Pedalboards

JB_From_Hell

JB_From_Hell

Jomo's Nimions
I really hate pedalboards.

For a touring musician, I see the value in having everything together. However, nothing irks me (at least currently) like an overcrowded board packed with 3 rows of pedals, half of which are those stupid minis turned sideways.

I'm not anti-pedals. I have a few I love. Nothing inproved guitar tones like everybody ditching the 400 space racks and going with a few stomp boxes. However, it seems dumb to essentially recreate the rack nonsense on the floor, with a far more difficult to control setup.
 
Re: Pedalboards

I see it differently. I like having my board built up, reliably easy to take to rehearsals and the occasional gig. (I know it works and only plug into the wall, input and output and I'm ready to go) Plus by collecting them into a board, I have a defined set of pedals that I've gotten to know quite well. When I was grabbing random pedals I'd focus more on choosing and arranging pedals rather than just playing.

The one argument I do see is sometimes you just need a great guitar, loud amp and maybe a single pedal. For those situations it's very freeing. If your music needs delay, wah, a few drive sounds and a modulation, putting them on a board is actually more "freeing" to me.

But that's the awesome thing about music, everyone finds their perfect way!
 
Re: Pedalboards

Please, nobody take my gripe too seriously. I don't mean any offense, I just think three rows of pedals crammed into a briefcase sized board looks ridiculous.

Of course, I'm the same guy who thinks spending more on a pick than a used Boss DS-1 makes sense, so bear that in mind.
 
Re: Pedalboards

PFDarkside said:
I see it differently. I like having my board built up, reliably easy to take to rehearsals and the occasional gig. (I know it works and only plug into the wall, input and output and I'm ready to go) Plus by collecting them into a board, I have a defined set of pedals that I've gotten to know quite well. When I was grabbing random pedals I'd focus more on choosing and arranging pedals rather than just playing.

The one argument I do see is sometimes you just need a great guitar, loud amp and maybe a single pedal. For those situations it's very freeing. If your music needs delay, wah, a few drive sounds and a modulation, putting them on a board is actually more "freeing" to me.

But that's the awesome thing about music, everyone finds their perfect way!
Click to expand...

That how I am too. If I have to pick from a drawer of pedals, I'm going to take 15 minutes to pick which overdrive I want that night. When it's all on my board, I just grab it and go. It's also nice to just plug in and go every once in a while. I sat in with my old band at a show we played together a while back and just ran my tele into my deluxe-ish amp and it sounded awesome.


OTOH; I totally get it about overly crowded boards with pedals flipped sideways and upside down. I don't know why it bugs me, but it does...
 
Re: Pedalboards

JB_From_Hell said:
Please, nobody take my gripe too seriously. I don't mean any offense, I just think three rows of pedals crammed into a briefcase sized board looks ridiculous.

Of course, I'm the same guy who thinks spending more on a pick than a used Boss DS-1 makes sense, so bear that in mind.
Click to expand...

I lose picks too frequently to spend that much on one LOL.
 
Re: Pedalboards

I don't use many pedals, but I have a tuner, a noisegate and a tubescreamer on mine, the basics to play a show with the assurance I won't be out of tune, be noisy when I'm not meant to and have some extra thump when on my dirty channel. I set it up with all the cables and connectors and leave it so once I'm ready to set up on stage its quicker, esp if you're 2nd or 3rd on a 4 band bill and haven't got much time to get your stuff on and set up. All I need to do is plug in 2 power adaptors (I also have a power supply alongside a wireless receiver) and 1 cable from the last pedal in my chain into my amp, job done. Obviously all the amp into speaker connections and all that but that's about it. Nothing annoys me more than someone taking ages to hook everything up one by one and then not knowing what goes where, or the stage being too dark to see, etc etc. Hurry up and get your ass on/off the stage and play!
 
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I don't dig over crowded boards either. If it can't fit with the switch at the bottom and knobs near the top, either I need to arrange my board better, leave that pedal out or get a bigger board.

I also find without a board I spend too much time thinking of which pedals to bring. I've decided instead to set up different boards where I start with a couple of dirt boxes that sound great together, then add a way, a few modulations and a delay or 2 and sometimes reverb. Occasionally, I change things up
 
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Ehh, if I went back to pedals, I don't think I'd be able to do a simple setup. I've gotten so used to having all the different options in a rack multi-effects unit that it would be too difficult to rework all of my sounds with as few options as possible without having some sort of MIDI switcher, tap tempo functions, and the multitude of OD's and distortions that I like to use.
 
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Pedalboards are fragile. The more pedals, the harder to isolate the problems.

Racks are more secure with the powerstrip and sturdy flight case.

Yeah, pedal switchers allow more secure storage of the pedals in a rack. But I don't use one of these by the way.
 
Re: Pedalboards

I just use a multi-effects (Fractal AX8), and don't do the pedal thing anymore. When you have 15 pedals hooked up and they are super close together, and you don't get any signal...you suddenly realize that one of the patch cables might be bad. Which one is it? BTW, it always happens between songs at a gig.
 
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I used to have delay pedals, reverb, flanger, chorus and all that crap, but I got sick of dealing with 9V batteries that die after 5 hours and tripping over a web of tangled wires/cables that I only use either a single dirt pedal + occasional wah now. Effects have great uses, but I much prefer being without all that stuff. I'd rather rely on just the base setup - it's less stuff to go wrong (it still will go wrong, but less often), I spend less money on gear, and it's less restricting. Too much noise? Lower the gain instead of buying different noise gates. Need to go between clean and dirty? Use the volume knob/picking dynamics instead of rushing to hit a pedal with your feet but falling on your face when you trip. I also don't have to worry about certain pedals not playing nice with each other via mucked up grounds, different power sources, different impedances, time based effects placement, etc.
 
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I don't like overcrowded boards either. Mine is pretty basic. 4 effects pedals plus a tuner and wireless receiver. I could get away with just the wireless receiver, overdrive and tuner and if I really wanted to (and have done it), just the overdrive and tuner. There may be times where I don't use the others but having them there on the off-chance that we sub in a song where I could use one is nice. I made a pedal snake and everything is hooked up ready to go pretty quickly.
 
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Re: Pedalboards

If i run more than 3 or so pedals, id want a looper so i could bypass them all and a buffer.

Pedalboards let you organise all that easily. Also makes power supplies easily and organized.

For a Wah, Tube screamer and tuner, they are pointless.
 
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I just have a slightly different take... I have no use for time-based effects, and have never been drawn to the sound of delay/modulation/flange/chorus/phaser etc... Never felt I needed it to thicken/add texture, unless I was "doing it wrong" with my amp/guitar. The most I tend to use is reverb from the amp. No need to crowd with that.

Distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedals result in me often having a very redundant pedalboard, on the other hand. At present I have just about all of mine thrown on one board, but then again I'm not touring with it, I just like playing around... When I was more serious, I only had a tuner, an overdrive, and an EQ.
 
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