yo pedal fiends - how long will a minimal board satisfy you?

[jrmy]

I tend to keep pedals that I don't have on my board because I use them for my studio-only solo stuff, which tends to be very effct-heavy, and is something of a personal sound lab. I mean, if I have five pedals that do the exact same thing, or an extremely flippable pedal that I'm not attached to, I might consider trading it for something new & sparkly that catches my eye. But that's about it. For now, anyway. Any and all of my gear behaviors are subject to arbitrary whim.

Well I knew YOU'D support that statement!

Also, it should be noted that I often have that moment when I see my favorite player's live boards. Clint Conley from Mission of Burma gets this AMAZING huge "pounding on the low keys of the piano" overdriven bass sound in certain parts, and I went up to ask him what he used... and it's a single Boss Bass OD pedal...

That said, my live board is a lot more streamlined that the overall pile o' pedals taking up my shelves, so I guess I straddle both sides of the argument, depending on what I'm doing.

[theactionindex]

My board is always one pedal away from being complete.

[charles]

I've never really used more then about 5 pedals at a time, but am still amazed at the sounds I can get out of just those. Maybe I'm missing the point, as I've never had a huge board, but they never really appealed to me. Maybe once I get some more pedals I'll understand why people carry around so many. I honestly hope it's as great as they make it seem

[SpaceFlunky]

i found out last year that when im not in a band fulltime i buy/trade more pedals. For about a year i went thru a ton of pedals. Once i finally got in a band again i sold everything off that i wasnt using......well everything but my big box DMM

[01010111]

I've got six on my board with plans for expansion to at least eighteen. But I'm really I'm trying to make three genre specific small boards so, yeah...

To cut down to my current board, I made a list of the sounds I liked out of my current board. Figured out which were essential and took the others out. But before I sold them I'd set them aside and see if I felt the need to use them again. Now now I'm trying to expand based on what kind of music I want to play, buying based on need as opposed to general gas

[Ironbird13]

i have 14 pedals on my board at the moment, 10 of which i use in my bands songs (thrash metal)

made a custom board for them(100x40cm), so as long as all my pedals fit on that im sweet

[CBGB]

I have an ever expanding board... individually all the pedals are great, but I dunno... it sometimes feels over indulgent and difficult to operate. But deciding on a minimal board would be a conceptual nightmare

[Wes Mantooth]

I have about 11 and want more

Is it neccessary? No, but it's fun to play around with all my different fuzzes for different tones.

I plan on layering them for my planned solo projects. Have two channels of fuzz panned left and two panned right for a huge wall of fuzz. Also I'm wanting a Goatkeeper and some sort of phaser to add to my board

[Jero]

I have 10 pedals on my board (& only want 1 more). One of the spots gets rotated with one of the other 15-20 or so pedals I have around. I generally like to get rid of things I'm not using, but some pedals have a special value to them and will always be here.

Nothing on my board is the same, even with 4-5 of the effects being dirt based. A lot of the sounds I use come from stacking various pedals, thus I need them all. I don't play with a band, so it's not like I really have any limits or problems.

If I really had to, I could cut it down to 3 pedals. Harmony Synth>BehemothII>Memory Boy/Disaster Transport. Don't know how long it'd last.

[Mudfuzz]

I tend to keep pedals that I don't have on my board because I use them for my studio-only solo stuff, which tends to be very effct-heavy, and is something of a personal sound lab. I mean, if I have five pedals that do the exact same thing, or an extremely flippable pedal that I'm not attached to, I might consider trading it for something new & sparkly that catches my eye. But that's about it. For now, anyway. Any and all of my gear behaviors are subject to arbitrary whim.

Well I knew YOU'D support that statement!

Also, it should be noted that I often have that moment when I see my favorite player's live boards. Clint Conley from Mission of Burma gets this AMAZING huge "pounding on the low keys of the piano" overdriven bass sound in certain parts, and I went up to ask him what he used... and it's a single Boss Bass OD pedal...

That said, my live board is a lot more streamlined that the overall pile o' pedals taking up my shelves, so I guess I straddle both sides of the argument, depending on what I'm doing.

Hey I used one of the bosses for YEARS... my board pretty much right before came here [and got corrupted and shit] was: Q105 wah > bassballs > ODB-2 > TR-2 > EQ. I had other stuff but that is what I gigged with then in 06 I got super frustrated stopped using fx for a few months... traded everything I didn't "need" for more pedals... and more pedals and more... intill I cam up with a "welllll to do most of what I want I need XXX" seems I NEED 4 fuzzes so I have five

[dubkitty]

it's really entirely dependent on whether i'm playing the kind of stuff i prefer to do or whether i'm playing "normal people music." if i'm playing "normal people music" i can get along for years with the Distortion+, the TC SCF chorus/flanger, a tremolo, and a reverb, and at some point when i feel affluent enough to duplicate things will have a small board for that kind of playing. for the kind of things i like to do and for my own music, i have the big board as sigged, which allows me to do about 85% of everything i want to do, but most of which is entirely superfluous for bar-band music. one or two additional signal obliterators will essentially make the big board into the world's ugliest and kludgiest 9V modular synth. i'm eagerly awaiting the Deluxe Prometheus, which i assume comes with two livers.

[Bellyheart]

If it's not on my board and won't return, I sell it. I'm usually pretty quick to make that decision. However, due to this policy, there are a few I could take off, but don't because then I'd have to get rid of them.

[DarkAxel]

if i could, i would keep every pedal that is appealing to me and build a huge pedalboard for shits and giggles and experiments and shits again...

but i can't, because i have to sell stuff to fund stuff. So what i own is what i use - what i don't use/don't fully adore, i don't own

[Fuzzy Fred]

Right now, because like an idiot, I left my pedalboard at home, I have a polytune, a delay and the Dwarfcraft baby Thundaaaaaaaaaa

I miss the Judge and my Swollen Pickle, but other than that, I am pretty happy with a small set up. I want to add a Malekko LoFi 616 but other than that,

[tim]

I have 5 pedals on my board but have been dragging two extra along to gigs but mostly because I've been experimenting with alternate versions of things I already have on my board. Some shit's about to get replaced and I'm about to pare down big time. Like possibly just using 4 pedals (including a tuner). Tuner, overdrive, fuzz and delay-ay-ay-ay.

FWIW, I play in a power pop/indie rock band. I have no desire to do anything ambient at all so I like to keep things simple. My philosophy is quality over quantity.

However, I am a bit of a pedal collector but it's mostly because I'm too lazy to actually sell the pedals I don't use. I'm not hoarding them and have no sentimental attachment to any of them. So if I can get everything together, expect a giant sell-off thread in the B/S/T forum.