What Are the Best Blues Pedals in 2024?
Blues music is all about raw emotion. The genre was practically born alongside the electric guitar, gave birth to many audio innovations, stood the test of time, and continues to inspire players to this day. From the Delta blues to modern-day interpretations, the style is a timeless staple in music.
But how do you master the blues style? Well, mastering the genre is a combination of mojo and the right tone. While we can't help you with the former, the latter can be easily achieved with guitar pedals, thanks to the many units we have on the market nowadays.
In this article, we will help you build the perfect blues pedalboard, focusing on the best pedals across different categories, including overdrives, fuzz, delay, and reverb. Let's get started!
In a hurry? Check out our quick guide with all of the featured pedals at the end of the article.
What’s Essential in a Blues Pedalboard?
When building a blues pedalboard, the focus should be on preserving the expressive tones that define the genre. There are many styles of blues, so naturally, the options will vary. These are the essential effects units for a blues pedalboard:
- Overdrive Pedal: The heart of a blues setup is a quality overdrive pedal. It should provide a warm, responsive drive that enhances your guitar's natural tone without overshadowing it. Think of it as the secret ingredient that adds just the right amount of grit, letting your playing dynamics shine through.
- Fuzz Pedal: If you're into heavier blues styles, a vintage-sounding fuzz pedal is a must on your setup. You can't go wrong with pedals inspired by classics such as the Fuzz Face. Paired with a nice and transparent overdrive pedal, it will take your tone to the next level.
- Wah Pedal: If you want more versatility and expression possibilities from your setup, a wah pedal is a great option. While not everyone's cup of tea, many blues guitarists have used wah pedals throughout the years in their riffs and solos.
- Delay Pedal: A subtle delay can add depth to your sound, giving your solos a sense of space and making your tone feel more expansive. Analog or tape delays are often preferred for their warm, organic repeats that complement the blues sound.
- Reverb Pedal: Reverb is essential for adding atmosphere to your playing. Whether it's a spring reverb for that vintage vibe or a room reverb for a more natural sound, it helps to create a sense of space and can make your guitar feel more alive.
Remember that there are no hard rules, achieving the perfect tone is all about creativity. The effects we will mention are the ones more traditionally used in blues music, but if you want to add, let's say, a phaser to your blues pedalboard, by all means, do it!
Now, let's go through each category of the essential effects for a blues pedalboard so that you can get some inspiration to build your own or find the perfect next addition to your already-existing setup!
Overdrive Pedals for Blues
No blues pedalboard is complete without a good overdrive pedal. The great news is that there are many types of overdrives to choose from. We will give you four options so you can pick the one that best matches your vibe!
Spicy Pedals Jalapeno Screamer Verde
Main Features:
- Screamer TS808 style overdrive
- Verde mode (extra boost)
- True bypass
If you're a fan of players such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and John Mayer, you will love the Jalapeno Screamer. It's inspired by the Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808, which is a classic revered by many modern blues guitarists. This pedal is very touch-sensitive, allowing for lots of expression.
Some great features about this pedal include the fact that its construction is very robust, and the components inside the unit are designed to give you more and reliability control over your tone, producing a vintage sound with extras such as the Verde mode boost.
BearFoot FX Honey Bee
Main Features:
- Designed to emulate small vintage combos
- Extended drive range
- True bypass
If you're into a more classic blues sound, we recommend the BearFoot FX Honey Bee, an overdrive designed to emulate small vintage combos with worn tubes and on the edge of breakup. This style of amp was used a lot in early blues recordings, such as the Fender Tweed.
Overall, the Honey Bee is very versatile and will respond to your playing wonderfully. You can take it from a subtle boost to almost fuzz-like tones by cranking up the knobs. One excellent feature in this pedal is the Nature knob, which acts as an EQ, a very useful addition.
Bad Cat Double Drive
Main Features
- Double-sided stackable overdrive
- Two distinctive circuits with independent controls
- True bypass
If you're a maximalist and want the maximum number of options in your blues pedalboard, definitely go with the Bad Cat Double Drive. It's a double-sided stackable overdrive inspired by the legendary Klon Centaur, which is a staple among many blues players.
Featuring two distinctive circuits with independent controls, you can stack both overdrives however you'd like. For example, if you want to have a boost on one side and a heavier distortion for solos on the other, you can.
Apart from its versatility, the build quality of this pedal is also impressive, with a powder-coat finish and a die-cast metal enclosure that seems very sturdy, not to mention the gorgeous vintage design.
Mojo Hand FX Rook
Main Features
- Classic overdrive inspired by the Tube Screamer
- Highly-customizable EQ section
- 3-way clipping toggle
- True bypass
The Mojo Hand FX Rook is an overdrive pedal inspired by the Tube Screamer, but with several quality-of-life additions that make it highly customizable. Think of it as a Tube Screamer for perfectionists who want to tweak every small aspect of their tone!
Featuring a 3-way toggle that lets you select between classic overdrive, led clipping, and no clipping diode, this pedal takes you from subtle breakup to fuzzy tones. The real magic of the Nook, however, is in its 2 band Baxandall EQ circuit, which is extremely responsive. It's also a pedal that performs very well when stacked with other ones.
Fuzz Pedals for Blues
If you're into heavier and rougher styles of blues, a fuzz pedal will do wonders to your pedalboard. Fuzz units are frequently used in more modern styles, such as blues rock, and you can find it on the setup of many famous guitarists inspired by the genre, including John Mayer and Dan Auerbach, from The Black Keys.
BearFoot FX Polar Bear Fuzz
Main Features
- Fuzz Face/Tone Bender-inspired pedal
- Built-in EQ circuit
- True bypass
If you want a vintage yet versatile fuzz in your blues setup, the Polar Bear is an obvious choice. Inspired by two classics, the Fuzz Face and Tone Bender, it's excellent for heavier riffs and soulful solos. Paired with an overdrive such as the Mojo Hand FX Rook, it sounds even better.
While being inspired by beloved vintage fuzz units, the Polar Bear has a very low noise floor and cleans up very well with the volume knob. There are also controls for the bass (Nature knob) and treble frequencies.
Humanoid FX Goblin
Main Features
- Overdrive/fuzz combo
- 60s/70s transistor tones
- True bypass
The Humanoid FX Goblin is an overdrive/fuzz combo, making it perfect for players on a budget or simply looking for a more versatile unit that can do both effects at once. The Goblin can go from vintage-sounding 60s/70s transistor overdrive tones to full-blown fuzz sounds that maintain signal clarity.
While the pedal has a minimalistic approach with only three knobs, the overdrive and fuzz parameters are very responsive and you get different EQ configurations depending on where you set each knob.
Wah Pedals for Blues
Some love it, some hate it. Truth is, the wah pedal gives you exceeding amounts of expression opportunities and is an excellent addition to any blues pedalboard, especially when paired with a vintage overdrive.
BMF Effects Wah
Main Features
- Vintage wah sound
- Switchable onboard buffer (for fuzz compatibility)
- True bypass
The BMF Effects Wah is a simple yet functional wah pedal with a wide range frequency sweep. Its best feature is the several different spec boards available, going from classics such as the Eric Clapton/Derik and The Dominos wah sound to innovative styles like the McClyde Spec. Spec boards can be ordered directly from DeathCloud's website!
Another very interesting characteristic of the BMF Effects Wah is that it has a switchable onboard buffer, which mainly serves to increase the compatibility of the unit with fuzz pedals, giving you that classic fuzz wah sound.
Delay Pedals for Blues
Our next suggestion for your blues pedalboard is a delay pedal. We suggest you stick to an analog or tape-based delay since these types of pedals will give you a vintage vibe that is perfect for blues. But once again, there are no hard rules!
EarthQuaker Devices Silos
Main Features
- Tri-voice delay
- Digital, analog, and tape delay modes
- True bypass
The EarthQuaker Devices Silos is a tri-voice delay that features digital, analog, and tape modes. While it's a highly customizable unit with lots of modern additions, such as 6 preset slots, you can squeeze some vintage-esque sounds out of it that will be perfect for blues.
Some extra quality-of-life features of this pedal include the ability to plug in an expression pedal, as well as a built-in tap delay footswitch that's very useful for situations such as live gigs.
Cusack Music Tap-a-Delay
Main Features
- Analog-sounding digital delay
- Built-in modulation
- True-bypass
While the Cusack Music Tap-a-Delay is technically a digital delay, it is actually very analog-sounding and can give some retro vibes to your tone. This is a pedal for blues players who like to have total control of each small detail in their units and aren't afraid to throw in some experimental effects in their sound from time to time.
The Tap-a-Delay has a few interesting and curious features, such as the brake mode, which lets you slow down and speed up the reflections. Plus, it has built-in modulation capabilities and a tap speed footswitch.
Reverb Pedals for Blues
Last, but not least, make sure to give some ambience to your blues tone. While there are many types of the effect, your best bet to master the style is a spring reverb, which was present in some of the earlier amplifiers used in blues recordings. If you want to go even further, a room reverb is also a nice choice to achieve natural-sounding reflections.
Mojo Hand FX Dewdrop
Main Features
- Classic spring reverb sound
- Built-in EQ
- True bypass
The Mojo Hand FX Dewdrop is a straightforward reverb pedal that will be the icing on the cake in your blues setup. It's simple and minimalistic yet capable of anything from a small splash of ambience to full-blown wetness, for the more experimental players.
Apart from the usual mix, dwell, and tone knobs, the Dewdrop also has an expression jack, which is a nice extra if you want to squeeze more expression possibilities from it.
EarthQuaker Devices Ghost Echo
Main Features
- Spring reverb inspired
- 30ms-150ms of pre-delay
- True bypass
The EarthQuaker Devices Ghost Echo sounds like a traditional spring reverb, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve. Mainly, the ability to react according to your playing style and expression, making it an excellent choice for blues pedalboards.
For example, playing staccato and legato will result in different effects. The former will give you a slapback-like sound while the latter will drown your tone in long and wet reflections. You can also set the Dwell parameter to self-oscillate if you're looking for more experimental sounds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Use Reverb From My Amp or a Pedal for Blues Tones?
It's up to you to decide. While the built-in reverb in your amp can quickly give you a vintage tone that's perfect for blues (especially if it's a spring reverb), reverb pedals are an excellent choice if you want to have more control over the effect and its nuances.
How Do I Get a Vintage Blues Tone With My Pedals?
The answer will depend on your particular pedals, but we recommend using analog units and specific classic effects, such as transistor-based overdrives and fuzzes, and spring reverb. Your amp will also affect your tone a lot.
What Kind of Amp Works Best With a Blues Pedalboard?
No blues setup is complete without a vintage-sounding amp. We recommend using a tube amplifier since it will give you that warm analog tone that's perfect for blues. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on a physical amp if you don't want to, since nowadays we have many amp simulators that sound very close to the real deal.
Conclusion
These are some of the best pedals for blues in 2024. While we covered some of the essential effects units commonly used to play the style, there are no limits to what effects you can or can't use. We strongly advise you to "break the rules" and throw in some unexpected twist in your tone! Overall, these pedals should help you build a basic setup.
Here is a recap of all of the pedals covered in this article:
|
Effect Type |
Pedal |
Price |
|
Overdrive |
$150.00 |
|
|
Overdrive |
$179.00 |
|
|
Overdrive |
$199.99 |
|
|
Overdrive |
$159.00 |
|
|
Fuzz |
$179.00 |
|
|
Fuzz |
$110.00 |
|
|
Wah |
$239.00 |
|
|
Delay |
$149.00 |
|
|
Delay |
$195.00 |
|
|
Reverb |
$149.00 |
|
|
Reverb |
$199.00 |
You can check these and many other pedals in our store!
More Interesting Reads:
How to Sound Like John Mayer With Guitar Pedals
Ultimate Guide to Reverb Pedals - Best Reverb Pedals in 2024
Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz Pedals - Understanding the Differences
Essential Guitar Pedals for Beginners - What Pedals Should I Buy First?
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