Post your pedal board - Basschat style!!

[LukeFRC]

On 14/09/2025 at 15:46, LukeFRC said:

I took my board to bits at the start of the summer - and partly laziness and partly not really needing much more this is what I’ve used the last few times … 

it just works 

So from that…

 

finally got a spare evening and did the first stage of rebuilding …

yes the octabass will fit in that gap, no it’s not going on as the hx stomp model is pretty good… so it’s empty.

 

We all know nature, and this thread, abhors a vacuum…

[basexperience]

Currently building a Bass Filter board to plug into my main pedalboard as an extension (using the Stomp loop). Some great sounds on here, and the chance to bring my original Q-tron back into use. That SZ funk face sounds killer.

[Sibob]

On 03/10/2025 at 15:21, krispn said:

@Sibob

B_ F_lt_r f_zz

Bi-Filter Fuzz!

Winner!!
 

Si

[admiralchew]

23 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Bi-Filter Fuzz!

Winner!!
 

Si

I’m really looking forward to that one. I’ve heard one (really excellent) demo. How is it? I’ve not been as excited by a pedal for a while. Maybe worth its own thread if there isn’t one already?

[pantherairsoft]

During a rather sleepless night last night I decided to make a list of all the pedals I’ve owned over the years. I thought it would be an interesting post, maybe even its own thread, a “what stuff have you owned” type affair.

 

But as the list grew, and grew, and I checked photos of old boards and gigs to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I realised this was not a very good idea… in fact, it ended up being a painful wake up call to the financially crippling power of GAS!

 

I think I ended with 205 pedals on the list, and while many of them were trades and not purchases as such (and specifically only stuff I’ve owned,  not tried, borrowed, etc), assuming I paid for even a quarter of them at RRP makes me want to cry.

 

I love pedals so much, but I really can’t recommend this exercise!

 

 

[Homatron]

Sounds like the plot from a John Cusack movie, @pantherairsoft

[Lunoxx]

16 minutes ago, pantherairsoft said:

During a rather sleepless night last night I decided to make a list of all the pedals I’ve owned over the years. I thought it would be an interesting post, maybe even its own thread, a “what stuff have you owned” type affair.

 

But as the list grew, and grew, and I checked photos of old boards and gigs to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I realised this was not a very good idea… in fact, it ended up being a painful wake up call to the financially crippling power of GAS!

 

I think I ended with 205 pedals on the list, and while many of them were trades and not purchases as such (and specifically only stuff I’ve owned,  not tried, borrowed, etc), assuming I paid for even a quarter of them at RRP makes me want to cry.

 

I love pedals so much, but I really can’t recommend this exercise!

Do you want to start a new thread with your list? Would be cool to see how much overlap there is between people, especially those who have massive collections. I'm happy to provide my list as well. 

[admiralchew]

10 minutes ago, Lunoxx said:

Do you want to start a new thread with your list? Would be cool to see how much overlap there is between people, especially those who have massive collections. I'm happy to provide my list as well. 

Same. I actually took a group shot of my pedals earlier this year for posterity but it’s not seen the light of day yet. A lot have since been sold but I wanted to catch it at before I started the big sales.

[pantherairsoft]

You know it’s bad when you look at images of boards you were using on gigs, or in the studio, and you think, “what the hell is that pedal?” Or “I have no memory of that!”

[pantherairsoft]

1 hour ago, Homatron said:

Sounds like the plot from a John Cusack movie, @pantherairsoft

John Cusack dreams of making a movie with a plot this deep!

[Sté]

[LukeFRC]

The journey was fun though right @pantherairsoft?! 
 

 

[pantherairsoft]

9 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

The journey was fun though right @pantherairsoft?! 
 

 

Oh hell yes! Until the realisation hit me

 

it was interesting to track the curve. At one point, about 10 years ago, I sold up entirely. Bass and all. At that point I had a collection of about 50 in my possession at once.
 

Then, some years later, I slowly rebuilt a collection. It was eye opening to see what I’d owned at what time… and painful to know that I’ll never be able to afford the five Moogerfoogers and MP-201 again at current prices

Edited 9 hours ago by pantherairsoft

[basexperience]

I noticed someone selling a whole load saying the Anagram meant they were just downsizing everything (although they had specific stuff about travel in there) - I wonder how things have changed since the days of e.g. the bass pod xT (I still have one of those... I should put that up for sale, really) - have recent multifx releases seen more people sell off their pedal collections?

 

I built a truly huge pedalboard a few years ago for a synth / electronic project which didn't happen, and downsized / rebuilt this year. It's definitely revitalised my appetite for effects units - I've built PCs in the past, and it feels a little like that, with a pleasant degree of self-build. I solder my own cables, etc, and sourcing parts is good fun. That said, it's an expensive hobby: the filter board I'm building has definitely hit £500 in new spend on new filter pedals, etc, and I've been sourcing secondhand a fair amount. That only hit me yesterday: I mean, that's nearly half an anagram.

[jimbobothy]

… just don’t price up boards, keeps things more manageable in my book 🤪

[pantherairsoft]

10 minutes ago, jimbobothy said:

… just don’t price up boards, keeps things more manageable in my book 🤪

I know I’ve owned at least 20 boards, some of which I’ve purchased at least three times, and one was a very expensive custom job.

 

I think I’ll leave them off the list. And power supplies… that’s a whole other can of worms.

[tayste_2000]

1 hour ago, basexperience said:

I noticed someone selling a whole load saying the Anagram meant they were just downsizing everything (although they had specific stuff about travel in there) - I wonder how things have changed since the days of e.g. the bass pod xT (I still have one of those... I should put that up for sale, really) - have recent multifx releases seen more people sell off their pedal collections?

 

I built a truly huge pedalboard a few years ago for a synth / electronic project which didn't happen, and downsized / rebuilt this year. It's definitely revitalised my appetite for effects units - I've built PCs in the past, and it feels a little like that, with a pleasant degree of self-build. I solder my own cables, etc, and sourcing parts is good fun. That said, it's an expensive hobby: the filter board I'm building has definitely hit £500 in new spend on new filter pedals, etc, and I've been sourcing secondhand a fair amount. That only hit me yesterday: I mean, that's nearly half an anagram.

It’s a combination of things, we live in the golden age of gear, it’s never been so abundant, available and to a degree cheap. When I started collecting pedals I was having to get custom buffer/blenders made to use fuzz pedals with active basses.

 

There was a time when I sold all my pedals for a Line 6 M13, it was easy enough to cop decent fx from multis. The issue was amps, but as PAs got bigger and better a lot of us could go ampless. Which made the pedalboard more and more important and bigger and bigger.

 

But until the Anagram the right combination of tone, fx, form factor, method of power and inputs and outputs just didn't exist at least for me. The Quad Cortex came close but it’s still a pretty big device if you've been running a pedaltrain nano for years.

 

In between owning the Quad Cortex (which I hated) and the Anagram I built the board you see (along with additional things) for sale currently.

 

This is where the problem became apparent, that board had like 3 core rigs, 3 sets of pedals I could take to a gig and get through the gig. So practice became this endless loop of comparing them and switching between them, the equivalent of going this song really needs and SVT, ah but this next one needs a Fender Bassman. Then on top of this you have more esoteric sounds that I wont use on a gig but I enjoy having, playing with, using on random songs I learn etc.

 

So the board ends up being pretty large, you pull a few things off to do a gig, realise that no one cares and then comes a long a box, 2/3s the size of your smallest pedalboard, that you can power with your phone charger, that not only does all the combinations your current board but also any crazy signal chain you can imagine, has enough io to run a clean and dirty DI in the studio or work as an IEM mixer live.

 

Then you look at your board and spares, price it up like Shep has, realise you've got 3+k sat there and even if/when you sell all that you’ll still have enough left over to build 2 nanos 😂….. well you end up where I am now.

[pantherairsoft]

I also moved over to an M13 when the hype for that was real. It was a decent system, but never really worked out for me. I was inspired by Chris Hargreaves, who was doing amazing things with the M13 at the time, and we were  along music in a similar genre, but I couldn’t make it work for me.

 

I’ve considered the quad cortex and the AxeFX a few times, it constantly fear that I’ll just want to go back to multiple pedals and a big board. I’ve kinda some to accept that this is just my sound.

 

Im predominantly doing electronica stuff and very often have 5 or 6 pedals active at once, and often controlling at least 2 of them simultaneously with expression pedal(s). In fact, it very rare I ever use a clean bass sound. This need for complex pedal stacking would limit me to only a few options in the multifx world, and as someone that thrives on ‘knob per function’ gear, that world is very hard for me.

 

But, like Ste says, I could sell all my pedals, boards and power supplies, and easily buy any multi on the market with cash left over. And that temptation, despite my hesitations, is very real. If I was making any move, it would prob be an Anagram to replace at least half my pedalboard, with a few staple pedals alongside it.

Edited 7 hours ago by pantherairsoft

[admiralchew]

I haven’t tried the Anagram (although I would like to) but I’ve enjoyed using an HX Stomp. I like the process of assembling boards though and still feel there is more tonal variety to be had from individual pedals (currently at least).

 

I would expect that it’s possible to programme digital modellers to get to more or less the same place but I find it helpful to start with an individual pedal when exploring tone. I suppose each pedal is like a preset whose parameters get tweaked. For pedals like reverbs, there’s a massive difference between an Empress Reverb and the Pladask Draume though and I’m not sure I have the creativity to programme a digital Draume.

 

Carrying a massive pedalboard is a pain, and I’ve taken to using a smaller more compact unit at practice, but I keep the massive board at home as a tweaker’s delight.

 

i don’t plan on selling a lot of my pedals though (if I can help it) as I enjoy the process of collecting and display too. Some of the pedals out there are basically works of art (inside for NRG pedals and outside for e.g. old Iron Ether).

[LukeFRC]

I had an hx stomp, was happy… then Krispn I think it was sent me a link to a colourbox at a decent price and there was a whole journey started…

till I got a hx stomp again!

 

Unless you have gig or transport reasons I don’t think it’s always an either or thing- some things the analogue circuits just sound better or are far easier to use with the controls 

[Al Krow]

Speaking of compact gigging pedal boards, I've been really enjoying this set up for the past 5 months:

 

 

However Boss went and released their XS-1 pitchshift pedal, which looked really neat and has been getting excellent reviews for its tone and tracking and meant we could potentially extend our set to the lower vocal range of our alto singer without me needing to re-learn songs in different keys and new muscle memory. However no space on my mini board, and my next size up was a Rockboard, but gave the opportunity to add an expression pedal which puts the XS-1 into full whammy mode. Space left over to re-load a few other pedals that had been sitting on my pedal shelf itching to be used and my trusty Zoom B1-4 as a back up multi, which also provides a beats unit - would have come in very handy at a recent gig when the drummer had a puncture and couldn't make the gig, so we ended up doing the gig as a drum-less 3 piece, which was character building!

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Al Krow

[ped]

I go in cycles too. The temptation and ‘gadget factor’ of having a small box that does everything and more is cool. But I always end up using a couple of things regularly and not using the rest, then finding the ones I do use are not worth having a whole system for. I also like desperate pedals because they are quite addictive to collect and compare. Right now my board hasn’t changed for ages and I’m totally happy with it, but I have some other pedals at home for fun and mucking about. 
 

Also to add - it’s worth having staple classics like an OC2 and Big Muff, for example, as most multis will model them. Of course it doesn’t matter how close they are if you like the sound, but it’s just interesting to have the original thing to benchmark against. 

[AinsleyWalker]

Loving this build 

I added the Para EQ this week, don't think I'll be changing much for a while (other than stripping it down a bit depending on situation).

[admiralchew]

13 minutes ago, AinsleyWalker said:

Loving this build 

I added the Para EQ this week, don't think I'll be changing much for a while (other than stripping it down a bit depending on situation).

Really nice board. Great pedals and very clean.

[AinsleyWalker]

8 minutes ago, admiralchew said:

Really nice board. Great pedals and very clean.

 Thanks! just don't look underneath!! 😬