Dave Mustaine warns guitarists to learn the instrument first before using pedals to “cheat”

Dave Mustaine has warned guitarists against buying pedals before they have learned their instrument because doing so will encourage them to “cheat” and use effects to sound better than they really are.

Speaking to Guitarist magazine , the Megadeth frontman was discussing his life in gear, admitting that it was only since he hooked up with Gibson for a range of signature guitars that he started thinking about collecting instruments. Most of the time the companies sent the instruments to him, and that was that.

Asked for his best gear buying tip, Mustaine replied with a warning – a walk before you can run type of response that’s especially relevant in this, the golden age of the pedalboard , where there are myriad options for tone-sweetening, and, in Mustaine’s opinion, finding something that makes you sound better than you are.

His advice? Don’t bother until you have put some serious hours of practice in.

“Learn how to play,” he said. “Learn how to play because if you can’t play, you’ll find a pedal and you’ll cheat. You’ll find a pedal that makes you sound really good and you won’t be really good; you’ll be living a lie.”

Mustaine did not say which kinds of effects pedals he had in mind but there are some notable suspects that can obscure our lack of abilities on guitar.

Those of us weened on metal guitar have all been guilty at one time or another of using too much gain, which can hide a multitude of sins when it comes to picking accuracy and playing our parts cleanly and correctly.

Mustaine’s warning rings can true with reverb pedals , which can again pull the veil over sloppiness. Ditto short delays. Mustaine says keeping it dry and practising until you nail it is the path to enlightenment

“Once you learn how to play really good, you’ll see those pedals as exactly what they are,” he says, “a simple non-moving, analogue device that is a signal processor.”

Mustaine walks the walk as far as his advice goes. He was famously a late adopter of the wah pedal, only stepping on it for the first time in 2019 when he was playing the Experience Hendrix Tour alongside Dweezil Zappa, Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson.

Back then Mustaine told MusicRadar that he thought it “came out okay”, with Zappa and Johnson helping him with his rig, and Wylde – a heavy user of the wah pedal – putting his mind at ease over his approach.

“This is going to sound funny, but I don’t know if I’m more comfortable using my left foot or right foot!” said Mustaine. “I’ve gotten really close to Zakk Wylde , I love that guy… he’s such an imposing figure but once you get to know him, he’s such a nice guy.

“We were joking around about using wah-wahs; some other people don’t use them properly or overuse it, so I wanted to make sure I hit the right spots and subtly.  I asked him which foot he preferred and he said [thick New Jersey accent], ‘Ah, Father Dave, it doesn’t f**kin’ matter!’ I tried to remember that during the show and apply that sense of ease to how I used the wah.”

Hey, the wah is another pedal that you could add to Mustaine’s cheat sheet. Just don’t wait decades before trying one. And if in doubt, here are Dave Mustaine's Top 5 tips for guitarists .