How many pedals do you own and how much do you play?

[Chistopher]

I have a theory that time spent playing is inversely proportional to pedal ownership

I own roughly 20 pedals and I sit down and seriously play for about 5 hours a week, and I play in a band setting for 4 more. I never have more than 3 pedals in my chain, albeit one is an H90

 

[Mincer]

Probably less than 10, but some are multis.

 

[Seashore]

Somewhere around 15 pedals all told. The only ones I use are the HX Effects, the HOG, the Turbo Tuner, and an EQ pedal when I'm playing bass. Most of them were part of the bass board until the HX kicked everything off, now they stay in a drawer.

On the HX I have a couple different presets for guitar and bass, and some of them have neat little special effects, but basically what I need is a cleanish sound, a distorted sound, and a lead sound. I suppose the lead sound is kind of optional. For guitar I could get by with a channel switcher and a tuner.

I don't time myself but I think I spend between 10-20 hours a week playing. Less when I've got a lot of work or family stuff to do, more when I'm recording.

 

[Securb]

A lot and a lot. Keep in mind that I have had my Morley and others since I was 17 years old, so I have had decades to acquire them.Being in three bands and having private lessons I have a guitar in my hands at all times.

 

[JOLLY]

Maybe 15 or so, but I only use three of them, and I use them rarely. Those are an MXR EVH Phaser, MXR EVH Flanger, and a Voodoo Labs Micro Vibe. Those pedals have nothing to do with the amount of time that I play guitar since I only use them in certain parts of songs that I'm recording.

 

[GuitarStv]

I think I'm up around sixteen or so total pedals owned. Five of them I built from scratch though because I wanted to play around with the circuits and try some modifications.

I like to have a delay, phasing or vibe, compressor, and a gain pedal. Those tend to be core sounds that I like.

Then throw in a tuner pedal.

And every once in a while a trem, flanger, fuzz, or wah are called for.

 

[misterwhizzy]

Maybe 15 or so, but I only use three of them, and I use them rarely. Those are an MXR EVH Phaser, MXR EVH Flanger, and a Voodoo Labs Micro Vibe. Those pedals have nothing to do with the amount of time that I play guitar since I only use them in certain parts of songs that I'm recording.

If only there were an MXR EVH Micro Vibe...

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

I think I have around 20, some are duplicates... I really only use 2 of them.... An OD and a noise gate.... Once in awhile a tuner or a delay.

I play on average an hour a day, more on band practice days.

 

[playas]

I have about 6/7 plus two home builds that are not built/working yet. (Currently trying to paint one of them.)

About 99.95% of my playing is guitar>cable>amp. Don't even bother with a tuner normally as I can use the app on my phone.

Primarily I have most of my pedals for band situations even though they're fun to play with and I am not currently in a band.

 

[Artie]

I own too many to count. I rarely use them because I love the "clean" sound. Go figure. :dunno:

 

[Mincer]

I own too many to count. I rarely use them because I love the "clean" sound. Go figure. :dunno:

Me too..it is the sound I use the most.

 

[Aceman]

90 or so...

I play in my band, I play in the work band, I play at Dean Owners, I go to the occasional jam.
I have a guitar/amp next to my work desk and play during boring meetings/between/on breaks.
I play everyday, if not multiple times.

 

[jeremy]

i have one pedal board with three (fuzz, od, delay), one with four (fuzz, od/boost, delay, aby) and one with five (comp, phase, od, od, delay) those all get used with some regularity. i probably have 20 others sitting around.

i dont play at home much, but i play two or three gigs a week pretty regularly.

 

[Seashore]

I have a theory that time spent playing is inversely proportional to pedal ownership

It looks like this theory has taken a beating. But maybe you're using "pedal ownership" as a proxy for time spent mucking around with settings as opposed to actually playing in a productive way? It might be more accurate to say that people who play more productively spend less time tweaking their sound, whether that's with pedals or amp settings or constant pickup swaps or whatever.

I don't have a theory I could apply to anyone else but I know that I play better and feel more creative (and thus spend more time playing) when I have a setup I trust that works well, and all of the tone and mix issues have already been dealt with. If I'm not getting what I want out of a guitar sound I'll spend days or weeks trying to get it right; if I get it right, I can go months or years without making any changes aside from necessary stuff for mix adjustments. And if I'm rehearsing and I start worrying about tone and mix problems while I'm playing, it can throw me off almost immediately. It's like trying to have a conversation and read something at the same time, signals get crossed.

 

[Securb]

It looks like this theory has taken a beating. But maybe you're using "pedal ownership" as a proxy for time spent mucking around with settings as opposed to actually playing in a productive way? It might be more accurate to say that people who play more productively spend less time tweaking their sound, whether that's with pedals or amp settings or constant pickup swaps or whatever.

I would agree with this. In my office, you might find the random pedal. When I practice, I plug straight into the Classic 20 95% of the time or play on the acoustic running scales. Downstairs, I have two pedal boards—one with my classic pedals and one with all my weird/misfit stuff. The amps and pedals downstairs are for when I am in a mood to blow off steam or when friends drop by, and we want to screw around.

 

[playas]

Way moreso than your inversely proportional theory I think it's important to be able to sound good without any pedals to be able to get the most out of them, and the signal chain in general.

Tone chasing is all very well and good if you are able to start from a solid base tone...tone chasing is not imho a good basis to start from and can cover up many playing weaknesses that otherwise need to be worked on.

To my mind that holds true whether you use amp or pedals for the basis of your tone.

...hence the time spent playing vs mucking around with pedals conundrum.

 

[beaubrummels]

I have never tracked stuff like that.

 

[Mincer]

Well, most of my practicing is on a dead clean guitar into an amp with a little reverb. But other players make effects part of their style. All is good, really.

 

[ehdwuld]

I play around at the house a few mins each day
I have a metal zone in front of the Amp which I usually turn off
I have a reverb in the loop which I usually forget to turn on
the H&K TM20 dont got no reverb I would have had to get the TM40 to get that , dang it

mostly clean cuz that amp sounds soooooo goood by itself
oh and it has drive and boosted drive built in so I really dont need the metal zone
probably should replace that with a tuner

I have a ton of pedals that I got to try out
bunch of reverbs and fuzz pedals
fuzz sounds so great when other people play it , but sadly not for me

I have a bunch of multifx and amp sims
and random other stuff collecting dust in a closet somewhere that I pull out from time to time and throw in the cycle for a time

a phase 90 from the 80s
been collecting for years

 

[Aceman]

Right now....

Bass pedał board is sitting, but I usually go straight into Harte Class D (5 pedals)
3 pedals with my Mesa
H2O and Flint into my H&K TM18 ( play through that amp occasionally, every 2-3 weeks. But dang those two pedals are killer on it!)
Fender Tre-verb going into my Pro Jr.
I swap a lot out on my Marshall VS100...play that every other day. Right now Boost DLA and a Voodoo Tremolo
2 Hollywood boards (Acoustic w/ 4 pedals, Synth/Talk on another)
Also Pod Go right beside me

This could change before Sunday, or be the same for three weeks....