Help me brainstorm for my pedal board!

[HeavyXIII]

So I've been working on rearranging my loadout and am hoping for some ideas and second opinions. Originally I had wanted to replace my reverb unit with something smaller and quieter, but some tweaking today helped me realize it's versatility, as well as a few features I hadn't adjusted before. I play post-doom/sludge, but I really enjoy sparse clean/acousticky passages, as well as ambience, space and soundscapes, so half my board is echoes and reverb. Here's where I'm at now:

I've got a standard issue Geiger Counter. I love how ridiculous it is, but I don't usually leave my amp set clean, and it doesn't stack well. I find that more often than not when I'm jamming, it has this high pitched quality that isn't overpowering the rest of the effect, yet is always present and can get pretty irritating. It makes me not want to leave it on for prolonged periods of time. I'm also not using the downsampling capabilities much, which was a big reason for my buying it. And perhaps I'm not particularly good at dialing it in, but lately I've had trouble finding settings that retain a lot of low end; the tone control seems to tame the high end and move the midrange around more than boosting the low end. There are a handful of cool sounds that I can use, but ultimately I'm afraid I can sell it and pick up something that could find more use, like maybe a more standard fuzz or a different bit crusher with more sampling controls / clean blending?

The other big thing is my whammy. It's a v4, so it has all of those interesting artifacts on the octave and harmony up settings, but for some reason the octave up settings don't get used much. I got one of the Napalm pedals blenda, which helps when using the octave down retain some clarity, as well as giving me the option to clean blend with the droptune mode, which can give some cool static detune sounds. However, this combo takes up a large area of my board, and I find myself using it pretty rarely. I'm not entirely sure that there's a pedal out there to replace it, as whammy functions are relatively unique and I prefer the sound of natural harmonies between 2 guitars than programmed harmonizers. I think the only feature I'll really miss is being able to play an octave down and do those "motorcycle sounds" by returning to regular pitch.

---

So here's where my gas is leaning, but my primary concern is picking up things that will be used regularly, so some of these may not be realistic ideas:

A RAT-like pedal... Many of the post-rock / sludge bands use them on top of lightly driven amps to really bring the heavies, but I'm so fond of my amp's distortion I think something a little more versatile might be called for. For sure, something that stacks with amp distortion well, and low end retention/boost is a MUST. My bassist buddy blew his amp out today, so we spent the better part of an hour running his Alpha Dog into my amp to coax out some Sunn O))) tones. Just because I like crazy shit, oscillations may also be a plus.

The other side of dirt is something relatively tame, but that can push my amp to the point that it sounds VERY fuzzy. A simple 2 knob Devi Ever like a Punch Hate or similar circuit might suffice, but I guess some more playing might be in order.

A Boss PS-3... Jeff Caxide of Isis uses one, and I love their open spacey tunes. The draw of this for me is that the envelope with the delayed pitch shifting sounds different than anything I can do with my whammy and an echo, however I can get cool ethereal octave swells with my Timebender, so I'm afraid that it won't get the use it deserves.

Originally I wanted an IE Frantabit, but after seeing the Geiger Counter in action, I figured I'd get more use out of a fuzz. I'm thinking I'd only really be able to use the downsample to make clean parts sound cool, and maybe crush bits for interesting reverby soundscapes, but I'm still afraid it won't get much use. I've considered getting a simple ringmod for similar reasons, something cheap that might spice up clean/ambient parts. I like the bell-like tones that seem to grow from ring mods.

That's all that comes to mind now... FEED MY GAS!!

[sonidero]

DUDE ditch the Geiger, it's for Aphex and Korn and get and Elements, Minifuck and Algal Bloom and you're set...

[Tristan]

So your basically saying you're looking for a dirt pedal, a fuzz an octave / pitch thing and something to spice up your clean sound, right?
I'm curious what the rest of your board is?
I really don't like RAT's so I can't comment on that much.

As for a replacement for your Whammy I'd say if the digital octave up is important I'd get an EQD Organizer or a T-rex Octavius, if the low end octave is the most important I'd get an Aguilar Octamizer (place this one after dirt), that thing is just so incredibly heavy.
Boss could work too offcourse, I guess the Whammy just sounds better though.

In terms of Bit Crushers / Ring Mods there's a few suggestions I can make:
Lateral Sound Bit / BitFix, Malekko Bit, Red Panda Bitcrusher (all bit crushers with a mix knob, which is really necessary for cleaner sounds in my opinion)
Copilot FX Planetoid, Dwarfcraft HAX, Greyscale Devices Caligula, Heavy Electronics Saturn, Moog MF-102
I'm not a big fan of the Randy's Revenge because in my opinion it doesn't really work well stacking with dirt or fuzz, that's why I don't mention it.
The EHX Ring Thing could also be a nice option as it can do Whammy type sounds (with expression pedal) and it's also a ring modulator and it has presets.

[HeavyXIII]

If you take the GC and Whammy out of my board, I basically have a simple post-rock board:

Guitar>tuner>IE Xerograph DLX>EB Volume>Malekko 616>Alesis Wedge>Digitech TimeBender>Amp

[sonidero]

Dude just check some of our ILF builders... Mojo Hand is in East TX and close to you... It seems that you need some Good Fuzz and Delay... TimeBender is cool and versatile but an El Cap or a Flashback which is programmable could help... Also RRR...

[Tristan]

That Wedge thing is mostly a reverb I think.
In your setup I'd miss a Phaser, but that's me, Phaser junkie.

[HeavyXIII]

The wedge is probably the second most used thing on my board, next to my volume pedal of course. It's primarily a reverb, but it also has several chorus, flanger and other modulation options, the only of which I use is a leslie simulator. I used to own both a standalone chorus and flanger, bbut they just weren't my thing. The Xero covers all of my wah/phaserish needs.

As good as the El Cap and RRR sound, I'd feel bad if I bought more delay or reverb without addressing my dirt/other needs first.

Just for the sake of argument, can anyone vouch for the GC or the v4 Whammy?

[goroth]

Get one of the Fuzzhugger Phantom Octave. It is brutally fuzzy but also ring moddy and a little bit crushy (zing!). And as my man Sonidero said, get an Elements. If you can't find rad distortion in that pedal then you should probably give up on music. Forever. You can also set it to do massive clean boost if necessary. Dunno about pitchy stuff. I haven't GASsed enough yet.

[Tristan]

Can't vouch for the Geiger Counter honestly, too complicated to operate and it doesn't have a mix/blend control which you're already experiencing the difficulties from.
The Whammy 4 with the blend box and stuff should be great however, I don't know how much better the Whammy 5 actually is, only that it's cleaner but that isn't necessarily a virtue.

[ryan summit]

i gotta try a ps3 and/or 2
i got the 5 and 6 on my board
if you wanna replace a whammy
go for the 6
not that a 3 wont be dope
numbersnumbersnumbers

[HeavyXIII]

So I think I'm leaning towards replacing the GC with either an Elements or one of the Fuck variants. The Elements has a mix control that I was previously unaware of, and the SSBS pedals are quite transparent, so either would be good at stacking, but since I'm in greater need of doomfuzz, I'm leaning towards the Elements.

Still not sure what to replace the Whammy with, if it all. I think I'll really sit down with it tomorrow and play with the blender and see if I can swing any chimey octave sounds or find a decent use for the harmonizer. Otherwise I'm probably going to part with it.

I spent some time looking at different pedalboards for bands I like, and somehow the boards are 75% delay and reverb, and 25% other stuff. Looking at the Ring Thing right now, seems cool, but I need to figure out if I'll really use it.

Thanks for the help thus far!

[osbornkt]

My PS-3 hasn't left my board in years. Mode 7 with no pitch variation has one of the most incredible delays ever. I'd definitely recommend getting one. Or two.
The latency of the pitchshift can be a bit irritating, but it can be awesome as well.

[HeavyXIII]

My PS-3 hasn't left my board in years. Mode 7 with no pitch variation has one of the most incredible delays ever. I'd definitely recommend getting one. Or two.
The latency of the pitchshift can be a bit irritating, but it can be awesome as well.

Of all the videos I've seen, the latency is something I've really liked. It manages to bridge the gap between instant pitch change and manual shifting. Like a really quick envelope or something. I still kind of want one, but I'm trying to keep it low on my priorities, lol.

One of the things I really like to do with my whammy is shift down from 1 or 2 octaves up with a long delay on after it. When I realized that I can do a similar effect with a slide and the frequency with which I use that sound, I started to consider parting with my whammy.

[osbornkt]

I use the PS-3 for bass stuff right now with the -1 octave down and the blend completely up and it sounds totally fine. Lots of extra body for doomy stuff with that, too, if you turn the blend back a bit. My favorite pairing ever is RV-3 on the verb/delay mode and the PS-3 doing its nasty delay thing. So good.