help me build my board from the ground up

[veteransdaypoppy]

... trust me.

[Chumley]

My band plays the same sort of stuff, and Disaster Transport is absolutely lovely for the indie/alt stuff. Great mod and oscillation, and the tone knob lets you use a shittonne of delay without it taking up a lot of space in the mix. Maybe throw in a DD5 or Nova Repeater for more post rock-y tap tempo delay. Far as reverb goes, I adore the AC15's built in stuff, but I've seen a lot of indie guys with Malekko chicklet/spring chickens, and they're always nice.

Of course you should also get a Fuck, and maybe a more jagged/lofi fuzz. Our guitarist uses a VFM, and when I had a Shiva, that was fucking great for indie stuff. Wolf Computer's also great, since it can pull double-duty as a lofi OD and a great fuzz.

[DarkAxel]

i'd go with fuck, green sovtek Small Stone, some sort of tape echo (wampler FTE for me), Disaster Transport and mini RRR

if you need looping and tap tempo, swap FTE for El Cap

[Jwar]

Keeley Compressor. My cousin has one and I listened to him using it. Great little bastard. He got it for 150 too. So on the cheaps.

[Toonster]

If you want to keep the board small, get a Boss RV-3, post rock classic, gives you reverbs and delays, or both..

[DarkAxel]

different strokes for different folks, i didn't like RV-3 at all :-( and i was pretty sad when i found out

[Rygot]

Headrush, Wet or Dispatch, A boost-ish overdrive toan, whetstone or grand orbiter, something buzzy, probably another delay, some kind of trem.

I know, i'm so specific.

Edit: Get a holy grail and be dallas green.

[Fuzzy Fred]

Headrush, Wet or Dispatch, A boost-ish overdrive toan, whetstone or grand orbiter, something buzzy, probably another delay, some kind of trem.

I know, i'm so specific.

Edit: Get a holy grail and be dallas green.

no one can be dallas green but dallas green. he shook my hand and called me a badass.

ok, if you shake my hand and call me a badass you too can be dallas green

[madmax1012]

Headrush, Wet or Dispatch, A boost-ish overdrive toan, whetstone or grand orbiter, something buzzy, probably another delay, some kind of trem.

I know, i'm so specific.

Edit: Get a holy grail and be dallas green.

no one can be dallas green but dallas green. he shook my hand and called me a badass.

ok, if you shake my hand and call me a badass you too can be dallas green

Dallas is my musical idol. i hope you never wash that hand.

[Jenkins]

I'd get a booster, delay & rotovibe. Check out the fulltone GT 500 for the booster, an EQD dispatch master for delay & reverb and then a dunlop rotovibe for some nice swirl/chorus and vibe.

[dubkitty]

i really don't feel comfortable saying "BUY THIS SPECIFIC BOX" because which delay, modulation, etc. folks prefer is so subjective a matter of taste. for the kind of stuff you're proposing, though, some obvious suggestions come to mind, many of which will be redundant to what others have already said but which i'll mention again in order to be systematic.

as has been repeatedly suggested, the alt- and post-rock things both demand some kind of delay and reverb; i'm going to buck the consensus by saying that looping isn't strictly necessary, but if you can get a delay with looping capability it certainly doesn't HURT to have the additional tool at hand. there are a number of reverb + delay boxes available which save board space, ranging from oldies to newly introduced things like the EQD Dispatch Master. personally, i like the RV-3 a lot, but it's very limited and only does a few things. i'm enough of a reverb slut that i require at least one separate reverb at the end of my chain; currently that's the EQD Space Echo and/or my Yamaha and Alesis rack units.

the most certain modulation effect to be used in your preferred genres would be tremolo, which never gets the "yuck, 70s cheese!" reaction that chorus/flanging gets. unless you're really into adjustability, the Boss TR-3 is entirely adequate and cheap as chips.

even though the Algal Bloom is terrifically versatile, you'll probably want at least one other distortion or fuzz so you don't have to constantly re-set the Bloom and so you can use two stages of distortion when appropriate to e.g. kick in more buzz for a solo. you could go for a lower-gain box, i.e. an "overdrive" or something like a Distortion+ or the AstroTone, a super-gain box like a Devi Ever or a Great Wall, or both. you'll want to pay special attention to finding distorto-fuzzes that voice well with the AC15 and your speaker; Voxes can get kind of ice-picky with some boxes, as you've probably already noted.

i'm not sure you need a compressor for the stuff you're talking about, which tends to have a pretty wide dynamic range; if anything, you'd only want a peak limiter, and that would be an unusual pedalboard app.

other kinds of modulation and filters are up to you. do you like phasing? flanging? do you think you'd have an application for something like the Prometheus Deluxe, or one of the Copilot fx boxes? do you use a wah pedal, or an envelope filter? do you want to incorporate any of that stuff into what you do?

a volume pedal is always handy, especially for the more abstract stuff...fading notes into the delay is good for endless hours of fun. plus you can use it to turn off the output without using the guitar knobs.

[dubkitty]

beyond the obvious stuff, the question is, how weird do you want to get?

[Fuzzy Picklez]

Changed plan.
DM-2, another delay, and a fuck.
That's it.

[madmax1012]

i might end up keeping my hotcake clone, and I'm definitely getting a Ghost Echo as soon as possible. so it would be:

guitar -> boss tu-3 -> algal bloom -> hotcake -> ghost echo -> soon to be decided delay and modulation -> ac-15

[kbit]

A simple delay (or two), a trem, and maybe a reverb is you wanna go all spacy.
I'd also rock a glichy-textured fuzz, but that's your call.

So, hypothetically I'll recommend:

Algal bloom -> Memory Boy/Disater Transport Jr/Montavillian Echo -> Legend of Fuzz -> TU-3 (so the buffer doesn't affect your fuzz/kill noise or oscillation) -> Pulsar/Semaphore/Tremolessence -> Hall of Fame/RV-7/RE-20/El-Cap

Or substitute with cheaper, "not-so-cool" pedals cuz they're probably still cool.