Post your pedal board - Basschat style!!

[Bassybert]

I think it’s more a case of so much saturation in the effects market people are constantly looking for the next thing rather than objectively using an effect because of the sound and sticking with it.

 

It’s de rigeur to chop and change pedals, the case designs have become as important as the sounds they make, you’ve only got to look at some of the boards on this thread to see people are as taken by the way they look as much as/if not more than the sound. 
 

With such a bewildering array of pedal choice nowadays I think people find it hard to stick with something in the long run. And building a board and maintaining it is as much of a hobby as playing judging by the size of some of the boards on this thread. 

 

I’m not judging at all, each to their own and if that’s what floats your boat then go for it.

Edited October 7, 2023 by Bassybert

[MrDinsdale]

1 hour ago, glassmoon said:

I'm going to ask a fairly simple question, for which I'm sure, there'll be myriad answers.. 

 

I've used pedals for years. I've had huge boards (3 chorus pedals for 3 settings) and tiny (my current iteration). I see a lot of "tonight's setup for a funk gig" or "put this together for a rock covers gig". 

 

I guess my question is this: is this a new norm or an old concept, to put together a board based on the application thereof, instead of a board with one's favourite effects? 

 

Genuinely interested to hear your points of view. 

 

I guess taking out a smaller board means carrying less gear and a much less expensive board to replace should anything bad happen. 
 

I only have the one project at the mo but if I was doing something folky I’d be leaving all my snarly aggressive drives at home!

[danbowskill]

48 minutes ago, Bassybert said:

I think it’s more a case of so much saturation in the effects market people are constantly looking for the next thing rather than objectively using an effect because of the sound and sticking with it.

 

It’s de rigeur to chop and change pedals, the case designs have become as important as the sounds they make, you’ve only got to look at some of the boards on this thread to see people are as taken by the way they look as much as/if not more than the sound. 
 

With such a bewildering array of pedal choice nowadays I think people find it hard to stick with something in the long run. And building a board and maintaining it is as much of a hobby as playing judging by the size of some of the boards on this thread. 

 

I’m not judging at all, each to their own and if that’s what floats your boat then go for it.

Fickle as it sounds ,I agree the look of a pedal is also quite important (to me)

[LukeFRC]

1 hour ago, Bassybert said:

I think it’s more a case of so much saturation in the effects market people are constantly looking for the next thing rather than objectively using an effect because of the sound and sticking with it.

 

It’s de rigeur to chop and change pedals, the case designs have become as important as the sounds they make, you’ve only got to look at some of the boards on this thread to see people are as taken by the way they look as much as/if not more than the sound. 
 

With such a bewildering array of pedal choice nowadays I think people find it hard to stick with something in the long run. And building a board and maintaining it is as much of a hobby as playing judging by the size of some of the boards on this thread. 

 

I’m not judging at all, each to their own and if that’s what floats your boat then go for it.

I think it’s more Interesting how many of the boards you see have so many pedals released in the last couple of years - now there’s been a bit of miniaturisation going on but i do wonder where all the 20 year old pedals end up 

[Franticsmurf]

3 hours ago, glassmoon said:

I'm going to ask a fairly simple question, for which I'm sure, there'll be myriad answers.. 

 

I've used pedals for years. I've had huge boards (3 chorus pedals for 3 settings) and tiny (my current iteration). I see a lot of "tonight's setup for a funk gig" or "put this together for a rock covers gig". 

 

I guess my question is this: is this a new norm or an old concept, to put together a board based on the application thereof, instead of a board with one's favourite effects? 

 

Genuinely interested to hear your points of view. 

Personally, it's about having the smallest/simplest set up for each application. I play in two bands and occasionally dep in a third. Each band has a different style and while one (The Hulla) is a 13 piece with many different instruments, the other (The Rip) is a trio and the dep band varies in number according to the whim of the BL/singer but usually includes backing tracks and a female singer. For 'The Hulla' I need a simple, 'traditional' sound for an established setlist of mainly 60s and 70's easy listening covers, with a few rockers thrown in and some more modern tunes as requests. I use a simple board with tuner, chorus and pre-amp and go straight into FOH, using in ears to monitor.

 

For 'The Rip', which is currently finalising the set list of 70s and 80s rock with a few from the 90s, I need a bigger sound to fill the space when the geetard goes off on one, so the board includes flange and phase as well as chorus, octave and a couple of drive pedals and is intended to go through a backline amp. I also have a floor mounted midi pedal for triggering a synth.

 

The depping band tends to play a mix of more modern songs and for this I tend to look to the simple board, adding a filter and compressor.

 

The pedals also change according to the songs - for example The Hulla has just introduced a couple where I want to try using a delay and volume pedal for a swell/held bass drone. If it works, the board may expand a little. I often swap individual pedals to experiment with different makes of the same effect. 

 

I've always done it this way so for me the 'board for xxx band' is the norm. I have considered a 'one size fits all' set up, but it would be large and complicated and would definitely not meet the smallest/simplest criteria.

[krispn]

I’m just playing the one main gig so my board is basically comp, preamp and drive. I’ve a couple of drive pedals because I do use fuzz and it’s a dedicated sound and a general purpose drive which I can change on the fly but I’m lucky as it does a more scooped sounding drive and and also sound more mid forward so it’s essentially a 2 in 1 for my needs. Oh and I’ve an eq pedal (it’s quite specific in what it does - a CAL Funkulator) which allows the voice of the clean and drive to change. I can adjust this on the fly too so I can set it lower to tighten up finger style or wind it up for a more pronounced slap scoop sound- something I do switch between during songs in the set too. 
 

I see these huge boards and wonder what sound folk are aiming for but in fairness I play in a band where a solid simple bass sound is all that’s needed but in fairness I probably lack the creativity, time and finances to invest in some of the boards I’ve seen here. 

[admiralchew]

I’m a pedal obsessive, enjoy putting boards together, and collect pedals as well as use them. That probably puts me in the category of annoying pedal users but it’s something I really love and I’ve met some great people in the bass community all over the world because of it.

 

The boards I put together are used for home recording so have to be fully functional - I’ve seen plenty of boards that look amazing but I’m not sure how easy it is to play a board consisting entirely of fifteen boutique synth pedals - but don’t necessarily have all of my favourites on.

 

I used to have a big board of favourites but deconstructed it when I was moving last year. Since then, I’ve made a board of minis to see whether I could recreate my old big board in small format, a board of Broughton pedals which does basically everything I want a gigging/practice board to do, and most recently built a board with a lot of my favourites on again.

 

Given how much I enjoy messing around with pedals I’m planning to put another themed board together and a couple of crazier boards with some of the collection pieces on. I always enjoy seeing the posts on here though seeing the different boards, seeing what people are using them for, and battling crazy GAS.

[NoirBass]

In response to the above. I used to put together a ‘catch all’ board but it ended up being huge and cumbersome. As I play various different styles with different acts, each have different requirements (even depending on venue). I’ve ended up with a few smaller boards that I can rearrange when needed.

 

Sometimes I just need a tuner, sometimes I need the kitchen sink so I’ll take a Helix stomp/other multi fx. Often there is no backline or I’ll be on IEM’s so I’ll have to take a DI/Preamp. It’s all horses for courses.

 

Last night I had backline provided and had a few points in the set where Octave, filter and a bit of OD would be enhance things, Hence cobbling together the above for the night.

 

That rig sounded awesome, the Mini Q is seriously underrated!

 

As to if it’s the new ‘norm’ I can only speak personally and say it is for me. I’d imagine though if I just played in a single band I could setup one board and be done with it.

[glassmoon]

1 hour ago, NoirBass said:

Sometimes I just need a tuner, sometimes I need the kitchen sink so I’ll take a Helix stomp/other multi fx. Often there is no backline or I’ll be on IEM’s so I’ll have to take a DI/Preamp. It’s all horses for courses.

See, I'm looking (again) at the viability of the HX Stomp as a small, easily portable "kitchen sink". It seems to be incredibly popular among the bass community, so perhaps it's a good road to travel down. To be fair, for me, it's more (these days) needing tonal variations rather than effects. Deep vs twangy vs reggae vs rock kinda variations. 

 

Thanks everyone for the stunning insights and views. Just what I was hoping for

[danbowskill]

Just bought the CTC Ti-Me Delay, man it sounds lush. Like a carbon copy on steroids

[LukeFRC]

3 hours ago, danbowskill said:

Just bought the CTC Ti-Me Delay, man it sounds lush. Like a carbon copy on steroids

What’s the DFZ - from a pure design pov that’s really lovely looking 

[danbowskill]

2 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

What’s the DFZ - from a pure design pov that’s really lovely looking 

It's a re format of the Darkglass duality fuzz. The demo's don't do it much justice...but it's excellent with octave

 

[krispn]

10 hours ago, danbowskill said:

It's a re format of the Darkglass duality fuzz. The demo's don't do it much justice...but it's excellent with octave

 

This is the fuzz I use and it’s really good. Super versatile and I concur it does sound great with an octave. Only I like to change my setting I’d have gone for the compact version but yeah great fuzz unit. 

[supertzar]

From a gig last weekend. Just got the pedaltrain nano and a new cioks 4 last week. I do feel that the rockboard form factor is way better than pedaltrain, but this size is perfect so I'm happy. My last psu was cioks dc10 and it's hard to believe how small and light the new one is. I'm planning on switching the tunet and chorus for a plethora x3 at some point. This covers pretty much anything I need to do, wild or vintage tones, presets for every band. Love it.

[maidens97]

This is my current board for my grunge/rock band and session work. Looking to replace the sansamp with a origin effects bass rig and maybe add a HX stomp too!

[independent.jerry]

 

 

Been using this setup since september last year. There's a thumpinator, a neuro hub and a di under the hood.

 

FIts easily on a carry on luggage with clothes and cables.

[LukeFRC]

1 hour ago, independent.jerry said:

 

 

Been using this setup since september last year. There's a thumpinator, a neuro hub and a di under the hood.

 

FIts easily on a carry on luggage with clothes and cables.

what's the submarine? It has more switches than what I thought it might be

[keziahj]

4 hours ago, independent.jerry said:

 

 

Been using this setup since september last year. There's a thumpinator, a neuro hub and a di under the hood.

 

FIts easily on a carry on luggage with clothes and cables.

 

nice³ 👌

On 09/10/2023 at 18:32, geofio said:

Still available.

 

[independent.jerry]

4 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

what's the submarine? It has more switches than what I thought it might be

 

It's a preamp. The switches control the response of different freq points. 

 

It's an awesome tone sweetener and has a huge headroom. 👍

 

[LukeFRC]

31 minutes ago, independent.jerry said:

 

It's a preamp. The switches control the response of different freq points. 

 

It's an awesome tone sweetener and has a huge headroom. 👍

 

Is it Ziebek ? Or Zwiebek or something? I thought I remembered a version with less switches 

[SumOne]

I'm not usually one for brand loyalty but my recent pedal fetish is for the Boss compact. There's something OCD/stamp collector 'gotta catch 'em all' about getting colourful collection of them in a Boss hard case pedalboard.

 

They're not particularaly cool or boutique (although the Waza ones are trying to tap into that market) but they are:

• Reasonably priced and are easily available second hand (usually).
• Tough and reliable (can often see 40+ year old Boss compact pedals still in use/for sale).
• Clear/simple/intuative for stage use (no hidden digital menus or masses of dials and small buttons/switches).
• Big/tough footstomp area (which is also good for home use non-shoe wearing stomping).
• On/off LEDs in the same place that aren't blindingly bright.
• Most are quite low power consumption, and have the option for battery.
• They tend to have sensible features like level and blend, crossover for the chorus, 2x outputs from the TU-3 and BB-1X, extra power outlets from the TU-3 and LS-2.
• All that combined makes them seem like 'get the job done' gig after gig year after year types of pedals.

 

 

 

....the eagle eyed will notice this is not real life - I did it on www.pedalplayground.com.

 

I only currently own the TU-3 and LMB-3. A CEB-3, AW-3, and the BCB-90X (pedalboard) are on the way to me, and I'm tempted to get the LS-2 that's for sale on here. 

 

The PQ-3B will be the tricky one to get (anyone selling one give me a shout), I want it as I'd like some mid EQ control but want to avoid the GEB-7 (I had one and found it to be noisy, and those sliders seem delicate - not in keeping with the tough dials on all the others). The RE-2 might not make the final cut as it's expensive and isn't very useful for any Bass gigging I'm doing (and I'd prefer the RE 202), and for the sake of OCD I'm not sure I'd like one pedal being sideways.

 

It isn't the most sensible plan as some are arguably industry standard (TU-3, LS-2, OC-5), but others (PH-3, AW-3) don't generally get much love as there are probably better alternatives from other companies....wouldn't fit the look though!

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by SumOne

[jimbobothy]

… surely you can squeeze one more in the clear central section (albeit sideways)?

[SumOne]

Just now, jimbobothy said:

… surely you can squeeze one more in the clear central section (albeit sideways)?

 

Yeah, that is just asking for one more! BF-3 Flanger perhaps. 

 

Or, room for a PSU if the Boss daisy-chain from the pedalboad is noisy.

[admiralchew]

27 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

Yeah, that is just asking for one more! BF-3 Flanger perhaps. 

 

Or, room for a PSU if the Boss daisy-chain from the pedalboad is noisy.

The BF-3 Flanger is my favourite Boss pedal. Do it!

[independent.jerry]

16 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Is it Ziebek ? Or Zwiebek or something? I thought I remembered a version with less switches 

Yeah, Zeibek!

The original version had 2 knobs and no switches. The Designer version added one more knob and 4 switches to the OG design.

 

It's my second oldest pedal, clocking close to 2 decades of use on all my rigs, since 2005.

For almost 5 years, my "amp" was VT Bass + Sub designer into crest power amp.