Baxter and Jonathan discuss how many pedals and what kind you need on your pedal board. Is it 0 or is it 10 or is it three pedal boards like John Mayer.
Pray Baxter never discovers Chase Bliss. If he shouts at clouds now, he'd never recover from that shock. He'd retire to his man cave permanently with a 5 string banjo.
200+ pedals in the quiver, 5-8 pedals on the board at any slice of time. I’m always looking though and as such adding pedals every week. I love collecting them.
Just built my first pedalboard, been playing 52 years. So much fun! As a jazz player used to just use a tuner. I now have 17 pedals all hooked up. So cool, a fantasy that I will probably never leave the house with. Taking them all on a gig would end up in ridicule and laughter. But then again doing a gig with a tuner so many times ended up with ridicule and laughter. Story of my life!😆🤣😄😛😁😃🤣 Oh well.
I have 16 pedals on my board. I play heavy psychedelic rock. I also have a Vox hybrid modelling amp. My favourite manufacturer are Tone City. However, there are a couple of iconic pedals that I hang onto: my DS-1, my Big Muff Pi, and my Keeley Dyno-My-Roto.
I use 12 pedals, but i do use all of them very often. Wah - tuner - compressor - sd1 - light od - heavy od - boost - vibrato - chorus - delay - reverb/tremolo - looper I play a somewhat large variety of music so i may not use all of them for certain gigs, but theyre all used commonly for practice. I do think they’re all necessary besides maybe the chorus… anr maybe the wah? But you always need a wah
It is not about the pedals or even the end product. It is about the process which is so much fun. I have 10 pedals which includes a tuner and wah. But in reality only use 3 of them 😅
In my experience you only need no more than 5 pedals,but that also depends on the kind of music you play.On my board right now I have a looper,overdrive,a couple modulation pedals,and a wah pedal.The rest of the effects are built into my amp(reverb,etc).
I think of guitar pedals are like crayons some people only need the 8 crayon box and color the music beautiful I like the 120 crayon box I like the big palette and love to scribble out of the lines to each their own!
I know I don't NEED to have a eqd data corrupter, but it's a ton of fun and I'm glad I have it! same thing with my uni-vibe. Playing weird pedals gets me out of ruts, and helps my creativity. There's a group of necessary pedals you guys went over, then there are the fun/novelty/niche pedals that I'm glad I own!
From Leo: I have 50 or 60 bought over many years, I use just four of them 95% of the time. OD, Reverb, Delay and Acoustic Simulator. Almost all my Guitars have Three or more pickup voices and tone controls, so that is a lot of variation added to the amp controls. I do have one old Tube amplifier that needs an EQ pedal so I have an EQ pedal velcro'ed to the top of that head.
For most of my 50+ year gigging career I used 0 pedals, but once tuners were invented then I added a tuner pedal. Otherwise guitar straight into a tube amp; for rock, blues, country, swing, pop, Americana or whatever. However about 15 years ago a band I was working with required me to add a delay and chorus to get the sound they wanted. And a current variety band has required me to add a few more pedals to get specific sounds. I will oblige them for now, but otherwise I greatly prefer the honest sound of just guitar & amp.
My last live rig was a 50 watt tube head, 2 Boogie Road Ready 4-12 cabs, a TS9, Cry Baby and an old SPX-90 in the loop for a single 360 ms delay and that was for a cover band playing 50-60 songs a night.
Looper + Delay + Overdive You can obviously add in a tuner pedal and the trusty old Boss EQ pedal too and the list can go on and on but those three to me are the essentials, especially if you’re using a clean type amp 🤙
Church musician here and you are correct : A Big Sky and maybe a digital delay (maybe not). That's about all I can imagine ever needing with what I do.
As a jazz player I never got into pedals until I started playing more blues. It started with a Boss Blues Driver (still love it) and now I'm hosting a Hendrix themed jam session at the store I teach at. So now I have a Fuzz, a Univibe, an Octave Fuzz, and a Wah pedal. I must admit this is a fun and addicting habit, almost as bad as my record collecting twitch.
I found my perfect solution. The TC Electronic Plethora X.3. Now I have a small, very portable board with three soft to hard drive pedals and a world of modulation and time based options (with built-in, tuner and looper as a bonus). there is very little I can’t do with it. I do my church gig on Sunday morning and play with my “edge of metal” rock band at night using one small board.
I bought a hotone Xtomp for the same reason as the Plethora. The Xtomp can be almost any type of pedal that I don't have, which means I can have unlimited pedals sounds in the size of a regular pedal.
i just got my first pedal last week, a Behringer Superfuzz, only $40. it's a clone of the Univox Superfuzz, but also has gain knob and a boost mode. The boost sounds rather Klon-esque, it naturally breaks up my Hiwatt without needing to crank the amp, and the fuzz (when dialed right) sounds badass, especially on lead. That said, i'm eyeing to get a Boss Tremolo, besides that, I'm not in a massive rush for any other pedals.
3 years ago... I had a Reverb, Octafuzz, OCD Fulltone and a TS mini.... Now I have a bass board, two guitar boards and a 3rd travel/viola/acoustic board... 40+ pedals now, but done for the foreseeable future.
With an ampless rig via the Iridium, you need to load up a solid board for gain, modulation, delay, and reverb. With synth/Dream pop stuff, even more emphasis is on texture and space. But if you’ve got a perfect guitar/amp combo, can’t go wrong.
I blame Josh Scott for my pedal obsession. Because of him, I'm even saving the boxes. Joking aside, I am a bedroom player and like to try and replicate the tones I hear on my favorite records. I also like to collect the more obscure pedals like the Rush Pep Box. I'm a big Univibe fan and have 5 or 6 of those.
Setting aside the tuner/vol and my acoustic direct box, I have 4 on my board - Supro Drive, Keeley 1962x, Supro Tremolo, Strymon Flint... Both of the Supros and the Strymon have expressions.
Church musician here. All I need is 2 drives, one low gain, one high gain, a good delay and a good reverb. And of course a tuner and volume pedal which is actually a MUST. Of course I have much more than, but it's all I actually NEED
My pedal board currently consists of 8* pedals. And I'd deem pretty much all but 1 as necessary for my use. Volume pedal split into a tuner and compressor, into OD1, OD2, Plumes OD, Fender Tre-Verb, HX Stomp (where I use it for phaser and delay if I'm running into an amp and amp sim if I'm running DI). The one I'd cut if I had to choose one would be my 2nd OD. But I also run two different guitars for sets, so I have different configurations for each guitar. Though I have been relishing in the simplicity of running straight into the amp and getting OD from there and then backing off the volume to clean it up more.
Once again, very entertaining guys. Personally, I have 3 sounds. Clean, slight crunch and heavy crunch/ distorted. I use a wah on 1 or 2 songs per gig. I use a Chorus on one song, if we choose to play it. I use a boost and sometimes a tube screamer. So that’s 4 pedals. Only occasionally do I use the fifth element, I mean pedal. That being a clone of a Klon. Clean and crunch sounds come from an Egnater rebel 30 mk1 combo or I get everything from a modeller if it’s a rehearsal/ small venue. The Ampero by Hotone straight into the desk and out to the FOH, on stage it’s either iem’s or a headrush for monitoring.
I only have one pedal. A Morley WVB, it’s got a wah wah, volume pedal and boost pedal all in one. My Clapton Strat into this then into a tweed ‘57 reissue Champ has been my rig for years. I can play every genre I’m capable of playing (not much!), and it always sound great. I now put my money into strings only. It’s quite freeing since I used to own hundreds of pedals! Sold them all to buy the amp.
Since my main two outlets for playing are church and a cover band, my board has a variety of pedals on it. Two-three options of overdrive, delay and reverb get the job done on Sundays and in my cover band, due to the changes in the songs that I’m playing in both of those contexts. Sometimes on a Sunday morning I can get by with just three pedals. Totally depends on the songs we are doing.
What drive pedals are you using? My typical chain goes fallout cloud fuzz>Duke of Tone>Timmy>Earthquaker astral destiny>Julia>Carbon Copy/Re-2 Space echo>Archer Ikon That thorpy fallout cloud is like a big muff with an EQ, it’s really nice. I set the Duke of Tone in the boost setting. But the real star of the show is the Timmy stacked into the Archer. Such a sweet tone. It works with my strat and my 335/LP. I have a vibrolux with tremolo and reverb pedal, so I use that too.
Gotta have dual delays, but simplicity is nice, something like the boss DD500 is nice. Drives/distortions are easy to change out. Two reverbs, one always on and one over the top. Phaser is the only modulation I own. Multi effects pedals like the Boss MS3 makes my small board so easy. The helix is my main board and I run the Tonex plugin.
Great topic guys! I built a pedal board to complete my Mid life crisis. I only have ten effects on my board but it makes for an incredible tonal palate work with. My next pedal will be a slicer just to explore what you can do with sound.
I like gain. One boost, one eq, one distortion and a channel switcher. Tuner, noise gate , phaser and delay. I don't keep adding or switching pedals. I have good ones and now I have a good board.
I think now with the advances in signal capture one big pedal like a neural or helix does the job just fine. That an some sort of expression pedal, a tuner, and maybe a volume/eq pedal depending on if its to gig or not.
I like to keep it rather small. If I can't get the sound through my amp, then I'll use a pedal, Octave, Fuzz, Reverb, Wah, Delay, Phaser, Noise Suppressor/Gate, & always a Tuner.
Depends, what amp, kind of music. In cover bands sometimes you need more, a fuzz and a distortion.. I always have wah. octavia, univibe and tuner as a default because I dig Hendrix.. but depending on the amp, I like specific fuzzes and also my marshalls dont have reverb so thats another one =) I usually have 7.
Currently I have a Looper Pedal, a Rat (fuzz/overdrive), Ibanez Tube Screamer, Noise Gate, a chorus, and a Wah Pedal. I find myself wanting a compressor and a delay pedal and not much if anything after that. I think 10 is about the max of what someone would need. 10 fits on a pedalboard easily and can be tailored to personal playstyle, taste, etc.
One of each basic type. You're covered for every effect. Whether you care for or actually use them is another issue. But one of each, just in case. And you have to be able use any two (or more) at once, in any order. For everyday jamming, these days I'm using EQ, Fuzz, Delay, and Looper.
Overdrive and EQ in front of the amp. My reverb and delay come from the Boss Waza TAE. That's all I need. I do have a multi-effects pedal on the pedalboard, but really only use the tuner.
I mostly go by what songs/ music I'm doing. Love the flanger, tremolo then chorus for rhythm. I like overdrive and then a heavy sustain. I'm still struggling with delays,one pedal for short delay one for long.the wah comes and goes..so basically 7. Maybe 8. I use a volume pedal if that Counts...pechk
Does my Helix count as 1 or 100? My presets generally have a compressor and overdrive in front of the amp and a modulation effect of some sort, delay, and reverb after the amp. The compressor, overdrive, and modulation pedals are usually off, so the signal chain is guitar -> amp -> (subtle) delay and reverb. It's a pretty dry sound. I use snapshots to change gain rather than pedals.
Yeah 5 is perfectly acceptable. I use five (not including tuner) and I can cover most styles. Any more and you end up tap dancing through your gig. It's even more of a nightmare if you're also the singer.
That's where a pedal switcher comes in handy. You can turn off the 3 or 4 you have on, and turn on another 3 (or 4) with the press of one button. I don't have one, but I can see the efficiency of them.
I have a board with 7 pedals, another one with 11. Both are used regularly, and I have them set up for specific things. At home, I usually just grab a pedal or two from the ones on the shelves.
Years ago I started with the Danelectro summer of love set, then got big time and got a digitech rp100 that lasted for 15 years, I never used it. Now I have a cry baby, fuzz, trem, delay and a high gain. I still use the digitech when I travel for headphones. I need to put a tuner in maybe a flanger.
I am an OD stacker with a compresor :TU2 tuner.--> SP compressor --> EP Booster-->Pantheon-->Tumnus Deluxe -->The Dude -->SL Drive for tha Marshall with a Carbon Copy (effects loop) and a Wah (off board).
Compression,Wah, overdrive, distortion, boost, volume, phaser , rotary, delay, reverb, noise gate , tuner. I rarely have more than 1 or 2 on at a time other than the always ons like compression and NG .but I play in 3 theater shows and the occasional bar gig.
Okay, that's hilarious synergy. Right when Baxter says how many more [pedals] do you really need?, RUclips interrupts with a Sweetwater commercial. Someone get that RUclips algorithm a raise.😆
I have 46 pedals I use 9 of them on my pedal board with maybe 5 on rotation. I got the QC so now I can just go with the QC and I like to use external Overdrives + a Tuner and a super clean buffer (sometimes)
I usually just plug in directly into the amp, but I love to buy and try out pedals. I just don’t use them for playing out. I have a turner on my phone, so I need much else.
More practically: a tuner, a boost, a vibrato/trem, an OD (if your amp is super clean and hi wattage), a reverb (if your amp doesn’t have it), and delay. So 3 to 5 “ideally” :).
Was on the highway to the danger zone, loggin’ with Loggins, cruisin’ like a top gun slingin’ maverick when I was saved by a Monarch. Now Benson is my tone butler and I’m never goin’ back.
I have 5 pedal boards for 5 different amp/cab setups. The boards have from 5 to 9 pedals on each. I also have about 10 pedals that sometimes get swapped on the boards. I don't see a problem.
I ve never had big pedalboards (max 7 pedals) but for the most i only use 3 pedals: endles summer reverb, tone bender mki and a sabbadius funky-vibe. That are the only ones on my board right now and its more than enough 😁
Interesting on no delay. Are you using the vibe as a vibe most often or as a vibrato? I often find that a bit of movement seems to create space and consequently time.
I once went nuts with pedals, which was considered out of the ordinary in London back in the late ‘00s for a bass player. Once I got a Mu-Tron III envelope filter, I stopped taking pedals other than a tuner and a Little Lehle for bypass. A few years ago, for one song I needed a fuzz on the bass at the singer’s insistence. Sounded great. I don’t mind when guitarists go nuts on pedals - as long as they know how to set them all up and plug them all in properly, and how to bypass them all on the fly if it all goes wrong! My favourite guitar tone is Les Paul Jr straight into a Tweed Deluxe though.
Jr. Into a Model-T. She’s a Mississippi queen, you know what I mean? Edit to add: it’s ok if you don’t know what I mean. It’s been decades and I still don’t know what it means.
So I play primarily Telecasters through a tweed Deluxe (no reverb or tremolo). I have five pedals on my board: 1. poly tune 3 tuner 2. Kelley Oxblood overdrive (has multiple settings and clippings) 3. Kelley Monterey (2 channel pedal: fuzz on the right side and my choice of rotary, univibe or harmonic wah on the left side) 4. Kelley Hydra (2 channel pedal: tremolo on the left, reverb on the right) and 5. TC ditto looper. Just don't need much more than that (even though I have 24 other pedals sitting around). Also helps to live down the street from Robert Kelley's shop. I just go visit him if I need more!
the same rules apply as for guitars - there's no such thing as too many pedals. of course, if you're talking about a pedal board to carry around to gigs and stuff - that's different. if you have to carry your own stuff (like a mere mortal), fewer is usually better. for me it would be: tuner + 2 different overdrives + delay/reverb.
I went from +15 down to 8 and I could get by with 3. Need fuzzface, clean boost (or comp used as clean boost), and delay. Amp has to have reverb and trem.
5 on the small solid state amp with 1 x 12 ext. cabinet. None on the Vox tube oh I mean Valve AC10. Six on the Hot rod deluxe fitted on a monoprice board.. I will add an "inexpensive" Attenuator as well ( soon) to the HRD.... mostly these are Behringer and Fender Hammertone pedals. These were my breaking my cherry pedals and they are just plain fun : Noise Reducer, Tube amp modulator, Reverb , Fuzz, Delay................. P.S. I like Radiohead! and the OD stack idea...... So I call it a tie, whatever trips one's trigger or blows a fuse ( trips the breaker) i s OKAY by me.
Omfg... halfway inn...😂😂...I'm actually setting up a new music space today so I'm going to actually count my pedal collection..it's def a collection..lol..I love playing with combinations and exploring the sonic possibilities of my guitars and amps ..I usually run my power supply full which is 7 pedals but they aren't all running.. depends on what I'm after and the way I have the board set up 🤘
Got to have a Looper. Need a reverb and tremolo if your amp doesn't have it. An overdrive if your amp has to be turned up too loud for it to break up at home. I would like to have a Vibroverb.
I feel it mainly depends on the genre of music you are playing as well as the amplifier and guitar. If you are playing with high out put pickups( like humbuckers, P90) etc and you are driving the amp then in terms of gain you just need an Overdrive and 1 fuzz/distortion. If it’s lower output pickups like vintage single coils and you are playing a high headroom clean amplifier (like a twin) then you need multiple dirt and boost pedals because at that point you are in a way crafting your own gain channel and the pedals will do that for you. And in this way your delays and reverbs will be more pristine and clear.
My whole set is a crybaby from hell wah, a boss od-200, and a vox tone lab with no actual amp so 3 to I don't know how many because everything is so versatile. But my big question is what Josh Scott input would be on this discussion.
I have maybe 7 random pedals and 30 tube amps several pre analog amps some solid state 50 somethin guitars......pedals were cheap now there crazy I'm glad I kept my boss and zoom rack effects....I use those for my keys.
I have roughly 18 on my board, I do rock n hard rock covers 5 overdrive/boost 5 wobblys 2 delays (1/4&1/8time) digital reverb eq preamp wah tuner decimator, if not for covers I'd be down bout 5 or 6
I’ve redused my board down to four pedals. Tuner > Phaser > Boss NS-2 (4 cable method) > Revv G3. Easy to bring around to gigs, quiet, and everything I need. I just found that stepping on pedals disturbed my playing.
I have 8 pedals on my board (9 with a tuner), but could do 7 if I had a stereo delay (I split my signal to two amps, each through a Carbon Copy delay). I do have a buffered splitter under the board, but that's only cos one of my amps is out of phase relative to the other, and the splitter has a phase reverse switch which solves that. Envelope filter (Deadhead), vibe, 2 overdrives, compressor, tremolo, delays. I don't use the envelope filter often, but it's nice it's there.
Baxter is right, the audience doesn't notice or care - they just hear 'guitar quiet/guitar loud'. I used to love using fancy overdrives, and several of them...turns out all you need is a venerable Boss Blues Driver and it gets the job done.
I'm in the Yngwie J. Malmsteem camp. "How can less be more? More is MORE!!!" My board is: Big Muff Triangle, Mythos Golden Fleece, Wah, Timmy, Sugar Drive, Distortion (Danelectro Roebuck, or DS-1), Boss - TR2 Tremolo (always on), FX Loop: MXR Carbon Copy Analog Deluxe, Wampler Ethereal, JHS 3 Hall Reverb, Earthquaker Afterneath and finally a Ditto looper. If I had more room on my board i would probably add more modulation pedals.
Currently have 10 on my board, including the tuner and a mini wah. But I have two drawers full of pedals that I’m not even sure I remember what they do. It’s a sickness…
Zero pedals is no problem if i have reverb and tuner available elsewhere. That being said, i have more than a few pedals and love playing with them! But just 3 on my live board (acoustic), reverb, delay and another reverb (all Strymon too so people can really hate on me)
I have a lot of pedals. I only use five at a time on my board. I look at it like making a good dinner... you can use different ingredients for different flavors.
For me I like to have at least one of everything. Tuner(I guess doesn’t count haha.) Wah,Compressor,Octave,Envelope Filter,EQ,Boost,Od(2),Distortion,Fuzz(3 a spitty fuzz, a wall of fuzz and an octave fuzz),Tremolo,Vibrato,Chorus,Phaser,Flanger,UniVibe,Leslie,Delay,Reverb and a looper. This is not exactly the order I put em in but pretty close. I also like having single effects on single pedals instead of multi effects so I can use say flanger chorus and envelope filter simultaneously instead of having say an H9 where you can at max use 2 effects(sometimes depending on the two you want to use you can’t due to not enough processing power. Just my opinion and way I like to do it.
Видеоклипы
X=n+1 with X being number of pedals needed and n being number of pedals currently owned. Pretty basic math.
This is the same formula I use for guitars
Pray Baxter never discovers Chase Bliss. If he shouts at clouds now, he'd never recover from that shock. He'd retire to his man cave permanently with a 5 string banjo.
Amen!
😂😂😂😂
Audio science
200+ pedals in the quiver, 5-8 pedals on the board at any slice of time. I’m always looking though and as such adding pedals every week. I love collecting them.
Just built my first pedalboard, been playing 52 years. So much fun! As a jazz player used to just use a tuner. I now have 17 pedals all hooked up. So cool, a fantasy that I will probably never leave the house with. Taking them all on a gig would end up in ridicule and laughter. But then again doing a gig with a tuner so many times ended up with ridicule and laughter. Story of my life!😆🤣😄😛😁😃🤣 Oh well.
gonna reply David in the main comments section. we're probably similar age(s)(d) hehe.
I have 16 pedals on my board. I play heavy psychedelic rock. I also have a Vox hybrid modelling amp. My favourite manufacturer are Tone City. However, there are a couple of iconic pedals that I hang onto: my DS-1, my Big Muff Pi, and my Keeley Dyno-My-Roto.
I use 12 pedals, but i do use all of them very often.
Wah - tuner - compressor - sd1 - light od - heavy od - boost - vibrato - chorus - delay - reverb/tremolo - looper
I play a somewhat large variety of music so i may not use all of them for certain gigs, but theyre all used commonly for practice.
I do think they’re all necessary besides maybe the chorus… anr maybe the wah? But you always need a wah
It is not about the pedals or even the end product. It is about the process which is so much fun. I have 10 pedals which includes a tuner and wah. But in reality only use 3 of them 😅
I was hopelessly addicted - so that's why I got a Fractal FM3 - now I design my own tones!
In my experience you only need no more than 5 pedals,but that also depends on the kind of music you play.On my board right now I have a looper,overdrive,a couple modulation pedals,and a wah pedal.The rest of the effects are built into my amp(reverb,etc).
I’m with you Jonathan!! It’s the pursuit of the perfect tone.
I'm loving the Caline dual pedals! (EQ/Comp, Gate/Distortion, Delay/Chorus)
i listed the pedals that I need. 9 pedals in all. Wah, volume pedal, compressor , 2 overdrives, 1 high gain distortion , chorus, delay , reverb
I think of guitar pedals are like crayons some people only need the 8 crayon box and color the music beautiful I like the 120 crayon box I like the big palette and love to scribble out of the lines to each their own!
This is the most ridiculous and fun episode in awhile. And I love it.
The big lesson I've taken from this channel is don't depend on Baxter for movie recommendations. He seems ridiculously easy to please in that regard.
I know I don't NEED to have a eqd data corrupter, but it's a ton of fun and I'm glad I have it! same thing with my uni-vibe. Playing weird pedals gets me out of ruts, and helps my creativity. There's a group of necessary pedals you guys went over, then there are the fun/novelty/niche pedals that I'm glad I own!
It’s a great pedal
I agree on the fun part
From Leo: I have 50 or 60 bought over many years, I use just four of them 95% of the time. OD, Reverb, Delay and Acoustic Simulator. Almost all my Guitars have Three or more pickup voices and tone controls, so that is a lot of variation added to the amp controls. I do have one old Tube amplifier that needs an EQ pedal so I have an EQ pedal velcro'ed to the top of that head.
For most of my 50+ year gigging career I used 0 pedals, but once tuners were invented then I added a tuner pedal. Otherwise guitar straight into a tube amp; for rock, blues, country, swing, pop, Americana or whatever. However about 15 years ago a band I was working with required me to add a delay and chorus to get the sound they wanted. And a current variety band has required me to add a few more pedals to get specific sounds. I will oblige them for now, but otherwise I greatly prefer the honest sound of just guitar & amp.
My last live rig was a 50 watt tube head, 2 Boogie Road Ready 4-12 cabs, a TS9, Cry Baby and an old SPX-90 in the loop for a single 360 ms delay and that was for a cover band playing 50-60 songs a night.
Looper + Delay + Overdive
You can obviously add in a tuner pedal and the trusty old Boss EQ pedal too and the list can go on and on but those three to me are the essentials, especially if you’re using a clean type amp 🤙
Church musician here and you are correct : A Big Sky and maybe a digital delay (maybe not). That's about all I can imagine ever needing with what I do.
"Here's why you're wrong" - I love it! I agree with Jonathan's logic. I do think you both are hilarious!
As a jazz player I never got into pedals until I started playing more blues. It started with a Boss Blues Driver (still love it) and now I'm hosting a Hendrix themed jam session at the store I teach at. So now I have a Fuzz, a Univibe, an Octave Fuzz, and a Wah pedal. I must admit this is a fun and addicting habit, almost as bad as my record collecting twitch.
I found my perfect solution. The TC Electronic Plethora X.3. Now I have a small, very portable board with three soft to hard drive pedals and a world of modulation and time based options (with built-in, tuner and looper as a bonus). there is very little I can’t do with it. I do my church gig on Sunday morning and play with my “edge of metal” rock band at night using one small board.
I bought a hotone Xtomp for the same reason as the Plethora. The Xtomp can be almost any type of pedal that I don't have, which means I can have unlimited pedals sounds in the size of a regular pedal.
i just got my first pedal last week, a Behringer Superfuzz, only $40. it's a clone of the Univox Superfuzz, but also has gain knob and a boost mode.
The boost sounds rather Klon-esque, it naturally breaks up my Hiwatt without needing to crank the amp, and the fuzz (when dialed right) sounds badass, especially on lead.
That said, i'm eyeing to get a Boss Tremolo, besides that, I'm not in a massive rush for any other pedals.
I didn't think I would ever hear behringer and Klon in the same sentence.
3 years ago... I had a Reverb, Octafuzz, OCD Fulltone and a TS mini.... Now I have a bass board, two guitar boards and a 3rd travel/viola/acoustic board... 40+ pedals now, but done for the foreseeable future.
With an ampless rig via the Iridium, you need to load up a solid board for gain, modulation, delay, and reverb. With synth/Dream pop stuff, even more emphasis is on texture and space.
But if you’ve got a perfect guitar/amp combo, can’t go wrong.
I blame Josh Scott for my pedal obsession. Because of him, I'm even saving the boxes. Joking aside, I am a bedroom player and like to try and replicate the tones I hear on my favorite records. I also like to collect the more obscure pedals like the Rush Pep Box. I'm a big Univibe fan and have 5 or 6 of those.
If you got it with the box you have to save the box lol
Josh is a dangerous person. Listen to him and you could end up with 100 or more pedals!😎🤓
It's really silly, but if (or when) you go to sell a pedal, that box is worth maybe ten bucks.
Setting aside the tuner/vol and my acoustic direct box, I have 4 on my board - Supro Drive, Keeley 1962x, Supro Tremolo, Strymon Flint... Both of the Supros and the Strymon have expressions.
"Big" board. Compressor->EQ/Boost->OD->Fuzz->Distortion->Delay->Chorus/Trem->Lead Boost
Totally with Jonathan on the various reverbs and delays on the board. He is 100% right on that.
Church musician here. All I need is 2 drives, one low gain, one high gain, a good delay and a good reverb. And of course a tuner and volume pedal which is actually a MUST.
Of course I have much more than, but it's all I actually NEED
My pedal board currently consists of 8* pedals. And I'd deem pretty much all but 1 as necessary for my use. Volume pedal split into a tuner and compressor, into OD1, OD2, Plumes OD, Fender Tre-Verb, HX Stomp (where I use it for phaser and delay if I'm running into an amp and amp sim if I'm running DI). The one I'd cut if I had to choose one would be my 2nd OD. But I also run two different guitars for sets, so I have different configurations for each guitar.
Though I have been relishing in the simplicity of running straight into the amp and getting OD from there and then backing off the volume to clean it up more.
Once again, very entertaining guys. Personally, I have 3 sounds. Clean, slight crunch and heavy crunch/ distorted. I use a wah on 1 or 2 songs per gig. I use a Chorus on one song, if we choose to play it. I use a boost and sometimes a tube screamer. So that’s 4 pedals. Only occasionally do I use the fifth element, I mean pedal. That being a clone of a Klon. Clean and crunch sounds come from an Egnater rebel 30 mk1 combo or I get everything from a modeller if it’s a rehearsal/ small venue. The Ampero by Hotone straight into the desk and out to the FOH, on stage it’s either iem’s or a headrush for monitoring.
You need 25 pedals! Cheers Casino!!
I only have one pedal. A Morley WVB, it’s got a wah wah, volume pedal and boost pedal all in one. My Clapton Strat into this then into a tweed ‘57 reissue Champ has been my rig for years. I can play every genre I’m capable of playing (not much!), and it always sound great. I now put my money into strings only. It’s quite freeing since I used to own hundreds of pedals! Sold them all to buy the amp.
Since my main two outlets for playing are church and a cover band, my board has a variety of pedals on it. Two-three options of overdrive, delay and reverb get the job done on Sundays and in my cover band, due to the changes in the songs that I’m playing in both of those contexts. Sometimes on a Sunday morning I can get by with just three pedals. Totally depends on the songs we are doing.
What drive pedals are you using? My typical chain goes fallout cloud fuzz>Duke of Tone>Timmy>Earthquaker astral destiny>Julia>Carbon Copy/Re-2 Space echo>Archer Ikon
That thorpy fallout cloud is like a big muff with an EQ, it’s really nice. I set the Duke of Tone in the boost setting. But the real star of the show is the Timmy stacked into the Archer. Such a sweet tone. It works with my strat and my 335/LP. I have a vibrolux with tremolo and reverb pedal, so I use that too.
Gotta have dual delays, but simplicity is nice, something like the boss DD500 is nice. Drives/distortions are easy to change out. Two reverbs, one always on and one over the top. Phaser is the only modulation I own. Multi effects pedals like the Boss MS3 makes my small board so easy. The helix is my main board and I run the Tonex plugin.
Great topic guys! I built a pedal board to complete my Mid life crisis. I only have ten effects on my board but it makes for an incredible tonal palate work with. My next pedal will be a slicer just to explore what you can do with sound.
I like gain. One boost, one eq, one distortion and a channel switcher. Tuner, noise gate , phaser and delay. I don't keep adding or switching pedals. I have good ones and now I have a good board.
I think now with the advances in signal capture one big pedal like a neural or helix does the job just fine. That an some sort of expression pedal, a tuner, and maybe a volume/eq pedal depending on if its to gig or not.
I like to keep it rather small. If I can't get the sound through my amp, then I'll use a pedal, Octave, Fuzz, Reverb, Wah, Delay, Phaser, Noise Suppressor/Gate, & always a Tuner.
I would like to get a PRS Horsemeat one day too.
Gotta have od for my fenders, gotta have reverb for my Marshalls. I could live without the rest. But i have about 10 on my board including a tuner.
Depends, what amp, kind of music. In cover bands sometimes you need more, a fuzz and a distortion.. I always have wah. octavia, univibe and tuner as a default because I dig Hendrix.. but depending on the amp, I like specific fuzzes and also my marshalls dont have reverb so thats another one =) I usually have 7.
I love the sound of a univibe between two overdrives. The Unidrive Sandwich
Currently I have a Looper Pedal, a Rat (fuzz/overdrive), Ibanez Tube Screamer, Noise Gate, a chorus, and a Wah Pedal. I find myself wanting a compressor and a delay pedal and not much if anything after that. I think 10 is about the max of what someone would need. 10 fits on a pedalboard easily and can be tailored to personal playstyle, taste, etc.
One of each basic type. You're covered for every effect. Whether you care for or actually use them is another issue. But one of each, just in case. And you have to be able use any two (or more) at once, in any order. For everyday jamming, these days I'm using EQ, Fuzz, Delay, and Looper.
I need all of them.
My current board has a mini Tumnus, original Timmy and Boss MS-3. It does everything I need it to do.
Overdrive and EQ in front of the amp. My reverb and delay come from the Boss Waza TAE. That's all I need. I do have a multi-effects pedal on the pedalboard, but really only use the tuner.
I mostly go by what songs/ music I'm doing. Love the flanger, tremolo then chorus for rhythm. I like overdrive and then a heavy sustain. I'm still struggling with delays,one pedal for short delay one for long.the wah comes and goes..so basically 7. Maybe 8. I use a volume pedal if that Counts...pechk
The more pedals the more fun!
Does my Helix count as 1 or 100? My presets generally have a compressor and overdrive in front of the amp and a modulation effect of some sort, delay, and reverb after the amp. The compressor, overdrive, and modulation pedals are usually off, so the signal chain is guitar -> amp -> (subtle) delay and reverb. It's a pretty dry sound. I use snapshots to change gain rather than pedals.
Many of them! 24 pedals total on my TerraNova32! Cioks DC7 & DC8 Expander powered
That is so funny that you said five pedals is optimal. I just built an all walrus pedal board, and i challenged myself to limit it to five pedals lol.
walrus makes a tuner?
@@seanbrooks2583 what’s a tuner? Lol
@@everynotecountsofficial it's a fish. some folks like it in casseroles, some in sushi rolls. give it a try
@@TheAmazingSnarf 😂
According to my current board not counting tuner and volume pedal, 8 total. Pretty much handles any tone sculpting I need.
Yeah 5 is perfectly acceptable. I use five (not including tuner) and I can cover most styles. Any more and you end up tap dancing through your gig. It's even more of a nightmare if you're also the singer.
That's where a pedal switcher comes in handy. You can turn off the 3 or 4 you have on, and turn on another 3 (or 4) with the press of one button. I don't have one, but I can see the efficiency of them.
I have a board with 7 pedals, another one with 11. Both are used regularly, and I have them set up for specific things. At home, I usually just grab a pedal or two from the ones on the shelves.
Years ago I started with the Danelectro summer of love set, then got big time and got a digitech rp100 that lasted for 15 years, I never used it. Now I have a cry baby, fuzz, trem, delay and a high gain. I still use the digitech when I travel for headphones. I need to put a tuner in maybe a flanger.
They know the way of the straplock. amazing
Bass player so keep mine to 5: pre-, PLL style synth that's mostly used as a fuzz, chorus, overdrive/distortion, and a boost/kind of eq thing
I am an OD stacker with a compresor :TU2 tuner.--> SP compressor --> EP Booster-->Pantheon-->Tumnus Deluxe -->The Dude -->SL Drive for tha Marshall with a Carbon Copy (effects loop) and a Wah (off board).
Compression,Wah, overdrive, distortion, boost, volume, phaser , rotary, delay, reverb, noise gate , tuner. I rarely have more than 1 or 2 on at a time other than the always ons like compression and NG .but I play in 3 theater shows and the occasional bar gig.
Okay, that's hilarious synergy. Right when Baxter says how many more [pedals] do you really need?, RUclips interrupts with a Sweetwater commercial. Someone get that RUclips algorithm a raise.😆
I've been deep diving into Boss Tone Studio, so plenty of pedals, but only using the modeling in the amp these days. Two boards are gathering dust.
I have 46 pedals I use 9 of them on my pedal board with maybe 5 on rotation. I got the QC so now I can just go with the QC and I like to use external Overdrives + a Tuner and a super clean buffer (sometimes)
I usually just plug in directly into the amp, but I love to buy and try out pedals. I just don’t use them for playing out.
I have a turner on my phone, so I need much else.
I have to visit that bar
More practically: a tuner, a boost, a vibrato/trem, an OD (if your amp is super clean and hi wattage), a reverb (if your amp doesn’t have it), and delay. So 3 to 5 “ideally” :).
Was on the highway to the danger zone, loggin’ with Loggins, cruisin’ like a top gun slingin’ maverick when I was saved by a Monarch. Now Benson is my tone butler and I’m never goin’ back.
I have 5 pedal boards for 5 different amp/cab setups. The boards have from 5 to 9 pedals on each. I also have about 10 pedals that sometimes get swapped on the boards. I don't see a problem.
I ve never had big pedalboards (max 7 pedals) but for the most i only use 3 pedals: endles summer reverb, tone bender mki and a sabbadius funky-vibe. That are the only ones on my board right now and its more than enough 😁
Interesting on no delay. Are you using the vibe as a vibe most often or as a vibrato? I often find that a bit of movement seems to create space and consequently time.
I once went nuts with pedals, which was considered out of the ordinary in London back in the late ‘00s for a bass player. Once I got a Mu-Tron III envelope filter, I stopped taking pedals other than a tuner and a Little Lehle for bypass. A few years ago, for one song I needed a fuzz on the bass at the singer’s insistence. Sounded great.
I don’t mind when guitarists go nuts on pedals - as long as they know how to set them all up and plug them all in properly, and how to bypass them all on the fly if it all goes wrong! My favourite guitar tone is Les Paul Jr straight into a Tweed Deluxe though.
Jr. Into a Model-T. She’s a Mississippi queen, you know what I mean?
Edit to add: it’s ok if you don’t know what I mean. It’s been decades and I still don’t know what it means.
@@smelltheglove2038 Mountain - Leslie West!
So I play primarily Telecasters through a tweed Deluxe (no reverb or tremolo). I have five pedals on my board:
1. poly tune 3 tuner
2. Kelley Oxblood overdrive (has multiple settings and clippings)
3. Kelley Monterey (2 channel pedal: fuzz on the right side and my choice of rotary, univibe or harmonic wah on the left side)
4. Kelley Hydra (2 channel pedal: tremolo on the left, reverb on the right) and
5. TC ditto looper.
Just don't need much more than that (even though I have 24 other pedals sitting around). Also helps to live down the street from Robert Kelley's shop. I just go visit him if I need more!
Played with barely any pedals for years until my Music Man amp broke recently. Now its about 7 or 8 pedals most of the time on my board
Wah, compression, flanger, chorus, reverb, delay and a ditto played through a Paul Reed Smith archon 50W.😬🤘
the same rules apply as for guitars - there's no such thing as too many pedals.
of course, if you're talking about a pedal board to carry around to gigs and stuff - that's different. if you have to carry your own stuff (like a mere mortal), fewer is usually better. for me it would be: tuner + 2 different overdrives + delay/reverb.
Which Carr did you get Baxter? I have the Merc V - amazed at the range of tone and drive with low volume
@1:06 I'm in Kentucky and I can vouch for that.
I went from +15 down to 8 and I could get by with 3. Need fuzzface, clean boost (or comp used as clean boost), and delay. Amp has to have reverb and trem.
5 on the small solid state amp with 1 x 12 ext. cabinet. None on the Vox tube oh I mean Valve AC10. Six on the Hot rod deluxe fitted on a monoprice board.. I will add an "inexpensive" Attenuator as well ( soon) to the HRD.... mostly these are Behringer and Fender Hammertone pedals. These were my breaking my cherry pedals and they are just plain fun : Noise Reducer, Tube amp modulator, Reverb , Fuzz, Delay................. P.S. I like Radiohead! and the OD stack idea...... So I call it a tie, whatever trips one's trigger or blows a fuse ( trips the breaker) i s OKAY by me.
Omfg... halfway inn...😂😂...I'm actually setting up a new music space today so I'm going to actually count my pedal collection..it's def a collection..lol..I love playing with combinations and exploring the sonic possibilities of my guitars and amps ..I usually run my power supply full which is 7 pedals but they aren't all running.. depends on what I'm after and the way I have the board set up 🤘
Got to have a Looper. Need a reverb and tremolo if your amp doesn't have it. An overdrive if your amp has to be turned up too loud for it to break up at home. I would like to have a Vibroverb.
I feel it mainly depends on the genre of music you are playing as well as the amplifier and guitar.
If you are playing with high out put pickups( like humbuckers, P90) etc and you are driving the amp then in terms of gain you just need an Overdrive and 1 fuzz/distortion.
If it’s lower output pickups like vintage single coils and you are playing a high headroom clean amplifier (like a twin) then you need multiple dirt and boost pedals because at that point you are in a way crafting your own gain channel and the pedals will do that for you.
And in this way your delays and reverbs will be more pristine and clear.
My whole set is a crybaby from hell wah, a boss od-200, and a vox tone lab with no actual amp so 3 to I don't know how many because everything is so versatile. But my big question is what Josh Scott input would be on this discussion.
I need only reverb for the amp that doesn't have it. I want all the pedals😂
For me, Tele into LovePedal Tchula, TC Zeus, LovePedal Plexi, Nobles ODR-1 into a Cali76 Compressor. I only stack two at a time.
I have maybe 7 random pedals and 30 tube amps several pre analog amps some solid state 50 somethin guitars......pedals were cheap now there crazy I'm glad I kept my boss and zoom rack effects....I use those for my keys.
4 is al I'll ever need. Boss GAFC, Boss GAFC-ex, Dunlop 535 vari-wah, and the P.R.S. MT15 footswitch. With 2 Katana mkii 212s and the MT15, I'm good.
I have roughly 18 on my board, I do rock n hard rock covers 5 overdrive/boost 5 wobblys 2 delays (1/4&1/8time) digital reverb eq preamp wah tuner decimator, if not for covers I'd be down bout 5 or 6
I’ve redused my board down to four pedals. Tuner > Phaser > Boss NS-2 (4 cable method) > Revv G3. Easy to bring around to gigs, quiet, and everything I need. I just found that stepping on pedals disturbed my playing.
I have 8 pedals on my board (9 with a tuner), but could do 7 if I had a stereo delay (I split my signal to two amps, each through a Carbon Copy delay). I do have a buffered splitter under the board, but that's only cos one of my amps is out of phase relative to the other, and the splitter has a phase reverse switch which solves that. Envelope filter (Deadhead), vibe, 2 overdrives, compressor, tremolo, delays. I don't use the envelope filter often, but it's nice it's there.
Baxter is right, the audience doesn't notice or care - they just hear 'guitar quiet/guitar loud'. I used to love using fancy overdrives, and several of them...turns out all you need is a venerable Boss Blues Driver and it gets the job done.
I'm in the Yngwie J. Malmsteem camp. "How can less be more? More is MORE!!!" My board is: Big Muff Triangle, Mythos Golden Fleece, Wah, Timmy, Sugar Drive, Distortion (Danelectro Roebuck, or DS-1), Boss - TR2 Tremolo (always on), FX Loop: MXR Carbon Copy Analog Deluxe, Wampler Ethereal, JHS 3 Hall Reverb, Earthquaker Afterneath and finally a Ditto looper. If I had more room on my board i would probably add more modulation pedals.
Does your amp switch count as a pedal? Some amp have switches as big as a small board
I have like 6 right now but it is probably not enough. I've been on the King of Tone waitlist for 2 years already. I love my Mutron......
Currently have 10 on my board, including the tuner and a mini wah. But I have two drawers full of pedals that I’m not even sure I remember what they do. It’s a sickness…
Zero pedals is no problem if i have reverb and tuner available elsewhere. That being said, i have more than a few pedals and love playing with them! But just 3 on my live board (acoustic), reverb, delay and another reverb (all Strymon too so people can really hate on me)
I have a lot of pedals. I only use five at a time on my board. I look at it like making a good dinner... you can use different ingredients for different flavors.
As a church player I'm always running 2 drives, 2 reverb, a delay, tremolo and an equalizer.
For me I like to have at least one of everything. Tuner(I guess doesn’t count haha.) Wah,Compressor,Octave,Envelope Filter,EQ,Boost,Od(2),Distortion,Fuzz(3 a spitty fuzz, a wall of fuzz and an octave fuzz),Tremolo,Vibrato,Chorus,Phaser,Flanger,UniVibe,Leslie,Delay,Reverb and a looper.
This is not exactly the order I put em in but pretty close. I also like having single effects on single pedals instead of multi effects so I can use say flanger chorus and envelope filter simultaneously instead of having say an H9 where you can at max use 2 effects(sometimes depending on the two you want to use you can’t due to not enough processing power. Just my opinion and way I like to do it.
I’m also known for also haveing a Ring Mod and Synthesizing pedals as well. Toward the beginning of the chain.