The answers

1. Wow, that’s a real toughie, Roger, because everyone’s tastes are different. The ‘essentials’ for those styles are a good range of overdrive/distortion, perhaps a delay and maybe a modulation of some kind.The amp has reverb already, so that’s good. Classic placement puts the OD first, the modulation second and the delay last. In some cases, the modulation can work better in front of the OD – it’ll sound less pronounced placed in front of the OD, so you and your son can try both ways and see which you prefer.

As for what pedals to choose, there are so many great overdrives available to you on the market. An Ibanez Tube Screamer-derived pedal (the TS Mini is a fantastic buy) is midrange-y, perhaps more ‘bluesy’ in character than something like a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, which is arguably a better all-rounder, slightly more ‘rocky’ in nature, despite the name suggesting otherwise! As time goes on, you may want some different flavours, such as fuzz, boost and maybe a harder-sounding distortion.

As for modulations, they are very specific sounds of which you can tire quickly – phaser, flanger, chorus, Uni-Vibe types, and so on – so choose something you really like! We’d probably go chorus or phaser to begin with. Tremolo is devilishly cool, too.

And then delay… It’s really hard to beat TC Electronic’s current range of delays. They are great introductions to the world of different delay sounds, from rock ’n’ roll slapback through to massive soundscapes, with sounds editable from your smartphone.