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I've been thinking a lot about this when it comes to circuit design. I'm a big fan of multi-knobs, but I think responsibility on the builder's behalf (unless otherwise instructed for a custom job or whatever) to make the knobs do as much as possible, and take out options that don't do very much. In theory you could have the ultimate tweaker pedal with every resistor subbed for a knob but that'd be ridiculous. I'm all in on trimpots & switches for when knobs aren't really interesting over their entire travel.
I will echo the sentiment that less knobs = better for live stuffs. That's why my Pretty Years went off the live board, but I'll never get rid of it because of how useful it is in a controlled, studio environment.

Also to counter worra's mention of the Ct5's high-function/low-knob-count being a good thing, that box can be iffy in a live setting bc there's no easy indicator for Q, LPF, or LFO in mode 1, or playback head volumes in mode 3. I'd prefer a few more switches/knobs (maybe tiny rotaries like the Whataverb/Volcas have? more of these in general would be tight)/indicators to see these things when I'm playing out. That said, 95% of the time it does exactly what I want and what I expected and the knob count works just fine. Elegance v oversaturation. It's all about a balance I guess. The new firmware will also make the Q/LPF/LFO thing not nearly as big of a deal.

It totally depends on what the controls are for the individual pedal. Reverb is a good example, in that I've seen/owned pedals that have one knob and some that have 4+. Personally, In a reverb I want control of the mix, dwell and tone and that's about it. One knob, I'm guessing it's usually a mix only and if I don't like an aspect of the overall sound of the reverb, then it's no good to me. If there are controls for pre-delay and a bunch of other parameters, it's getting too in depth for me and I know I'll just find one setting for those controls and hope they don't get bumped. If it's an always on amp emulation type distortion, I might want gain, volume, 3 bands of EQ and maybe an additional control like presence, boost, sag, etc., but for a regular overdrive or fuzz I own lots of 1-3 knob pedals that I love.

So no hard rule, just a case by case on what I need out of the pedal. If I constantly feel like I have too many or to few controls, it will probably move on. A lot of that is subjective to my taste.

Yup more knobs for creating, less is more for live use.

"It depends"
Like Chank, I generally prefer 4knob flangers to 3 and 2 knob varieties. Still bought an MXR Micro Flanger this past weekend.
[it] is being added to the bass rig and will be a set-and-forget I stop on to add some movement/comb filtering.
The 4-(actually 5) knob PolyFlange in the guitar rig is also frequently used as set-and-forget, but makes for a great oddball-tweaker on the fly and capable of getting weird.

Like echorec, I too moved on from a Tracer City; in part because it had too much going on knobwise with too little variation in output, but also due to it being big & expensive and useful as a bargaining chip. I wouldn't be averse to owning another at some point. That being said, I much prefer the Frostwave Resonator as a solution.

I generally dig simple ifaces and try to avoid superfluous knobs. I don't need every pedal to have a master volume and/or tone stack.
In fact I kind of like the *limitation* of not having such highly tweakable effects, as it leads me to experiment more with sequence and pairings, which helps me better understand what the effect itself is doing in its current context/find where I can put it for the most useful sound solution.

And as a general rule for performance...if you're also trying to play guitar or bass and sing all at once...I much prefer a stomp on/stomp off setup with minimal knobs-on-the-floor-tweaking. If the instrument itself has a volume+tone knob and multiple pickups it's probably all I need to tweak the set-and-forget pedals I've dialed-in ahead of time.

For a tabletop setup...all bets are off

I've had some high knob count pedals through the years, flanger hoax, atoner, among others, but I really gravitate towards things without many knobs and switches as I refine my approach to playing guitar and using pedals.

At this point the elements is my most complicated by far and I only tolerate it because it sounds amazing and the controls are very intuitive and work how you expect.

I echo other people's sentiments about performing, I really just want to turn things on and off and have enough volume/tone control to adjust for rooms etc. I get fuzz versatility by having lots of fuzz at home


That said as of earlier this year I have a modular synth which fulfils the crazy tweaking part of my brain which is probably what has let me do this with pedals.

goroth wrote: Any knobs that are very sensitive I will put a rubber gasket under to make the travel of
the pot stiffer.

Great idea! Could be useful for preventing knob drift.

Re: the number of knobs, it's not really the issue for me. There's something to be said for pedals that are super versatile, and also for pedals that only do one thing, but do it well.

One thing I hate is "mystery knobs" (unlabeled knobs, "you just gotta experiment with it", "all the knobs are interactive (and I don't want to spoil the fun by labeling them)" etc. Seppuku is bad in this regard.

goroth wrote:Any knobs that are very sensitive I will put a rubber gasket under to make the travel of
the pot stiffer.

I had high hopes for this post, but alas...

^sounds like an inuendo for when putting on a condom.

UglyCasanova wrote:

goroth wrote:Any knobs that are very sensitive I will put a rubber gasket under to make the travel of
the pot stiffer.

I had high hopes for this post, but alas...

You know who else had high hopes for this post?

Practice safe effecting - always be ready with a pack of tiny condoms for when other people play with your knobs. You don't wanna catch their EHX or JHS!

On the real though, I lose patience if there's too much to tweak on an interface, be it a synth or a pedal. Plus I usually can't afford the things with many knobs. But sure, put however many are needed on it. Personally I like the look of four or five knobs, arranged like on a dice.

frodog wrote:Practice safe effecting - always be ready with a pack of tiny condoms for when other people play with your knobs. You don't wanna catch their EHX or JHS!

Pretty sure JHS tells kids in Africa than condoms give you aids.

African condoms do. Read it on twitter.

K2000 wrote:One thing I hate is "mystery knobs" (unlabeled knobs, "you just gotta experiment with it", "all the knobs are interactive (and I don't want to spoil the fun by labeling them)" etc. Seppuku is bad in this regard.

Absolutely! Best (or worst) example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFJP8VZDW2s[/youtube]

It also has too many knobs. In some settings the pedal simply refuses to produce any sound anymore - and then you have to guess what to do to bring it back!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ4-AjAyvXY[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZffdRYc8xqc[/youtube]
sweet diy knobs.