There's too many choices AKA the minimalism thread

[popvulture]

For me, there's an inverse relationship between how often I'm actively making music and how much I want to buy new equipment. I think my desire for new stuff is usually a sublimation of the desire to be creating more, so when I start feeling like I "need" new shit, I close my web browser and start making music and the "need" tends to vanish. There is pretty much never a time when not having an extra piece of equipment has stopped me from making something if I put my mind to it. Some people say new stuff inspires them, but that's not the case for me. If I'm totally uninspired or whatever, it doesn't seem to matter at all whether I have a million music tools or just one.

My criteria for getting new stuff is any of the following: 1) it has to be very hands-on and fun to use 2) I have to imagine getting a good variety of uses out of it, or 3) it has to be a killer deal so that if/when I don't want it anymore, I'll at the very least break even.

1000 times this.

I had a big "I'm having to find an excuse to use this effect, so I should just not use it" and cut the pedalboard in half. It's been great.

Yep, massively agree with all that. I've also tried to always write songs and then find the ways that pedals best serve them (if at all), vs writing a song around an effect and having it therefore be less able to stand on its own. It makes for a smaller pedalboard in my experience.

[The Eristic]

I find that I don't necessarily want less when I get busy (though I do want less stuff in general as I get older), but narrow in very quickly on what I actually need, which leads to much more effective purpose-driven buying instead of opportunistically grabbing whatever interesting thing or deal I stumble across, most of which winds up never seeing a gig. I think I own maybe 60 pedals, probably 10% have been on the board for a show. Same problem with guitars and amps, really. God knows how many I own, only a handful go out. Need to either have a huge selloff or double down and invest in studio gear.

[frigid midget]

I tend to buy stuff like a madman whenever I'm not being productive for whatever reason. When I can't play as much as I want to (work, kids, life), I kinda buy pedals as a surrogate for playing guitar. Like it feels like at least I'm doing *something* music related

But in terms of guarding my cash flow and making sure playing doesn't get secondary to obsessing over pedals for the sake of buying/flipping pedals...
I just dedicate myself to not keeping anything (okay, except for two or three peds) that doesn't fit on my small-ish pedalboard. Which can carry everything (more actually) than I'd ever need if I ever get another band going. Even if it's an experimental noise prog band or whatever, I can't handle more than 7 or so pedals anyway. I'm not organised enough, and the extra knobbies and options would destract me too much.

It obviously depends on what music you're into, but there's only been a few exceptions where I didn't see a live band use just a handfull of mxr/boss/ibanez/whtvr pedals. And even those exceptions...Pretty sure those guys are the same kinda gear whores as us who could easily survive a show with a board that's NOT the size of a ping pong table

[ognoy]

I recently downsized my board from PT3 to PT Metro 20.
There is still 9 pedals om the board:
But 1 is tuner, 2 is "always on"(Timmy-clone and EP boost-clone).So other than that there is 1 reverb, 1 delay, 1 Comp and 1 dirt(well it is 3-in-1 pedal) and 2 "weird" pedals that cover alot og sounds: Bitquest and CT5.

This setup is very light weight, quick to set up or move around the house and covers a lot of sounds.
Sometimes I add a volum pedal in the front and a Boomerang III(powered by the Strymon Ojai under the board) after the board.

[Invisible Man]

That's a jammed little board, but it's wonderful.

I own seven pedals right now. Five on my board--very happy with just those. They're all super flexible, so I'm good with pretty much any sound I can think of. A fun exercise is to look at sexy boards and see how much stuff they could do that those five pedals can't. It's usually zero or very little.

Ok it's usually modulation (phase/flange/chorus) which I can get somehow and which don't seem too interesting to me anyway.

[D.o.S.]

I'm pretty sure no one likes zany pedals anymore.

[fuzzisokiguess]

I tend to buy stuff like a madman whenever I'm not being productive for whatever reason. When I can't play as much as I want to (work, kids, life), I kinda buy pedals as a surrogate for playing guitar. Like it feels like at least I'm doing *something* music related

I'm in the same bear-trap loop. It's the: it's-for-future-music argument. Every once in a while I recognize it, gnaw off whatever limb is caught. Months pass, I forget it happened, and find myself back in the same trap.

Love how this thread is part metaphysical support group, and part nuts-and-bolts small footprint board discussion.

[infamousalien]

I hear a lot of pedal demos and think they sound cool but I'd never use the effect in my music I make. I have always just used dist/od/fuzz and a delay. I keep the "board" to five pedals or less and I don't really keep too many pedals around that aren't on it. Maybe one fun noisemaker or something to mess around with. I've bought tremolos, choruses, flangers, phasers but I never get them to sound right. I like hearing other people's music with those effects . I'm still always on the look out for new flavors of fuzz though

[MechaGodzilla]

I'm pretty sure no one likes zany pedals anymore.

We're in a world where ehx makes TS and klon clones.

[Invisible Man]

I'm pretty sure no one likes zany pedals anymore.

Ok ok.

Kooky pedals.

[mathias]

On the "mainstream" guitarist side, pedals are a little bit more popular than they used to be, it seems, but it is larger demand for things we'd consider more mundane.

I started the topic mostly thinking about how I've now got one of my longtime GAS list items, an El Capistan delay, but if I look around there's so many more new and interesting delays out there. Tonal Recall, In Limbo, all sorts of new digital delays with modulation options, etc.

In the zany pedals realm, there's all kinds of things I'd like to try that didn't really exist in the same form before. Gen Loss, Ottobit, Mercury7, the Ezhi&Aka stuff.. the list goes on..

I just want to be happy with the setup I've got and fully explore it. So I'm mostly ignoring those things. But I think I've also had a realization that pedals are only tools. This isn't as deep as the "tone is in the hands" but I'm pretty sure that with decent-enough gear, I can do what I need, without endless searching for a new sound.

[BossMann73]

Awesome thread so far and if the sentiments expressed here are any indication of a wider trend in music, perhaps we will be returning to better days. IMO, the last few years in music has been "hey, I just discovered this new noisemaker so I'm gonna bludgeon the world with it." But the most memorable songs have always had sparser production values and relied on good melody, structure and universal lyrics rather than assaulting the audience with noise.

The trend towards noise does make sense though given the younger generations (millenials) general world view of "if it feels good, do it" coupled with their general feeling that they "discovered" everything (that people were actually doing better in the 50's, 60's and 70's), but luckily the new crop of kids coming up behind them is substantially more conservative in their world view and I think personally that it will result in a better musical environment.

[Invisible Man]

I know you swore off non-gear-related posts, but what do you mean about younger people taking a more conservative stance?

[BossMann73]

I know you swore off non-gear-related posts, but what do you mean about younger people taking a more conservative stance?

Recent studies have shown that teenagers today are taking a look at kids a little older than them and rejecting the body piercings, tattoos and are embracing more tradistionalist values. It's a sociological trend that is happening. I see it in my kid for sure but admittedly he may be influenced by me. Here is but one article that discusses it from an admittedly sensationalist newspaper:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... e-WW2.html

But here is sort of the same thing from the bastion of the establishment the New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/upsh ... ative.html

[O Drones]

I'd rather be consumed by a vat of boiling acid than click a Daily Mail link tbh