Single or Multi Effect Guitar Pedals: Which Is Best?

If you spend some time on the guitar forums, and review pages, you will find endless opinions on what is better - Multi effect units, or individual effects pedals. The real choice in the end comes with your ear.

The common argument is "multi effects sound harsh and digital". This may be true with some older models, however, with the right setup, the latest units can produce sounds equally organic and soul-full as most single effects pedals.

The latest Digitech units for example (RP-500, RP-1000) feature an amp bypass capability, defeating the internal amplifiers and cabinet models, giving you a straight up stompbox pedal board. A pedal board that features every pedal known to man, without any cables!

Line 6 is also known for their amp modeling technology which they include in their multi effects such as the Floor Pod Plus, HD500, and Pod X3 Live. Several of these pedals also now include XLR in/outs and vocal effects to allow you to run a microphone through the unit into a PA. It's all about creating versatility!

I personally use the RP-500 through a 70's Fender Twin Reverb, and it sounds great! This goes against everything I read about multi effect pedals before I bought it. I also owned a wide variety of single effect pedals including the BBE Soul Vibe, Boss Blues Driver, Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, etc... They all sounded great in their own right, but I can easily duplicate all these sounds, and more with the RP-500. You can also take it to the next level by running it to two amps in stereo for an incredible, lush sound, only available to the pros in the recent past.

Best Guitar Multi-Effects Pedals For Live Use

The first digital multi effects pedal that I became familiar with was the old Digitech RP1. Very few dared to play live with these without a guitar amp, I mean through a PA. They had the proper settings for different types of power amps, but the sound they produced in this manner was not very exciting.
That left many of us tainted, but in the last few years I've seen many live performances, mainly at bars, where multi-effects pedals are connected straight to a PA without a guitar amplifier. And the sound was actually very good in my opinion.
In my experiences these are my top 3:
The Vox Tonelab LE: at a party dedicated for the 25th anniversary of 'Appetite For Destruction' I friend of mine played a whole set with one of these pedals straight to a PA. This pedal in my opinion is the fattest sounding when connected to a PA, even though it might not be the most versatile.
The Digitech RP1000: used straight to a PA by a friend of mine that plays in a punk rock band. When Digitech came out with the DNA chips my interest in this brand was rekindled. I had completely lost faith with the RP series, but this pedal has impressed me lately.
The Boss GT8: used by a cover band that I use to sell instruements to. The sound of Boss GT Multi-effects straight to PA's is not my favorite, but this guitar player surprised me by carefully using EQ and setting suitable presets for every song.
To play live with a multi-effects pedal you just have to set the right output for one of these 3 possibilities:
*Plugging it in to the front of an amplifier, "No Amp or Cab Emulation Should be used".
*Plugging into the power amp of a guitar head or combo, "No Cab Emulation Should be used".
*Plugging straight to a mixer in a PA or a powered monitor, "Cab Emulation Should be used".
An affordable ways to play live with a multi-effects pedal and have plenty of volume is with a live powered monitor.

The Most Important Guitar Effects Pedals for Aspiring Rock Musicians

There are a mind boggling amount of guitar effects pedals about and they come in all different shapes and sizes. What is an effect pedal you may ask? An effect pedal is a device that is put between your guitar and the amplifier to alter the output sound. A pedal is made up of numerous components put into a case. The sounds that you can achieve from various effect pedals are quite extraordinary.
Guitarists today use more effects than ever and are evident to the sounds of bands such as Pink Floyd and U2. Numerous effect pedals are used in succession to complicate the sound. There are two main pedals out there. One is the multi effects processors and these contain numerous built into a single device. Alternatively, individual pedals focus on giving you one sound and not more than two. Such pedals involve you playing around with settings in order to get your intended sound. Many amplifiers these days have built-in sounds for you to use but they are not as versatile as pedals. This is because it is hard to utilize more than one sound simultaneously on amps.
Pedals cost from $60 or £40 upwards and include a broad range of prices. Specialist brands include Boss, Marshall, Pete Cornish, Electro Harmonic, Yahama, Dunlop and Digitech. As a budding guitarist, you could easily wipe your bank account clean upon purchasing guitar effects pedals due to the countless variety out there. What I recommend is that you only purchase one pedal for each main sound.
Recommended guitar effect pedals
Delay and Reverb sounds give a strong echo sound and is great if you are really playing live. This sounds professional like and is very convincing. Distortion and gain guitar effects pedals are widely used with electric guitars and are certainly used in lead and solo guitar playing. This adds crunch and meat to your sound and certainly does sound sweet. As stated previously, multi effects processors are a great for beginners as they have access to all the different possibilities right in front of them. All of these mentioned are the essential pedals that you must have in order to sound great.
After you have gotten hold of the main pedals, you may want to look for a few more to sound even great! A wah-wah effect allows the sound pitch to be constantly changed through the use of a pedal. This was heavily utilized by Jimi Hendrix. Added effects include Flanger, Chorus and Phase shifter also know as a uni-vibe. These pedals sound slightly similar to each other, however they do sound beautiful. Chorus and Flanger pedals sound very sweet and made famous by David Gilmour and created the sounds of Pink Floyd. Most of these sound best with little to no gain or distortion.

Guitar Affects - Pedal Or Multi-Pedal Effects Board?

I can remember even having this argument with my brother. I always said that I would much rather buy a single effect pedal over a multi pedal effect board any day, and our debating went round and round. So what are the perks of each one and which route is right for the every day guitarist consumer?
A single effect pedal has its rewards in the fact that they are typically of high quality, can be modeled after a famous guitar players set up, and have an exclusive sound, effect, or tone. The bad thing about them is the mullah. Single effect pedals can cost a fortune. The other bad part, and this is very common, is that people often grow instantly tired of their new effect pedal, and never use it again. Swooosh! two hundred dollars of fine craftsmanship out the window.
Multi pedal effect boards have their pros and cons too. The good parts about them is that they can be very cheap, sometimes less than a hundred dollars, and that these multi effect pedals can sport a large array of sounds. The bad news is that a lot of these sounds are just garbage and useless as some of them are over the top. The good news once again is that multi pedal effect technology has improved, or at least been taken more seriously, and now most of the effects sound pretty awesome.
Another good thing about the multi effects is that you can have plenty to work with to mix and match and create your own tone. These boards are also good for freeing up space, and are excellent for cable management.
I look at effect pedals as candy bars. They all have distinct packaging, and if you've never tried a certain candy bar before, then you're going to be curious about it. Pedals unfortunately are designed to visually make your mouth water, and not necessarily perform. So if your curiosity is driving you to make that choice, why not do it with a multi effect pedal board? This way, you can be guaranteed that you will walk away with at least twenty or so effects that you do like, and you may discover great combinations in the future.
What I really like about the multi boards is that it feels good and empowering, by arming you with the effects resources of a small studio, so in the long run your cup is quite full.

Best Guitar Multi-Effects Pedals For Live Use

The first digital multi effects pedal that I became familiar with was the old Digitech RP1. Very few dared to play live with these without a guitar amp, I mean through a PA. They had the proper settings for different types of power amps, but the sound they produced in this manner was not very exciting.

That left many of us tainted, but in the last few years I've seen many live performances, mainly at bars, where multi-effects pedals are connected straight to a PA without a guitar amplifier. And the sound was actually very good in my opinion.

In my experiences these are my top 3:

The Vox Tonelab LE: at a party dedicated for the 25th anniversary of 'Appetite For Destruction' I friend of mine played a whole set with one of these pedals straight to a PA. This pedal in my opinion is the fattest sounding when connected to a PA, even though it might not be the most versatile.

The Digitech RP1000: used straight to a PA by a friend of mine that plays in a punk rock band. When Digitech came out with the DNA chips my interest in this brand was rekindled. I had completely lost faith with the RP series, but this pedal has impressed me lately.

The Boss GT8: used by a cover band that I use to sell instruements to. The sound of Boss GT Multi-effects straight to PA's is not my favorite, but this guitar player surprised me by carefully using EQ and setting suitable presets for every song.

To play live with a multi-effects pedal you just have to set the right output for one of these 3 possibilities:

*Plugging it in to the front of an amplifier, "No Amp or Cab Emulation Should be used".

*Plugging into the power amp of a guitar head or combo, "No Cab Emulation Should be used".

*Plugging straight to a mixer in a PA or a powered monitor, "Cab Emulation Should be used".

An affordable ways to play live with a multi-effects pedal and have plenty of volume is with a live powered monitor.