How do you decide what NOT to put on your board?

[bassist_lewis]

We all talk a lot about what pedals we want and what goes on our boards. But when you're planning and building a board, how do you decide what you don't use?

Personally, if space is an issue (in the context of a wedding gig), I'll drop the modulation pedals first (phaser, chorus) as I feel removing them has the least noticeable impact on the sound, then it would be fuzz as in that context I don't ever use it.

[itu]

I have three (actually four) boards, easier than having just one and fixing it day and night.

[Downunderwonder]

I am thinking about ditching my bells and whistles preamp as I only really need the tuner in it for rehearsals. I can put my tuner back on. Probably ditch the highpass filter and make do with the bass knob. Then I can skateboard to rehearsal.

[Bunion]

If it’s not on a goodly amount then it’s not needed 

[bassist_lewis]

38 minutes ago, Bunion said:

If it’s not on a goodly amount then it’s not needed 

But what about that one time it gets used per gig it is THE sound?

[Doddy]

That's one of the reasons why I don't have a board, and just put everything on the floor. It means I can take what I want/need, and swap pedals around depending on the gig.

[Lozz196]

I’ve recently realised, after buying/selling pedals (which has been fun btw) that I’m just a preamp/DI & tuner guy. So I follow the same principle as Doddy, no pedalboard and just take whichever I’ll be using for whichever band.

[SumOne]

I like mucking about with things like envelope filters and synth pedals but in a band situation it's only tuner, preamp/EQ, compressor that I need. They are aalways on so they sit on top of my amp rather than taking up floor space. 

 

Extra pedals would occasionally be nice but that's offset with being more to transport, added power required, more potential for noise, loose cables, incorrectly set dials, clicking on by mistake, taking up space on the floor etc. 

[BassAdder60]

Having never used pedals before with bass I’m now sporting a tuner , Compressor and then Pre amp into a flat sounding amp 

 

Mine are on the floor as I can step on the preamp drive pedal if and when required, same for tuner 

[fretmeister]

I have 3 boards.

 

The smallest is a nano. Tuner, filter, octave, compressor. The filter might get swapped with an overdrive if I need it.

 

The largest is a lot bigger (another pedaltrain but I can't remember the model). It has a wireless on it, a big Morley wah, Boss LS-2 for signal routing. Drives, fuzzes, delays, filters, EQ, synths etc etc. 

That board is for fun but it would also cover everything from a U2 covers band through to a Muse tribute.

 

 

But sometimes I'll just take a compressor pedal on it's own and a headstock tuner. Depends what I'm doing really. I could easily replace the Nano board with a Helix Stomp. I may well do that one day.

[uk_lefty]

I'm doing a gig abroad soon and will only take my Helix, I don't want to take my whole board out with me, travel as light as possible. This means I will need to ditch:

Tuner, replace with a clip on.

Wireless receiver, will go wired for this gig.

Expression pedal and Boss Synth... I use this on two or three songs, can easily just do a Helix patch for the sake of one gig.

Boost pedal, I'm using this less and less. I've changed some Helix settings to give me boost with some effects so this may be redundant anyways.

Amp footswitch... I use my Ashdown onboard sub for one song because for what I'm trying to do that sounds better than anything I have managed on the Helix. I can do this without the footswitch if I want to.

 

Really I should just get a Stomp XL and spend more time learning how to use it.

 

 

[krispn]

While I have a couple of options I don’t have too complicated a set up. I’ve been using a DG ADAM with my 80’s band (it’s compression, drive, eq and cab sim with the added bonus of a tuner) or a HX stomp using some ‘80’s’ sounds basically a GK style rig with some dirt and eq so it’s a one box solution. At the moment we’re still honing the tunes so it’s been practice room only to date.
 

If I’m travelling light and doing iem only on my pub gig I can take either and it’s job done but if I’m gigging in my pub band and taking my amp I’ll bring my pedal board with tuner, comp, preamp/eq/DI (which sends a clean DI signal to the desk/iem) and out of the 1/4 output of that same pedal to some dirt pedals then on to my on stage amp. This lets me send a clean signal to the desk but have a bit of drive (or a lot of drive) coming out the amp behind me so best of both worlds. 
 

I have my pedal use limited to the basics and while I have used some phaser or chorus here and there it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme and wasn’t really missed the way similar effects might stand out on a guitar part or that was my feeling at least. 

Edited April 5, 2022 by krispn