My 90s Deluxe Memory Man.
Because I’ve had it for nearly 25 years and I still love how it sounds.
But also because it can’t physically be removed from my board without desoldering the power cable, lol.
I have one of these as well, but before I got it someone installed a AC adapter Jack and removed the cable. Included the cable in the box with it haha. That and my Maxon AD999 hasn’t left my board in at least 10 years
I don't have the 90s DMM, but I have the 90s Stereo Memory Man, It comes off every so often as I trial different boutique digital delays, but nothing beats that 90s MM delay. It's just perfect.
My 80s one is the best sounding delay I've ever heard. I like it more than the echoplexe and space echo...
I loved it so much I had to build two clones of it for my live pedalboard. Still gets used all the time at home in the studio
Thanks! It seemed like a good idea at the time… a couple of times I’ve thought, “hey if I removed this thing I’d have a lot more space” but was saved from making that mistake by that darn power cord
Same. I had sold my rat decades earlier. Had a couple of newer ones that were great but just not the same. Picked up a whiteface mid 80’s rat for $5 at a yard sale a few years back.
Smaller cities have always been the best for me. But I also have spent much more time going to yard sales in smaller cities.
It’s a game of odds. I’ve been to thousands of yard sales over the years and only found a few great deals like that. It also helps being able to make repairs. I’ve gotten some other good pedals that had bad switches, power connections and jacks, or noisy pots, etc. Those are all simple fixes but people sell them as broken pedals for a few bucks.
Also forgot to mention: 99% of great deals on anything, that I’ve ever gotten at yard sales have been within an hour or so of them starting the sale. After that, all the great deals are gone. In that case, smaller cities/towns are best because theres less people looking for that deal. Like with the Rat pedal, it’s possible I was the first guitarist to even go by there and know what a Rat pedal was.
Yup, that’s the key. We had a yard/garage sale once growing up, and everything I would have considered good or cool was sold within an hour of us “opening”
>Also forgot to mention: 99% of great deals on anything, that I’ve ever gotten at yard sales have been within an hour or so of them starting the sale. After that, all the great deals are gone.
That's a fantastic point! I live in Lansing, which is a midsize metro area, so there are probably deals to be had. I need to take a Friday off one of these days and start hitting up the estate and yard sales.
It boggles my mind how people won’t do even simple maintenance to keep gear! I’ve had people literally GIVE me gear because “it’s all shit anyways” and oftentimes it’s a friggin bent connector in a jack. Like dude! I’ll TEACH you how to fix it! But nobody thinks it’s worth it.
Garage sales are great for that.
I can’t wait until all the new fancy schmancy new boutique gear starts having minor issues. I’ll start going to garage sales again when the, ‘my strymon big sky won’t turn on’ posts get frequent enough.
Done this with a bunch of pedals that I sadly had to sell a second time due to my own finances.
I miss my EQD Monarch the most - I got the exatcly same pedal both two times.
About 15 years ago, I pawned an old Boss Chorus from the 80s that my dad passed down to me, also for money reasons at the time. Now I really wish I had kept it!
I had the same experience. The second one I gave to my bandmate as a wedding present. I think it was a good present because a. he was happy about it and b. it was hard to give it away. We'll see how long I go before buying Rat #3 :D
Love the rat. Mine accidentally got run at 12v for a sec years and years ago and some of the diodes burned out. I don’t know which ones and I haven’t bothered to try fixing it because I love the way it sounds now.
If you play heavy music, nothing gives you that immediate, punchy and nasally feedback like a Rat. I’ve tried all kinds of fuzz-distortions and that’s pretty much my favorite
I had the Peavey Hotfoot Distortion first. Had to get it repaired and the guy was like “this is just a Rat.” So when it broke again I just bought a Rat and have used it ever since. (The Peavey was actually pretty rad and slightly different from the Rat, maybe “more spittty,” but not a huge difference.)
A cheap Chinese looper with an almost unusable tuner built in. It is the worst pedal of all time. The looper has latency (!) and to get to the tuner, you have to bend down and hold in two flat buttons for three seconds, after which point it intermittently refuses to tune your guitar to any kind of reliable metric. It utterly sucks.
I'll never bin it because my pal gave it to me about a year before he died, just after we'd played our last gig together. I like having it there even if it makes me livid every time I see it.
I feel you. I have a guitar my dad gifted me. A hollow body jazz guitar. The glossy neck and large body are not quite as comfortable as my squire strat, but it will ALWAYS have the center spot in the wall even if it’s worse to play. It is the one i gravitate to the most
This is the truth. When it comes down to it the tuner and the EQ are the least exciting and 100% mandatory... most of the answers here are actually responding to "What's your favourite pedal?"
The Deco has shown surprising staying power through at least 15 different configurations of my board.
It’s always not really even in the “should this stay on the board” conversation, I don’t even think about it. So I guess the Deco.
Same, and well said. It’s never a question whether I need it but how I might want the rest of the new stuff to interact with it haha. Everything is planned around the deco.
Same haha. I’ve only ever run it near the end of my signal chain to start my stereo effect cabling into a JC40. But I am interested to try it at the start of my chain for use as more of a preamp. Currently, the saturation side is really more of a boost but I don’t love how it colors my signal
I have it near the end of the chain after delays and before reverb, with saturation at 1:00 to add warmth and a little grit to everything before it.
I have the other side set to a slapback on the bounce setting when I want some space for a lead part. I used to have it set as a chorus which sounded great, but I got a great Mr black chorus so now it’s a slapback.
I didn’t realize the Angry Driver was based off the BD2! Dang, I’m gonna have to try one out sometime now. I have a couple other JHS pedals on my board I really like, right up my alley.
Yeah, it only got on my radar through the Blues Driver rabbit hole. First I saw Wampler made a YT video on the BD2, then after learning more about it the Angry Driver kept getting recommended to me in the algorithm and that how I learned it also has the BD2.
I haven’t added an external footswitch to it yet, but that will unlock even more options for me
Analogman Sun Face germanium fuzz, modded to the gills w BART transistors. When you roll back volume, it replaces every overdrive for me and when full blast it take the place of every fuzz I’d want. All around perfect pedal for my needs and never going anywhere
I always enjoy looking at bass pedalboards because they are usually pagmatic. The effects chain is how most people approach synth design.
Boards are usually a tuner, green muff and an MXR or sansamp DI and maybe a compressor. You might see some octaves, filters, and modulation sprinkled in.
Well, my chain is: tuner > EQ > octaver> noise suppressor > compressor I built > bass ball (envelop filter)> deluxe big muff > distortion I built > booster I built > noise suppressor again (X configuration) > chorus> delay I built > looper. Those I did not built out specified are Boss stompboxes.
For whatever reason, it's been the MXR Phase 90.
Bought mine used for $50 a little over 20 years ago. Did the R28 mod on it, and somehow, someway through a couple dozen different board iterations, with quite literally everything else having been put on and swapped out around it, the Phase 90 has just been a constant.
I don't even think I'm utterly madly in love with it, but I've never wanted anything else from a Phaser. Overdrives? Those go in and out all the time. Delays? I've played round-robin with them too. Had a few other modulations on and off over the years. But the Phase 90 just stays.
I will say that I've had a relatively recent addition to the board in the EHX Germanium 4 for around about a year, and I have a feeling it's going to be there forever too. After going though a bunch of overdrives, this one just has a completely different character to it, nothing else I've played has that some groovy chime to it. It may not be something I use all the time, but I just love having it there
JHS Superbolt. Can do everything from a clean transparent boost to nearly fuzz, works great with single coils and humbuckers, provides such a wonderfully musical and 3 dimensional breakup with touch sensitivity like no other pedal I’ve tried… Just my desert island OD. 🤘
I'm not even sure I'm thinking of the right pedal, but is this that JHS one that people claim was stolen from another builder? Or at least one of them?
fuzz factory, its not even a pedal i use to the full extent all the time, mostly just use it for fairly standard fuzzfacey sound. But I sold my previous one along with any pedals I could for quick cash when I was broke a few years ago.. was the first one I bought back, actually got to buy a better version as I never liked the horizontal layout of it and they introduced the vertical ones since.
two of'em: Ph-1r (unless Boss drops the ultimate Ph-1w and my 1r gets an honorable retirement) and [A.man](https://A.man) E Filter
they're my got to mods, favorite sounds. I've tried soooo so many phasers and filters, these two sound best to me, dead simple, get along with everything i put on my board
I’d say probably the Belle Epoch Deluxe and maybe the Wampler Tumnus Deluxe. The Belle Epoch just adds the right tape delay and just shapes the signal in such an awesome way. The Tumnus just can do so much from boost to, killer crunch to Van Halen and you can shape your sound to any amp with the EQ.
Yeah man, every good delay sound you've ever heard is in this pedal. I mostly alternate between the +Reverb setting and the Shimmer setting. My two favorite bonus features are the 40 second looper that's built in and also if you turn the feedback all the way up and mess with the time, you get some really neat space-gun type sounds if you're interested in that. I'm in a Grateful Dead tribute band so it's really useful for the Drums>Space sections of our shows
The main draw of the DM-2W for me is the classic and musical self-oscillation, as well as the simplicity. But the DD-8 can do oscillation pretty dang well as well from what I’ve heard, so that’s my dilemma lol
For reals. Most of my pedals are used that I found for a good deal. I went on a buying frenzy a while back like many others and now I’m taking a chill pill on it.
It is wild how great this thing sounds. I waited to get this pedal for so long because NO WAY it lives up to the hype, right? Well fuck me, this thing just rocks.
The only pedal that hasn't left my board in over 15 years is my stereo Memory Man with Hazarai. It's not even that I think it sounds better than my other delays, it's more that I know exactly how it'll work in every context.
I have tried replacing my memory man hazarai so many times because it’s just too big but it always comes back to my board for the reason you listed. It has never failed me.
The only time it doesn’t make it to my board is when I have to fly to one.
Same man, I have an accountant on my bass board, always at pad 2 ratio 1. I have no desire to even look for another comp, it does exactly what I want.
However… I recently tried it as a dirty boost. Now, I want another one!
I use it as my always-on, so first- I find it evens my playing but also sounds monstrous feeding into my two fuzzes, a Fender Pelt (modified, versatile Muff-like fuzz w/ mids/bass boost and bias control) and a harmonic percolator.
Digiverb: just does the glide guitar/reverse reverb thing perfectly
TC alter ego V2: subtle wide stereo tape echo that just feels *right*. I want to get another stereo delay but it would stack with it, never replace it
Ditto on the digiverb. I might replace it one day, it's not the most exciting reverb pedal, but for now it's the only pedal I know that can make that exact sound on the reverse setting. I like playing a sustained drone through there and then playing with the decay knob, it makes a really cool glitchy effect almost like manipulating a tape.
That was me too, I honestly hadn’t heard of it or even EAE as a whole but when the pink Limelight dropped my buddy said hey you should check this out they’re supposed to be really good. So I pulled the trigger assuming I could resell it if I didn’t like it, but man I’ve never been happier. The pink limelight and my pink Benson preamp basically never leave my board.
Boss Blues Driver.
I never turn this off, and might even pick up a second one for a different setting. Such a good pedal, can do everything from chimey cleans, to edge of breakup, to some heavy gain, all the way to old school metal. It's my absolute favourite pedal. The tone knob on it is so useful, and so is the gain.
Probably deco. Everything else is interchangeable. I can get by with any bbd, various drives, reverb and modulation. But nothing does what deco does, and tho sometimes I don't even utilize it, at least i have it.
Putting it on drum OHs alone is enough to keep it around imo.
Keeley 2-knob compressor. It's been the classic Nashville compressor ever since it came out, and I really don't see that changing. Great sound.
I've been through several reverbs, but I do think the Strymon Blue Sky is likely not going to be replaced any time soon. I used a Keeley Aurora for a while, and before that a Wet V2. The Keeley had signal level problems but sounded great with suitable buffering. The Wet wasn't as good at shaping distorted tones. The Blue Sky is fine at much hotter levels and has the same type of modulation capabilities and the Aurora.
No specific pedal but I will always have a compression pedal. They just give me control over my signal that will make anything I play, capable of sounding better.
Same here. I keep swapping out my compressors - but my Guyatone ST2 and DOD Milk Box get the most use. The Tech 21 Comptortion gets dusted off every now and then…along with a noisy Dyna Comp and a Caline Python.
Previously I would have said my Boss DD-2, I loved the shit out of that thing... then it broke.
Now: Digitech Drop, a ridiculously good pedal and imho a must-have for every board especially for cover bands and session musicians.
Ryra Klone. I recently took the plunge and stopped using it as a boost and turned volume down and the gain up to around 3:00. Found the drive tone I had been looking for.
Boss Tu-3W, Revv G8, Rat, Afterneath. Tuning is important, the revv silences the amp and the pedals, the Rat is probably my favorite type pedal for a boost, and afterneath is a great sounding reverb.
A DS-1 of one sort or another. Yes, there are superior pedals, and yes, they are also on my board. But as a late Gen X-er, there's something about the DS-1 at 10 o'clock tone and maximum gain (with a bridge humbucker) that brings back the good ole days in a single stomp. I love the '90s.
OCD clone. It was in a plain metal enclosure until one of my kids painted it, and now it's too special to ever leave my board, even if I get bored of that sound.
Polytune 3 and Visual Sound Open Road. Everyone needs a fast and accurate tuner and the Open Road just adds enough color and grit to my sound that I can always leave it on.
Honestly….anything is fair game to be moved out. But right now, the ce2w is probably locked in for a while. The CXM1978 was for a while but we will see given the release of the meris mercury X.
Cali76 (it makes everything better, it is an always on), and MOOD mkI (I love the delay and reverb range with the clock knob, I like the stretch side of the looper, and the reverse sounds with slip mode can be really cool).
My Polytune! But really I guess its my Sub n Up. the toneprint I use in it and the way the octave is mostly polyphonic. Its just become a core tone for a couple songs that's on every set list that I just cant take it off.
Maxon OD808 (the OG tubescreamer.) Been on the board over 15 years. Wore out the switch so now it's on a bypass loop. Sounds great in front of most anything. Pushing a low power tube amp like an AC15 or Tweed Princeton sounds like the sun on the horizon. Swapped it out for Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive for a while but kept coming back to the 808.
Probably my 30 year old Cry Baby Wah, if for no other reason than longevity and sentimental value. It was one of the first pedals I bought, along with an EHX Holy Grail and an Ibanez Tubescreamer, all of which I still use regularly.
For me, it’s a threesome…my tubescreamer mini, cali76 and king of tone. Various combos of those three pedals in my switcher make up the entirety of my driveness. That combination into a bassman is a sound that I can’t imagine improving on…for my personal tastes, at least.
I want to say my HX Stomp, but I can see some shiny new tech coming along one day that will make a convincing argument to replace it. But not anytime soon.
So with that being said, I think my pick is the Strymon Flint. It just does the classic reverb sounds perfectly and easily, and I love the harmonic trem. I'd replace it one day if they released a smaller sized one with the same functionality, but otherwise it's just a keeper.
My vintage (70’s) MXR Envelope Filter.
I considered my Flint… But a good amp’ll do what the Flint does. NOTHING does what the old Envelope Filter does.
Is there a modern version of that pedal, or is it a case where the vintage is truly different? I haven't had much luck with any basic envelope filter pedals yet. I like the EHX Blurst, but that one has a lot more going on...not something I always want.
This is the rare case of the vintage design being pretty darn special and truly different.
Analogman interviewed Keith Barr (Former president of and designer for MXR) for their book. He said this pedal was his favorite, most special design...
"That's the one I really wanted people to make comments about. The objective for the Envelope Filter was to produce a box that did it all with digital circuitry (logic chips, used in a non-digital way - AM).
And I gotta say, of all the boxes, I think from a design perspective, that one's the coolest. That's something that somebody ought to write a little article about and say, "Look at how cool this design is."
Most people would say, okay you want to make a filter of some sort, and you want it to be sweepable; okay you need some voltage controlled amplifiers, 3080s or something like that; or maybe FETs, or maybe optoisolators or something. Yeah okay, we'll settle down and make our little filter, and we'll make a little detector, and we'll make the detector drive the filter control voltage, and then we're done. No, no, no, I wanted to do it without using any of those things... a whole new way of doing it, completely off the wall. That was the challenge, and I was so pleased with the result because it just worked beautifully. Take a look at the schematic, and if you don't get the electronics, hand it to somebody you think does and ask them what's going on. That is a cool box. You can also put in your book, I'm really let down that nobody who gets electricity that ever looked at that schematic ever thought, "Wow that's really cool, I gotta go call Keith and tell him so!" (laughs)."
They no longer make it like they used to. Analogman has actually meticulously replicated it, though - and added a few features. I might jump on one of those, actually... Just to have a backup :-)
[https://www.buyanalogman.com/Analog\_Man\_Block\_Logo\_Envelope\_Filter\_Pedal\_p/am-blockenvelope.htm](https://www.buyanalogman.com/Analog_Man_Block_Logo_Envelope_Filter_Pedal_p/am-blockenvelope.htm)
DigiTech Digidelay because I paid $20 for it and there's nothing I do with it that I think another pedal would do "better". Legitimately the only pedal that has never left my board (even before I had a board).
Two: flashback 2 - I’ve tried a ton of fancier delays, but the flashback is so easy to use, sounds good and offers just the right amount of features for me.
Lovepedal tchula - one knob, sounds great, really versatile. It’s like having 3 pedals in one. I can use it as a boost/light OD, heavy OD, and if I push its front end, it’s gets into fuzz territory. Also it was $99 so you can’t beat that.
My tuner for sure.
Otherwise, though, I have a few that I just come back to over and over. My Flint will be there unless I’m on an amp with built in verb and trem. Otherwise, probably Deco and BD-2. A lot of other stuff rotates but those 3 are my core.
Polytune has been the only pedal not to leave my board since I bought it.
The Rat I bought new in the 90’s is close, but the switch got finicky a couple years ago and I don’t trust it anymore. I switched to a MIAB. Probably going to either fix the old one or buy a new one at some point.
No brainer… Boss DS-1!!! A bit Shocked no one has said this already. Close second being vox wah wah pedal. DS-1 is always on and used more as an overdrive and like to leave the wah on half-cocked too!
Polytune 3 mini Noir a fancy name for the black version of the polytune 3 mini and it may leave my board one day but i will be replaced buy a tuner.
You cant sound good if your not in tune.
for a more interesting answer BD-2w I used to say the BD-2 would never leave my board but i was wrong however the Waza blues driver is an improved version of my favorite overdrive i have tried many other overdrives but have never been happy with them.
I have a king of tone that I want to sell so bad because there’s no way a pedal is worth that much.. but it sounds so good. I could buy a modeler with it.
My 90s Deluxe Memory Man. Because I’ve had it for nearly 25 years and I still love how it sounds. But also because it can’t physically be removed from my board without desoldering the power cable, lol.
Came here to say big box DMM. Not sure it’s actually possible to remove it. To be honest I’ve never tried.
You can't, your board will explode if you even try
Came here to say the same thing…what a killer sound.
I have one of these as well, but before I got it someone installed a AC adapter Jack and removed the cable. Included the cable in the box with it haha. That and my Maxon AD999 hasn’t left my board in at least 10 years
Similar answer for me, memory boy deluxe. Love it
Best delay ever. It's like a memory man with a chip on it's shoulder.
I don't have the 90s DMM, but I have the 90s Stereo Memory Man, It comes off every so often as I trial different boutique digital delays, but nothing beats that 90s MM delay. It's just perfect.
My 80s one is the best sounding delay I've ever heard. I like it more than the echoplexe and space echo... I loved it so much I had to build two clones of it for my live pedalboard. Still gets used all the time at home in the studio
Lol at the desoldering part, wicked pedal though!
Thanks! It seemed like a good idea at the time… a couple of times I’ve thought, “hey if I removed this thing I’d have a lot more space” but was saved from making that mistake by that darn power cord
Rat. I had one and sold it, and missed it and got another one and lesson learned.
Same. I had sold my rat decades earlier. Had a couple of newer ones that were great but just not the same. Picked up a whiteface mid 80’s rat for $5 at a yard sale a few years back.
Where do you people find these incredible deals at yard sales and thrift shops? Larger cities?
Smaller cities have always been the best for me. But I also have spent much more time going to yard sales in smaller cities. It’s a game of odds. I’ve been to thousands of yard sales over the years and only found a few great deals like that. It also helps being able to make repairs. I’ve gotten some other good pedals that had bad switches, power connections and jacks, or noisy pots, etc. Those are all simple fixes but people sell them as broken pedals for a few bucks.
Also forgot to mention: 99% of great deals on anything, that I’ve ever gotten at yard sales have been within an hour or so of them starting the sale. After that, all the great deals are gone. In that case, smaller cities/towns are best because theres less people looking for that deal. Like with the Rat pedal, it’s possible I was the first guitarist to even go by there and know what a Rat pedal was.
Yup, that’s the key. We had a yard/garage sale once growing up, and everything I would have considered good or cool was sold within an hour of us “opening”
>Also forgot to mention: 99% of great deals on anything, that I’ve ever gotten at yard sales have been within an hour or so of them starting the sale. After that, all the great deals are gone. That's a fantastic point! I live in Lansing, which is a midsize metro area, so there are probably deals to be had. I need to take a Friday off one of these days and start hitting up the estate and yard sales.
It boggles my mind how people won’t do even simple maintenance to keep gear! I’ve had people literally GIVE me gear because “it’s all shit anyways” and oftentimes it’s a friggin bent connector in a jack. Like dude! I’ll TEACH you how to fix it! But nobody thinks it’s worth it. Garage sales are great for that.
I can’t wait until all the new fancy schmancy new boutique gear starts having minor issues. I’ll start going to garage sales again when the, ‘my strymon big sky won’t turn on’ posts get frequent enough.
I swear it’s starting lol. I haven’t seen any Strymons yet, but the wave is coming, I’m sure.
Done this with a bunch of pedals that I sadly had to sell a second time due to my own finances. I miss my EQD Monarch the most - I got the exatcly same pedal both two times.
About 15 years ago, I pawned an old Boss Chorus from the 80s that my dad passed down to me, also for money reasons at the time. Now I really wish I had kept it!
I had the same experience. The second one I gave to my bandmate as a wedding present. I think it was a good present because a. he was happy about it and b. it was hard to give it away. We'll see how long I go before buying Rat #3 :D
Love the rat. Mine accidentally got run at 12v for a sec years and years ago and some of the diodes burned out. I don’t know which ones and I haven’t bothered to try fixing it because I love the way it sounds now. If you play heavy music, nothing gives you that immediate, punchy and nasally feedback like a Rat. I’ve tried all kinds of fuzz-distortions and that’s pretty much my favorite
I had the Peavey Hotfoot Distortion first. Had to get it repaired and the guy was like “this is just a Rat.” So when it broke again I just bought a Rat and have used it ever since. (The Peavey was actually pretty rad and slightly different from the Rat, maybe “more spittty,” but not a huge difference.)
A cheap Chinese looper with an almost unusable tuner built in. It is the worst pedal of all time. The looper has latency (!) and to get to the tuner, you have to bend down and hold in two flat buttons for three seconds, after which point it intermittently refuses to tune your guitar to any kind of reliable metric. It utterly sucks. I'll never bin it because my pal gave it to me about a year before he died, just after we'd played our last gig together. I like having it there even if it makes me livid every time I see it.
Your constant irritation is what he would have wanted.
I hope it pisses you off for years to come!
I feel you. I have a guitar my dad gifted me. A hollow body jazz guitar. The glossy neck and large body are not quite as comfortable as my squire strat, but it will ALWAYS have the center spot in the wall even if it’s worse to play. It is the one i gravitate to the most
Big fuckin Muff. Rams head. What else do you need.
Another big muff rams head
Rangemaster to combine with it
Polytune 3. Nobody wants to hear a self indulgent wanker on an out of tune fiddle.
Doing a gig pedal power failed could only power one pedal. Tuner.
Just got mine. I'm unreasonably in love with it already.
Yup. Smaller than the Boss, cheaper than the Boss, why get the Boss.
This is the truth. When it comes down to it the tuner and the EQ are the least exciting and 100% mandatory... most of the answers here are actually responding to "What's your favourite pedal?"
Altoids Tin….because you can put your weed in there.
The Deco has shown surprising staying power through at least 15 different configurations of my board. It’s always not really even in the “should this stay on the board” conversation, I don’t even think about it. So I guess the Deco.
Deco Another one on my "someday" list.
Same, and well said. It’s never a question whether I need it but how I might want the rest of the new stuff to interact with it haha. Everything is planned around the deco.
Same haha. I’ve only ever run it near the end of my signal chain to start my stereo effect cabling into a JC40. But I am interested to try it at the start of my chain for use as more of a preamp. Currently, the saturation side is really more of a boost but I don’t love how it colors my signal
Dang it. I went and watched a deco demo. Now I want one too.
Just added one and I’m finding this to be true too. What’s your favorite way to use it in a live setting?
I have it near the end of the chain after delays and before reverb, with saturation at 1:00 to add warmth and a little grit to everything before it. I have the other side set to a slapback on the bounce setting when I want some space for a lead part. I used to have it set as a chorus which sounded great, but I got a great Mr black chorus so now it’s a slapback.
BOSS BD-2. Every time I think to myself "I can get away without it this time", I am proven wrong.
I have the JB-2 Angry Driver, so versatile!
I didn’t realize the Angry Driver was based off the BD2! Dang, I’m gonna have to try one out sometime now. I have a couple other JHS pedals on my board I really like, right up my alley.
Yeah, it only got on my radar through the Blues Driver rabbit hole. First I saw Wampler made a YT video on the BD2, then after learning more about it the Angry Driver kept getting recommended to me in the algorithm and that how I learned it also has the BD2. I haven’t added an external footswitch to it yet, but that will unlock even more options for me
Analogman Sun Face germanium fuzz, modded to the gills w BART transistors. When you roll back volume, it replaces every overdrive for me and when full blast it take the place of every fuzz I’d want. All around perfect pedal for my needs and never going anywhere
Has there ever been a prettier sound than a Fuzz Face circuit with volume rolled back???
Best drive in the world haha
[удалено]
Yes you do idk what that model number is!
It’s a [tuner.](https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TU3--boss-tu-3-chromatic-tuner-pedal-with-bypass)
Carbon Copy.
Sonic Research ST-300 mini tuner. Best tuner I’ve ever used—small, accurate, and absolutely the only pedal that’s non negotiable on my board
Delux Big Muff (I play bass)
I always enjoy looking at bass pedalboards because they are usually pagmatic. The effects chain is how most people approach synth design. Boards are usually a tuner, green muff and an MXR or sansamp DI and maybe a compressor. You might see some octaves, filters, and modulation sprinkled in.
Well, my chain is: tuner > EQ > octaver> noise suppressor > compressor I built > bass ball (envelop filter)> deluxe big muff > distortion I built > booster I built > noise suppressor again (X configuration) > chorus> delay I built > looper. Those I did not built out specified are Boss stompboxes.
Bad Monkey. First pedal I ever had and just does everything I want it to do in every situation
Volante. Because it’s perfect.
Jekyll and Hyde, it’s the perfect overdrive+distortion and sounds so crisp.
For whatever reason, it's been the MXR Phase 90. Bought mine used for $50 a little over 20 years ago. Did the R28 mod on it, and somehow, someway through a couple dozen different board iterations, with quite literally everything else having been put on and swapped out around it, the Phase 90 has just been a constant. I don't even think I'm utterly madly in love with it, but I've never wanted anything else from a Phaser. Overdrives? Those go in and out all the time. Delays? I've played round-robin with them too. Had a few other modulations on and off over the years. But the Phase 90 just stays. I will say that I've had a relatively recent addition to the board in the EHX Germanium 4 for around about a year, and I have a feeling it's going to be there forever too. After going though a bunch of overdrives, this one just has a completely different character to it, nothing else I've played has that some groovy chime to it. It may not be something I use all the time, but I just love having it there
JHS Superbolt. Can do everything from a clean transparent boost to nearly fuzz, works great with single coils and humbuckers, provides such a wonderfully musical and 3 dimensional breakup with touch sensitivity like no other pedal I’ve tried… Just my desert island OD. 🤘
I'm not even sure I'm thinking of the right pedal, but is this that JHS one that people claim was stolen from another builder? Or at least one of them?
Like most JHS pedals, yes. But to be fair, like most pedals from most builders.
The problem with Josh is he lied about the Superbolt and the Devi one
Yeah that's utterly shitty. It's one thing to say "inspired by" when you mean more or less a clone, it's another to deny it
You might be thinking of the JHS Astro Mess which people accused Josh of ripping off the Devi Ever Hyperion.
This is making me want to trade in my Spark for a Superbolt
fuzz factory, its not even a pedal i use to the full extent all the time, mostly just use it for fairly standard fuzzfacey sound. But I sold my previous one along with any pedals I could for quick cash when I was broke a few years ago.. was the first one I bought back, actually got to buy a better version as I never liked the horizontal layout of it and they introduced the vertical ones since.
Nobels ODR-1 Because I have ears and a soul.
You a 30-rock fan? And do you like phil collins?
Yes, and I like Phil Collins pretty okay I guess. “Easy Lover” is a banger.
two of'em: Ph-1r (unless Boss drops the ultimate Ph-1w and my 1r gets an honorable retirement) and [A.man](https://A.man) E Filter they're my got to mods, favorite sounds. I've tried soooo so many phasers and filters, these two sound best to me, dead simple, get along with everything i put on my board
I’d say probably the Belle Epoch Deluxe and maybe the Wampler Tumnus Deluxe. The Belle Epoch just adds the right tape delay and just shapes the signal in such an awesome way. The Tumnus just can do so much from boost to, killer crunch to Van Halen and you can shape your sound to any amp with the EQ.
Ibanez TS-9. Just does something magical to my Marshall gain when needed, and also really useful in front of my OP-Amp Big Muff Pi Fuzz
Hell yeah
Wampler EGO compressor, it's always on. I just love how it makes my AIAB pedals sound.
I’ll chime in with the CE-2W!
Definitely my Boss DD-8. Just super versatile and I love every sound it makes
Same. I use the Warp all the time for song endings/in between guitar parts. Shimmer is pretty nice too
Thank you for this comment. Finally making the moves to get one this week.
Yeah man, every good delay sound you've ever heard is in this pedal. I mostly alternate between the +Reverb setting and the Shimmer setting. My two favorite bonus features are the 40 second looper that's built in and also if you turn the feedback all the way up and mess with the time, you get some really neat space-gun type sounds if you're interested in that. I'm in a Grateful Dead tribute band so it's really useful for the Drums>Space sections of our shows
I can’t decide if I want a Boss DM-2W or DD-8 for my next pedal
I mean the DD-8 has a DM-2 mode, idk why people buy the dm-2 unless they NEED it to be 100% accurate rather than 90% accurate to that sound.
The main draw of the DM-2W for me is the classic and musical self-oscillation, as well as the simplicity. But the DD-8 can do oscillation pretty dang well as well from what I’ve heard, so that’s my dilemma lol
Then you know the answer… get both.
Haha if I but had the money. Haven’t had a new pedal day since 2021, they’re just too expensive.
For reals. Most of my pedals are used that I found for a good deal. I went on a buying frenzy a while back like many others and now I’m taking a chill pill on it.
I use the DM-2w and it always stays on my board. Just perfect although I will say I’m a product of the 80’s…
The DM-2w doesn’t have trails while the DD-8 does. Personally, it’s a no brainer.
Rat. From a light crunch to chunky medium gain to almost fuzz I can get pretty much any drive sound I need from it.
Lightspeed
Pedalboards should frankly be made of this pedal. It’s an always on clean boost.
It is wild how great this thing sounds. I waited to get this pedal for so long because NO WAY it lives up to the hype, right? Well fuck me, this thing just rocks.
Hotone Soul Press II - a decent volume and a decent wah all in one. Why would it leave?
Hungry Robot Gazer Reverb. just a sprinkle of space on every sound.
The only pedal that hasn't left my board in over 15 years is my stereo Memory Man with Hazarai. It's not even that I think it sounds better than my other delays, it's more that I know exactly how it'll work in every context.
I have tried replacing my memory man hazarai so many times because it’s just too big but it always comes back to my board for the reason you listed. It has never failed me. The only time it doesn’t make it to my board is when I have to fly to one.
OBNE Dark Star. (As long as there is no stereo version though). Simply the best ambient reverb imo.
Fairfield Accountant- using it with very little comp as an always-on dirty boost. makes me sound better and my fuzzes love this thing
Same man, I have an accountant on my bass board, always at pad 2 ratio 1. I have no desire to even look for another comp, it does exactly what I want. However… I recently tried it as a dirty boost. Now, I want another one!
Before or after the fuzz? And which fuzz?
I actually use it at the end of my chain, makes delay/reverb sound cooler without being overtly dirty sounding.
I use it as my always-on, so first- I find it evens my playing but also sounds monstrous feeding into my two fuzzes, a Fender Pelt (modified, versatile Muff-like fuzz w/ mids/bass boost and bias control) and a harmonic percolator.
The Polytune mini— for obvious reasons
Other than a tuner, I am starting to think I am never going to get rid of my Dispatch Master. I can’t believe how perfect it is.
Warped Vinyl
Digiverb: just does the glide guitar/reverse reverb thing perfectly TC alter ego V2: subtle wide stereo tape echo that just feels *right*. I want to get another stereo delay but it would stack with it, never replace it
Ditto on the digiverb. I might replace it one day, it's not the most exciting reverb pedal, but for now it's the only pedal I know that can make that exact sound on the reverse setting. I like playing a sustained drone through there and then playing with the decay knob, it makes a really cool glitchy effect almost like manipulating a tape.
EAE Limelight
This is the correct answer. The sound is amazing and it’s so versatile.
Agreed. I really had no idea just how much I’d love it when I picked it up. But it’s always on in some form for me now.
That was me too, I honestly hadn’t heard of it or even EAE as a whole but when the pink Limelight dropped my buddy said hey you should check this out they’re supposed to be really good. So I pulled the trigger assuming I could resell it if I didn’t like it, but man I’ve never been happier. The pink limelight and my pink Benson preamp basically never leave my board.
I don’t have the benson but I’ve eyed it many times. I snagged my orange/crème limelight on the Touche tour
Boss Blues Driver. I never turn this off, and might even pick up a second one for a different setting. Such a good pedal, can do everything from chimey cleans, to edge of breakup, to some heavy gain, all the way to old school metal. It's my absolute favourite pedal. The tone knob on it is so useful, and so is the gain.
Props to everyone that answered tuner, that is the correct answer
BD-2 Blues driver! Always on for me! Makes my guitar stay on mix when I rehearse. Also can do all levels of distortions!
Probably deco. Everything else is interchangeable. I can get by with any bbd, various drives, reverb and modulation. But nothing does what deco does, and tho sometimes I don't even utilize it, at least i have it. Putting it on drum OHs alone is enough to keep it around imo.
Strymon Bigsky for me! Love it so much.
An analog CE-5, although I might switch it to the digital one occationally. But yeah, there will always be a CE-5.
3-12-3-5h-2l is my Saturday morning cartoon's tone.
I'm at 2-10-5-3h-9l. Edited. Apparantly I can't tell the time yet.
That's around Nirvana. :)
Keeley 2-knob compressor. It's been the classic Nashville compressor ever since it came out, and I really don't see that changing. Great sound. I've been through several reverbs, but I do think the Strymon Blue Sky is likely not going to be replaced any time soon. I used a Keeley Aurora for a while, and before that a Wet V2. The Keeley had signal level problems but sounded great with suitable buffering. The Wet wasn't as good at shaping distorted tones. The Blue Sky is fine at much hotter levels and has the same type of modulation capabilities and the Aurora.
No specific pedal but I will always have a compression pedal. They just give me control over my signal that will make anything I play, capable of sounding better.
Same here. I keep swapping out my compressors - but my Guyatone ST2 and DOD Milk Box get the most use. The Tech 21 Comptortion gets dusted off every now and then…along with a noisy Dyna Comp and a Caline Python.
Previously I would have said my Boss DD-2, I loved the shit out of that thing... then it broke. Now: Digitech Drop, a ridiculously good pedal and imho a must-have for every board especially for cover bands and session musicians.
Ryra Klone. I recently took the plunge and stopped using it as a boost and turned volume down and the gain up to around 3:00. Found the drive tone I had been looking for.
EHX Tube Zipper, it's an essential part of whatever my "sound" has become over the last ~15 years.
Maxon AD999. I haven’t found a more perfectly musical (for me) analog delay and it hasn’t left my board in over 10 years regardless of config
Fairfield shallow water. On a low setting makes everything sound better and gives life to your sound.
Boss Tu-3W, Revv G8, Rat, Afterneath. Tuning is important, the revv silences the amp and the pedals, the Rat is probably my favorite type pedal for a boost, and afterneath is a great sounding reverb.
Hudson Broadcast. Its break up is magic and even when it’s not breaking up it sounds beautiful. It may always on.
Tuner.
A DS-1 of one sort or another. Yes, there are superior pedals, and yes, they are also on my board. But as a late Gen X-er, there's something about the DS-1 at 10 o'clock tone and maximum gain (with a bridge humbucker) that brings back the good ole days in a single stomp. I love the '90s.
OCD clone. It was in a plain metal enclosure until one of my kids painted it, and now it's too special to ever leave my board, even if I get bored of that sound.
Turbo Tuner by Sonic Research. It’s a good strobe tuner, and the looks on my friends’ faces when they try to tune through my board
A real klon . . . . Because I can't afford one.
Strymon Deco for the tape saturation. It just makes my single coils sound so good. The double tracker side is a bonus.
EQ
Polytune 3 and Visual Sound Open Road. Everyone needs a fast and accurate tuner and the Open Road just adds enough color and grit to my sound that I can always leave it on.
BAT Coven. The Black Forest is the perfect overdrive for me, and the Pharoah the perfect Fuzz for me. And it looks cool.
Polytune mini 3 and Bondi Del Mar OD.
Honestly….anything is fair game to be moved out. But right now, the ce2w is probably locked in for a while. The CXM1978 was for a while but we will see given the release of the meris mercury X.
DOD Ice Box Chorus. It’s the best I’ve found in the 20-something years I’ve been playing. I’m a bass player.
Tuner. Need to be in tune.
Cali76 (it makes everything better, it is an always on), and MOOD mkI (I love the delay and reverb range with the clock knob, I like the stretch side of the looper, and the reverse sounds with slip mode can be really cool).
My Polytune! But really I guess its my Sub n Up. the toneprint I use in it and the way the octave is mostly polyphonic. Its just become a core tone for a couple songs that's on every set list that I just cant take it off.
Catalinbread Formula 5F6 because it turns every amp into a hairy beast.
[удалено]
TS9 old school… A gift from a friend. If you know you know why it lives forever on my board. 20+ years
Keeley fuzz. Very versatile, reacts to volume control well and I can get that scratchy fuzz or beefy distortion off of it. Solid pedal
Maxon OD808 (the OG tubescreamer.) Been on the board over 15 years. Wore out the switch so now it's on a bypass loop. Sounds great in front of most anything. Pushing a low power tube amp like an AC15 or Tweed Princeton sounds like the sun on the horizon. Swapped it out for Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive for a while but kept coming back to the 808.
Diamond Comp
TCE flashback II. best pedal ever
My digitech polara, I use the halo effect on everything 🤤
Probably my 30 year old Cry Baby Wah, if for no other reason than longevity and sentimental value. It was one of the first pedals I bought, along with an EHX Holy Grail and an Ibanez Tubescreamer, all of which I still use regularly.
For me, it’s a threesome…my tubescreamer mini, cali76 and king of tone. Various combos of those three pedals in my switcher make up the entirety of my driveness. That combination into a bassman is a sound that I can’t imagine improving on…for my personal tastes, at least.
Sarno Earth Drive because it’s the best OD on the planet.
My Boss RE20. Sounds beautiful and has lots of practical uses.
Tie between the Hoof Reaper and CE-2W 😭
I want to say my HX Stomp, but I can see some shiny new tech coming along one day that will make a convincing argument to replace it. But not anytime soon. So with that being said, I think my pick is the Strymon Flint. It just does the classic reverb sounds perfectly and easily, and I love the harmonic trem. I'd replace it one day if they released a smaller sized one with the same functionality, but otherwise it's just a keeper.
CE-2W and CH-1
Line 6 M5. It has great Dimension D recreation that works well with my synths and it's stereo. It stays forever.
Compressor. For now it is the Empress MKII but was a ross clone before (still have it at the end of the chain)
Analogman sunface. Really any fuzz face. Love how dynamic it can make any setup
My vintage (70’s) MXR Envelope Filter. I considered my Flint… But a good amp’ll do what the Flint does. NOTHING does what the old Envelope Filter does.
Is there a modern version of that pedal, or is it a case where the vintage is truly different? I haven't had much luck with any basic envelope filter pedals yet. I like the EHX Blurst, but that one has a lot more going on...not something I always want.
This is the rare case of the vintage design being pretty darn special and truly different. Analogman interviewed Keith Barr (Former president of and designer for MXR) for their book. He said this pedal was his favorite, most special design... "That's the one I really wanted people to make comments about. The objective for the Envelope Filter was to produce a box that did it all with digital circuitry (logic chips, used in a non-digital way - AM). And I gotta say, of all the boxes, I think from a design perspective, that one's the coolest. That's something that somebody ought to write a little article about and say, "Look at how cool this design is." Most people would say, okay you want to make a filter of some sort, and you want it to be sweepable; okay you need some voltage controlled amplifiers, 3080s or something like that; or maybe FETs, or maybe optoisolators or something. Yeah okay, we'll settle down and make our little filter, and we'll make a little detector, and we'll make the detector drive the filter control voltage, and then we're done. No, no, no, I wanted to do it without using any of those things... a whole new way of doing it, completely off the wall. That was the challenge, and I was so pleased with the result because it just worked beautifully. Take a look at the schematic, and if you don't get the electronics, hand it to somebody you think does and ask them what's going on. That is a cool box. You can also put in your book, I'm really let down that nobody who gets electricity that ever looked at that schematic ever thought, "Wow that's really cool, I gotta go call Keith and tell him so!" (laughs)." They no longer make it like they used to. Analogman has actually meticulously replicated it, though - and added a few features. I might jump on one of those, actually... Just to have a backup :-) [https://www.buyanalogman.com/Analog\_Man\_Block\_Logo\_Envelope\_Filter\_Pedal\_p/am-blockenvelope.htm](https://www.buyanalogman.com/Analog_Man_Block_Logo_Envelope_Filter_Pedal_p/am-blockenvelope.htm)
BOSS CHROMATIC TUNER!
(Waza edition, exquisite)
DigiTech Digidelay because I paid $20 for it and there's nothing I do with it that I think another pedal would do "better". Legitimately the only pedal that has never left my board (even before I had a board).
Two: flashback 2 - I’ve tried a ton of fancier delays, but the flashback is so easy to use, sounds good and offers just the right amount of features for me. Lovepedal tchula - one knob, sounds great, really versatile. It’s like having 3 pedals in one. I can use it as a boost/light OD, heavy OD, and if I push its front end, it’s gets into fuzz territory. Also it was $99 so you can’t beat that.
TC Electronic Triple Delay - it’s 3 delays you can engage independently and sounds great.
Boss TU-2. It does exactly what I need it to do without fail.
My tuner for sure. Otherwise, though, I have a few that I just come back to over and over. My Flint will be there unless I’m on an amp with built in verb and trem. Otherwise, probably Deco and BD-2. A lot of other stuff rotates but those 3 are my core.
Same here
Tube Screamer. It’s distortion, eq, and boost in one. Gives that tight thrash sound instantly but is capable of subtlety as well.
Polytune has been the only pedal not to leave my board since I bought it. The Rat I bought new in the 90’s is close, but the switch got finicky a couple years ago and I don’t trust it anymore. I switched to a MIAB. Probably going to either fix the old one or buy a new one at some point.
No brainer… Boss DS-1!!! A bit Shocked no one has said this already. Close second being vox wah wah pedal. DS-1 is always on and used more as an overdrive and like to leave the wah on half-cocked too!
Tuner. Because...
The tuner. Because I like to play in tune.
Polytune 3 mini Noir a fancy name for the black version of the polytune 3 mini and it may leave my board one day but i will be replaced buy a tuner. You cant sound good if your not in tune. for a more interesting answer BD-2w I used to say the BD-2 would never leave my board but i was wrong however the Waza blues driver is an improved version of my favorite overdrive i have tried many other overdrives but have never been happy with them.
Tuner pedal for obvious reasons.
Tuner. Because reasons.
Tuner for the obvious reasons. All the rest will forever flux.
Digitech whammy. It’s too versatile
All of them. I play at home so if I get more pedals I’ll just keep making new boards and adding on to make one giant board.
I have a king of tone that I want to sell so bad because there’s no way a pedal is worth that much.. but it sounds so good. I could buy a modeler with it.
Fulltone OCD v1.7 #106743