The background

Roger Bishop, Guitarist reader: I’ve been playing the guitar for most of my life, and now my 12-year-old son is interested in playing, too. I’ve had a few pedals over the years (a couple of overdrives, a delay and a wah-wah), but I don’t think I ever used them properly. My son is telling me about these boxes he’s seen, but it’s left us a bit confused!

We have my 1990s Fender Strat and a Fender Blues Deluxe amp, and I’d like to add some effects to learn/experiment with. We like classic rock and ‘pop’, some alternative rock and a bit of blues. We want to stay with separate pedals, rather than digital multi-effects.