# CHALLENGE! Kevin Shields' pedal board. can you beat it?



## signalgrey

Im a fan of My Bloody Valentine, im a fan of having fuck tons of sweet pedal gear.

How the hell does this setup even work. i see some routed effects but jesus christ. Apparently he uses all the pedals too.

I challenge any and all to beat 

this board

in terms of insanity. Rack units dont count. its gotta be on the floor. giant midi boards dont count (so Muse is out!)

challenge deployed!


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## troyguitar

I use a tuner and an OD. Sometimes just the tuner


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## SnowfaLL

how useless. Imagine carrying that thing around to shows.. I never understand, but I guess since its MBV or whatever and its the indie thing to do to display huge amounts of pedals to look cool..

I did sound tech for a guy who had a pedal board that big one night, and what do you know? a connector went bad somewhere in the chain, and he lost power, and struggling on stage to find where the break happened.. couldnt find it, so we had to unplug his effects completely and just plug him straight into his amp. If he had just three or four units, it would of been easy to find.

impractical IMO, I just have a OD, wah and M13.


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## Cheesebuiscut

Theres some crazy band I saw where the guy has a bajillion pedals and just uses random ones at every show depending on what he feels like using.

I'll have to figure it out and see if its bigger xD

But yeah hopelessly impractical and completely unnecessary.


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## MFB

Trent Reznor's pedals :


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## xtrustisyoursx

the guys from brand new, and the guy from incubus are pretty ridic


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## zimbloth

That dude really needs to get an Eventide and call it a day, ouch! 

I can see why Trent Reznor would need all of that stuff, but not really guys in metal bands.


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## signalgrey

Brand New? seriously? Those guys are horribly over hyped, just typical Long Island Emo. Lead singer thinks hes Connor Oberst. ugh. sorry.

Im surprised Trents Collection is so small.


Well im not saying it has to be PRACTICAL hahaha. i agree the indie cred thing is a bit silly.
but the challenge still stands


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## Variant

signalgrey said:


> Brand New? seriously? Those guys are horribly over hyped, just typical Long Island Emo. Lead singer thinks hes Connor Oberst. ugh. sorry.
> 
> Im surprised Trents Collection is so small.



That's just one pic... there's way more stuff he's got, though honestly, live, he doesn't run near that much stuff.

On Topic, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Frusciante both run a lot of shit on the floor.


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## signalgrey

theres more pics scroll down. hes pretty much circled by stuff.

i know he doesnt need it. but it is all part of the show.


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## Variant

My board's gonna be pretty big... big enough to be _*two*_ boards, but then the most of the shit I have has a pretty large footprint and it's not because there's dozens of half-bricks under my feet.


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## ralphy1976

after fret wanking, here comes foot wanking....is this "board" for true or just some guy taking the piss??

i didin't even know half of the effects he has on this board before this thread..so thanks for the educational benefit!!!


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## signalgrey

No its his real board. According to that forum he uses everything and swaps stuff in and out.

Most of them are Delays and exotic fuzz and texture distortions i.e. Zvex Machine and Super Fuzz Gun etc.. and some harmony pitch pedals in there too.

but whats interesting is looking at his settings. all the fuzz and distortion pedals are dimed out!

prolly sounds like a coffee grinder.


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## poopyalligator

That is ridiculous. I use a noise suppressor and that is pretty much it. Sometimes i will use an OD, but most of the time i dont.


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## Variant

signalgrey said:


> No its his real board. According to that forum he uses everything and swaps stuff in and out.
> 
> Most of them are Delays and exotic fuzz and texture distortions i.e. Zvex Machine and Super Fuzz Gun etc.. and some harmony pitch pedals in there too.
> 
> but whats interesting is looking at his settings. all the fuzz and distortion pedals are dimed out!
> 
> prolly sounds like a coffee grinder.



Yeah, youtube their stuff... its a lot of noisy-washy psychedelia.


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## MTech

John Frusciante:





Mike Einziger - Incubus








Random Board





Edge U2














http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI4OtPga_dM&feature=player_embedded

"If you are a guitar freak you would love to read about the world&#8217;s largest guitar pedal board. The guys at Premier Guitar covered the pre-Summer NAMM gathering in downtown Nashville, TN. The world&#8217;s largest pedal board was the idea of some guys at GearTrap.com&#8217;. GearTrap is blog that deals with everything that is related guitar gear. The pedal board consists of 42 different pedals, 13 loaded pedal boards, and a mountain of guitar cable and performed well at the event without creating any noise. They hope to enter the Guiness book of world records and other world record entities. What was surprising was that they found a number of sponsors they found. Encouraged by this, they hope to break their own record next year. Now we are all curious how big it can actually get next year, aren&#8217;t we?"


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## signalgrey

Variant said:


> Yeah, youtube their stuff... its a lot of noisy-washy psychedelia.




i know...im a fan. hahaha. 

Edge doesnt count cause hes using his "fridge" rack unit. 

Fruciante's seems like he needs to learn that its easier to have things semi-circular not in one half mile run hahaha. But he is in the running for sure

Incubus...nothing can save Mike E. from my lack of unimpressedness. oooo spacey phaser sounds... just spread out small pedals.

^ this guy might be the winner. criminy. it looks like a lot more than 42 pedals though.


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## ralphy1976

i am going to ask the obvious question which no-one wants to hear, but .. well..nevermind : 

Don't you think that after a while the effects-addition "can" remove the let's call it "less than perfect" guitar ability of some player?

Me for instance : when i use distortion i still can hear when my fingers are not where they are meant to be (damn it) but if i use a slightly more metal distortion it kind of smoothes out a lot this seldom issue.

I guess it might not be true if you start adding chorus on clear tube sound, but you could design a noise filter to act on a pitch range..so..


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## signalgrey

to a certain extent yes.

But some people have become masters of using the pedals as an extension, like another instrument all together. Delay is a great example of this.

But you can also use delay to cover alot up.

Fuzz pedals are like the masters of covers stuff up with slop.
but they are also great for creating textures if you know how to tame them and resist the urge to go al hendrix and do fuzzz octave solos


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## ralphy1976

signalgrey said:


> to a certain extent yes.
> 
> But some people have become masters of using the pedals as an extension, like another instrument all together. Delay is a great example of this.
> 
> But you can also use delay to cover alot up.
> 
> Fuzz pedals are like the masters of covers stuff up with slop.
> but they are also great for creating textures if you know how to tame them and resist the urge to go al hendrix and do fuzzz octave solos


 
i can't solo..problem solved!!!


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## signalgrey

boss hyper-fuzz is a really fun way to start if you interested in Fuzz stuff.


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## ralphy1976

i did try a fuzz last week (old fuzz pedal, you know the one with the UK flag and valves) it sound ok, but i was after some distortion pedal which could handle 7 and 8 strings. I found that, so next on my list of toys is a wha / volume pedal and a roll of duct tape to tape my F%^&^%G volume pot which i keep on knocking off all the time!!


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## signalgrey

yeah fuzzes dont work so well with full chords. the graphic fuzz from EHX is pretty sweet though for that kinda stuff. i use it on my baritone all the time. iits good if you can mx it withe the distortion


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## ralphy1976

i did find that the fuzz i was trying could not really handle 8 or 7 strings power chords (i was testing it on a RG2228 kind of killing 2 birds with 1 stone!!) where as the pedal i got had no trouble whatsoever.

i did like the warmth from the fuzz (fuzz = cops in UK slang by the way!!) it felt reassuring!!!


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## signalgrey

as in HOT FUZZ?

brilliant flick


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## ShadyDavey

I really like to hear creative use of pedals so as long as they're controllable and put to good use I don't think its too excessive. Heck, not something I would do personally but all power to him/them if he enjoys that style of tap dancing


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## ralphy1976

signalgrey said:


> as in HOT FUZZ?
> 
> brilliant flick


 
AMEN my friend!!!! indeed brilliant flick, i can remember watching it in the cinema and laughing so much i nearly fell off my chair, to my ex-missus discomfort!!!!


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## Daemoniac

MFB said:


> Trent Reznor's pedals :



Beat me to it  That's definitely not it though  Not at all...



zimbloth said:


> I can see why Trent Reznor would need all of that stuff, but not really guys in metal bands.



 I'd murder Reznor for his collection...



signalgrey said:


> Im surprised Trents Collection is so small.



A lot of his stuff is in a studio. I had pics of it somewhere, but i cant remember where  It's a sight, i'll say that.



Variant said:


> That's just one pic... there's way more stuff he's got, though honestly, live, he doesn't run near that much stuff.



Theres no way he could run it all live, there's too many pedals... But the amount of insane fx, weird layers, and textures on stuff like Year Zero, its no real surprise 



Variant said:


> My board's gonna be pretty big... big enough to be _*two*_ boards, but then the most of the shit I have has a pretty large footprint and it's not because there's dozens of half-bricks under my feet.



When i have money, the pedal board i have planned out is going to be fucking incredible  Many many Zvex pedals, and a shitload of filters


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## jymellis

in that entire thread about kevins pedal board this stuck out the most

quote]
His tech brings along a trunk filled with hundreds of different pedals
end quote]

it looks like he just does what his tech tells him is cool .
TECH- "hey check this out kevin, it has a picture of porkey the pig, that would be cool oif you put it between the pedal you never use and this pedal you sometimes use!

KEVIN- uhhh ok.


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## stuh84

I love being on a board full of metal heads sometimes, because they never see anything but their own way....

The whole "does it cover up your playing" arguement, probably, but do people listen to these kind of bands for the 20 minute shred-wank solos, or for the textures and atmosphere?

Not everyone takes an ONLY DISTORTION look at effects, a lot of people like to add a lot of atmosphere, different textures, different sounds, different moods etc with the music, so using a boatload of effects works for some styles of music.


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## Daemoniac

stuh84 said:


> Not everyone takes an ONLY DISTORTION look at effects, a lot of people like to add a lot of atmosphere, different textures, different sounds, different moods etc with the music, so using a boatload of effects works for some styles of music.




 Hi, my name is Mischa, and i like waves of modulation madness.


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## ralphy1976

stuh84 said:


> I love being on a board full of metal heads sometimes, because they never see anything but their own way....
> 
> The whole "does it cover up your playing" arguement, probably, but do people listen to these kind of bands for the 20 minute shred-wank solos, or for the textures and atmosphere?
> 
> Not everyone takes an ONLY DISTORTION look at effects, a lot of people like to add a lot of atmosphere, different textures, different sounds, different moods etc with the music, so using a boatload of effects works for some styles of music.


 
i whole heartdly agree with you there Stuh, adn that's why i was asking the question. Add chorus to an acoustic guitar and you may not be able to "hide being the effects" to hide your incompetence....however, with the beauty of electronics, you can isolate those "undesirable" noises and perhaps not totally remove them but not far from it, wouldn't you say?

then again not everyone can or wants to play acoutic or clean stright into an amp!!!


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## signalgrey

i agree, as ive gotten older as a musician i use less distortion and i might seriously die with out my delay and reverbs. i love creating tone and moods n stuff. not all the time i mean i love to rock too but the most satisfying stuff for me is "texturing" whether it be heavy or soft.

i agree though it is fun being on a board full of metal heads. props to you guys too. but sometimes all i read is DJENT! Br00talz! etc.. anyway to each their own right

secret handshake to my texture creating companions! ive finally found you.


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## ralphy1976

signalgrey said:


> secret handshake to my texture creating companions! ive finally found you.


 
Kinky!!!!!


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## TimSE

i love my Boss GT8


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## stuh84

ralphy1976 said:


> i whole heartdly agree with you there Stuh, adn that's why i was asking the question. Add chorus to an acoustic guitar and you may not be able to "hide being the effects" to hide your incompetence....however, with the beauty of electronics, you can isolate those "undesirable" noises and perhaps not totally remove them but not far from it, wouldn't you say?
> 
> then again not everyone can or wants to play acoutic or clean stright into an amp!!!



Yes you could, but as I said, some people really don't care about trying to be 100% technically correct, as long as they achieve the right atmosphere.

It's all about the approach, people on here have a tendency to want to do nothing but chug or shred, hell I know way too many people who have no idea what a clean channel is used for. I try and cover all aspects, good metal parts, but adding effects, clean parts etc when needed to evoke a certain mood.

As much as people would like to tell you otherwise, the gamut of moods that a heavily distorted guitar can portray are not as much as using a heavily distorted guitar in one context, and then a reversed clean sound, phaser, chorus etc in another can.


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## matty2fatty

I'm convinced that first board is actually some sort of time machine, used to predict the next wave of indie coolness. 

"Lo-fi Hi-fi 8-bit midi orchestral cut-time disco? Ok guys, lets do it!'

**full disclosure: At the moment I'm listening to some ridiculously pretentious 90's indie rock***


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## signalgrey

as long as the fashion from this past wave of indie rock dies i dont care what it sounds like.


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## s_k_mullins

Wow those are some impressive pedal collections..
but i imagine that guy from MBV could be in quiet a cluster-fuck if a connection fails somewhere in all that madness
I like the more neat and organized pedal set-ups, like Mike from Incubus or Munky from Korn.

I'm currently running through 2 wahs, a digitech whammy, digitech phaser, and boss delay, flanger, chorus, super shifter/harmonizer, and tremolo. Plus the footswitch for my Peavey and the FBV floorboard for the Line 6.
It's not a lot, but even my small rig can be a pain in the ass at times.


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## signalgrey

i have about the same amount as you perhaps one or two more. it is definately a pain in the ass. line 6 has different voltage, vox has different voltage. my powered pedal board only runs certain voltages and will just drop out occasionally.

but i suppose if i was paying a tech to get my shit right id be ok with 90 million pedals. hahaha


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## ralphy1976

Actually that's a good point, one this whic strikes me is all the small shitty power adapters which are available, incredible.

I understand that each company has got a marketing reason behind such thing, but i can swap and change my battery charger between my nikon DSLR, my minolta digital, a sony camcorder and even 2 of my old CD players...

maybe uniformity should be the next big thing in the music industry ... of course from a pedal power supply point of view...


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## signalgrey

it would be a nice place to start. thats for fucks sure.


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## maat

stuh84 said:


> I love being on a board full of metal heads sometimes, because they never see anything but their own way....
> 
> The whole "does it cover up your playing" arguement, probably, but do people listen to these kind of bands for the 20 minute shred-wank solos, or for the textures and atmosphere?
> 
> Not everyone takes an ONLY DISTORTION look at effects, a lot of people like to add a lot of atmosphere, different textures, different sounds, different moods etc with the music, so using a boatload of effects works for some styles of music.




Yuppers. Still, try not to let the sycophantic snobbery get to ya.


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## abysmalrites

And this is where the term 'shoegaze' originated.


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## HammerAndSickle

I'm more of a fan of creating textures through MUSIC, not sound. I have a ton of effects that I play with but really, I much prefer using a certain type of chord or arpeggio to create the mood moreso than a wall of effects.


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## Ramsay777

Justin Chancellor of Tool springs to mind......

Sick bassist 

I think this is quite an old picture.


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## Rick

Thank God for multi-effect units.


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## signalgrey

it is kinda fun have so many "preciousssssss"

love me a pedal collection.


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## Ze Kink

And the funny thing is, Kevin used to use very little pedals back when the MBV stuff was recorded. Something like just a dirt pedal and the Yamaha reverb (can't remember the exact model) with the reverse setting. Nowadays his rig is totally massive, but I bet it kills live too. Since he's got something like 11 amps on stage, I'd guess most of those pedals are split into different chains for different amps, not all in a row.

But yeah, I love MBV and huge boards  I love djenting my 7 and 8-strings, but I also love playing Shoegaze and Post-Rock with my Jazzmaster and tons of fuzz and delay.


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## Stealthdjentstic

Someone needs a GT-8 for Christmas


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## Ben.Last

HammerAndSickle said:


> I'm more of a fan of creating textures through MUSIC, not sound. I have a ton of effects that I play with but really, I much prefer using a certain type of chord or arpeggio to create the mood moreso than a wall of effects.




This statement works with the assumption that using effects can not be creating music. I'd strongly disagree.

I'm definitely more in line with the industrial music mentality(so, plenty of effects) vs. straight metal or post-rock/shoe gazing but... BUT...

Where I personally find pedal madness to cross the line is when there's 3 different phasers on someone's gigging board or 7 big muffs. Sure, in recordings there may be slight differences between the different pedals but, live, the difference is going to be lost in the noise. So, basically, have 50 DIFFERENT pedals if it works for you but having a bunch that just do the same thing is retarded.


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## Variant

stuh84 said:


> I love being on a board full of metal heads sometimes, because they never see anything but their own way....
> 
> The whole "does it cover up your playing" arguement, probably, but do people listen to these kind of bands for the 20 minute shred-wank solos, or for the textures and atmosphere?
> 
> Not everyone takes an ONLY DISTORTION look at effects, a lot of people like to add a lot of atmosphere, different textures, different sounds, different moods etc with the music, so using a boatload of effects works for some styles of music.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi, my name is Mischa, and i like waves of modulation madness.
Click to expand...


^


Obviously he hasn't seen the pile o' stuff that's going on my board(s).


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## signalgrey

retardedly awesome.

i know its a bit much but sometimes when the pedal all interact you get some seriously unique effects.



Ze Kink said:


> And the funny thing is, Kevin used to use very little pedals back when the MBV stuff was recorded. Something like just a dirt pedal and the Yamaha reverb (can't remember the exact model) with the reverse setting. Nowadays his rig is totally massive, but I bet it kills live too. Since he's got something like 11 amps on stage, I'd guess most of those pedals are split into different chains for different amps, not all in a row.
> 
> But yeah, I love MBV and huge boards  I love djenting my 7 and 8-strings, but I also love playing Shoegaze and Post-Rock with my Jazzmaster and tons of fuzz and delay.



kick ass!


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## Daemoniac

Variant said:


> ^
> 
> 
> Obviously he hasn't seen the pile o' stuff that's going on my board(s).



I enjoy using different verisons of the same effect together  I mean, assuming you have the patience to tweak it/fix the sound up, then you really can come up with some truly amazing effects and textures.

Ultimately, regardless of how anyone uses it or whatever, it's for the _player_ to decide if they need/want to use it, and for the _listener_ to decide whether they like it.  If someone told me (like they have already) that an M13 and Pod isnt necessairy and is overkill, would i listen? No. Why? I can see a use for it as a player, and will hear the difference, irrespective of what anyone listening will think.


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## signalgrey

Variant said:


> ^
> 
> 
> Obviously he hasn't seen the pile o' stuff that's going on my board(s).




same here hahhaaaaa


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## Splees

I'm glad I'm not the only one here. There was a time in my life when I had three delays, two big muffs, phasers, two reverbs, three ods, among many other things... basically a buttload of pedals, but that's not metal.


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## signalgrey

3 fuzzes, 3 different delays, 2 reverbs, 2 pitch shifters, 2 phasers...set to KILL!

love it


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## Variant

Demoniac said:


> I enjoy using different verisons of the same effect together  I mean, assuming you have the patience to tweak it/fix the sound up, then you really can come up with some truly amazing effects and textures.
> 
> Ultimately, regardless of how anyone uses it or whatever, it's for the _player_ to decide if they need/want to use it, and for the _listener_ to decide whether they like it.  If someone told me (like they have already) that an M13 and Pod isnt necessairy and is overkill, would i listen? No. Why? I can see a use for it as a player, and will hear the difference, irrespective of what anyone listening will think.





Right now, with our current project, *The Surfacing*, we're looking to put a lot of sections of grandiose moving textures into the songs, like say Opeth does but in a more ambient manner, and on my part as a guitar player those sounds are painted by my diversity of gear. Also, as a lead player, I don't like the idea of having the same friggen' sound everytime I do something like a solo or a phrase, so having variety in my rig is important. 

Here's a very shitty sketchup of how my pedalboard is panning out now:






The cluster on the right is basically the secondary board, with two paths through a GCX switcher, and that sends back to the main board. I *may* physically arrange them in a single row with the pedals to make them easier to toe tap (some don't have MIDI program change ), but that's the general gist of it.  

Really, what catches me off as _*really*_ cool is not just having some unique and flexible boxes in my arsenal, but the magic that happens when you start using them in combinations with each other in ways that others may likely have not. Some really awesome stuff pops out of the monitors when you get crazy. That's why I'm so exited to actually get everything wired and MIDI'd up at once.


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## Daemoniac

^  Holy shit... Want...  My plan has always been noise. THere are such incredible sounds you can get from various pedals and effects, as long as you're prepared to let it sit and do next to nothing  I mean, put a tremolo in sync with a synth swell, with some distortion and a noise gate... you basically have a percussion instrument right there 

I just wish i could afford more pedals right now  The Devi Ever pedals and Moogerfooger ones are particularly appealing, though there are a plethora of others which have caught my eye (as im sure you of all people can imagine )


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## signalgrey

ive been using a boss slicer pedal for some seriously fun effects. if you guys ever get a chance try one out.


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## Daemoniac

^ Theres a Gig-Fx one i've had my eye on for a while now. Kind of a cross between a Tremolo, a wah, and a slicer. Crazy crazy shit


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## distressed_romeo

Quote from the mighty Wiki on Shield's guitar sound...



> Shields has pointed out that he uses far fewer effects pedals and overdubs than fans and the music press sometimes make him out to use. He has noted many times in interviews that most tracks feature one or two main, albeit massive sounding, guitar tracks that give off many layers of sound. This has mistakenly led people to believe he uses multiple overdubs which he has repeated over and over is not how his sound is achieved, at least not before the Tremolo EP. Although Tremolo and Loveless featured more sampling and sampled guitar, (Simon Reynolds, NYTimes, December 1, 1991, Arts Section Pg. 26) one need only play around with a Jaguar or Jazzmaster and Yamaha SPX 90 with some strings in open tunings to get an idea of how he achieves a massive swirling guitar sound with one guitar that to some sound like twenty overdubs. Kevin's earlier recordings pre-Tremolo consisted mostly of one guitar during the chorus and then a guitar with a different tone during the verses. Tremolo and Loveless involved more sampling of guitars and synths. Shields explained, "Ninety percent of what we do is just a guitar straight into an amp." (Alan Di Perna, Guitar World, March 1992, Pg. 25-26) "People think it's all pedals, but all my pedals are graphic equalizers and tone controls. It's all in the tone." (Steve Double, NME November 9, 1991, pg. 14) Various effects pedals mainly play a role when trying to recreate studio sounds in a live setting.



The other guy who was notorious for this back in the 70s was Frank Marino, although he's since scaled down what he brings on the road. Apparently his pedal board took three people to move at one stage, but was a similar set-up to Shields'; lots of the same pedals, just on different settings. Unfortunately I kind find pics of it, but apparently the core effects were different fuzz pedals, echoplexes, phasers and flangers, plus and octave pedal and a wah.

Personally, I love stompboxes for the textures they can create, and the phaser, flanger and delay pedals on my pedal board are a really big part of my sound. A lot of the time I'll do the EVH thing and switch them in and out for just a couple of notes. Andy Summers is another really big influence on how I use them, especially the flanger. 
I really like that simple set up, as I can get a huge variety of sounds with just a few pedals and some experimentation with the settings. The only thing I'd really like to add is the Digitech Synth Wah.


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## Harry

It's interesting, I'm as much of a post rock/metal guitarist as I am a death metal or post hardcore player, but I only ever use the Boost+EQ stomp for my distortion sounds on my POD, and for leads I use some 'verb and delay, but nothing else, no compression, no modulation effects. Some wah on leads from time to time, but that's pretty standard fare I guess anyway. I guess I'm more of a "plug straight in" guy I guess.
I'm a huge Omar Rodriguez-Lopez fan however, and I love his use of heaps of effects and noises in At The Drive In and The Mars Volta, so I can certainly appreciate both approaches to the instrument.


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## signalgrey

Omar ive never liked. I dont know what it is about him or his playing but ive never liked it.
^
Ive never been a compression guy either, i give props to you for being able to just plug in. its never as satisfying for me unless i can add that third dimension with some verb or delay.


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## distressed_romeo

signalgrey said:


> Omar ive never liked. I dont know what it is about him or his playing but ive never liked it.
> ^
> Ive never been a compression guy either, i give props to you for being able to just plug in. its never as satisfying for me unless i can add that third dimension with some verb or delay.



Another non-compression guy here. I got one for slide playing and clean-toned tapping stuff, but ended up selling it, as I never got a single tone I was really happy with out of it. Even for slide, where conventional wisdom is that you need one, I prefer to do without. One of my favourite slide players is Brett Garsed, and he doesn't use one, so...


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## Daemoniac

+1,000 for a Digitech Synth Wah there  One of those many pedals i've been meaning to buy for the last 3 years. I wanted to wait until i finished this new rig before i got one tho, wasn't sure if it would be necessairy. Turns out, nothing is "necessairy" any more, just more sounds for the vault


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## MFB

I'm becoming somewhat of a pedal whore but it's mainly for my solo stuff versus my power metal band. I've always dug stuff, especially the way Mastodon use it, that has tons of reverb and echo, delay you name it. I'm also tempted to pick up a foot pedal so that I can do swells with my pedals ala Paul Gilbert's Flanger trick :


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## darbdavys

I can beat it. 

With a hammer


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## Ben.Last

For the record, when I made my comment about duplicate/similar pedals on a pedal board. I didn't mean that using them in conjunction can't have awesome effects. In that case I understand and endorse it. I was speaking, specifically, to the notion that, say, having 2 big muffs on a gigging board, 1 each for 2 different songs, would be noticeable enough to warrant both.


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## Daemoniac

^ Ah yeah, fair call. I still see the use in a sense, but by the same token i really think you can tweak it or leave it  (unless you have to re-tweak 20 different pedals and so on )


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## signalgrey

since ive been in korea ive collected a fairly modest pedal board. I miss my big one cause i loved being able to change stuff on the fly and experiment with settings. I used my Giga Delay to have my saved settings, but then i always had my other delays that i just fucking put in the weirdest settings.

little bit of controlled randomness.

Ive never heard of Paul Gilberts flanger thing. Although that flanger (ADA) is fucking insane. Ive used my friends one. it would be cool to have a series of those pedals that sweep like that connected to various pedals. hmmm. pedal board idea brewing.

ever seen the trailer trash pedal boards?

id like to try something like that. organized and funcional but chaotic.


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## MFB

$200 for a pedal board seems a bit steep in my book, I'll probably end up making my own 2 level board cause I'm cheap


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## Variant

signalgrey said:


> ive been using a boss slicer pedal for some seriously fun effects. if you guys ever get a chance try one out.



Yeah, my Slicer is amazing for feeding other things (like my G5 guitar synths for instance, because the cut forces the LFO to restart, generating pulse rhythms and whatnot), you can do similar cool things with the M13 by putting delays at the front of the chain, with 100% regen to build up swell routines to feed synths/filters and what not, then echos/reveb after again for the ambiance.  Then tweak away with the expression pedals for madness! 

My gripes with the Slicer is the same with most Boss pedals , utter lack of programability and MIDI (well, beyond beat sync), and minimal continuous control (only one parameter, *NOT* through a dedicated CC, and not the MIDI). And that's why it's spec'd to "mount on the mic stand" on my sketch, as you have to hand change programs. 

I'm trying to track one of these babies down, as they include a full computer interface for setting up sequences, arpeggiations, etc. for all sorts of killer effects. Next on the list of must haves, it is! 







*Watch the whole video, there is some awesome beat sync effects in there, that if you've got a good imagination you could do awesome things with in combination with other effects.*







> ever seen the trailer trash pedal boards?
> 
> id like to try something like that. organized and funcional but chaotic.



I can't find anything off the shelf that I like so I'm building mine from scratch. It'll be two boards (per the side view illustration) connected by a piano hinge at the front, with all the pedals mounted cleanly on the top, and all the wiring connects underneath the top board. I plan to leave it all open (not box it in) and actually wire things up intentionality sloppy, and add a bunch of extra wires, hoses, grating, circuit boards, etc. then backlight the between section (which is seen from the audience side) so they've got this awesome post-apocalyptic mess to look at.  The two boards will be connected by several thick clear tubes (regular Home Depot shit) and will have those outdoor, garden perimeter lights in them, hopefully blue and pulsing.


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## All_¥our_Bass

My Bloody Valentine is awesome.
Even if some of the distortions are nasty there is a HUGE amount of reverb and other stuff on top of that. The result is a dreamy, ethereal, and strangely beautiful.



HammerAndSickle said:


> I'm more of a fan of creating textures through MUSIC, not sound. I have a ton of effects that I play with but really, I much prefer using a certain type of chord or arpeggio to create the mood moreso than a wall of effects.


But what is music but a succession of sounds?

But putting silly arguments aside I kinda like to play with the "music vs sound" aspect. Some things I play with be more oriented towards intelligible notes and progressions while other stuff I will purposely loosen the sense of pitch to take advantage of rhythm and/or texture.

As strange as I am, I don't think I'll ever top that board, I'm crazy enough with even just one crappy multifx unit, I even made a "theremin" patch once.


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## distressed_romeo

Incidentally, MBV's guitar sound is just as much due to technique as gear; Shields has said in the past that the open tunings they use, and his approach to the whammy bar, are just as important as their stompboxes.


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## signalgrey

^ im glad you brought that up, alot of people think its merely strumming one chord with a shit load of effects on it.


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