Same pedals - different boards?

[thisisswanbon]

Hidey Ho!

 

A bit of mundane backstory... I have a gig in Newcastle City Centre on Saturday night, and with various roadworks etc driving into Town is horrendous.  This has lead me to consider my travel options which have been hindered by the size and weight of my pedalboard.  It's not HUGE per se, but it's bigger than I'd like to lug on local transport and we tend to do this gig around once a month or so.

 

Looking at the board - I have essential pedals, and pedals that are embellishments that make me smile.  I plan to keep them, and keep my large board; but I'm thinking of buying a second smaller board and moving pedals and PSU between the two depending on circumstance.

 

Does anyone do this?  Have you found any issues arise from the frequent moving about?  I'm particularly concerned about the PSU - I can justify a £40 nano board, but not a new PSU to go with it...

 

Any advice and info is appreciated as always!

 

[ped]

This is why I tend to like pedals with a battery option. Often I just want to take one pedal, or add a different pedal before my pedalboard now and again - batteries make this really easy and most will last a very long time. If you get a 9V battery tester you can see how many hours remain so it's fairly safe, and spares are easy to carry.

[thisisswanbon]

38 minutes ago, ped said:

This is why I tend to like pedals with a battery option. Often I just want to take one pedal, or add a different pedal before my pedalboard now and again - batteries make this really easy and most will last a very long time. If you get a 9V battery tester you can see how many hours remain so it's fairly safe, and spares are easy to carry.

Thanks for the shout, Ped... good idea but unfortunately my HX one, Source Audio C4 and 3 Leaf Octabvre mini don't do batteries - I've actually ordered the Joyo Power supply 5 rechargeable PSU and a Pedaltrain nano+ rip off from Amazon to negate this.  Still interested in peoples experiences though!

 

I'd love to double up on each pedal and leave all in situe - but bit of a big spend for a once a month board...

[Lozz196]

In your position @thisisswanbon I would have 2 pedalboards fully stocked/ready to go. I know this is fund dependent but I also know me and I couldn’t be bothered swapping pedals from one board to another depending on what the gig was. 

[thisisswanbon]

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

In your position @thisisswanbon I would have 2 pedalboards fully stocked/ready to go. I know this is fund dependent but I also know me and I couldn’t be bothered swapping pedals from one board to another depending on what the gig was. 

Ideal world mate absolutely - but two tone hammers, SA C4s HX Ones and 3 leaf Octabvres just isn't financially viable 😬

[Lozz196]

I think I`d be selling a kidney......

[stewblack]

I do it all the time. Different boards some pedals the same, some not. The only thing ever to go wrong? Those solder free, make your own patch cables. Sometimes they just can't cope with being pulled in and out of pedals so often.  Otherwise it's fine 

[itu]

Without knowing what fx are used, it is pretty hard to suggest, could you really left someting out from the board for those Town gigs. Like if you need a comp every now and then, a tiny Spectra would surely do the job.

Edited December 21, 2024 by itu

[jrixn1]

On 18/12/2024 at 10:08, thisisswanbon said:

I have essential pedals, and pedals that are embellishments

How about a send/return/power patch box on the primary board e.g. https://goodwoodaudio.com/products/audition?variant=32441404751919 or https://brightonion.co.uk/products/dyo-3-gang-patchbox-side-sockets

Connect the secondary board in the loop on the larger gigs.

 

 

[PinkMohawk]

I think, especially with a board like the Temple Audio boards and their stick on mounts, or I keep seeing ads for a small company called Boardmods, they make 3D printed replacements for the mounts that swap with the baseplate of most pedals, or for some bigger ones attach with the screws, it'll be pretty viable. 

 

Now that I think about it, Rockboard as well have their own quickswap, no velcro mounts as well, though a completely different system to Temple, and perhaps less space efficient as well. 

[fretmeister]

On 18/12/2024 at 11:10, Lozz196 said:

In your position @thisisswanbon I would have 2 pedalboards fully stocked/ready to go. I know this is fund dependent but I also know me and I couldn’t be bothered swapping pedals from one board to another depending on what the gig was. 

 

This.

 

For my last gig I actually managed to get everything I needed onto a Nano board but generally I prefer to have duplicates when I can afford it.

I don't swap pedals of a particular type very often - at least not for gigging.

 

Sometimes a cheaper but 'nearly there' version of a pedal will do for the board I will use less. But there are some things that I just get annoyed with if they are not identical. Particularly compressors!

 

I do always try to take the smallest board possible as I just don't like carrying heavy stuff.

 

 

[Lozz196]

I have to admit when I was using a Tech21 Para Driver as my core sound I had one for home use and one for gigging as I couldn`t be fussed with unplugging gear at home to take to gigs etc. 

[Quatschmacher]

I’m thinking of this too. My solution may be to put my “core” pedals on the upper tier of my Aclam board and detach it when I just need those few.

[ahpook]

On 21/12/2024 at 07:25, stewblack said:

I do it all the time. Different boards some pedals the same, some not. The only thing ever to go wrong? Those solder free, make your own patch cables. Sometimes they just can't cope with being pulled in and out of pedals so often.  Otherwise it's fine 

 

Me too. Every time I gig or go to practice I take some pedals off my board as I don't use them live or can do without them. I'm almost always on public transport so I don't cart around what I'm not going to use.

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

If I needed something smaller than my current board to lug around on public transport, I would probably:

1. Make up a second smaller board using mini pedals similar in functionality to the essential ones from the larger board, or
2. Emulate the larger board as much as possible either using my (mostly retired) Zoom B3 or (if I have the budget) an HX Stomp

[thisisswanbon]

Thanks for all the responses, folks!  Ideal world would've been to double up on pedals - but alas, I'm at the wrong end of the budget scale!

 

Update on what happened: public transport was off due to issues with the flyover from Gateshead, so after stripping my big board down I had to take the car anyways 🤦‍♂️...

 

Persevered with the small board, but I missed having the option to kick in my drive. My synth patches on the C4 were also all over volume wise, not sure if this was some suss FOH work or if the space heater is doing something compression-wise to balance things out 🤔

[Sibob]

Yeah I absolutely do this….although like a few above, will usually try and have duplicates where finances allow. Saves from pulling boards apart, also gives me a some spares if one of those duplicates goes down!

 

Si

[Elfrasho]

Id go the opposite. I'd really really think about what I'm adding to any gig with having the specific pedal board,  remove everything I could get away without, and then just get a minimal board for all gigs. I'd use my zoom ms60b as a cheap swiss army knife pedal for any effect I might want as a wee extra- replace your tuner with it if you have a dedicated tuner. 

 

In fact, if I were you, I'd sell everything apart from the c4 and get an hx stomp and a footswitch. Will cover 99% of everything you'd ever need probably, and in a tiny package.