The thinking behind your pedalboard?

[Psyre]

I practice/rehearse will all of my preferred pedals, and Even though out songs are set I still use different fuzzes/delays during different play throughs. Then when a show comes up, I decide what effects sounded best to me during the practices beforehand and I trim the other pedals off. Usually I keep the same pedals but every 3 shows or so I make a couple switches, and enjoy.

[tronus]

Got to thinking- how do people decide what goes on the board and what doesn't?

 

Do you play in a band, and use your current setlist to determine what goes on the board?

 

Not in a band now... but that really helps shape my board when I am. It actually usually causes me to revamp whatever I thought I wanted on my board based on the songs we play and sounds I need.

 

Do you aim to have one (or more) pedal on your board for every effect type you might use, regardless of whether the musical project you're involved in right now actually uses it?

 

Heck no... too much {censored}. I just wait and hear what happens at band practices/jam sessions and add/subtract accordingly.

 

Do you put together a board to produce a set group of sounds that you can slot in to a range of musical settings?

 

similar answer to above... that's a good idea though... to kinda shoot for the middle like that

 

Do you put together the board you think will get you most respec from HC or TGP? :poke:

 

I still have an use an Alpha Drive a lot... {censored} your opinions!

 

How do you decide when a pedal has "earned a spot on your board" (urgh) or when it's time for it to come off?

 

If it doesn't fit in the mix with the band in a loud setting. If it makes the amp to fizzy, shrill, or doesn't cut through or blah blah blah.

 

Is what's on your board all you've got, or could you make up a B, C and D rig from the pedals you keep in your cupboard?

 

Have a backup stash with extra junk in case I need different sounds

 

Is your board finished?

 

I don't have a band to play in so I guess it's not really started?

 

 

I'll go first: I haven't been in a regular band for quite a while, so my board is primarily for my own amusement- there's no over-arching logic to what's on it, but it covers a range of sounds I like, and I dare say that if I joined another band I'd be able to use what's on it to cover most of the sounds I'd need for any genre I wanted to play.

[killthehippies45]

used to just have a metric {censored}ton of delays, modulation and octave effects because i was in love with the dirty channels on my amps. buuuuuuuut now i'm in a couple bands that vary stylistically. therefore now i have a lot of dirtboxes and fuzzes to get most sounds i need to out of my existing amps, borrowed amps, bass amps and backline amps. as long as i can dial in a good clean sound, i can get all the dirty tones i need to have (almost... waiting on that Octophant (: and a custom rat). other than dirt, i have a wah (hopefully being replaced with a Q-Zone soon), a delay, a verb and i need to get a chorus pedal.

[captions87]

I can't really afford to have b/c/d/etc. boards, so every pedal I have is on the board. I play in a band, and am also the singer, but, like any reasonable human being I like to make strange noises as well. Currently have tuner, comp, dirt, boost, delay (analog and digital), a pitch shifter, and will soon add a new looper(vox delaylab). I use both channels of my super reverb, and have an aby box after the last dirt pedal, with one end going to the pitch shift/digital delay/verb, then through the looper and into the non vibrato channel. The other output goes through then analog delay, then the looper, and into the vibrato channel, which i use as my base tone. I do this for a couple reasons. Mainly, there are a few songs where I use a combination of a digital delay and a pitch shifting effect. This way, I can just turn them both on before the song(s) and kick them on by hitting the "a&b" switch on the aby, so less tap-dancing. Another reason is that the reverse delay setting on my digital delay goes to 100% wet, so on songs when I use it as well as analog delay, the pick attack was sort of diminished, so this way I can set it to 100% wet and still get the clear pick attack from going through just the analog delay. Also, a nice side effect of this is that the effects now have a tail when they kick off instead of just turning off suddenly.

[Texas Noise Factory]

My board completely changes with every project I'm involved in. Usually to suit the instumentation and tones that the people use that I play with. Also depending on the instrument... Currently it's grown to meet the needs of the songs & styles my current band plays. I'm not so much worried about its size as much as trying to make the effects I use a lot on it easily accessible and have the muscle memory to find them without looking while singing and playing.

[Firebrand]

I did a lot of surfing and tried to buy what made sense or what I wanted to try if the price was right. That bein said I always seem to have one pedal that makes no sense for me to own, like a Zvex Ooh Wah II.

 

Some pedals seems redundant , but I actually use them for complete songs. Like my Wampler Ego Comp and Pigtronix Philosophers Tone. The Ego is my main comp. the PT has a germanium mod and I leave the dirt cranked to do my Pink Floyd inspired riffing and pop tunes. I do have enough pedals/dirts to make a B board and have done so time to time. My C board is a ToneLab SE. I use it for small shows, showcases and rehearsals.

[Firebrand]

I did a lot of surfing and tried to buy what made sense or what I wanted to try if the price was right. That bein said I always seem to have one pedal that makes no sense for me to own, like a Zvex Ooh Wah II.

Some pedals seems redundant , but I actually use them for complete songs. Like my Wampler Ego Comp and Pigtronix Philosophers Tone. The Ego is my main comp. the PT has a germanium mod and I leave the dirt cranked to do my Pink Floyd inspired riffing and pop tunes. I do have enough pedals/dirts to make a B board and have done so time to time. My C board is a ToneLab SE. I use it for small shows, showcases and rehearsals.

[eco1]

My thinking: I've got a 15x30 floorspace..... FILL IT UP!!!!!

 

 

mine are 25X25 (the smaller rooms)

I like your way of thinking

[Pine Apple Slim]

I pretty much quit playing electric guitar back in the 80s. Sold off everything cept one electric and one amp.

So when I got back into electrics, all I knew to do about putting together a pedal board was to repurchase what I used to like/use in the past.

 

MXR Comp, Phase 90, Cry Baby.

 

I guess my 2 Dano pedals came out later, but nothing really new about them. T

he Daddy O is a very versatile OD. And I got a Dan Echo for the slapback thing.

 

I want a good reverb pedal and some kinda fuzz and I'll be just about done.

[hangwire]

[III]

Is your board finished?

Why {censored} no... ...

Yeah... for now, my effects are mostly for my amusement at home...

[Urinate Forever]

I don't require a pedalboard as I only use one pedal.

[triviani]

This is very true. Although I have recently sold most of my pedals, the ones I had laying around I'd occasionally plug in and give me fresh ideas. I also find changing the type of guitar/style of playing really helps as well. For example if I have been playing heavier stuff a lot I will play acoustic for an evening or the strat and mess around with some blues/jazz/or funk. Then by the time I get back to playing the heavier stuff I have new ideas/doesn't feel tired. - this was touched upon in a thread the other day.

 

 

Yap, I tend to play different stuff depending on the guitar I'm using. For some reason the Tele is used more to simple rock while the Jag is more inspiring for other styles.

[Blakemore Effects]

Man, my board has gone through a TON of iterations over the last few years. When I was just playing at home, I had a giant, giant board. Basically, I wanted one of every effect so that when I was playing along with my iTunes, I'd be able to recreate whatever I heard. Then, when I joined my current band, I created a crazy complex set up, complete with M13 and loop strip, and I was running stereo amps.




Pretty soon I realized that I didn't need like 90% of that stuff. I was mostly using the M13 for delays, and the occasional phaser, so I realized if I just got individual pedals, I was happier with the sound, and everything was more user friendly at shows. Again, I went through an insane number of boards while I was downsizing, but this is where I've eventually ended up:



Basically that's a tuner, my OD pedal, an analog delay, a crazy fuzz, a phaser, a Klon/Si Fuzz Face, and a delay/reverb pedal with tap tempo. Basically, everything that's on there is there for a specific song. The thing I like about the Custom Shop pedals in the bottom right, is that I can basically just change those out with whatever I want to build. We were writing new songs, and I realized I wanted a crazy, sputtery, weird fuzz, so I built the fuzz. Then I realized it would be cool if I overloaded the fuzz with a real short delay, so I built the DM-2 clone. Those two pedals are now my sound for that song. Once pedals are on my board, I try incorporating them into other spots in the set, just to see if it works.

So, long story short, pedals go on my board if I need/want a specific sound, but then I try to use them all throughout the set to see what works. I feel like I have all my bases covered with this set up though, if we ever want to try a cover song or two.

[renula]

Those enclosures are sexy

[TomCTC]

I don't have many pedals, but the ones I have are important. I'll get more. It's good times.

[MojoZilla]

After using multi effects for about a decade, and becoming increasingly frustrated with them, I went back to individual stomp boxes a couple years ago. I dusted off all my old pedals, and kicked myself in the ass for neglecting them for so long. They still sound great! I had long since disposed of my rack mount effects, so there was a couple holes in my FX capability... quickly remedied by a couple trips to local pawn shops, eBay and MF. So now, I'm between projects, and my board is designed for the broadest "plain vanilla" range of effects, with room for a couple more when needed. For now, I'm running:

 

Morley PDW->CS-2->HM-2->SD-1->Phase90->CE-2->BF-2->Nova Repeater->Cathedral->AMP

 

Easy enough to grab it and go when I have a chance to fill in, jam or audition, with the classic rock stuff mostly covered.

 

I'm always open to suggestions, though!

[akapuli]

One Bourbon, one Scotch, one beer.

Tremolo, Drive, Wah in the front, Delay, Leslie in the effect loop. Arranged in Big Foot style

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]344633[/ATTACH]

[fetch]

world domination.

[jordanjordan]

I'm happy when I look at my board at it makes me want to pick up the guitar, when I have pedals that inspire me to write songs with them. My current rig does that, but it generally means that things are always changing.

[hugbot]

I'm pretty dumb and I get confused if I have too many pedals.

 

I try to keep it down to no more than 5, some of my most fun gigs performance wise have been the ones where I used none at all.

 

Unless its something where every time I'm turning it on i'm like "oh man that is AWESOME" I dont leave it on my board, I try to keep off the stuff that I only end up using for one song in a set.