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If you had to strip your board down to 4 pedals what would they be?

You know, i was thinking about pedals today and most players could possibly have more than enough with 4 pedals. I'm not knocking anyone, pedals are cool as fuck and i know some people here have enough on their board to disarm Korea.
There are 3 or 4 primary pedals and in most cases everything else is a variation or different flavor of them. The oddball stuff is cool but is it essential to a players sound? Or practical for that matter, unless you want to be the next Agata.
Maybe 4 bars of a song or something, even Morello has a minimal set up and admits the Phase 90 is just there and hardly gets used.

For me and no doubt most of us Gain is the main effect. Two flavors; Overdrive and Fuzz. The Big Muff and a Tubescreamer variant. Also using two gain devices eliminates any need for a Booster pedal.
Time. Delay is so versatile, adds depth and mood, i really miss it if its not there even though i use it sparingly. The Boss DD-6 does what i need and the 'Warp' mode is useful for some foot controlled chaos.

Thats about it for me. Flangers come and go, as do Filters and Pitch Shifters.

Saltbooster > Russian Big Muff > Boss DD-3 > Marshall RF-1.

I could cope with just the muff and the delay, although I'd miss the saltbooster.

if i could only use 4.
Eau claire thunder > small clone >saltboost, and..... probly the memory man
with those four i could get alot of my noize stuff down, plus normal sounds.
keep in mind tho, the thunder already has a boost and a feedback looper thing in it so its like 3 pedals and the dmm is like 3 pedals in one, with the chorus, trem and delay.

i could make do with an overdrive, a distortion and a fuzz. in fact, apart from a DD-3 on about 2 songs that's all i really use anyway. i don't really like modulation effects or pitch shifters.

Saltbooster, and a tuner. Does a tuner count?

That leaves me two spare, so wah and delay of some kind.

Saltboost> OCD/Hyperpak> Fuzz War> Memory Toy

Can get a load of tones outta these.

Fender blender for high squeelies, EC Thunder for low rumbles, a tuner and a chorus. I don't have any experience with Delays, but I'm sure one will find it's way in there at some point.

The blender and the thunder are both extremely versatile pedals, sounding from tame to insane. So I feel like I'm cheating.

I'm having to use only three for a gig tonight, seen as I don't have a power supply and for some reason I only have three 9v adaptors. I think I could get by all the time with just the ones I've chosen (I'll be adding more in as soon as I get a power supply though). It goes Overdrive, Fuzz and Delay. MXR GT-OD, Effector13 2ADD and Boss DD3 for those interested. If I added a fourth, it would probably be my Danelectro 'Black Liquorice' Distortion (it's a METAL pedal). I bought it a few years ago before I knew anything about pedals, and got it back off my cousin a few weeks ago. It's so harsh and tinny I can use it as a kind of feedback loopery thing on the right settings, lots of fun to use with a Delay.

LAL Rattle Crow. Maybe a tuner.

My full board only has four things on it.

80's ProCo Rat> Russian Muff> Vantage Analog Delay> EXH Holy Grail+

here's what i'd like:

big muff - digital delay - flanger - POG

Funny you should pose this question Fran, I was upstairs about half an hour ago asking myself what I could/would strip my board down to if I had to. And my thought was, that if I had an amp footswitch for clean/dirty sounds then probably just a delay. But...given 4 pedals, assuming no amp dirt, then:
Overdrive - Distortion - Phase - Delay
and specific pedals:
Dirty Little Secret - Crunch Box - Small Stone - Carbon Copy

If I had to drop down to 4 pedals, it would be TU-2, plane ticket booster, Box of Mike for some dirt, and I'd buy another replica delay. Back when I was giggin with the band (I don't think I ever really posted any of theat stuff here), I would ususally run 3 dirt pedals, Chorus, delay, tremolo, tuner, and sometimes a wah. Even though I used the effects very sparingly as I was more of a singer than a guitar player, sometime we got stuck playing 3 piece shows so I used the different tones and modulation/wah to fillin for not being a lead player.

Tuner, Maxx chorus, Sovtek big muff, boss dd3

DLS, Da Moaf, Volume Pedal, Trystie Drive, Magicstomp.

Fran wrote:If you had to strip your board down to 4 pedals what would they be?

You know, i was thinking about pedals today and most players could possibly have more than enough with 4 pedals. I'm not knocking anyone, pedals are cool as fuck and i know some people here have enough on their board to disarm Korea.
There are 3 or 4 primary pedals and in most cases everything else is a variation or different flavor of them. The oddball stuff is cool but is it essential to a players sound? Or practical for that matter, unless you want to be the next Agata.
Maybe 4 bars of a song or something, even Morello has a minimal set up and admits the Phase 90 is just there and hardly gets used.

For me and no doubt most of us Gain is the main effect. Two flavors; Overdrive and Fuzz. The Big Muff and a Tubescreamer variant. Also using two gain devices eliminates any need for a Booster pedal.
Time. Delay is so versatile, adds depth and mood, i really miss it if its not there even though i use it sparingly. The Boss DD-6 does what i need and the 'Warp' mode is useful for some foot controlled chaos.

Thats about it for me. Flangers come and go, as do Filters and Pitch Shifters.

we're kinda on the same lines fran, great post.

i tend to keep it as simple as possible. the core of my board is

Tuner, then only one of the following O/D pedals...MBM DLS, Trex Mudhoney (currently on the board), Ibanez TS9.
i sometimes add my wah, though it only used for one or two songs.
after getting my new delay, that'll probably get added. i like a bit of delay/ambience, i use the amp reverb a lot for solos or clean picked stuff. the amp's drive channel is set to a louder version of my clean sound, for a lead boost.
i like modulation, but can never work out wether i want a nice slow phaser tone or a fast chorus sound. anything near to a leslie would be ideal, but not essential for gigging.

so basically Wah/Tuner/OD/Delay

My bass setup currently has the TU-2, Bass overdrive, and Bass chorus Boss boxes. I may add the Bass wah I'm getting if I get any good with it.

I only have a few guitar pedals, but my target setup is the TS9 or Bluesdriver (real or behringer copy), Some kind of chorus (not sure which yet), holy grail reverb, and my Vox wah. All I've got right now is the TS9 and the wah. I'd love to have the Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive/distortion pedal too.

Saltbooster- OCD/Crunchbox- Crappy Behringer DD3 copy.

I'm also irrationally fond of my crybaby, but it doesn't deserve a place.

lol at "stripping down" to four pedals.

as it stands, from what i currently own. and use.

Amp <-- mbm Coupletones Fuzz <-- Russian Big Muff <-- Boss Chorus <-- Dr. Scientist The Cleanness <-- Guitar


so we've got guitar --> EQ/Boost --> Chorus --> Sustain/Fuzz -->MOAR FUZZ --> Clean channel on amp.