got each pedal kind of, um, mastered, I might begin to experiment with doing multiples at once. You know, I might like the tone out of the Ibanez, but want to muddy it up just a bit with a bit of distortion or fuzz. Gonna be fun.

Love to hear your comments and your pedal lineups.