Do you limit yourself to a single brand of pedal?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

After trying various compressors, overdrives etc, I decided to limit myself to using Boss compact pedals only in an attempt to stop myself buying too many similar pedals.

 

I made up a bass board:

 

And a guitar board:

 

And also have some pedals that I'd like add to my boards if I had more room.

 

My 'want' list currently includes an OC-5, & RT-2 Rotary.

 

I'm thinking about combining both boards into one big pedal - something like the harley benton spaceship power 80 should give me plenty of room.

 

How many pedals is too many?

 

Anyone else limit themselves to a single brand? I imagine an MXR-only board would be pretty good.

 

[neepheid]

Nah, I don't see the point in limiting oneself to a single brand, no one brand does everything the best or the way I'd want.  I use pedalboard size and the fact that I only have one pedalboard to limit pedal purchases.  The last time was a straight swap, TC Electronic Brainwaves out (and sold), Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter in.  There's no room to keep both, nor is there any point - the Boss does the job I want to do better than the TC, the TC has tonnes of features I never use.  Plus the Boss wasn't exactly cheap, so needed to sell the TC to backfill some of the expense.

 

How many pedals is too many?  Again, my arbitrary pedalboard size (because I made it myself) dictates this.

[PaulThePlug]

No, but this little Joyo Iron Man set up in a diddy case is pleasing...

[Lozz196]

If I were into pedals I would try and do that. But even carrying one Sansamp around I now consider to be a mammoth task. 

[Ed_S]

I did the 'Boss pedals on a Boss board' thing a while back and it was... alright.

 

I like the BC-1X compressor and still have it on my main board (and the TU-3 is in the cupboard) but I sold the rest of the pedals as either I was bad at using them, or they weren't inspiring me to try.

 

I didn't like the plastic board either.

 

[admiralchew]

That’s a cool collection and a nice idea too.

 

I’ve made a few maker-themed boards but disassembled my boards for a group shot recently. The only brand-specific board I reassembled is my Broughton Audio board. It’s an absolute beast and weighs a ridiculous amount. It sounds good though!

[SumOne]

I did do a board of Boss compact pedals, it was quite addictive tryting to get the colourful collection.  

 

The Boss compact hardware is really good and I found there are certain pedals that Boss do really well: Tuner, compressor, limiter, chorus, flanger, octaver, space echo, and the BB1-X.  

 

.....but then I wasn't such a fan of things like the AW-3, SY-1, GEB-7, ODB-3, there are better (often cheaper) alternatives . So once I started using some other pedals (e.g. MXR envelope filter instead of the AW-3, Sine FX parametric EQ instead of the GEB-7 ) the whole idea sort of went out of the window. 

[Al Krow]

@Jean-Luc Pickguard - I've got a fair few pedals I need to put up for sale at some point! A pretty mint Boss OC5 amongst them. Very happy to give you first dibs! 

[Bagman]

I like the looks of the old Brown Boss Bass line 

 

Free The Tone make incredible gear 

 

but no I would not have a manufacturer exclusive board 

[Sibob]

No, I wouldn’t lol….but if I did, it would probably be MXR…or maybe Darkglass.

 

Si 

[paulo m]

Absolutley not' for ive found certain Boss & Mxr pedals were very dissapointing without naming specific items  & ive recently bought discontinued  pedals that work very well indeed on my board... ive sold 3Leaf items that they ask inflated prices for that for myself didnt perform 'that well' still this is a subjective thread that i enjoy reading.

[paul_5]

I had a Boss phase, then an EHX phase, then an EBS phase, then an MXR phase and then just went ‘open season’ on anything. I learned that I prefer certain manufacturers for specific effects (I prefer EHX stuff for modulation for example) but it took a while to get there.

[andruca]

I do, as long as Zoom keeps putting out their small cheap multiFX stuff I've been using since about 2000. No need to spend more, ever. Sounds as good as anything, you just need to know how to sound, how to get your tone on any platform. Zoom is just another platform. That's it.

Edited 1 hour ago by andruca