ilovefuzz.com

Just a basic RP50/55

I'll be honest I don't even own any pedals except for a fuzz I built two years ago and I don't really use it (but it's totally cool). I think it's funny because I never owned more than 1-2 pedals at one time before I started building, half the time I never had any... and then when I started building and selling pedals as a business it's like I HAD to become obsessed with pedals and went through a ton of different ones.
ultimately owning pedals is expensive, and so now i dont keep any

but it's nice to have some reverb, or delay, or tremolo for some songs. but i dont need them all at once. i could easily just rock an overdrive and an rp55 i think. just make some nice presets for trem, vibrato, reverb, and delay and it would be good to go. plus it has a tuner as well.

Maybe track down a Magicstomp?

The problem with tracking down just a basic multi-effects is that while it's fun to play around with it, if you want to record with it you'll notice you get a worse tone than going Guitar -> Amp. It'll colour your sound and sound very plastic. You won't get this with most single stomps except older digital ones.

You may as well get a decent Mutli-FX like a Magicstomp or one of the newer Digitechs at least.

...then go to HC?

I'll sell you my GNX4. It has whammy...plus all that other crap. And a drum machine.

I had an RP50, it was OK for messing around with. Mainly used to it for headphone practice and drum machining.

Wish I still had it now, to run through my Chk Chk Boom.

get the RP-155. it has a 20 second looper and it cost like $95 brand new.

Or you could save up a bit more and go for one of these:

http://line6.com/m9/models.html

Skip the distortions, and you'll have just about everything else you could want...

I've got a TC Electronic Nova System blem I bought for $319 shipped and imho it is better than the Digitech, Boss, and Line 6 multi-fx systems. You should easily be able to find a new one for less than $400. I am divesting of all time based and modulation effects because I am just using the Nova System for that. It also has analog dirt though I don't find myself as excited about that....though it is still way better than digital distortion.