Guitar pedals is an exciting topic as there are so many and new and better ones are being created every day!
This is an older pedal board setup that I used to use but it still shows some basic pedal types: Volume pedal, Reverb Pedal, Delay Pedal, Overdrive pedal, Distortion pedal, Tuner pedal, Pre-amp pedal, etc.
Basic types of Guitar pedals
There are many types of guitar pedals, but I’ll concentrate on what I tend to use the most:
Reverb Pedal
I tend to like using a pedal to add reverb rather than relying on the reverb build into the amp because it lets you have easy access to switching to different types of reverb on the fly for different songs, genres, etc. The reverb pedal I use and is pictured above is the Eventide Space pedal.
Delay Pedal
Delay effect makes your guitar sound like it is echoing off distant walls as in an amphitheater. It fattens up your tone and can create more of a exciting and psychedelic sound like in Reggae music. The Delay pedal I use is the Eventide Time Factor.
Overdrive Pedal
Low wattage tube amps, or high wattage tube amps that are being pushed at high volume, or have a separate gain stage to push the tubes into “overdrive” have a crunchy distorted sound that is amazing when done right. I use the Boss Blues Driver pedal.
Distortion Pedal
Distortion pedals add an extra gain stage that creates distortion to your sound. This can also add sustain and more of a modern rock solo tone to your guitar. I use the RAT pedal.
Pre-Amp Pedal
A pre-amp pedal fattens your tone and adds a gain stage to give a slight amount of overdrive if you want. I use Echoplex preamp stompbox created by Dunlop that recreates the pre-amp built into the famous Echoplex tape delay from the 60s.
Tremolo Pedal
I typically use a tremolo pedal instead of the tremolo on the amp as it sounds better. This is not pictured above, but there are many options available from Fulltone, Tremulator, Boss, etc.
Signal Chain
The signal chain is something that can be confusing and is often under debate. My basic concept is to put time related pedals such as delay and reverb at the end of the chain, and overdrive and boost pedals at the beginning of the chain. The exception to this is I like to put the tremolo pedal at the very beginning of the signal path, even though it is a time-based pedal.