In the thread about mic technique the flow really turned toward getting your sound down first. 
We've all tried lots of effects over the years.
Wondering what it is you guys are using today.
What's your "go to" favorite(s)?
I've gone from tube screamer to misc overdrive pedals to just relying on the amp.
I am now on a quest to try to find a sound (clean and overdriven) that I can be content with, cause I certainly am miles away from it today.
Would like to hear your stories. 

The amp I use today is a Line6 Spider Valve MKII.
I've borrowed some pedals from a buddy, digitech hardwire series. Some good some not so good sounding. 
Fine line between good overdrive and sustain without muddy distortion.

Let the quest begin...

Dave

Not much right now.  A Marshall Blues Breaker II overdrive and a Ibanez TS9dx od.  I'm not really playing live much the days.  I may add a Keely compressor at some point and a delay.

My main amp is a Peavey Classic 50w (4x10) all tube.  It has a Lead channel and a Clean channel.  I find myself mostly dialing in a good clean and adding an OD stomp to flip from clean to crunch.

Im just a Line6 X3 Live person along with Gearbox.

Love the ability to bring it up on the computer and dial in presets and save them.  If it ever dumps, its a simple matter of reloading the entire system and back to normal in a flash.

They are nice cause I believe you can have upto 99 setup all named for ease of finding them.

It also keeps the room/area clean and nice as far as stuff piled up on the floor (I keep it on top of my desk next to my keyboard)

Can also get the same model in a small bean shaped POD with the same programming to move around and jam with no matter where I am. Very handy

Yeah Mike the computer interface with the line 6 stuff is handy, for sure.
I use that as well with mine.

And Mike (makeshift) if you get that keely compressor I would sure like to know how you like it. That looked like a pretty good piece of equipment to me too.

I've never been much of a pedal guy. My most elaborate setup included a tube drive, a wah and a flanger. Then I replaced the tube drive w/ a Marshall. The combination of that little Marshall and the old '59 Bassman sounded sweet, and cut through just about anything.

These days, most of the effects I use are on the amp (Line 6). Some I use because they're available but wouldn't think of buying a pedal if I didn't have access to them on the amp, like the pitch shifter.

I love phasers, used lightly, so I'd probably grab one of those first.
A simple delay would probably next.
then maybe a chorus.

If I were pushing it, and just for fun, a Univibe would be cool.

An old Tube Screamer is on my wishlist. Eventually...

Live set up : 

RP 500, MBX Booster, Marshall VT100 

Studio :
   
RP 500 direct to L 56 (minus the delay and reverb used for the live work).

Cheers,
Jerry

EP1 clean boost, Dunlop Wah, Original Proco Rat, Tubescreamer Handwired, Boss DD-20, Volume Pedal, Keeley compressor. Not in that order. Generally however these are all for short sections of a song and 75% of the time I run it straight into one of 5 amps for recording, Vintage Vibrolux, Deluxe Reverb, Vintage Princeton, VOX AC15C1 or the Marshall Class 5. The Vibrolux and Deluxe used live, the rest are just for the studio.

I've built many pedal boards for myself and others. The boxes change all the time but there are a few things that I always have.

An ac line filter really helps if you are playing out and can't control your raw power. Next would be a quality dc supply to run all the effects from. The Voodoo Labs unit is pretty good and on the lower end of the price scale. I make sure to use custom interconnects for all pedals and never use those $1.99 cables from the store. Tuners seem to be very prone for causing noise in the effects chain and I always make sure a tuner is always powered individually. If the board ends up with multiple rows of pedals I'll usually install a buffer in the middle to prevent signal loss. Another thing that is good to have is a panic button. IF the board dies mid-gig, you hit the button and it bypasses the entire chain so you're not out of business.

If you follow these guidelines, whatever you put on your board will sound better and be more reliable. Think of it like a camera lens. Would you spend $500 for a good lens and then stick a $20 skylight filter in front of it? If you answered yes, please ignore this post. 

I probably won't be too helpful here Dave because my rig will confuse the heck out of you. But....the good thing is, it will deliver any sound known to man and thought it may look like a nightmare, it's a single guitarist's dream because of all the things it can do in real time.



"Goliath" is a 25 space flight case full of goodies. Most of them old and outdated, but with awesome sound capabilities and a Bradshaw Switching system which also makes for instantaneous program switching and a vast array of configurations. Hidden behind it, are two Boss Compressor Sustainers that sort of drive my sound. One pedal to allow my leads to sustain a bit longer, the other for a tighter sound on my clean guitar sounds. The pedals are always in the "on" position and run through the Bradshaw channels. This way, once a preset is called on that has them, the Bradshaw loop opens and the effect is present. Quite a few cool pieces in here that make this thing quite extraordinary. It's a bit heavy at 540lbs, but I throw it around like it's nothing. It has 3 different pre-amps in it for a nice choice for guitar sounds as well as 8 second sampling abilities and 5 note harmonizing. Two tube pre amps (Digitech 2101 which is my main pre and an old ADA Mp2 for clean sounds and some dirty) and an old Chameleon as a back up.



This is the pedal board for it with a few additions.





These are what I use for smaller gigs and in my studio. I run one of these either into my cabs or DI using the speaker sim (which is the best speaker sim built in that I have ever used hands down) to get my sounds. A Digitech Controller One is all I need to run these little rigs. Nothing too elaborate going on here. This big rack gear isn't for everyone, but I really love it as well as all the possibilities it gives me. "Just plug into an amp and be done" just isn't me. I like having a wide array of sound choices as well as the processing to go with it.

-Danny

I have one of those big pedal boards with 6 different distortion boxes a couple of boos compressors, the modulators etc. etc. etc.


This is what I've been using instead of the pedal board:









It's like a small patch bay but you use solder instead of 1/4" plugs.



best,
mike