ilovefuzz.com

So I was thinking about this last night, and getting a little frustrated with my pedal board to the point where I just pulled everything off and started messing around different pedals in different order, which I seem to do pretty often.

Then I started thinking a bit more about most of the pedal board pictures that I've posted in the pedal board thread seem to be the pedals that I screw around with at home, and rarely the one that I actually record with. Honestly when I record, I use about 3 pedals. Then I was thinking even more that the one I record with would be drastically different from what I would use live, of course, because I've got more flexibility at home.

So, I guess in this thread I'd like to start a discussion about how (if at all) your pedal boards change context in different settings.

I only own the pedals I use on my board in my band, so I have one pedalboard

I even purchase pedals thinking mostly about using them in the band

For me recording and live are one and the same thing. I don't want to have sounds on record that I can't reproduce live.

Home is another kettle of fish! There I'm using pedals that for whatever reason aren't on the main (gig/recording) board. I rarely change my main board, but at home I like to keep things new and change the order of stuff and play with combinations I normally wouldn't play with, just to see what sounds and riffs I can come up with. If something is super awesome on the home board it may get promoted to the main board, or if something is really unique I might grab two, one for the main board (that stays in the rehearsal room) and one for home.

Basically, main board is for creating a specific set of sounds, and home board is for going nuts.

Yeah, I'm finding myself in a similar situation, Goroth. I had for YEARS been recording direct into my computer which is an entirely different beast from recording through cabs, which I've got the ability to do now. While I was in college I literally would just use a DOD Death Metal with a reverb before it and a looper after it and was perfectly fine. But my home board has grown into this crazy beast that I don't record with, just screw with each night for about an hour. It's very, very weird. The home/recording board gets really nice sounds out of it sometimes, but its overly complicated for when I actually record

You've got a fair few different musical projects though don't you Skully?

A LOT of musical projects hahahah
Maybe that's where the confusion on my part is coming in- I've been doing a lot of looping with the huge board, and then recording black metal with 3-4. Realized I didn't have an actual distortion pedal anymore last night which TOTALLY threw me off. NEEDS MORE DEATH METAL.

I have one board that I use for everything. Its always changing but I tend to keep it stagnant for ~2 months when I start recording something or there's a high density of playing out/practices.

Sometimes at home I whip out some older pedals I don't keep on the board. I only have like 4 that are just sitting in my closet that get brought out from time to time. Mostly things ive made/owned forever

I have single board and my overall setup is rather steady. In the past year, I've replaced my Second Voice with a FoxRox Octron and added a Boomerang III and Korg Kaoss Pad on the side. I record, play live and fiddle at home with it and wouldn't want to do it another way. Actually, I've noticed that a pedal that is not on my pedalboard gets very little if no use.

My home/screwing round board isn't too dissimilar from the board I played live with. Tuner + Dirt, Flange, Delay and wild card spot.

Recording I usually record direct using Guitar Rig because of a combination of living situation, free time and insomnia.

All my pedals are at home.

Yeah me too. The band I'm in doesn't get to play much and even when we do I only use a couple of pedals so I don't bother having a board. I generally have a home board for jamming that I can plug in whenever I want to play and it doesn't change that often, and when I'm recording I grab whatever pedals I want for a part, don't have a consistent setup because I like using different sounds recording and it's easier if I can pick any of my pedals lying around instead of using a set board all the time.

If I was in a serious band I'd probably have a small board for the band that never changed and had exactly what I needed for songs and nothing more.

Interesting topic.
I was thinking about a somewhat similar issue concerning pedalboards, what came out for me is that I sort of identify myself with certain sounds so I basically feel the need to always have certain type of pedals on my boards, whatever band or situation I'd be playing in.
For years I've been working with only a small setup consisting mostly of a volume pedal, octaver, phaser, distortion and delay and I could do quite some things with that but now that I'm hoarding pedals it doesn't seem to stop, I don't know where I'll end up.

Oh, fer sure. For live use, I like to have a couple of levels of fuzz, one or two ODs, and some very specific modulations/delays. In all cases, I like to muck with the levels as little as possible.

For my home/recording board (more of a pile, really) all bets are off, and pedal orders/levels are typically reset completely on a song-by-song basis.

My pedalboard changes every half hour. Thats a bit of an exaggeration, but when I am recording I am constantly taking pedals off and on the board. I don't worry much about reproducing stuff live... a fuzz is a fuzz and a delay is a delay. In my personal use the particularities of each pedal are better heard recording. Not that I don't strive for the best or craziest tone I can get... but it is the music that matters most and really anything will do. Sure I can kick on some octavia for a solo... but I could still play the solo with just my Super Tri Fuzz or Umiom distortion.

My live pedalboard is pretty consistent. Phaser->octavia->distortion->Super tri-fuzz->overdrive->pre amp->delay/reverb. Hardly ever changes. I could get by with a phaser, one dirt, preamp and deluxe memory man though. That alone gives me the ability to create some unique sounds to wow people with.

At home, I usually just have a fuzz, pre amp, delay, and reverb. At home I am working on songwriting and finding new chords and progressions, etc. Sometimes I'll think... what happens when I play my mustang through my neverdrive into a mini overdrive.

Recording... like I said. It changes from track to track. Mostly just taking in and out fuzzes, a buffer, or phaser. I spend a lot of time finding the right texture. And when I record bass... fuck man... that takes me a long time to figure out what sort of bass tone I want in a song. Muffled? Trebly? Fuzzy? Clean? Dying? Attacky? I think I spend more time on the bass in my songs than anything else... outside of vocals. All my songs are pretty cohesive despite me swapping things out, probably because I direct in everything.

I mean songs are in different keys, which forces me to sing differently. Sometimes I go high, and other times I go low. Which mean my voice will occupy a different portion of the sonic space. This means I may want to use a more midrangy fuzz here, or a dark fuzz here... You can't control that shit live, so I go on stage with the necessities and hope for the best.

my home and live board are the same. home just gives me more practice with my live board, its kinda like an instrument. when i record i just pull out all my pedals and plug whatever im feeling in. my home/live board is pretty diverse so chances are i can make do with something if i have to recreate a sound of a pedal thats not with me.