ilovefuzz.com

mathias wrote:

Officer Bukowski wrote:This thread is so fucking awesome. It makes me feel guilty when I see an awesome guitarist's pedalboard and they have like 3 cheap pedals though. I mean hear I am. I pretty much suck.. Yet my pedalboard is all kindsa spensive.

It definately makes me feel not so alone with my Fuzz Factory love though. The FF seems kinda looked down upon here but it's my favorite fuzz (that I've tried at least). I just like what I like

I know this feeling. Kind of feel like I should put together a "live" board (Even though I don't play live) that's just a Boss pedal or maybe a Tubescreamer and try to make that work with a JCM-800. Just to prove that I can actually play the guitar.

That would be an experiment that would probably benefit most players who use a shit load of pedals (ie. myself). Although pedals aid in creativity, you can easily begin to rely on some of it and playing tends to suffer. Every time I try to slim back, I just get bored a little quicker and wish I had other pedals out there.

Maybe I should practice more, doubt I'll really dig in though. Been toying with actually learning some more theory lately, no fun though, IMO. Best learning experience for me consists of playing with other musicians, even if it's just a loose jam/see what happens kind of thing. Makes me look at what I'm choosing to play a lot closer and gives me perspectives I'd never see on my own.

Theory book that I'm working through:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard- ... 634049011/

And the book with daily exercises (a year worth of them, something new every day) that I'm working through to improve everything else: rhythm, string-skipping, sweep picking, alternate picking, etc)

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-O ... 423414357/

Then I'll typically pick a song to learn each week. But I have the free time to practice an hour a day, every day. Some people don't; some people have more.. I just can't force myself to practice more than that. My mind starts to wander, I lose concentration on the "lesson" and just start noodling and fooling around,w hich I don't really count, but consider important, too.

Pedalboard minimalism is so overrated!

I've been taking pedals that overlap in sound off my board, and pedals I don't use frequently, like wah and chorus. Result: http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=14 ... 47#p244023

Yeah I did that too I've narrowed it down to twelve pedals.

Thinking Tubescreamer, EHX Big Muff (of some sort), and a modulation effect. A nano Small Clone? Though I don't use much chorus.. Maybe a Boss DS-1, just to cover more ground than the tubescreamer?

That way my pedalboard could be cheaply replaced on the road at 90% of music shops. Pair it with the mentioneD JCM-800 or a Fender Twin Reverb and I'd be set to tour.

My Dano Corned Beef Reverb can do a tiny subset of the sounds in the EQD Ghost Echo, and sounds a lot less ambient and beautiful.. Mostly it can do a slapback echo. I could throw that on there, but it isn't very durable at all, and not really sure I'd find another one at every guitar shop.

The Rogue analog delay is suitably cheap but no guarantee you could find one to replace it at any guitar store, either. http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=H05535

I wouldn't worry too much if you take care of it.

mathias wrote:I've been taking pedals that overlap in sound off my board, and pedals I don't use frequently, like wah and chorus. Result: http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=14 ... 47#p244023

Cody_Pole wrote:Yeah I did that too I've narrowed it down to twelve pedals.

I tried narrowing down too, never made it to only 12 pedals though. Then I said , "Fuck It!" and worked to rearrange to fit as much as I could on the board. Still in the construction phase and waiting on some stuff, but minimalism is no longer a goal.

If I were playing shows or something though, I'd definitely slim it down substantially, but I'm not, so I won't.

Also, I picked up a couple of those Lava solderless pedal kits and they're the shit. It really doesn't matter how much I run now, the signal stays strong and sounds great, plus the plugs are tiny and I can cram everything closer together. I've been really happy with those!

I'm in construction mode as well. I'd use a Chorus if it liked it more and had songs to use it on. I'd use a lot more delay if I had it. Same goes for sparing use of phaser & flanger: If I had them and had a use for them, I might keep them on my board. I mostly have fuzz on my board, as you can see. Trem is something I like, but my Malekko trem is out for repairs right now.

*loving* the Ghost Echo though. That pedal paired with fuzz is beautiful.

I've said this 764 times (------> post count), but I feel so much more, like, confident and FULL now that I've whittled my shit down... went from a PT-2 with a tuner, DL-4, Whammy, Crybaby, US Fuzz, Merkin, Barbershop, and Hi-Five to my PT Mini which is tuner > Algal Bloom > Timmy > Small Stone (which I use for one song). Just feels great... and I had some kid come up to me at a show of ours the other night and say "I really like your playing style!" That always means a lot, as I don't consider myself a very skilled guitarist. It's just thick fuzzpop.

I bought a PT-Jr. for the run-off... so yeah, my US, Barbershop, and Merkin went on there with a few others, but that's not my live board anymore... just my library!

C

My board in its current state is as minimal as I get, though, I plan on making an even smaller board for commuting. I used to run close to twenty pedals and I'd use all of them at nearly the same time for every song, it was pretty much this all the time: "hey I have this great sound where I run an mxr bass octave into a compressor into the ringthing into the polychorus into the gnomeratron into the dod 490 into the malekko 616 into the dsd3 into the rrr that would be perfect that Simon and Garfunkle cover we're working on."

I cut down for two reasons: it sucks carrying a 50 lb board around to band practice and back every week, and if something goes wrong on a board that size it's a nightmare to diagnose and fix the problem especially live. I would start cutting down by just pretending you don't have pedals or a pedal board and plugging straight into your amp, then adding, very slowly, what you need to get the sounds you want. You will have to sacrifice tonal flexibility but this way forces you to think about how many of these sounds you really need and actually use.

I'm going to build myself a nice small second board (furniture-grade wood, building one for Wes Mantooth, too) and still have that giant 18"x36" slab pedalboard, too, as sort of a "library" of pedals.

Speaking of, I gotta go work on finishing my pedalboard design.

mathias wrote:I'm going to build myself a nice small second board (furniture-grade wood, building one for Wes Mantooth, too) and still have that giant 18"x36" slab pedalboard, too, as sort of a "library" of pedals.

That's my exact plan, have the smaller, easily transportable, core board along with a bigger, ridiculous, anything goes board.

I wouldn't dare play shows with as many pedals as I currently run, just a recipe for mid-show disaster. And it's way to much shit to lug around. I don't want to be that guy staring at his board confused or down on my knees frantically unplugging shit, trying to troubleshoot during a song, a nightmare I've experienced live in the past!

Back to the boards! here's Jana and the other dude(can't remember his name ) from the excellent Lower Dens.

Jana's:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/72921896@N00/5476579239/


Other guy's:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/72921896@N00/5477178976/

Awesome sounds wrung from (mostly) non boutique effects.

Doug McCombs, Tortoise bass player.