Downsizing your pedalboard

[DiMarco]

I love effects too much. In fact I love them so much I keep buying stuff I won't ever use in a live situation.
At my attic I have a whole bunch of them that are never used, kept in drawers.
Am I perhaps too heavily GAS induced? Or is this standard behaviour for a bassist?

So anyway browsing the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/289-post-your-pedal-board-basschat-style/"]pedalboards[/url] thread Made me come up with this question:

[b]If you had to downsize and could (besides your tuner) only use, say, max. two effect pedals... Which ones would you keep?[/b]

[tonyquipment]

I suppose LMB3 TU3 and NF1

[DiMarco]

I guess I would keep just one fuzz or OD and the poly octaver myself. The rest I hardly ever use and should be able to do without.
Somehow however, I can't seem to downsize. I tried... Board just keeps growing.

[0175westwood29]

i know the pain man! i have a large board yet still check the for sale section on here daily!

i can happily gig with just one of my pedals, however its my cog effects custom "Red 5" which is a verb,chorus,octave and fuzz all in one, but really a fuzz and chorus would do me.

andy

[Thor]

I have three pedalboards (PT2, Mini & Nano) for different gigs, I can make do with the nano so guess there's the answer, Octamizer, Echobox (can be manipulated to give chorus, reverb or delay) and a TFR. If I had to sacrifice one of those 3 it would be the Echobox

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited February 22, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[DiMarco]

For hours I tried. Managed to remove my delay and chorus but kept the rest. Fail.

[SmallDawg]

I use a rack set up usually but take pedals with me if it's not feasible to take my whole rig.

Out of my pedals, if I had to keep 2, I'd say Overdrive and Chorus which both happen to be the MXR Zakk Wylde guitar pedals. They work really nicely on bass too. Just wish MXR would do their own tuner pedal so my OCD would calm down a bit!

[Guest FretNoMore]

Only two? That would be hard ... not counting a tuner, and not cheating with a multieffect I think maybe I'd go with a VT Bass DI (which in a way is a multi with dirt, EQ and DI) and maybe a chorus or phaser. I'm glad I don't have choose though.

Edit: BTW, I have a similar picture I took only a few days ago ...

Edited November 30, 2014 by FretNoMore

[paul_5]

I really only [i]need[/i] an octave, tuner and a dirtbox/pre, but it's nice to have some modulation and fuzz on there too...

Edited November 30, 2014 by paul_5

[EssentialTension]

TU2 tuner and VT bass and that's it.

I do have tremolo, chorus and reverb for my Bass VI but that's at home only.

[A.G.E.N.T.E.]

I guess it´s normal to have several effect pedals, specially if you use them to express your creativity. Only two? My minimal setup choice would be the Tech 21 VT DI and the Darkglass VMT.

Edited November 30, 2014 by A.G.E.N.T.E.

[lefrash]

Funnily enough I've just been thinkin about this as we're playing a few overseas gigs next year, and will not be able to take my full board.

Just recently bought a b3 which I'm currently using on my board for all the odd and ends effects... Ie the ones that get used once per set... Delays, phasers, tremolo... I reckon though I could just about get away with using that on its own for fuzz, Oct and preamp.

If I wasn't allowed that, I could simply go with my ms60b and digitech bsw. I'd have to go pretty 'lofi' but would probably do the job.

[Wooks79]

Darkglass B3K and Abominable Electronics Hail Satan Deluxe for me.

[Ghost_Bass]

I only need and have use for 3 effects, i've had much more and all went their way. Appart from the very handy tuner and comp wich i don't count as an FX i only use octave, drive and wah.

[uncle psychosis]

My current pedalboard is only three pedals (including a tuner).

Tuner, LS2, RAT.

[Bo0tsy]

If it was down to max two pedals I would choose my Chunk Octavius Squeezer as it does most of what I want out of one pedal - (Env Filter, Gated Fuzz, Octaver and Synth), and the Mu-Tron 3x (yep, I know it's another Env Filter, but what it does it does it so well!).

[pantherairsoft]

It's really really hard. It's about a mitre of letting go of 'cool stuff', and really coming to terms with what you 'need' for the music you create. Makes sense to have a drive pedal of some sort if your amp does not have the capacity to do it. An octave pedals is a regular item to find on bass too.

Ironically if I had to keep 2 pedals, it would be delay and chorus, as they were the first 2 pedals I ever owned, and were the motivation behind becoming creative with pedals. I'm a huge delay fan, so that makes sense to me... but from a general perspective, dirt and Octave makes more sense.

I couldn't make that decision, and had other motives behind down-sizing, but my saviour has bee the Roland GR-55 that does the job of a multi effects that doesn't suck, whilst also doing 20 billion things i couldn't do with my 70 odd effects pedals. Took time to highlight what I needed, and to let go of that attachment to 'this is seriously awesome'... but it was the best move for me.

[Tuco]

2 pedals?

That's defeatist!!!!!

Would be OC2 and MF101 if someone put a gun to my head....


but as soon as they turned away I'd sneak a fuzz pedal back

[cheddatom]

I see dirt as essential, but obviously some amps can do this. Octave I don't find essential. If I don't have room or time to grab my octave, I just play the octaves. It doesn't sound as synthy but who cares?

So if I had an amp that could go dirty, I'd take a fuzz pedal and a delay pedal.

[Lozz196]

I only use a Boss TU2 and an Aguilar Tonehammer, and the Ag is only used if I`m having to play through a provided rig, as my amp is a Tonehammer 500. This way I get my sound to the amp I`m using, an most importantly, to FOH.

[Byo]

DIfficult... for me at least, but I would go with an Octaver (EBS Octabass or Aguilar Octamizer) and some dirt (Phat Phuk B, B3K, Awesome Fuzz Machine...).

I would be missing some modulated delay though... so many different sounds you can get out of one of those.

I had a Nano loaded with a JHS buffer, Aguilar Octamizer, Fuzzrocious Rat Tail (smaller enclosure), Line M5, small controller for the M5 and a TC Ditto looper and that was an amazing travelling board. So compact and versatile.

[BigGuyAtTheBack]

I could manage with just a modded BDI21 and my home made Forbes Fuzzy Bunny!

[Guest BeardyBob]

I use a tuner & sansamp. I'd rather use a tuner & nice head, but I wasted a lot of money on effects. F*ck you effects. 98% of the time no-punter knows what the bass is anyway. 98% of the time they do, no bugger can hear the difference. I hate effects more than I hate my own life. Perhaps this pirate will make it all better

[Guest BeardyBob]

it didn't.