Do you have multiple pedals of the same type on your board?

[fuzzjunkie]

I couldn’t sleep last night and followed a thread to a picture that was reportedly Ira Kaplan’s pedal board. I’m not convinced it was actually his board, because to me his sound is a Rat, Vox wah, a flanger and delay. Maybe a compressor.

This board had some of those components, but was missing the wah-wah. What it did have was multiple modulation pedals. 3 different flangers and 2 phasers, plus chorus and tremolo.

Now I have several fuzz pedals and a couple of delays, but that many modulations seemed like overkill to me. I used to have a flanger and a phaser to go along with a Voodoo Vibe that does tremolo, vibrato, chorus and Univibe/phaser tones. These days the Voodoo Vibe is enough.

This board might have been Ira’s because it had a Boss Flanger and a Mutron Phaser, and a Rat, which I know he’s used in the past. Not sure why he would need the rest? Usually a single modulation pedal can cover other tones if it’s versatile enough. There’s plenty of overlap with modulation tones. A flanger can do chorus, a chorus can do vibrato, and a phaser can cover Univibe tones if you’re not too picky.

It also had an A/DA Flanger, which I have as well, and can cover a bunch of modulation tones. It can take the place of 3-4 effects by itself. It could certainly cover for the Boss. Then there was another boutique flanger. In addition to the Mutron, there was also a Phase 90, plus a Boss Chorus and a tremolo.

Maybe it was a studio board and not a live board? That’s the only thing I could think of as to why it is over complicating things. If it was a live board, I guess it could be like the situation The Edge is in, where he’s got 25+ years of recordings he has to replicate and he needs effects from different eras to do that? But Kaplan has always stuck to the same basic formula stated above, and his boards used to be Spartan, so not sure why he’d need or want to do that?

Anyway, I have 3 fuzz and 2 delays on my board because I want 3 distinct fuzz tones that don’t overlap much and I like to layer delays, so I need at least 2, but I have by with 1 plenty of times. One good modulation pedal is all I really need.

Anyone here running multiple modulations or several of the same type?

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Haha. Same.
3 distinct Fuzzes, (atm+Tentacle), 2 Delays, Reverb, Trem and a Jive (reel saturation).

[marqueemoon]

Yo La Tengo has put out more albums than U2. There’s a lot of variety to Ira’s recorded sound.
I know what you mean though. Ira is a much more spontaneous player than The Edge, so having all those options available to click on if the mood strikes makes sense.

It just seems like a lot to manage for live situations where few people in the audience will notice or care.

In my own setups there are multiple boosts/ways to regulate volume. Pretty boring.

[jorri]

I've known some players do it because its LESS to worry about live. Two different setting and no presets? Two identical pedals set differently would remedy that. Seen it a number of times on pro boards, even labelling various boss DDs with a song name for delay time or i guess here could be flanger time (?).

Some just really don't like knob tweaking- me also but i already have enough pedals and not too prescious about duplicating my favourite pedal (or one used on their recordings, before going on tour?) I'd almost get at least a slightly different delay. Already doing it with verbs, but they are variations from different brands.

[zhivago]

I have three reverb pedals on my board...one is reverb with modulation on the trails, one adds an octave up, and one is a spring reverb/slapback sound.

It is so excessive, but I have used them for different songs, so I have to have them on there.

I also have two delays, but one is a reverse delay, so I am not sure it counts...oh, and then there's two distortion pedals.

[mikeymike]

I always have multiple overdrive/distortion/fuzz basically for different gain stage. I try to find pedals that can “do it all” otherwise. I might be better off with multiple mod pedals that make sounds I like, honestly.

[i love sharin foo]

Modulation is one effect that I’ve never gotten a lot of use from. I have just the one chorus on my boards and it works well for what I need. I do have 4 different boosts though I’ve been using little amps a bunch lately and the boosts bring a lot to the table.

I think I have 5 fuzz boxes on right now, with a good bit of overlap between a few of them. I ALWAYS run my old Moog delay but recently added on an early Diamond Memory Lane for more present, rhythmic stuff. Where the Moog excels at spacey, ambient washes. It’s kind of weird but I actually think that I would have an easier time paring down the fuzzes than the boosts at this point.

[soggy mittens]

3 dirt
3 delay
2 wah

the delays are the most used for differences. One is a DD-200 that has four presets that I use three of and that one sits behind one of the dirts, the other two delays are post dirt and both DD-7s one is just a long delay with external tap, it sits next to my high gain distortion so I can press them together or in a rocking motion to create glitchy static feedback delays at the ends of chorus'/songs etc. The other DD-7 is more standard quarter delays and sometimes switched to dotted 8th for certain songs, it also has external tap. So that is almost a different delay setting for every song in the set... well closer to half the set. The two wahs are just different flavors, and one of them is only for one song so it is off board.

[fuzzjunkie]

Yeah, having multiple pedals for signal chain placement is something I do, that could be a factor too.

I have a fuzz before and after wah, and those are before the the Univibe and first delay, but then I have another fuzz after those because I like the tonal variety from different positioning.

[s_mcsleazy]

dirt: 3 or 4 (depending on how you count it. one is a 2-in-1)
modulation: 2
delay: 2

[fever606]

When I’m recording, sure…

2 reverbs - a Dr. Scientist RRR before fuzz and a spring reverb right before the amp.

2/3 delays - a DM-2 for rhythmic stuff and an RE-150 Space Echo for atmospheric stuff. 3 if you count the Red Panda Tensor but I just use that for looping.

2/3 fuzz - Big Muff and Fuzz Factory, though occasionally I’ll add in something else (SuperFuzz, Roland Double Beat).

But most of the time it’s just Big Muff > Space Echo > reverb > amp

[JSett]

I used to, years back, when I was a fan of tap-dancing and still thought anyone in the audience could hear (or cared about) the difference. 3-5 Fuzzes, 3 OD's, at least 1 digital and 1 analogue delay, two kinds of phaser, etc etc. Then I got old and lazy and realised, for live use especially, it didn't matter at all for the sort of music I make. For a good few years after that realisation I ran: Ampeg Scrambler > Micro Boost > TR2 > Amp eventually putting in a DD-3 as my band evolved

Now it's: VB2 > BD2 > Rat > TR2 > amp and that's more than enough to worry about.

At home I have another board with a lot of the unused pedals on there for home noodling but even that doesn't have any real duplicates.

[s_mcsleazy]

I used to, years back, when I was a fan of tap-dancing and still thought anyone in the audience could hear (or cared about) the difference.

i kinda had the same thing tbh. i had a way bigger board than i currently do. it was like tuner, boost, 2 overdrives, 2 distortions, 2 fuzz's, a volume pedal, 3 delays, a chorus, a phaser, a tremolo and 2 reverbs. there was a moment where one of my non-musician friends was like "you sounded good but i couldn't really tell the difference between some of those pedals you spent all night turning on and off" that was the moment where i was like "ok, gonna calm down with that" also, i think changing from playing post-rock to post-hardcore really changed my pedalboard. i think my current board is the ideal. everything gets regular use and is the best version of what i used to use...... mostly.


my bandmate is even more ruthless than i am btw. they had a bigger pedalboard with way more stuff and eventually they said "ok, so i think i mainly just use the ds1 and big muff clone for my dirt, only use chorus and delay..... i'm gonna try the next practice with just that" and it worked well for them

[del]

I often have set up in my chain:
4x fuzz (silicon ff, dod 250, green ringer, Rat)
3x delay (Caroline Kilobyte, Hermida EPH-3, Malekko ID-300)
2x tremolo (Caroline Parabola, EQD Hummingbird)

I primarily use:
2x fuzz (silicon ff, dod 250)
1x delay (Caroline Kilobyte)
1x tremolo (Caroline Parabola)

[Chippertheripper]

For live use, and practice, I just use a fuzz, a delay, and a flint.
At home, where I want some more diversity to kinda spur creativity, I keep a drive, a rat, a fuzz, 2 delays, and a rev/trem unit and a looper.
That’s enough to cover the entire spectrum for me.