One brand only...?

Octahedron

Does anyone here use exclusively one brand of pedals?

The thought came to me knowing that Boss for example have such a huge range of stomp boxes and they also sell a pedal board/case designed specifically with that size of pedal in mind and has all the inputs and power supply built in...

Personally, I really like Electro-Harmonix and TC Electronic. Based on the range available across these three brands I've just mentioned, I reckon i could easily pick one brand and go and get one of every type of pedal I require from their range... 

But do people actually do that? Has anyone here done it? I mean you see bands live playing 3 Marshall stacks, or they've got a mix of amps and they take 5 Les Pauls or 5 Strats or whatever and they're the only model of guitar that artist plays so what's to say it isn't done with pedals?

I've just never seen it before aside from the demo boards set up in some shops 

Teetonetal

What would be the point? 

timmysoft

I've had an all boss board before, it was awesome! 

UnclePsychosis

My board is about 80% Boss. 

JDE

I've had an all Boss board several times. It pleases my OCD.
One of the dudes from The Eagles has an all-Boss board, as does Mike Stern (if you don't count his rack unit). Bloke from Alt J used to rock all Boss, not sure if he still does. There is a guy on the Allan Holdsworth Facebook group that has a board which I think is all Earthquaker pedals. I think it's quite common for people that play but who don't go down the rabbit hole of forums etc to have all Boss or all EHX or MXR or whatever. 

ICBM

MIne is all-Boss apart from a Dunlop wah. I'm not massively keen on any of the Boss wahs.

What's the point? Because Boss have by far the best switches and switching system, the best physical design, don't break, don't have any stupid power requirements, and do a version of more or less every effect, most of which are at least OK.

Since I decided I would never again own a pedal with a metal click switch (the Dunlop doesn't really count because it's under the pedal rocker, and this model also uses buffered switching), it became fairly easy to just go to all-Boss… although I wouldn't rule out a 9-series Ibanez of some sort.

Fretwired

I know pros that are Boss only .. Mike Stern has a Boss only board for his fly gigs. If an airline loses your pedal board, or if a pedal fails it's cheap and easy to replace. Virtually every guitar store stocks Boss.

UnclePsychosis

To go into a bit more detail---I've currently got ten pedals on my board and 8 are Boss. 

The two that aren't are a Tenebrion Reverb and a Jumbo Tonebender. Neither of which Boss can get close to sound-wise (well you could maybe cop the Tenebrion with a RV-500 but that would be silly). Should probably big up Juansolo for building them. 

duotone

Starts at 37seconds.  Saw this a while back and if Boss pedals are good enough for John5 then they are good enough for me.

Sassafras

Although I don't, I could quite happily play an all Way Huge board. Or Boss.

Cabicular

Just waiting for @ThorpyFX to do a delay and a flanger and I'm all set!

fretmeister

Darkglass.

JezWynd

I used all Boss for quite a while but more recently I've discovered Maxon and specifically the vintage series that come in large boxes. I started with the Chorus as the Boss DC-2 didn't work with bass very well, while the Maxon excels with bass and guitar.

Curiosity piqued, I tried the Phaser PH-350, which after some experimentation and adjustment has become a fixture. Next up the AD900 delay finally made analog delay click for me. After that it seemed churlish not to get the Distortion Master and the Overdrive even though they're not sounds I use a great deal.

Finally I went with the big box tube compressor. This is the best comp for bass I've tried, it retains the full bass sound even with heavy compression applied and works equally well with guitar. I still keep a few other comps around for stacking etc but the Maxon has become a fixture.

They all play very well together - it's like they come from a single sonic mindset - maybe a little too hi-fi in tone (esp the modulation) for some people but they work really well for me. They're not cheap but you can find some good deals buying used and they've pretty much cured my pedal obsession, though I still find it hard to refuse a rare or untried Boss.

juansolo

Cabicular said:

Just waiting for @ThorpyFX to do a delay and a flanger and I'm all set!

I'd be surprised if you see a Thorpy Flanger. Flangers are very complex pedals. My answer to that is Ibanez FL-9. Sounds great and is sensible money. I'll admit I toyed with doing a clone PCB for it, but just didn't see the point when they're £150. Most boutique ones these days I'd be surprised if they weren't DSP jobbies.

Delays are eminently doable however. Generally speaking there's only a few ways to do the core delay effect using a PT2399, so any variations tend to be on the filtering and modulation. Other than that you're using a Spin FV-1 or going full DSP. Analogue delays are an almighty PITA, but you can get the BBDs again if you want to go down that route, though you can get close to that sound without the ball ache using a PT... Again filtering, it's where it's all at.

sgosden

4/6 on my board are BOSS. might swap out the timeline for a dd500 though.

I wouldn't call it brand loyalty as such. It just so happens they're the best fit for what I want

Marktigere1

ICBM said:

MIne is all-Boss apart from a Dunlop wah. I'm not massively keen on any of the Boss wahs.

What's the point? Because Boss have by far the best switches and switching system, the best physical design, don't break, don't have any stupid power requirements, and do a version of more or less every effect, most of which are at least OK.

Yep, totally agree.

TU3, SD1, DS1, CH1, DM2W, DD7 with a 1989 Crybaby at the front.

Its been this setup for 2 years now and I see no reason to change except I am really struggling not to buy an MS3.

Its still BOSS all the way

MrMusic

I've said this before but if Analogman did tuners i'd have an ALL Analogman anyday!! 

ThorpyFX

juansolo said:

Cabicular said:

Just waiting for @ThorpyFX to do a delay and a flanger and I'm all set!

I'd be surprised if you see a Thorpy Flanger. Flangers are very complex pedals. 

Why the surprise? I am working on an analog flanger, a chorus,  a phaser, etc.... they are indeed complex and we need to get the balance right between a commercially available product that isn't too functionally complex and therefore too costly. This unfortunately is taking a lot of time to get right, however myself and Dan Coggins are confident it'll be right once finalised.... otherwise i won't bother. oh, that and I have a whole load of Nos Analog BBD chips I want to utilise

juansolo

Yeah it's the functionally complex bit and cost mainly. Dan's Flange?! is a thing of mad genius. Costs and build time for him on that must have been mental! But hell, if you can make a more simple one, and make it work (in both sonic, time and cost terms) that'd be awesome!

I still have to have another crack at simplifying that phase/vibe/rotary thing we came up with. It ended up way too complex to get into a 1590B (proto ended up in a multi in the end for a friend), and a little too noisy (LM3700's always are, but it's that or FET matching... EDIT: or optical I suppose... We could always go back there with it).

ThorpyFX

juansolo said:

Yeah it's the functionally complex bit and cost mainly. Dan's Flange?! is a thing of mad genius. Costs and build time for him on that must have been mental! But hell, if you can make a more simple one, and make it work (in both sonic, time and cost terms) that'd be awesome!

Im going to give it a bloody good go! the difficulty is competing against things like Spin and other digital pedals.... however there is just something about great analog pedals that for me are worth the extra effort.

juansolo

Have a wisdom

Which I originally typed as have a wis... which is something else entirely.