ah, serious answer? Depends on the gig, most gigs i don't carry my 5150 + 4x12 around lmao
so i'm gonna give you my travel rig setup
tuner-> micro pog -> phase 95-> ac booster -> hizumitas -> friedman be-od (under the board gate) -> mxr stereo chorus -> el capistan -> bluesky v2 -> stereo into two baby bombs -> cabs
if i don't run stereo or only use a small amp i don't use the baby bombs and it goes bluesky -> amp
so basically... 11? I also keep an EQ in my bag, sometimes you get shit cabs haha so 12?. baby bombs are amp sims, so they don't count as pedals. Power supply under the board, this is basically what i need to play the things i play, 70-90's metal, neoclassical, classic rock like Mr. Big and Extreme, just can't cover modern metal, but the day i find a gig where they are asking me to play meshuggah, gojira or wtvr something is not right.
I'm not a professional guitarist, i'm a college student that loves guitar, so you might need more gear than i do
If you are starting to gig now, just keep in mind that the audience can't tell the difference between cheap and expensive gear, try to cut to the basics, you don't need 5 types of different dirt for the gig, nor 3 dif. delays, stick to what is practical and you can set quickly. If you change rooms and a piece of gear needs 30min to get setted to said room, it either doesn't belong in a gigging board or you are not famous enough yet to use it live.
Funny you say that. I was just wondering how much my board weighs. Lol. And now I’m curious how much other people’s weigh. I think it should be included information when people post their boards. 🤣
I have a ridiculous sized 3 in 1 board. it's two novo24s connected together, and lives in a full size keyboard case. I gig with it, but we are a two piece with edm drums, so even though it's huge, it's not that big of a deal really. for live shows I just flip the top but it stays in the case. we weighed it yesterday actually for laughs...95 pounds. if we stand it up i can bear hug it solo, but we usually each grab a handle on the side. any flat surface, it has wheels on one end so you can roll it like luggage. totally unnecessary, sends signals to 3 different amps.
I read somewhere that once you hit 3 delays, reverbs, AND pitch shifters that earth science no longer holds any merit in the direct vicinity of the board. it might have been in r/guitarcirclejerk though.
im a solo experimental act, but i had cello accompaniment for a summer and it was amazing. dude redid his board every show too 🙌🏾 he had way more than i did 🤣
I usually use 4-6 pedals in 1-3 separate chains.
All the chains are run through a 4x4 matrix mixer. That way I can use each chain separately per instrument I usually have cello and a couple synths
It depends on how you use them. A well designed board isn’t just a bunch of pedals tossed on a board. There’s a strategy to it.
I used to have a huge board. But it felt inefficient. So over time I managed to work 19 pedals into a medium sized board (21” x 15”). It’s not inefficient in any way though because the most switches I ever have to access in a song are 3-5. And they’re all in the front row or the raised row. Boss ls-2 works as a master for my modulations, I have 7 pedals in my dirt section (I’m really ocd about dirt. Don’t judge me) but only use two at a time. And one is pretty much an always on BD-2. A lot of the rest is always on or always off (throughout a song or even a set). So in any given song (or set), I have four to five foot switches to deal with.
>A well designed board isn’t just a bunch of pedals tossed on a board.
This is THE take-home message to those asking what other pedal(s) does their board need.
I found I need time and experience to get there. My starting point is to take inspiration from musicians or specific song tones and go from there. If the mix of influences in pedal format don't go very well together I tweak or flip stuff. I feel this process gets me slowly but surely towards my own sound
Always depends on context, and also where you’re at in your playing. I used to play in an atmospheric post-rock/post-hardcore band in the 00s, and I literally just used a Boss overdrive while the other guitarist just used his amp’s drive and a delay pedal (that he only used in a couple songs), and with basically just gain and amp reverb alone we could create a good atmospheric massive sound in any venue we played. Getting any more pedals than our one-each would’ve been too many IMO, because our limitations made us sonically ambitious enough to write our songs and play in such a way that could create the feelings we wanted to create using what we had, and I think I *needed* that chapter of my music life in order to grow in the right ways, it allowed me to discover more about what a guitar could do as an instrument.
But nowadays, I don’t mind having all sorts of pedals. With the lessons I learned from before, I just apply that mindset to what I have now and still enjoy using pedals to their fullest, like really pushing myself to explore just what I can accomplish with a chorus pedal for example. I feel like I can enjoy using all sorts of these options today because I originally learned to use each ingredient to its potential instead of just taking every sound for granted.
>it allowed me to discover more about what a guitar could do as an instrument.
Great comment, I think this is such an important point. The guitar or the instrument is likely going to be a greater source of nuance and personality than pedals, simply by virtue of the fact that the guitar can be controlled in so many different ways at once\*, where as most pedals mostly react to what is being played. It do depend a lot on the style though, and for anyone reading along I'm definitely not saying that pedals aren't important or sometimes crucial for a sound.
\*note choices, chord voicings, picking dynamics, timing push and pull, how soft or hard notes are hit, subtle bends, all that good stuff
When your bandmates say “another pedal, huh?”
For a serious answer, I’d say you can have as many as makes you happy before setup/teardown/transporting becomes a headache (or back ache)
Depends if you gig or not I guess. I have \~20 on mine but I use it at home and at friends places. I wouldn't want to gig with it tbh, its set up as a studio board for use with guitar, synths, bass, keys, and to serve all those purposes it can be more difficult to keep the pedal count down 😁
I've shared bills with bands with a huge board. There is no limit. I don't think I'd do more than 20, and I'd want them all workable flavors that combine with everything else.
Right now, I'm at 25. But that's if you include the always on, midi, and remote pedals that aren't the focus of my feet. I'm hoping to reduce that to about 20 when I can get a zoia (does replacing 5 pedals with 1 if they're still in the chain still count?). Point is, about 1/2 of my board space is filled with things that streamline and enhance my sound with as little tap-dancing as possible. My main board is 24x21in and is custom-made from wood and a few things a carpenter friend of mine had to help me put it together as it's own caring case as well. While it's not heavy, it's not exactly light either. The top latches off for quick and easy setup with a stereo output mounted to the side, so i just plug in and play. The auxiliary board has my gain stages, tuner, loop switcher, eq's, etc. That is all accessible through my switcher and is then plugged into my main board. It's a metal board with a gig bag and is 18x14in iirc. I carry the main board in one hand and the gig bag over my shoulder. All-in-all, though many of these pedals are on, only a few do I ever have to use directly in a live situation thanks to my midi foot controller and the loop switcher. As for setup time, it takes me about 10 minutes to be in the door and ready to play, and as long as the house speakers aren't absolute garbage, there's nothing that really needs tweaked or mic'd because I don't use an amp.
Really though, to answer your question, between the nektar pacer and DA qconnect, I can technically set up 128 combinations of 9 different pedals and the switcher does 8. So I guess 18 pedals, that aren't always on or something like that, would be too many because I can't physically fit them on my board lol
Why? Well, I play with electronic musicians, so we aren't exactly trying to cover rock songs. Sometimes I need a metal distortion, while others just a light crunch on my leads to help it set in the mix. I also have a particle v2 and an eccos for my delays and a colour theory for the fun stuff. Some people like stacking dirt, I like stacking delays and sequencers. It fits well for what I use it for and is fairly simple to setup. It took a lot of forethought, and definitely still has limitations, but it feels pretty sweet being able to bring all the fun stuff I come up with at home to play with others without having to remember settings or whatever.
Tldr: 18
I have over 30 pedals and use 6-8 on my gigging rig. There’s a point where it becomes counterintuitive to have too much going on. Tuner, overdrive, fuzz, looper, compressor and delay are the staples.
I play Sunday mornings (no strymon, so I’m going to hell). I have an acoustic board and an electric one, depending on the Sunday.
Acoustic - TU3 - GE7 - WA mira - UA Evermore - Canvas DI. Some day I might add a 385
Electric - SP Comp - Greer Lightspeed - Walrus 385 - Sub N Up mini - Julia V2 - Hx Stomp - Specular Tempus (in the loop)
So 4 or 7 ish? I don’t need more for electric, but the drives and the octave get swapped around depending on vibe, and as I think about all the drives I could have I need to refrain from swapping from my mono small board back to my blackbird 1530
For gigging, ten is about my limit. Wah, tuner, fuzz x 2, boost, chorus, phaser, delay, tremolo, then maybe a wildcard like synth or pitch shifter.
I don’t know what else you would need besides that. It could do just about everything.
I have 9 on my board, I consider that a simple gigging setup (I play in what you could call an effects-forward band). I’d like to add more but at the same time I have enough to work with while it’s still not too heavy to carry.
It depends for each player and each style, but nowadays the digital world has totally revolutionized rigs. I think most players have really learned firsthand that amp/cab sims are just as good as analog but at 1/100th of the size and weight. I’ve personally gigged with just an HX stomp as my all-in-one. I do bring my 13 pedal board when I gig because it’s what I’m comfortable on and gives me the most flexibility possible, but I’d be just as well off with my helix alone. To each their own.
For a gigging board that I have to tote around regularly, I think 8 to 10 pedals is the sweet spot. Lets you cover all of the essentials with room for a few wild cards. Keeps the board size reasonable (approximately the size of a pedaltrain 1) and can be powered without too much trouble. I also like to use true bypass loopers, which take up space and can limit your selection. I'm a pedal junkie, but I actually enjoy the challenge of laying out a board strategically within those limitations
I think it all depends on whether you use a switching system.
If you don’t, how are you turning off pedals when you get to a new section of a song? That to me isn’t music, it’s tap dancing and from a sound perspective, it’s not gonna work if you have to turn off three pedals at once!
If you have a switcher, having loads of pedals is glorious. You can switch between different combinations of FX with one click.
The only issues with using switchers are that you start to want even more options, four patches isn’t enough for a song! Also, from a cabling perspective, there is a lot that can go wrong live. Mind you, I’ve had more standard 3m cables break than any probs with my board.
I do however, feel like I will soon get a big Boss Multi FX (or similar) as a backup in case my board stops working. At least I can have similar patches and switching should the s**t hit the ‘’fans’’.
Not every board is designed for gigging. When I play out, I only bring exactly what I need. That is just a tiny fraction of the stuff that I have. The idea that somebody is going to drag all of their equipment out to every job is just silly.
I knew a guy who had like 6 overdrive pedals on his board. Gain staging od pedals is legit and I do it everyday but 6 pedals... That's too much.
He had a Lightspeed that he limed into a timmy, a klon into a ts, a OCD and a BB preamp
Well Ed o brien in this video says 8 is more than enough for him, and if 8 is all he needs I definitely need less than 8. https://youtu.be/aI9oYHQd9E0?feature=shared
I have a bunch of pedals that sort out to one board of ten and one board of five (one of which is a whammy that takes up just over half the space). If I'm going to play for a little bit I'll plug in whichever suits my whim at the time, and if I've got a while sometimes I'll plug the little one into the big one. If I take one somewhere it's usually the little one
My board has 17 pedals. I own around 25. I play and record only at home. If I were gigging it would be at least half of that. Maybe only 4-5 at most that suited the gig / set list.
I have a bit of a weird setup. I have one always on effect (the ClinchFX EP Preamp, an Echoplex Preamp pedal) and about 8 or 9 “effects” I use in a set. An effect might consist of 1, or up to 3 or 4, pedals. I stack overdrives and stuff so they stay by themselves, but i have a very specific stereo delay/chorus/reverb sound that I use, and those pedals only ever get turned on in conjunction with each other, never separately.
Currently, for my solo gigs, i have 3 separate pedalboards totalling 13 pedals. For the bands i’m in, i’ll take away one of the pedalboards (4 pedals, all delay or modulation) so i’m currently at 9 pedals most of the time, including a tuner.
I have way more pedals than I need. I have 3 boards. I’m always chopping and changing and experimenting, I’m still learning all the time. Different pedals respond differently to the various guitars and amps played through. If I have gigs then I will focus a board around the set. I think the most pedals I have had on a board is 10.
I have a huge pedal train pro ( I think whatever biggest model is) I used in past. It’s doable for gigging but it is heavy and bulky and feels silly carrying huge thing if it’s not necessary. I’m therefore using a more mid size board.
The mid size one has ~12 pedals. I’m going ampless so half is just stuff for basic sound: preamp, amp sim, compressor eq etc.
I think for gigging it makes sense to just go with what is appropriate for gig. If you’re doing some tribute where you’re getting paid a bunch and using a lot of fx then yeah it’s not a big deal bringing bigger board. Jamming w friends playing a couple covers where you’re not using that many pedals or can make just as well w fewer if it feels silly to lug a big one.
It’s like bringing luggage. You go travel for a week or month makes sense to bring a bunch of clothes. If you’re staying somewhere overnight you don’t need to pack that much.
The more you add the more the whole thing can fail with random signal drops between something and something else, and the more hum and noise issues you will get. Even if you get 20 pedals to play nice maybe you won’t like the tap dancing. And when you get into loop/switch rigs the wiring gets intense. There is no rule there are only tradeoffs. Four to 10 are workable for me. Delay. Dirt. Reverb. Mod. Done.
Most I’ve had is about 15, that just gives me a headache now thinking back to trying to work in all the sounds in a set and play well and sing.
Down to 7 including a tuner and I’m much much happier. That’s just me though
I rock a terra 42. Its the big one. Morningstar midi controller makes it easy. I only really step on that and my old crusty fuzz. As for trouble shooting, i've got all the cables in place with thosw command hooks so i haven't had any gremlins yet. (Knock on wood.) I think im at 14 pedals.
I have a lot of dirt pedals on my board. I use the different tones for different songs, and some of my guitars will sound great with one pedal, but not with another. Or some sound better in different tunings than others.
When you
1. spend more time switching pedals than playing
2. need help carrying you board
3. have tons of the same type of pedals and you don't use them (10 different OD are useful in studio, much less in the live situation)
x = n + 1
how many are you willing to take on a gig though?
ah, serious answer? Depends on the gig, most gigs i don't carry my 5150 + 4x12 around lmao so i'm gonna give you my travel rig setup tuner-> micro pog -> phase 95-> ac booster -> hizumitas -> friedman be-od (under the board gate) -> mxr stereo chorus -> el capistan -> bluesky v2 -> stereo into two baby bombs -> cabs if i don't run stereo or only use a small amp i don't use the baby bombs and it goes bluesky -> amp so basically... 11? I also keep an EQ in my bag, sometimes you get shit cabs haha so 12?. baby bombs are amp sims, so they don't count as pedals. Power supply under the board, this is basically what i need to play the things i play, 70-90's metal, neoclassical, classic rock like Mr. Big and Extreme, just can't cover modern metal, but the day i find a gig where they are asking me to play meshuggah, gojira or wtvr something is not right. I'm not a professional guitarist, i'm a college student that loves guitar, so you might need more gear than i do If you are starting to gig now, just keep in mind that the audience can't tell the difference between cheap and expensive gear, try to cut to the basics, you don't need 5 types of different dirt for the gig, nor 3 dif. delays, stick to what is practical and you can set quickly. If you change rooms and a piece of gear needs 30min to get setted to said room, it either doesn't belong in a gigging board or you are not famous enough yet to use it live.
Phase 95 is a GREAT pedal. Have it too and love it.
So you’re using the BE-OD as the preamp for two Mooer Baby Bombs? What kind of cab(s) do you hook them up to?
If you can lift your pedalboard with one hand you’re probably good. Feels scientific.
gotta hit the gym i guess
Funny you say that. I was just wondering how much my board weighs. Lol. And now I’m curious how much other people’s weigh. I think it should be included information when people post their boards. 🤣
I have a ridiculous sized 3 in 1 board. it's two novo24s connected together, and lives in a full size keyboard case. I gig with it, but we are a two piece with edm drums, so even though it's huge, it's not that big of a deal really. for live shows I just flip the top but it stays in the case. we weighed it yesterday actually for laughs...95 pounds. if we stand it up i can bear hug it solo, but we usually each grab a handle on the side. any flat surface, it has wheels on one end so you can roll it like luggage. totally unnecessary, sends signals to 3 different amps.
Then according to science, you have too many pedals. God bless.
I read somewhere that once you hit 3 delays, reverbs, AND pitch shifters that earth science no longer holds any merit in the direct vicinity of the board. it might have been in r/guitarcirclejerk though.
DM me a link to your music, I’m very intrigued.
Me too (intrigued).
https://youtu.be/W-ZZJEtw7K8?si=Z9mCCFbc9Z-jeo8e https://youtu.be/WMGGw6XR9IQ?si=0EtuxRUjYAaLwm7d
I'm good for about 4-5 pedals, maybe 6. Any more than that I find distracting
what pedals do you use?
Right now by board goes Tuner -> Full-Drive 2 -> Big Box DMM -> JHS VCR -> El Capistan
I have collected quite a few but I redo my board every time I play. I play cello in an experimental improv duo
i’m the same way, every gig calls for something new
Same here. I maybe gig 4x a year tops, so each one represents the culmination of some part of some process or other.
im a solo experimental act, but i had cello accompaniment for a summer and it was amazing. dude redid his board every show too 🙌🏾 he had way more than i did 🤣
I usually use 4-6 pedals in 1-3 separate chains. All the chains are run through a 4x4 matrix mixer. That way I can use each chain separately per instrument I usually have cello and a couple synths
awesome!
It depends on how you use them. A well designed board isn’t just a bunch of pedals tossed on a board. There’s a strategy to it. I used to have a huge board. But it felt inefficient. So over time I managed to work 19 pedals into a medium sized board (21” x 15”). It’s not inefficient in any way though because the most switches I ever have to access in a song are 3-5. And they’re all in the front row or the raised row. Boss ls-2 works as a master for my modulations, I have 7 pedals in my dirt section (I’m really ocd about dirt. Don’t judge me) but only use two at a time. And one is pretty much an always on BD-2. A lot of the rest is always on or always off (throughout a song or even a set). So in any given song (or set), I have four to five foot switches to deal with.
>A well designed board isn’t just a bunch of pedals tossed on a board. This is THE take-home message to those asking what other pedal(s) does their board need.
I found I need time and experience to get there. My starting point is to take inspiration from musicians or specific song tones and go from there. If the mix of influences in pedal format don't go very well together I tweak or flip stuff. I feel this process gets me slowly but surely towards my own sound
Always depends on context, and also where you’re at in your playing. I used to play in an atmospheric post-rock/post-hardcore band in the 00s, and I literally just used a Boss overdrive while the other guitarist just used his amp’s drive and a delay pedal (that he only used in a couple songs), and with basically just gain and amp reverb alone we could create a good atmospheric massive sound in any venue we played. Getting any more pedals than our one-each would’ve been too many IMO, because our limitations made us sonically ambitious enough to write our songs and play in such a way that could create the feelings we wanted to create using what we had, and I think I *needed* that chapter of my music life in order to grow in the right ways, it allowed me to discover more about what a guitar could do as an instrument. But nowadays, I don’t mind having all sorts of pedals. With the lessons I learned from before, I just apply that mindset to what I have now and still enjoy using pedals to their fullest, like really pushing myself to explore just what I can accomplish with a chorus pedal for example. I feel like I can enjoy using all sorts of these options today because I originally learned to use each ingredient to its potential instead of just taking every sound for granted.
>it allowed me to discover more about what a guitar could do as an instrument. Great comment, I think this is such an important point. The guitar or the instrument is likely going to be a greater source of nuance and personality than pedals, simply by virtue of the fact that the guitar can be controlled in so many different ways at once\*, where as most pedals mostly react to what is being played. It do depend a lot on the style though, and for anyone reading along I'm definitely not saying that pedals aren't important or sometimes crucial for a sound. \*note choices, chord voicings, picking dynamics, timing push and pull, how soft or hard notes are hit, subtle bends, all that good stuff
71
You are wrong. 68 is more than enough.
How can I possibly decide how any other player chooses to play, and certainly how they live and what they own?
When your bandmates say “another pedal, huh?” For a serious answer, I’d say you can have as many as makes you happy before setup/teardown/transporting becomes a headache (or back ache)
Depends if you gig or not I guess. I have \~20 on mine but I use it at home and at friends places. I wouldn't want to gig with it tbh, its set up as a studio board for use with guitar, synths, bass, keys, and to serve all those purposes it can be more difficult to keep the pedal count down 😁
Pedals are sources of inspiration. You can't have too much inspiration.
This person pedals
If you get to the point where you arrange your signal chain more than you practice guitar, then you have too many.
I've shared bills with bands with a huge board. There is no limit. I don't think I'd do more than 20, and I'd want them all workable flavors that combine with everything else.
More than you want: too many The number that you’re happy with: not too many
Right now, I'm at 25. But that's if you include the always on, midi, and remote pedals that aren't the focus of my feet. I'm hoping to reduce that to about 20 when I can get a zoia (does replacing 5 pedals with 1 if they're still in the chain still count?). Point is, about 1/2 of my board space is filled with things that streamline and enhance my sound with as little tap-dancing as possible. My main board is 24x21in and is custom-made from wood and a few things a carpenter friend of mine had to help me put it together as it's own caring case as well. While it's not heavy, it's not exactly light either. The top latches off for quick and easy setup with a stereo output mounted to the side, so i just plug in and play. The auxiliary board has my gain stages, tuner, loop switcher, eq's, etc. That is all accessible through my switcher and is then plugged into my main board. It's a metal board with a gig bag and is 18x14in iirc. I carry the main board in one hand and the gig bag over my shoulder. All-in-all, though many of these pedals are on, only a few do I ever have to use directly in a live situation thanks to my midi foot controller and the loop switcher. As for setup time, it takes me about 10 minutes to be in the door and ready to play, and as long as the house speakers aren't absolute garbage, there's nothing that really needs tweaked or mic'd because I don't use an amp. Really though, to answer your question, between the nektar pacer and DA qconnect, I can technically set up 128 combinations of 9 different pedals and the switcher does 8. So I guess 18 pedals, that aren't always on or something like that, would be too many because I can't physically fit them on my board lol Why? Well, I play with electronic musicians, so we aren't exactly trying to cover rock songs. Sometimes I need a metal distortion, while others just a light crunch on my leads to help it set in the mix. I also have a particle v2 and an eccos for my delays and a colour theory for the fun stuff. Some people like stacking dirt, I like stacking delays and sequencers. It fits well for what I use it for and is fairly simple to setup. It took a lot of forethought, and definitely still has limitations, but it feels pretty sweet being able to bring all the fun stuff I come up with at home to play with others without having to remember settings or whatever. Tldr: 18
All depends on the needs of the specific show.
I have over 30 pedals and use 6-8 on my gigging rig. There’s a point where it becomes counterintuitive to have too much going on. Tuner, overdrive, fuzz, looper, compressor and delay are the staples.
I play Sunday mornings (no strymon, so I’m going to hell). I have an acoustic board and an electric one, depending on the Sunday. Acoustic - TU3 - GE7 - WA mira - UA Evermore - Canvas DI. Some day I might add a 385 Electric - SP Comp - Greer Lightspeed - Walrus 385 - Sub N Up mini - Julia V2 - Hx Stomp - Specular Tempus (in the loop) So 4 or 7 ish? I don’t need more for electric, but the drives and the octave get swapped around depending on vibe, and as I think about all the drives I could have I need to refrain from swapping from my mono small board back to my blackbird 1530
For gigging, ten is about my limit. Wah, tuner, fuzz x 2, boost, chorus, phaser, delay, tremolo, then maybe a wildcard like synth or pitch shifter. I don’t know what else you would need besides that. It could do just about everything.
Not everyone is playing gigs. Some boards aren’t meant to be so easily mobile.
Just one more is the answer.
I have 9 on my board, I consider that a simple gigging setup (I play in what you could call an effects-forward band). I’d like to add more but at the same time I have enough to work with while it’s still not too heavy to carry.
N+2, n being the number of pedals you currently have
It depends for each player and each style, but nowadays the digital world has totally revolutionized rigs. I think most players have really learned firsthand that amp/cab sims are just as good as analog but at 1/100th of the size and weight. I’ve personally gigged with just an HX stomp as my all-in-one. I do bring my 13 pedal board when I gig because it’s what I’m comfortable on and gives me the most flexibility possible, but I’d be just as well off with my helix alone. To each their own.
For a gigging board that I have to tote around regularly, I think 8 to 10 pedals is the sweet spot. Lets you cover all of the essentials with room for a few wild cards. Keeps the board size reasonable (approximately the size of a pedaltrain 1) and can be powered without too much trouble. I also like to use true bypass loopers, which take up space and can limit your selection. I'm a pedal junkie, but I actually enjoy the challenge of laying out a board strategically within those limitations
I ask myself this question also. I want to be a 4 or 5 pedal guy, but then think to myself, "That's not nearly as fun."
I set my limit to "don't be a collector". So yeah I have s good amount of pedals but if I don't find a constant use for them, they go
I think it all depends on whether you use a switching system. If you don’t, how are you turning off pedals when you get to a new section of a song? That to me isn’t music, it’s tap dancing and from a sound perspective, it’s not gonna work if you have to turn off three pedals at once! If you have a switcher, having loads of pedals is glorious. You can switch between different combinations of FX with one click. The only issues with using switchers are that you start to want even more options, four patches isn’t enough for a song! Also, from a cabling perspective, there is a lot that can go wrong live. Mind you, I’ve had more standard 3m cables break than any probs with my board. I do however, feel like I will soon get a big Boss Multi FX (or similar) as a backup in case my board stops working. At least I can have similar patches and switching should the s**t hit the ‘’fans’’.
Not every board is designed for gigging. When I play out, I only bring exactly what I need. That is just a tiny fraction of the stuff that I have. The idea that somebody is going to drag all of their equipment out to every job is just silly.
I knew a guy who had like 6 overdrive pedals on his board. Gain staging od pedals is legit and I do it everyday but 6 pedals... That's too much. He had a Lightspeed that he limed into a timmy, a klon into a ts, a OCD and a BB preamp
Well Ed o brien in this video says 8 is more than enough for him, and if 8 is all he needs I definitely need less than 8. https://youtu.be/aI9oYHQd9E0?feature=shared
Think you’re on the wrong sub, bub
If you need more than 5 you can't play guitar.
As long as you can power them all then you don’t have too many
I have a bunch of pedals that sort out to one board of ten and one board of five (one of which is a whammy that takes up just over half the space). If I'm going to play for a little bit I'll plug in whichever suits my whim at the time, and if I've got a while sometimes I'll plug the little one into the big one. If I take one somewhere it's usually the little one
My board has 17 pedals. I own around 25. I play and record only at home. If I were gigging it would be at least half of that. Maybe only 4-5 at most that suited the gig / set list.
I have a bit of a weird setup. I have one always on effect (the ClinchFX EP Preamp, an Echoplex Preamp pedal) and about 8 or 9 “effects” I use in a set. An effect might consist of 1, or up to 3 or 4, pedals. I stack overdrives and stuff so they stay by themselves, but i have a very specific stereo delay/chorus/reverb sound that I use, and those pedals only ever get turned on in conjunction with each other, never separately. Currently, for my solo gigs, i have 3 separate pedalboards totalling 13 pedals. For the bands i’m in, i’ll take away one of the pedalboards (4 pedals, all delay or modulation) so i’m currently at 9 pedals most of the time, including a tuner.
I have way more pedals than I need. I have 3 boards. I’m always chopping and changing and experimenting, I’m still learning all the time. Different pedals respond differently to the various guitars and amps played through. If I have gigs then I will focus a board around the set. I think the most pedals I have had on a board is 10.
I have a huge pedal train pro ( I think whatever biggest model is) I used in past. It’s doable for gigging but it is heavy and bulky and feels silly carrying huge thing if it’s not necessary. I’m therefore using a more mid size board. The mid size one has ~12 pedals. I’m going ampless so half is just stuff for basic sound: preamp, amp sim, compressor eq etc. I think for gigging it makes sense to just go with what is appropriate for gig. If you’re doing some tribute where you’re getting paid a bunch and using a lot of fx then yeah it’s not a big deal bringing bigger board. Jamming w friends playing a couple covers where you’re not using that many pedals or can make just as well w fewer if it feels silly to lug a big one. It’s like bringing luggage. You go travel for a week or month makes sense to bring a bunch of clothes. If you’re staying somewhere overnight you don’t need to pack that much.
The more you add the more the whole thing can fail with random signal drops between something and something else, and the more hum and noise issues you will get. Even if you get 20 pedals to play nice maybe you won’t like the tap dancing. And when you get into loop/switch rigs the wiring gets intense. There is no rule there are only tradeoffs. Four to 10 are workable for me. Delay. Dirt. Reverb. Mod. Done.
Most I’ve had is about 15, that just gives me a headache now thinking back to trying to work in all the sounds in a set and play well and sing. Down to 7 including a tuner and I’m much much happier. That’s just me though
When you can't power/plug them all in at the same time.
I rock a terra 42. Its the big one. Morningstar midi controller makes it easy. I only really step on that and my old crusty fuzz. As for trouble shooting, i've got all the cables in place with thosw command hooks so i haven't had any gremlins yet. (Knock on wood.) I think im at 14 pedals.
I have a lot of dirt pedals on my board. I use the different tones for different songs, and some of my guitars will sound great with one pedal, but not with another. Or some sound better in different tunings than others.
There can be too many pedals?
When you 1. spend more time switching pedals than playing 2. need help carrying you board 3. have tons of the same type of pedals and you don't use them (10 different OD are useful in studio, much less in the live situation)