You can get multi-effect pedals, but in my experience they tend to lag in changing effects which isn't good for a quick switch. You kind of have to preemptively hit the pedal. Also the quality of the effects never seem as good to me as a single effect pedal. I would decide what specific effects your looking for and try out some pedals based on that. Its more fun that way for me because you can also layer multiple effects. I play mostly Rock-tron pedals they're durable, high quality, sound good and they're not that expensive compared to other name brands Hope that helped. Good Luck.

ok cool I will check those out. Thanks

I used to have individual pedals. Once I went multi-fx, I never looked back.

there are a tone of multi effect units out there to choose from. just go to a music shop and try some out.(boss,digitech) there are a bunch of amps as well that have multiple effects built right in.(vox,microcube,johnson,peavy) usually referred to as modeling amps.

I got the Boss ME-20. I play mostly acooustic so I wanted something that would give me a lot of effects for not much money for when I did do some electric work. Go to the Boss site and check it out they got a clip there that shows it off fairly well.

ya man theres plenty of multi units out there. Go to a shop and check out a bunch of them. I recomend the digitech stuff, boss has a few good ones, the ME-20 and the ME-50.

With a decent multi-channel amp and a tubescreamer, you can't go wrong ;) TS + clean channel = blues heaven, TS + lead channel is anything from thick Vai-like tone to a massive wall of molten metal riffage.

Sorry to be the voice of dissent guys...I'm just not a huge fan of the digital stuff.

well he is a beginner just looking for something that he can hear a bunch of tones and effects with. digitech offers a variety of inexpensive multi-units that can expose him to a wide variety of sounds. as he progresses in his playing he can determine which effects he likes and then perhaps make a change to pedals. i prefers pedals as well but they CAN be a bit pricey to buy a bunch of them just to see what ya like and don't like whereas the multi units are much cheaper and ya can hear a variey of sounds. not to mention he won't be playing out anythime real soon so getting one of those units to play around with in the bedroom is probably the better choice in this instance. and they also are way more convenient to record with thru a computer then setting up a pedalboard and mic-ing up an amp. so it really comes down to ease of use,cheaper budget wise,and just a neat little toy to play around with. i suggest searching ebay for a better price.