My first pedalboard...

darthed1981

Hi All

After the jam Im left thinking I need a pedal board, as found myself short of FX even with all the gear in the room!

I'm also short of skill and experience but that's a different issue!

I've got about five pedals anyway but would like an essentials list so I can fill gaps and get the right board and power supply..

Any thoughts?

Fez

Tuner, overdrive, modulation (phaser, flanger or chorus) Delay. If you Strats or other single coil equiped guitars a compressor can be useful. Wah Wah. Depending on what amp you have you might want a clean boost, more drive/distortion pedals or none at all if you get drive sounds from your amp.

AlexC

Tuner is essential. All else is preference. But @Fez there really nails it.

darthed1981

Thanks guys, a tuner pedal and a delay and im there then!

wingo84

Depends if you use your amps drive channels but I built my first board and I am currently using a single channel clean amp with...

clean boost
mild boost x2
wah
tuner
delay
reverb
compressor

I also use a pedal Power 2 (which I would recommend as an essential item) 

and i I use a pedal train jr (with hard case, again, recommended) 

JEPBLEP

I can confirm that buying more pedals and gear does nothing to sort out skill and experience. No one told me, so I'm hoping this knowledge will save you time and money.

On the topic of pedalboards - what I'm in the midst of is, measuring an imaginary square around all my stomp shit laid out in an efficient (and working) way, and then looking at something like this (and the various dimensions) to see what would fit. I'm guessing this is like buying t-shirts on the interweb in that it's probably best to buy a size up.

On the topic of power - I bought a Fuel Tank Jr. a couple of weeks ago. And today I bought a Strymon Zuma. Unless you have an unlimited power sockets on the wall, probably best to have some foresight and get a decent combination of high enough Ah and voltage, particularly if you have a couple bigger digital and/or pre-amp/compression pedals.

darthed1981

JEPBLEP said:

I can confirm that buying more pedals and gear does nothing to sort out skill and experience. No one told me, so I'm hoping this knowledge will save you time and money.

Thanks man, don't worry I know!  I'm more thinking in terms of having comfy sounds I know and being able to plug into any amp without feeling lost, for future jams and meet ups and practise sessions.

I've a list of things I learnt at the jam to focus on, this is one of the less important ones!

mike_l

I'd have (assuming a clean amp)
tuner - (digitech drop) -  wah - chorus - phaser - lead boost - low gain* - mid gain* - High gain* - volume only boost - noisegate - delay 

*set for rhythm then for lead either of the boosts.

Ro_S

@ OP

what pedals do you have at present?

what amp/s do you use?

what guitars/pickups do you use?

what music/band/sounds do you like?

rsvmark

Lesson learned here. Buy a bigger board than you think you need. You will learn about what works with each other, how it works with the amp and so on. Buy a proper power supply.

darthed1981

Ro_S said:

@ OP

what pedals do you have at present?

what amp/s do you use?

what guitars/pickups do you use?

what music/band/sounds do you like?

I currently have a vox wah, behringer tubescreamer clone, a boss looper, boss overdrive, boss chorus, trio band creator

I've got a boss katana as a main amp currently.

I've got lots of different guitars, mostly about les pauls and teles.

I'm a big fan of indie and alt rock, like a bit of everything.

The katana does a lot itself but feel the need to carry some tones on me for future events!

Ro_S

which Boss OD do you have?

TTBZ

If you have a good amp, a tuner and a lead boost is all you really need. I like a delay for some added texture on cleaner bits though plus it's fun to make a wall of noise for intros/in between songs.

Board wise the Palmer ones look really good and a better alternative to pedaltrain.

Legionreturns

darthed1981 said:

Thanks guys, a tuner pedal and a delay and im there then!

I've got a Joyo quattro delay that's going spare and you can have for peanuts of that's of any interest. 

darthed1981

Ro_S said:

which Boss OD do you have?

SD-1 if I remember correctly.

steer

Guitar =======> Rat ========> Amp

oasisroses

Essentials to me would be: TUNER, WAH (who doesn't love wok a chuck?!) OVERDRIVE OR DISTORTION (personal preference or both) and for me at least a REVERB AND DELAY.

but whilst were at it a few points from experience....

1, POWER TO THE PEOPLE - don't scrimp on a power supply. you are always going to need power so buy it early and get the most reputable you can afford. they make a massive difference in terms of reliability and sound, miles tidier and easier to lug around with you.

2, EXPERIMENT - there's no right or wrong answer, rig your pedals up and have a blast on them before you stick them down and wire them all up to the board. you might like the chorus before the trem, or delay, or opposite or whatever. there is nothing worse than wiring everything up and then getting that gut wrenching feeling when you hear a rubbish tone. The natural suggestion tends to be TUNER - WAH - COMP - OVERDRIVE - TIME BASED FX. but like I said there is no right or wrong.

3, DONT BUY HYPE. I am fortunate enough to have owned some of the rarest and most expensive pedals on the planet. some good some bad. just because something is expensive doesn't mean its right for you. always try and get a borrow or go to the shop and try before you part with any currency. that £300 overdrive might hate your other pedals! my current board is a mixture of both boutique and mainstream pedals but all of which suit my needs and ears for the best.

4, BIDE YOUR TIME - its tempting to go out and buy a shed load of pedals, expensive solder-less cable, Velcro and cable ties and throw em all together quickly and hastily to get going. then your sat in for the next 3 month paying your debts back furious at the fact you haven't got a solitary shilling! been there done that... my current board has been three years in the making and its still not finished. I do have other gear I use week to week and some destined for my final board but my ''baby'' is a work in progress and wont be wired up until I have certainly found and gotten every ingredient. patience is a virtue and in the long run you will understand where im coming from.

5, HAVE FUN - at the end of the day that's what its all about.  

I have a load of gear layed about that would suit all levels in the pedal board world if you would like to know what it is or what I want for it let me know.

best of luck with it.

impmann

I totally agree on the dull stuff - a good power supply and a *GOOD* tuner are the building blocks. Don't believe the hype about some cables though - yes, buy good quality cabling but some of the prices of the high end stuff (and their supposed benefits) need anal lubrication.

I'd also consider overdrives that stack nicely together as an option for extra gain stages - but again, as said above, there's a lot of hype out here in internet land. And a lot of pedals that folks will fall over themselves to buy one week will flood the classifieds a month later... Use your ears here.

Modulation - well... depends on the player. TBH, I blow hot and cold about modulation effects. I still maintain that chorus is the sound of satan's morning bowel movement after a particularly unpleasant Egg Vindaloo but that's just my opinion. I truly wouldn't spend a lot on them at this stage - but I'd consider something like a Line6 M5 or M9 to give you options without cluttering space (also takes care of the tuner aspect - although its not *the best* out there).

But I'd also pass this wisdom on... think about what sort of things/sounds you really need and then build a board from there. And when you are planning that, don't try to cover *every* eventuality. A lot of folks' boards are *huge* and have pedals that are used rarely or only used for one song occasionally... ask yourself a question "is it really necessary"? If you even pause when considering that, I'd suggest you don't need it. Put it another way - for the jam, I borrowed an amp and a Fulltone Fulldrive pedal and covered a fair amount of sonic bases, just using different levels of gain plus the volume/tone controls on the guitar. I didn't feel like I was missing a delay pedal, reverb (not even on the amp) or any modulation... however, if I was covering some stuff by the Police or U2 etc, then I may have struggled a touch. Think about your needs and then plan from there - and don't get suckered into buying stuff because someone else makes it sound epic on the net!! (I'm more than guilty of that...)

darthed1981

impmann said:

Put it another way - for the jam, I borrowed an amp and a Fulltone Fulldrive pedal and covered a fair amount of sonic bases, just using different levels of gain plus the volume/tone controls on the guitar. I didn't feel like I was missing a delay pedal, reverb (not even on the amp) or any modulation... however, if I was covering some stuff by the Police or U2 etc, then I may have struggled a touch. 

Actually (while you're here) I absolutely loved the tone you had on Pretty Vacant - what were you using there?

impmann

Guitar>Fulltone Fulldrive with Overdrive selected>Amp

The amp had the master flat out, the volume was on about a 1/3rd and the tone controls were in the mid position. Guitar volume on about 8, tone flat out, bridge pickup. I think the gain was pretty high on the pedal but with lowish volume and mid on the tone.

Hope that helps

LuttiS

Legionreturns said:

darthed1981 said:

Thanks guys, a tuner pedal and a delay and im there then!

I've got a Joyo quattro delay that's going spare and you can have for peanuts of that's of any interest. 

if he doesn't have it let me know - i've got some peanuts around here somewhere, a Quattro's on my list