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I've been playing around with the idea of selling all my pedals, getting a pedal train mini and a few choice pedals. I'm not really digging my current set up too much.

I know I want a vintage Rat, if I can't find one maybe MBM Rat or a Catalinbread DLS.

I like having pedals in one row and not having to step everywhere to turn them on.

Tuner>RAT>SP Aenima, Malekko Ekko 616 - I need one more pedal, dunno what kind. Ideas?

Anybody sized down their pedalboard and not regretted it?

i used to run a two tier pedal board with about 8-9 pedals, mostly dirts/od's. i would panic sometimes and stomp on as many as i could, trying to cover up bad playing or to sound better than i really was.

now i have a basic setup that more or less follows this rule: no more than two dirt pedals and only one "effect". though my actual setup of choice is one od pedal and either a delay or some kind of modulation/wah. so 2-3 pedals max.

the benefit to me has been that i don't worry on what i'm tapping on, it's what i'm actually playing. since ditching the excess, my playing as got better and better. to the point where i can happy in a band and know i'll be right on the money when needed.

That's my experience, not a cast iron rule or opinion. currently i'm using just a TS9 and a digitech expression factory. simple, yet nice choice of sounds. great for a covers band where i might need something for certain songs, but not wanting a dedicated pedal for each.

EDIT: Just looked at your gear in the thread for that.

I downsized from 5-6 pedals, to 4, to 1, to 0. Well, I use an EA Trem sometimes, but that's it. Don't regret it a single bit and, unless my GF buys me a Phase 45, I don't think I'll ever regularly use pedals again.

On the subject of distortion, nothing is superior to a cranked amp. Once you "get it" - a guitar through a loud tube amp, controlling gain with the volume knob - it's addictive and no pedal, in my experience, even comes close. Fuzz is something different, though, so that's you're own call on whether or not you want it. I've found that fuzzes are usually best used as the "signature tone" for one song or another. Of course, that means an unavoidable cycle of fuzz accumulation. The Aenima doesn't sound very versatile to me.
You need to be loud for amp distortion, which actually carries a nice bonus effect. Since you're forced to practice clean, you're technique improves dramatically.

I like echo/delay sometimes and the 616 is about the best I've heard.

The main thing is to start experimenting with less and see how much you can do. Try just guitar-amp and see what kind of sounds you can get - like wiggling the neck for vibrato. The main thing is the song, and songs are rarely made good by an effect. You have to make sure it can be sold when the sounds are "naked."

Right now I hve a '71 Fender Bassman running into a handmade cab with a Jensen C12K. With a Jag going into it.

EDIT: Yeah. Though I don't think I'll ever be fully without pedals ( I like some noise, occasionally ) I like the idea of being more restricted and having a few really good sounds.

What pedals do you have now and which of them do you use?

James wrote:What pedals do you have now and which of them do you use?

I really liked my rat for a while, but haven't been using it really lately. I just reutz modded it and now it feels a bit muddy. TBH I've not really bonded that well with many of my pedals. The Dist + nails some fun Husker Du sounds, but is a bit on the bright side and sounds a bit weak when at a low volume for teh leads IMO. Small clone sounds good, but I dunno when I'd ever use it for anything other than teh kurtz. I think chorus sounds a bit cheesy.

Regarding the Aenima, it's my first real fuzz and it sounds good with a cool feedback loop to boot. Quite near impossible to control, though. Nonsenical knobs..

..I like my korg dt10, at least.

Wait, you've already got a Rat, Aenima, and a Memory Boy.

I don't know that the difference between vintage/new Rats amounts to much more than mojo. It'll be a subtle change if anything. The 616 sounds a bit better than the MB IMO, but you wouldn't be gaining any functionality or features. Have you tried just tuner-Rat-Aenima-MB?

I say undo that reutz mod, since you don't like it, ditch everything you don't dig, and tweak from there. Be fearless!

Will wrote:Wait, you've already got a Rat, Aenima, and a Memory Boy.

I don't know that the difference between vintage/new Rats amounts to much more than mojo. It'll be a subtle change if anything. The 616 sounds a bit better than the MB IMO, but you wouldn't be gaining any functionality or features. Have you tried just tuner-Rat-Aenima-MB?

I say undo that reutz mod, since you don't like it, ditch everything you don't dig, and tweak from there. Be fearless!

It's a pretty noticeable change, from what I've heard. Pens knows a bit about Rats, as I recall. But anwho, I'm missing reverb which I'd really like. Leaning towards a chicklet.

cobascis wrote:I know I want a vintage Rat...

cobascis wrote:It's a pretty noticeable change, from what I've heard.

That sounds to me like you've been reading too much on the internet.

Definitely.

Also, closest guitar store has shite pedals, so I have to read som' HCFX threads.

Shut down your computer and play your guitar through your pedal board. Then think about if you actually want to have a 'pedal reset' or you're just day-dreaming about the potential for better pedals and spending your internet time reading about them on HCFX.

Tuner>RAT>SP Aenima>Malekko Ekko 616>Malekko Chicklet seems like a good thing for you.

Yeah - I'll put them through their paces next band practice. Pedal tryouts!

but srsly. I expect you're right and I've been forced into the booteek HCFX culture!

cobascis wrote:Yeah - I'll put them through their paces next band practice. Pedal tryouts!

but srsly. I expect you're right and I've been forced into the booteek HCFX culture!

i really think that's unfortunate. i never buy into that "best-sounding" stuff when it comes to boutique stuff. but i am more drawn to functionality & usability than i am "tone." so me personally i wouldn't ditch the MB for the 616 but that's just me. but if that's what you want then get it & get the Chicklet. maybe trade the Rat for a Timmy too. if you don't like the Rat.

This reminded me of what I went through when I was around your age:

I was about 15-16 and already had a very impressive rig. IIRC, it was '67 Duo-Sonic ---> Boss CS-1, DS-1, OD-2, Akai Headrush ----> '72 Bassman. This was much cheaper back then, mind; there was less than $900 in gear there. It sounded great and was super loud, but I wanted to keep tweaking. I kept swapping pedals, guitars for this and that and whatever sounded good on the internet. I wasn't really listening to my stuff, just pushing ahead into new and fancier stuff.
Then I got burned out. I spent all my time buying, selling, and tweaking instead of really playing. I couldn't play a song in a way that really made me happy, and kept trying to compensate with toys. I basically gave up, sold most of my electrics, and switched to acoustic. I learned fingerstyle, chord-melody, rockabilly - whatever I could play on acoustic that wasn't just strumming. It was a good period of learning, and it made me a far stronger player. But, it wasn't where I wanted to be.
When I switched back to electric, I was able to approach it in a much more total way, rather than just "rawking out." Surprise surprise, I found I didn't want as many pedals. I'm much happier with my playing now and feel like I'm on the right track.

My point is that gear dissatisfaction and GAS is usually the product of being unhappy with your own playing. Focusing on improving is usually a much better investment than hunting a new toy or quick-fix.

i say slow down--- you have good pedals--- we all get sick of our stuff-- and we all go through the downsizing phases--- dude i wish to god i had all the pedals back that i traded away----- due to downsizing or looking for tonez(blah)

...there's just never enough delay in a pedalboard. i currently use 3, and maybe even 4.
an OD, a heavy distortion (shredmaster), and some modulation in front of them (chorus/phaser/vibrato, or so...) and a wah.

i highly recommend the old ibanez 10-series pedals that can still be found for cheap, and sound A+++


good luck,

Pat.

some of my opinions on pedals...

the whole point of a pedal board to me is to have a group of pedals for a very specific application, like playing a certain set of songs with your band. I mainly make music and record stuff at home so I don't have a pedal board. I have no permanent signal chain of any kind. the idea of having a pedal board where you are just stringing together every pedal you own into a giant mess of shit just makes no sense to me. I'm constantly switching the order of pedals and I generally go by the philosophy that more pedals just equals more stuff between the guitar signal and the amp, either adding noise or rolling off brightness, so you should try to keep it down to as few pedals as possible. if you can find a way to do without a certain pedal it should not be in your chain. you don't have to sell it necessarily but just toss it aside for another day. there's plenty of effects that come or go out of my rotation. effects like tremolo, chorus and phasers have very specific uses and naturally aren't going to be used as much as stuff like distortion and reverb. even delay and fuzz are relatively limited in their use.

the other thing for me with pedals is, there may be little minor differences here and there between different pedals but it's all subjective. I like to to search for oddball cheapo brands. I've scored some great pedals for $10 -$15 on eBay just because they're brands no one's heard of. they may sound minorly different to more expensive variants but that's fine, it gets you 95% there without straight ripping off some else's tone. maybe my pedal doesn't have that exact chip or resistor value, oh well, I guess that just makes me sound more unique.

the one glaring hole that I can see in your pedal collection here is the lack of an overdrive pedal of some sort. to me that's one of the most useful pedals you can possibly have. people will make different suggestions here but you might want to consider something like a Boss SD-1 or one of the other boss overdrive pedals. and there's the old standard tubescreamer and the variants. it's worth trying out. there's a reason why it's so commonly used. get ye a TS7 or TS5.

You've got a LPB-1 and I know you've said it was your least favoutite pedal but try this out.

Geetar
LPB-1 - MAX GAIN
Bassman

what a sound this is. Set your bass and trebble at 1, bright switch off, Turn on the LPB-1 maxed out and EQ your amp until you get a good crunch tone. Trust me, its in there! My sweet spot was something like Trebble 7 Bass 4 which sounds like ass without the LPB1 turned on but soooooo good when you push it to the limit.

I could easily gig with just these

Tuner
OCD/DLS combo
Regenerator or just a good chorus pedal as its all i use it as
Nova Delay
RV-7

Sure, i have a fuzz but it doesn't get turned on every song, the stuff im playing sadly doesn't call for fuzz all of the time. Sure I have a volume pedal and its really not needed and takes up a lot of space but MAN does it make things so much easier. I don't really need the LPB-1 either because the OCD does a great job of emulating my amps breakup but its nice to have in case i need more volume on the fly. I don't gig with the looper but its on the board because i plug it in when im at home to practice with.

This isn't exactly true with all pedals, but those four [not counting the tuner] that I mainly use can do so many different things. They're all like Swiss Army Knifes at what they do.

Yeah, i've thought about scaling things down but then again its all really simple basic effects that cover a lot of ground. Its exactly what i need for both finding my own sound but still being able to cover other peoples music without hunting down this pedal for this song or that pedal for that song. If you really want to keep things simple get an M13, keep your tuner and find you a good dirt pedal.

I this issue for ages. I found the problem to be one of three things:

- I bought my pedals based on reviews off the internet and what friends recommended
- I adjusted the settings on my pedals without properly understanding what I'm doing to the sound
- I wasn't confident in my playing and would often use pedals to 'get sidetracked'

I sold all my gear and started buying up about 18 months ago. I started by replacing my RAT with an older one. It was a world of difference as far as I was concerned. I was already familiar with the pedal. Trick with the RAT is to not turn the distortion knob all the way up. Use your filter and tone knob on your guitar carefully. And now days, I mostly use it as a boost anyway. I picked up a Vexter BOR a couple years prior so I took the plunge on a hand painted one. Again, given that I was a little familiar, and HP ones are identical to the Vexters, I was pretty happy to keep on purchasing. Next came the two 'left field' pedals. AD900 was bought off a friend and replaced what was first a DD-3 then OceanFX Vintage Echo (two built in one). First time I stepped foot in true 'vintage' land. And holy crap. I loved what it did to my tone, it isn't transparent by any means and the UFO sounds are FAT. I tried a lot of analog delays since then (Big box Memory Man, DM-2/3, Memory Boy, etc) and nothing comes 'thumpingly' close.

I don't use my RAT as much anymore (playing a lot of melodic stuff lately) and if I do it's as a boost due to the SHO being on all the time. Makes me sound like I have AlNiCo speakers. Bit more depth and less bite. Anyway I've never used settings off the internerds and since buying the vintage RAT (this was before the RAT craze I've noticed on a lot of the forums) I just gave up listening to people. I was being told to get OCDs, Timmys, BYOCs, etc etc........

And just so everyone is clear. World of difference between vintage RAT and newer reissues. Sound wise maybe similar but the way the knobs work, etc makes the vintage ones more appealing to me for adjusting on the fly as well as more 'sweet spots' than my RI one (I ab'd them for 6 months before selling, my RI was an early one too).