I've been asked to buy an effect for my 15 year old newphew for Christmas. He's got the guitar and a Crate GX-15 which does have an overdrive. I can't afford a multi, so my question is what is the best bet single effect pedal for a kid learning to play some of today's music, Creed, Incubus, Staind etc. Thanks

check out what ibanez does, or marschall (the shredmaster is awesome)and ask the dealer in the store!!

Safe bets:
1-chorus pedal...
2- Wah Wah pedal
these two are the traditional pedals, and he'll want one of these two at some point... You can buy relativly cheap multi-effects boxes for about $100, and to be honest it's very very good value for your money (something like the DIGITECH RP 100)... something that you could maybe buy as a joint present from you and the parents or anyone, cos his jaw will hit the floor...

Get a Ibanez TS9DX :)

hell yeah his jaw will hit the floor with the RP-100

you can't go wrong for $100

it also has a kinda drum machine built in *LOL*

in addition the digitech website has a Patch library for the RP series effects that easily give settings that recreate the sounds of lots of artists

even creed, staind & whatever other one you mentioned are all here

check it out
DIGITECH PATCH LIBRARY
http://www.digitech.com/cgi-bin/patchlib.pl?action=generate&bank=1artist

still kinda wondering if these things are actually detrimental in a way to beginners cuz they might not get a strong sense of effects theory tho


happy holidays

©aT§

me personally would go with a wah. you can really shape your music with them... but yeah