If you can take an instrument down to a store like Guitar Center, you can try out the multi-effect pedals, find one you like, buy it with return
privs, and repeat until happy. I tried many, even up to $900. I finally decided on a used Vox Tonelab ST I liked for about $100. The pedal can control
volume or effects, though not both at once. The sound is good, it has a lot of flexible I/O, including USB to a computer, but presets are sequentially
accessed stepping through with up/down footswitches. That's tolerable in the studio, but an up/down system is unusable on stage, unless you always use
the same 3-4 setups. Their EX etc are *much* better for live playing as you can turn individual sections on/off w/ your foot.
Most of these multi-effect devices can do a passable job for all sorts of "effects", like delay, reverb, compression, chorusing, wah-wah, etc etc.
They have a lot of signal processing horsepower, though rather fixated on "distortion" sounds, which are key to a guitar. Simulation of vintage amps
is a popular thing. The high end Boss/Roland ones are very good to program, but have an inescapable nasty clipped sizzling transistor distortion
sound. The Vox ones sound mellower, though the glowing tube is largely a visual cosmetic effect. There are some new (expensive) ones that are
rackmount, with a computer interface for programming. I also tried a pretty Fishman Aura Spectrum, meant for acoustic guitar, it did very little for
too much money. It's worth taking some time to try several out at home, as first impressions can be deceiving.
If you want a looper, it might be better to get a separate unit for that, some go for under $150, I think it gets very crowded trying to do that
(also) on one device. Using a software effects plug-in can work, especially in the studio, if you have a fast interface with low latency on the
computer, but for live playing having at least one multi-effects pedal is important, and can sound almost as good as piles of dedicated little units.
Later you might find out what exactly you are after and add some pieces, but one of the all-in-ones is a good start.
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