ilovefuzz.com

i decided when i have too many pedals on my board i feel way too much pressure to use them all in some way. sometimes, it just doesnt fit and it would distract me from writing melodies i like. i kicked about 5 pedals off my board, and moved down a few sizes (pt-3 to pt-1). i feel wayyyyyyyyyy more creative when i have less to work with. granted, i am using a bigsky and timeline, so it's not like i've completely put myself in a barebones situation when it comes to finding some wacky sounds when i need them.

anyone else been thinking about jumping off the ledge and tearing their boards apart?

is anyone else seeing an increase in inspiration from using a lot of pedals?

lemme know how ya feel!

I feel like this topic comes up every few months here
I completely get how you feel though. I tore my board down to 7 more or less essential pedals and I feel way more inspired and creative when I play. I really don't plan to add any other pedals except maybe a BitQuest

Yeah I think it's pretty common phenomenon....

Every now and then nearly every one of us thinks he's seen the light, and downsizes his board in order to focus more on the music and what not.
Two months later a new snazzy fuzz pedal comes along, or you discover a cool inspiring band that uses a billion of pedals, so gas start to show its ugly head again

I try to not to fool myself thinking I can stick to just 5 pedals, but I also have to restrain myself from not going overboard. So I try to stick to a medium sized board, that's constantly changing.

I do it about once or twice a year. I actually just did it again. I'm down to 2 utility pedals (splitter/killswitch, and tuner) and then 4 other pedals. It's really rewarding.

I've just redone my board. Went from 23 pedals to 23 pedals. Swapped out 7 pedals and changed the order pretty radically in some places. It's going to be rad. The way I did it was by writing down ideas for sounds, and where to use them, and then what pedals I need to combine to get those sounds. Then I made the order based on that. But in the end, even though it is the most radical rebuild I've done, I'm still using a variation on the same general setup I've had for the last 6 years or so. But having a list of sounds was really helpful. It lead for example to a few brutal decisions (seeya later Unpleasant Surprise, which is one of my favourite fuzzes. ARGH!). So I feel everything I have is what I want to make the sounds I want to make, and nothing extra.

i think it's fun and creatively useful to have a finite amount of space... you can have as many pedals as will fit. i use a wooden tv tray that i took the legs off...it gives just enough space to get versatility and solid combinations, but not so much that you end up choking yourself with your feature dick.

I just sold my mini in the act of downsizing - realized I can get away with the fuck handling the dirt needs instead of both. Then again, I've never had more than 10 pedals on a board at once, and right now I have 5.

i used to have 20-something pedals on my board
but then i made the life-changing realisation that all i needed was flanger and anything that isn't a flanger is just wasting space and money that could be used on flangers
sometimes i use a bit of dirt or EQ to get the most out of the flanger but at any given time i use 3-4 pedals max now paired with amp reverb
all of this coincided with getting a super decent guitar and being way happier playing it as-is though

I'm in the process of doing this myself.

I always had 10 pedals on my board, and I'm trying to cut down to 5

I'm actually thinking of doing the opposite. Try!ng hard to fight the urge to replace my Ernie Ball VP (piece of shit never worked properly since I tried replacing the string) with two more pedlols...

Almost always had seven pedals + tuner on my board - seems about right for the stuff I do. Been thinking about downsizing, but made a separate miniboard instead. Been thinning the herd alot over the years though, just keeping the essentials.

Less is more-or-less more, or less. Depending.

Time is money. I don't have much, but I use
what I've got. These things take time. A
hand in the bush is worth two in the bird.

The key to the treasure is the treasure itself.
Once upon a time there was a story that began...
once upon a time there was a story that began...
(rinse. repeat. throw the baby out with the John Ba(r)th-water)

Things go in cycles. Spring cleaning exed-out
on the calendar. It's about that time. So over
the summer make do with what you have.
Fall is the time to gather ye nuts for the
coming onslaught of brutal cold Winter.
Which is also the time for pedalboard upsizing
so you'll have enough tones and doodads to
fiddle by the fireside as the roof creaks
under five feet of snow and the pipes freeze.

I'm just trying to find the "right" size for my board. Based on where my writing is going, it's going to be more than I have now, but fewer than my itchy trigger finger would like.

Now, the overall collection - that's a whole different thing altogether. I aspire to Excane-levels of excess, though Real Life and bank accounts always conspire to confound my plans....

As far as actual pedal boarding is concerned, I think I have, uh, four pedals in my chain, counting a tuner, and two of those are always on OD and filter, so I basically just have a Big Muff flavor to turn on and off. That's the live-band, playing with other people setup.

The fun pedals go toward creating sounds to be manipulated later for the headphones-y stuff.

I have a pre-board, a post board and a small board for my Beat Buddy drum machine. Perhaps about 25 pedals.

I don't play out, so size is pretty irrelevant (it's in a DJ mixboard flight case). When playing, I'm all over the place as far as what pedals I use, so unless life throws me a curve ball and I end up gigging, my board will either remain as populated as it is, or be joined by more pedals.