ShortScale.org

hey all, i've been thinking about this recently.

how did you come to assemble your pedalboards?
did you have several pedals and stick them all together and removed what you used the least?
did you start with nothing and added what you needed as you go?
did you think what you like/need then assembled something?

since changing amps, my old pedalboard has changed in use. i find i don't really need anything bar my footswitch and tuner. hardly worth having a board, but i'm tempted to have one or two pedals just for the sake of a board.

I always kept a pretty large board when I was gigging regularly. The pedals did change a bit, but not really as much based on the amp. I alwasy liked to keep:

Tuner
Delay
Tremolo
Chorus (set for just a light chorus, nothing heavy)
boost
OD


Even when I had the Marshall JVM, I still kept boost and dirt on the board. When I played through my TT or bassman I would usually have at least 3 different boost/od/drive pedals set up differently.

My favorite combination I had was:
Ernie Ball Volume
boss tu2
VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive
SIB varidrive
OCD
Small Clone
T-rex Replica delay
Gigfx Chopper Trem


I could plug into any amp or even play straight into a PA and dial in good tones. All of the pedals played well with any amp I ever tried to play through.

No MbM pedal on there because I really bought them after I was gigging so have only limited gigging experience with my MBM pedals...

first i saute onions, celery and carrots. then add garlic and/or chives.

gaybear wrote:first i saute onions, celery and carrots. then add garlic and/or chives.

that is about half of the reipes I make as well.

Mine has just evolved over the years I have been playing. I think I started with a DS1, Russian Big Muff, Boss DD3 & Boss PH2 and it's been chopped/changed and added/subtracted from there until what I have now.

Depends on the band at the time and the amp I'm using I guess.
Other than my last band I've generally had a fairly sparse board.
In the last band I had a fair few pedals, and used the amp for distortion (JVM) so only boost(s ) on the board no actual dirt most of the time.

My basic requirement however is: Tuner, 2 flavours of dirt (crunch & brutalz) and usually a Wah.
I like having a phaser on my board so that's pretty much a constant.
Otherwise, delay, reverb and boost are optional.

I used to always use the amp for dirt and it has taken me a long time to find pedals that give me what I want.
If I have an amp with good OD then I would be happy with a tuner, phaser and wah.

Started off with some second hand bits bought off friends, overdrive and chorus. First new bit of gear was a delay, then a Wah. Then went to multi-fx for ages (about ten years) due to the cost, lots of FX for your money. I was also playing bass more as well, never had a need for fx, decent bass, decent amp, job done.

Now I'm not playing in bands any more I am back on guitars more... and pedals. A bit older, a bit wiser, Multi's are OK and a great way to learn about FX as you get a lot in one box but I think it's better to be able to tailor your sound by selecting individual pedals. It's more fun I reckon. And also if you get bored of one you can sell it on and get something else. Buy a decent single pedal and look after it and you will get a better return (in most cases) than a multi when you sell it on.

I think a decent pedal of the following type is probably what I try and keep to hand, if not always on my board.

Tuner
Wah
Compressor
Overdrive
Distortion
Fuzz
Reverb
Delay
Tremolo
Phaser
Chorus
Flanger

Since getting the M9, I don't need to move anything around; it's always Korg DT-10 > Boss PS-5 > Micro POG > M9.

I fucking LOVE having any number of type of FX there with the M9, especially great for experimenting with FX orders if you're after - no unplugging and shifting around, just a few button presses.

mine started off with whatever i had lying around when i took up the guitar (an overdrive, delay & chorus from my keyboard days). i bought a big muff, tuner and a noise suppressor and that was pretty much it, except i jettisoned the chorus early on. the trouble started when i decided to use a 2nd amp, now i have dirt pedals coming out of my ears. there are currently 6 on my board, plus a delay and tuner. some only get used on one song so i could get away with having less if i was being strict. it's just nice to have different flavours there for mixin' and matchin'.

I started with Boss pedals, so I had a molded boss board. Once I got some new stuff I got a new board and loaded what I had on it. The current setup is everything I own for bass, minus redundancies.

Tuner > Bass Chorus > Bass Wah > BassBalls > MXR DI w/Distortion > amp.

I used to have the boss bass overdrive on my board, but since I now have the MXR I don't need it, so it got pulled.

I originally started out sensibly adding things i needed or thought i needed, minimal set up... Distortion/Overdrive>Delay>Modulation or Wah.
Then years later i had my stupid phase were i bought a lot of pedals and they all went on the board at one point or other, you know, when you think your gonna be the next Agata or Kevin Shields.
But i found as a gigging musician it can get tiresome, patch cables everywhere, pedals that only work with a 9v battery, pedals conflicting with each other, some pedals dropping you out of the band mix and carrying all that shit about. I also thought less about what i was playing, at one point i was catering my playing to the actual pedals which cant be right, surely?
For some time now i've only used two or three pedals, usually different flavors of dirt.
In the covers band i was briefly in i used the FX on the Line 6 as and when needed. Still, i must say it was a very enjoyable time buying and exploring FX pedals, i miss that part.

The first pedal I got was a Danelectro Black Licorice, which sounded awful and put me off effects for ages. I then moved onto MultiFX, but eventually realised that it made me sound dreadful so switched back to just distortion from the amp. After a while I went off my amp's distortion so I bought an overdrive pedal, and I've just built up from there. The only thing that's come off my board since I started collecting effects is the Danelectro Black Licorice, which I sold to the other guitarist in my band a few months ago. It's a horrible distortion but it's good for making squealing sounds.

I love pedals, always have since I bought my first zoom multi-fx (the dreaded Zoom 606) and ever since have had an ever growing pedalboard. There's nothing quite like that feeling of plugging in a pedal and discovering an entirely new sound, and for the next half hour thinking its the best sound to ever have been created.

Gotta love Zoom for trying!!!

The Zoom 707 did me right for years!

I have a Zoom 9001, 505 and a BFX708 (ok, forgot about that when I posted saying all I needed was a decent bass and amp....should probably fess up to owning a Bass Pod as well). Still use the 9001 for recording. Some nice stuff in there. The BFX708 is only used as a metronome/drum machine to jam along with and the 505 gathers dust on the shelf.

I just add on whatever my new pedal is, and the stuff that stays is the stuff that gets used in the band. BUt the stuff that never goes:
CRybaby>Hair of the Dog>Volume pedal>Analog delay

Usually there's more, of course, but those are the staples.

When I was young and stupid I used to put as many pedals as I had power and patch cables for on my board, but now I have a pedal turned on maybe 10% of the time.

I tend to arrange my board around what I might need: a distortion pedal, a Big Muff and a couple of delay pedals.

I just got a giant fucking board and have everything I own in one line with absolutely no rhyme or reason.

I totally failed to ask Prog's actual questions, let's try again..

Progrockabuse wrote: how did you come to assemble your pedalboards?
did you have several pedals and stick them all together and removed what you used the least?
did you start with nothing and added what you needed as you go?
did you think what you like/need then assembled something?

I've always used individual stompboxes aside from the Korg G1 "distortion modeller" I got talked into buying by a sales guy when I was looking for a.. ahem.. DOD Grunge pedal. Worked well for me in the end, giving 3 different presets of various dirty sounds, used next to a Boss BF-2 flanger, Sovtek Small Stone and eventually an EHX Polychorus.

Over the last 6 or so years, I've had a staple setup consisting of tuner, dist, OD/boost, delay and trem; that generally covered any sounds I'd need. Nowadays, I just use the aforementioned tuner, Micro POG and a Boss PS-5, paired with a Line 6 M9 that takes care of anything else easily. I fucking love the thing, and the sounds really hold their own against analogue boxes.