Hey FD, š
That’s a very broad question, as there Are so many variables and so much subjectivity associated with which effects/pedals are right for each player’s needs. That said, you’re probably correct in your assumption that individual pedals/FX will usually sound better at their respective effect (IE: dedicated and separate overdrive/distortion/fuzz; modulation {chorus, phaser, flanger, rotary/leslie}; delay {digital, tape-emulation; analog}; and reverb {spring, room, hall, etc.}.) duties. This approach allows you to use any brand or style for each of the specific effect-types (as detailed above.) So for example, you could have a boutique overdrive (I like the Fulltone OCD and/or the Z-Vex Box-of-Rock!) pushing the front-end of your metal-amp (Mesa Boogie for instance?) while a less expensive (but still pretty cool) chorus pedal like a (Boss CE-series) and for that matter, Boss’ delays are pretty cool too (and NOT the most expensive!) BTW, earlier in your thread, I believe you were alluding to the Digitech “Hardwire Series” of pedals, and although I have no experience with them personally, everything I’ve read about them in the reviews and product descriptions (as well as their looks/aesthetics!) have impressed me! Digitech’s price-points are always appealing too, so maybe you should go to a music store and do your own demo of them! Just so you know, I happen to use an expensive wah-wah pedal (Fulltone Clyde Deluxe) because I use it a lot, and I dig it’s tone and versatility, but a Dunlop 535Q (or the old-fashioned Dunlop Original Cry-Baby if you don’t need the versatility!) are WAY less money! If you’re on a budget and you can only splurge for say one boutique-priced pedal, I would spend the extra money on a QUALITY/boutique overdrive/distortion (as I stated above with the Fulltone OCD and Z-Vex Box-O-Rock – Both AWESOME BTW!) since that can be a critical component of your signal path, and you might have it on (if playing old-school classic-rock, you’d probably have it pushing the front-end of an edgy tube-amp with low-to-medium gain, with lots of headroom & dynamics. However since you’re a “metal-guy,” you might want to use such a pedal to push the front-end of an already aggressive “nu-metal” rig like a Mesa Boogie, or something of that ilk!) š
Those are some of my ideas, but there are a million other combinations that are all valid and appropriate. Again, you’ll need to determine your budget; what amp your putting them in-front-of; whether you want/need to put some of the effects in your amp’s effects-loop (*if the amp has an FX-loop!); whether you’re going to be able to purchase/acquire all of the pedals at once or if you’ll need (say, for economic reasons) to chip-away at your collection (one-at-a-time for example.); etc. š
Oh, one thing I haven’t mentioned (until now) is that you might eventually want to address whether you want to deal with the “riverdance/tapdance routine” of turning on/off your pedals (for example, picture the “podiatric/ergonomic nightmare” necessary to 1.) turn off your overdrive AND 2.) turn on your chorus/modulation, AND 3.) turn on your delay pedal ALL-AT-THE-SAME-TIME (enter the “riverdance” method – LOL!) The only other way to deal eith such multiple “scene” changes (where your simultaneously enabling/disabling several pedals simultaneously) is to purchase, program, and integrate some sort of effects switching network into your live rig! (If you think about it, this gives you the “best-of-both-worlds,” that is the flexibility and multiple effects “scene” changing capability, but with the “sonic-superiority” of the dedicated/individual effect pedals!) This is another cost to your budget, but depending on your needs and how tightly/quickly/pro-like you’ll want to be able to simultaneously turn on/off multiple effects pedals, you may NOT be able to live without one! If you decide that you want to go that route, the good news is that (unlike 20 years ago when the very expensive Bob Bradshaw systems seemed like the only solution!) nowadays, there are some much lower-cost alternatives (by the likes of Rocktron for example.) š
Best of luck with your pursuits, and enjoy the process…As you can probably tell by now, I love this sh*t!!! – LOL! š š
~Bill Meehan~ š
.
