Minimalist/Exhibitionist?

thecookman · Post by **thecookman** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:19 pm

When it comes to pedals (for you) is less more or the more the merrier? I am intrigued to get a poll from gear heads. A lot of my favourite guitarists use very little in the way of stomp boxes but at the same time there are some guitarists I love, like Kevin Shields, who have a massive rig that they fine tune for exact and amazing sounds. Obviously this depends on what music you play etc but I'm interested to hear what people's pedal proclivities are when it comes to your 'sound'.
Do you A/B switch two bookshelves full of effects and are called The Edge or is it one coily lead from your guitar into your amp?

kim · Post by **kim** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:01 pm

yeah hmmmm dilemma thing isn't it. when i see bands setting up and they just take a few pedals out of a box, chain them up and that's it..i envy it.
tapdancing is no fun. ive never really had a shitload but right now something like 7 pedals, i used to have a looper and crap using it as clean blend on bass and all trickery and it just irritated me. it was cool having the sounds and sounding different, but it obstructed teh rawk.

probably the most used for me is a fuzz i can layer on to of distortion for a kick, and its octave up for another extra kick (we're a three piece and guitar is only me so need some different sounds).
i've been without reverb for long, and don't miss it that much, if i want more spaceous sounds i use the delay, but i'd like another type of modulation, right now it's

tuner-mike minisaltboost-behringer pitch shifter/harmonist-fulltone ultimate octave-mxr blue box-red witch famulus-behringer delay

i'd like a type of flanger/phaser/chorus sort of thing again and reverb but i'm forcing myself to opt for just one of those.
i have a digitech xp200 (blue), carl martin red repeat, behringer tremolo, behringer bass synth ..that i just threw off. been trying to sell the digi and carl martin for ages. no luck.

i used to have a holy grail and it sounded too muddy, a boss oc2 (that i miss but ..not an essential tool), big muff, sansamp, i don't remember all the stuff, i don't know, i hate pedals..but i love them.

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:39 pm

Until a couple of months ago my pedal board was fairly large:

EHX Doctor Q > MXR GT-OD > Effector13 2ADD > Dwarfcraft Shiva > Behringer Super Fuzz > Danelectro Tuna Melt > Boss DD3 > Behringer Tuner

But then I realised that I barely used many of those pedals, and that when I did I was often forcing myself to use them in order to justify them being there. So I have now downsized to a more minimal setup:

Behringer Super Fuzz > Boss DD3 > Behringer Tuner

I can still get all the sounds I need, and I think I'm improving as a guitarist because I have to be more creative with my playing, and more creative with the few pedals I have.

vierphoria · Post by **vierphoria** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:07 pm

I've never understood people who prefer less versatility over more versatility.

You can without doubt create a broader range of sounds and textures with the more pedals (and even racks) you have, so I would definitely say that more is more (i.e. better). As of now, my signal goes through a tuner > Germanium 4 Muff > Green Russian Muff Clone > Fuzz Factory Clone > Yamaha FX500 > Memory Boy > Hazarai > Cathedral. (I'm placing a tremolo right after the tuner soon.)

Sure enough, I could strip away the Fuzz Factory and the Memory Boy and still keep what I'm going, but I like to stack effects etc. I recently found out that my Green Muff stacks perfectly with the distortion side of the Germanium Muff, and the Soft Focus patch on the FX 500 sounds fantastic with an ounce of OD. As goes for having two delays... Well, there is no such thing as to much delay, and the Hazarai delay sounds even better when stacked with some warm analog delay.

I've never tried A/B-ing, but I will in the future. Wether for effects or guitars, I don't know...

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:33 pm

I tend to favor fewer pedals and such. I'll take a fully equipped pedal board to stage but really all I usually need a boost and a tuner, reverb if the amp doesn't have a good one. As much as I love a lot of effects, I think they are distracting and less than convincing on stage, at least small stages. Even reverb is hard to digest live sometimes.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:46 pm

I used to think the more the better and had a pedalboard full of pedals that I liked but would rarely use. Now I can't be bothered carrying loads of stuff around with me to gigs and rehearsals so I only have what pedals i actually use on my pedalboard, it still seems to be more than a lot of guitar players use though.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:56 pm

johnnyseven wrote:I used to think the more the better and had a pedalboard full of pedals that I liked but would rarely use. Now I can't be bothered carrying loads of stuff around with me to gigs and rehearsals so I only have what pedals i actually use on my pedalboard.

I'm exactly the same, I might even downsize my actual pedalboard as well too.

kim · Post by **kim** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:25 pm

i'm gonna give it a shot, just taking my two/three most used pedals (and tuner) to rehearsal this week.

UlricvonCatalyst · Post by **UlricvonCatalyst** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:23 pm

I couldn't afford the cables and PSUs to chain all my pedals together, and if I did I'd probably have about as many as K. Shields, but....it's definitely something I'd like to try someday (when I have a pedal roadie as well as a guitar tech).

If I ever get into gigging again I'll have to make sure I have an amp with tremolo and reverb so I can keep my board simple - maybe just a tuner, Boost, OD, Fuzz1, Fuzz2, Phaser/Vibe(?), Analogue Echo, Digital Delay, Digital Reverb, maybe the MicroPOG....

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:30 pm

I have more than what I need, but I do use all of my effects at least semi-regularly, so nothing just sits to the side and is unused for weeks on end.

Currently: guitar>DT-10BK tuner>boost>overdrive/distortion>MBM Rat Clone>CE-2>DE7>M9>Yamaha FX500>Midiverb II>amp.

The DE7 and CE2 could be sold but I like both pedals a lot. One of the racks could go, but I like enough of the effects on both to keep them around because they have great (and unique) reverbs.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:37 pm

I use: tuner > MXR Dist + > Dwarfcraft Great Destroyer > Eau Claire thunder > behringer analog delay

I wish I bad another delay and a looper. I'd like to have two delays, one set to a really short and fast repeat and one that is slow and repeats three or four times. The looper would just be to jam stuff out on my own and I would never actually use in a band situation.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:06 pm

Totally depends on the band. I've been in bands where I could get by with a tuner and amp with a nice clean and dirty channel, but also been in bands where I used loads of effects and filled my board with as much as possible.
Most used boards that show my extremes are:

To

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:00 pm

I used to use around 6+ pedals but found they were becoming a distraction on my actual playing. I was starting to rely more on the pedals to make things interesting, they were more of a hindrance than anything. I do still love to mess around with pedals at home though.
Fortunately the last two bands i've played for only require a straight guitar>amp set up which suits me fine. But like Thom said, it can depend on the band you are in. What i do find funny is when bands turn up and the guitarist has a massive pedal board yet doesn't really do anything with it. If you've got 16 pedals i want to hear some crazy Agata sounds...

holyCATS1415 · Post by **holyCATS1415** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:35 pm

I try not to use a lot of pedals. For the past couple months I have limited myself to 3.

EH memory man
EH micro POG
MBM 1 knob fuzz

In my previous band I didn't use any.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:58 pm

"I'm gonna get down on my knees, close my eyes and fiddle with knobs to coax random squeally noises... that'll impress the babes."

thecookman · Post by **thecookman** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:00 pm

Cool to see so many people on here have MBM pedals. I agree, totally depends on the band/music your in/doing. Do you think its better to have stomp boxes that are fairly outlandish flange, octave, etc or mainly good solid core sounds i.e. Dist., Fuzz, reverb. Again I appreciate it depends on what you're playing but I've seen guitarists get wild sounds out of one or two pedals and guitarists with 3 sherpas dragging crates of FX and getting no more than your average Blues sound. Factoring in ability do you think it inhibits or expands?

Thom: A). Good to see a lefty guitarist actually playing left handed B). What's the Behringer Slow Motion do? (I'm sure I could hazard a guess going by the name...)

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:06 pm

I think for every project/band/whatever you have to put together an efficient board that will work for that project. putting only what you are using for that project on the board. having every pedal you own on a giant board only adds noise, unnecessarily complicates things, and creates potential for problems.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:24 pm

thecookman wrote:Cool to see so many people on here have MBM pedals.

Mike is a poster/moderator here and I *think* he even founded MBM here, can't remember the specifics and know he posts on other forums so I can't say for sure... he has at least also done business through shortscale for almost 4 years anyway, which is why you'll see so many about.

http://shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16595

Ben79 · Post by **Ben79** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:27 pm

I think as long as you maintain some discipline and focus on your art then you just use whatever you need.

Personally, I play synth as well as guitar and am particularly interested in creating vowel like sounds so I use a lot of filter pedals. Having too many options can be disorientating sometimes, I think imposing some limitations is good for creativity so I tend not to have more than 4 or 5 pedals on the go at once, though I have a collection of about 25. The ones I use most are fuzz, wave shaper, micro synth, bass balls, ring mod, vibrato and wah. I find they really open things up creatively for me but I always enjoy the immediate clarity of plugging straight into the amp too.

vierphoria · Post by **vierphoria** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:07 am

Ben79 wrote:I think as long as you maintain some discipline and focus on your art then you just use whatever you need.