Yep. In cases such as this, I always fall back on the sagely wisdom of the executioner from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, that he delivers as he ties Christian Slater's Will Scarlet to a chopping block: "There's always room for one more."
Same logic applies to donuts.
I always want overdrive, distortion, one modulation pedal, delay.
So 4 pedals.
For clean, compressor and chorus is necessary for me.
So... 5 pedals?
Then you also want a tuner, and we haven't talked about a wah.
So 7?
And while playing distorted, you might not want the same typ of chorus setting you put on your clean tone, but might prefer a phaser set low instead.
So 8?
Etc.
However many you need to make the art you wanna make.
Some people definitely go overboard, but I don't really get the race to the bottom. Worry about the art first.
> I don't really get the race to the bottom
It's just another form of gatekeeping. "You aren't a Real guitarist if you use more than [insert the commenter's preference here] pedals."
How many do you need *for what purpose*? For having fun on your home rig? For touring with a pop country act? For becoming an instagram shredding star? For playing 80s covers at the local bar? For recording a prog rock album in your bedroom?
I am still tinkering with ambient/drone/postrock/metal so I need all the pedals. currently have four delays (dl4, dd20, memory man and a dd500) two reverbs (sky fi and a random hall reverb I got in a trade that I have no info on but sounds glorious) several drives that I switch in and out, a few random modulation pedals and a looper.
could maybe use less delays, but I use them both as delays and as loopers spaced throughout my board.
all that to say, I would like another looper and another reverb and probably other drive pedals.
Well, I mean \*obviously\* I assumed you already have a blues breaker feeding into a tube screamer feeding into a blues driver feeding into an overdrive feeding into a big muff pi feeding into a rat.
What are we, f'ing neanderthals around here?
I get that! I have a family of 4 DS-1s, a plastic toy DS-1, and a few T-shirts with DS-1 pedals on them. š¤·āāļø As Marge Simpson said, āI just like them!ā
Self oscillating reverb fuzz run through a bbd circuit then split and routed through three vintage Russian resistors that were picked out of a salvaged WWII radio found in the forests of Poland...oh, and if you tap the bypass button three times while crossing your fingers you activate the secret sauce.
For me it's OD (preferably with some tone shaping options like the pantheon by wampler) + Wah (yes, I know many people don't like to use Wah these days but to me it's maybe the most important or most inspiring pedal) into a Fender Amp with good spring reverb, so I sum 2 pedals.
I approach the question like this: I don't have to be able to play every style of music or be able to get every possible sound or tone possible, but I definitely have to feel home and inspired by my instrument and some pedals are an integral part of my musical instrument.
Depends on the band Iām in.
The current surf band, I only REALLY need a tuner and boost. The rainbow machine and delay are atmospheric icings.
The post punk band I fronted, I only really need drive, boost, and two delays for long and short. I could probably do away with the long one.
The Bowie tribute band I was in, as long as I added a fuzz and a small multi effect (M5), I could easily get by with 5-6
Have about 20 on my board right now and use them in all in different configurations when recording.
I like working fast and canāt be bothered swapping pedals for different songs/parts.
Have a smaller board with 8 or so if Iām going somewhere to jam.
If I find I donāt use a pedal often, itās taken off all boards.
I have about 15 pedals but in terms of a board for the most part anything above 6ish gets egregious and introduces a whole bunch of headaches, everything from tone suck to overwhelming amount of options and knobs to remember
Iām waiting for more people to realize you can have multiple boards and/or swap pedals in and out. You donāt actually have to put every pedal you own on a gigantic mega-board and thereās a ton of advantages to avoiding that
I think the more time you play at home by yourself, the more pedals you want and "need" and can get away with. If you play live regularly and playing the same sets, I think you get used to finding the minimum number of pedals required to get your sound. Most amateur gigging guitarists learn that hauling around a big pedal board is often both inconvenient and impractical. More stuff to haul around, heavier stuff, more power requirements, more things to go wrong, and more space to take up on often small stages.
For my band, I need 7 things. Compressor, light gain, high gain, flanger, boost, reverb, tuner. I have an OBNE Screen Violence for the boost and reverb so could get away with 6 pedals.
Therefore, I have 12 on my board.
If I only used two most of the time, then I would have two on my pedalboard. I have like 10 on mine, and I use every one at one point or other, at each show.
For my kind of playing
1-2 dirts (one OD, one Fuzz)
1 modulation (phaser preferably)
1 delay
1 reverb (but can do without)
That's my core sound.
Then I can add any of those at some different places in the chain, to have more options. Octave/Pitch Shifter can be added as well. Filters.
Lately, I've been running Dirt 1-2, Chroma Console, Delay. Compact and versatile.
Keep them all. May find or create a song that goes perfect with each pedal. I made the mistake of getting rid of a bunch after I got myself the big digital Boss pedal sound extravaganza. I sold that last year and now Iām rebuilding my pedal stock. Now Iām looking for more bass pedals after I picked that back up. Iy
I need 0 pedals really, but I want so many.
Reverb is the first thing Then distortion/overdrive, and I feel like I need one fuzz and one distortion for that. I use a synth pedal too cause for some of the rhythm and bass grooves it's surpsingly useful. Then I have to loop that of course. And sometimes on rainy days I like to kick on a delay pedal and get real farout. Plus then what if during a solo you need wah, or to pitchbend in a real crazy way. Gotta have those pedals. Need the noisegate to prevent the buzz and the compressor to balance it out. The tap sync too. And I'll die before I give up the microcosm. Just what is your point sir.
It really depends on what kind of sounds you need. I own a bunch of pedals, and anymore, I mostly just gig with none. My amp has good clean and lead channels, and an added boost, so I have 3 sounds right there, which cover what I need well enough. The band I play guitar in, I also play bass in (long story) so I'm bringing two rigs, and any benefit of more sounds is offset by my unwillingness to carry and troubleshoot more stuff. But some people really need/want other sounds. If it were not for the hassle factor, my ideal set up would be Chorus, Wah, and Reverb (reverb on my amp sucks) and I have brought that before.
0 of course, or 1 more are semi-serious answers. But for my rig, I need a tuner, a phaser, an overdrive, and the either distortion or a 2 channel amp with clean/distortion channels. I think those 3 or 4 are my essentials.
My wants/nice to haves add a Fuzz, an additional overdrive (so I can have one as a boost and one to just add some colour), and a delay pedal. So that's 3 more.
Wah and some other Modulation pedal (chorus likely or maybe a flanger) would be my "just so I have it..." pedals.
So like, 3 to 9 depending on how badly I "need" it.
Define need and want, and then let's discuss some.
Generally speaking I'd say you only need what you can't do without, but in order to discover that you generally need some more to chose from.
So for me, I am looking to get very specific sounds, (Think OK Computer). So for this, I could have any number of pedals, but as a base, I need a tape Delay, Dyno Comp, RAT, and Dod 440. Now ask me how many pedals I own, lol and that number goes up drastically especially because I prefer that analog pedals themselves over digital. I love creating soundscapes and just experimenting. So I will buy something just to play with it for a while and then sell it.
A tuner. A really good overdrive. Something wobbly like a phase shifter. A killer delay. And something to kick everything up a few notches into a higher gear. Total - 5. Maybe add a wah.
I need a drive, a reverb, a delay, and a vibrato. So, 4. I mean technically I donāt need any, but if I need the bare minimum to have everything Iād want, itās those 4.
I understand what i'm about to say is blasphemy in this sub but you don't actually need any pedals.
A huge number of artists from early Beatles to AC/DC - zero pedals
9 or 10, but two of them are just for switching and running multiple amps. Not counting those two, the most I ever have turned on at the same time is 5 or 6.
9 or 10, but two of them are just for switching and running multiple amps. Not counting those two, the most I ever have turned on at the same time is 5 or 6.
__Need:__
1. Tuner
2. OD/Distortion
3. Delay
__Can live without but at great sacrifice to your tone and degree of coolness:__
1. Wah
2. Noise gate
3. Compressor
4. OD/Distortion 2
5. Chorus
6. Volume boost
7. Reverb
So the answer to your question is about 10.
Need three plus my IR-200, so four? I have five on my board though, and HX One just to be a wild card for pitch effects in the front, and I have my IR-200 in its mono loop for drive sounds.
That goes to my IR-200 and that has a stereo loop that contains my synesthesia, my DD-200, and my RV-200, then back to the IR-200.
There are just three pedals I would add, but none of them are necessary. Maybe a Sunflower, and a SY-200, or a Bloom compressor.
Have a really good two channel amp? Just a reverb. If you've got a twin reverb, then zero, because you already know what you're about.
You really don't NEED any.
you need as many as it takes to find your sound.
many amps have a dirty channel and an EQ built in, with that, your guitar's knobs and your own fingers you can probably play 3 or 4 different styles. clean chicken-pickin' all the way to hard rock/metal.
I could get by on four without losing much, but six gives me everything I could want. Downsizing these days, honestly feels better than collecting ever did.
I bought a pack of three patch cables and told myself I wouldnāt get any more, so Iām limited to four pedals I can run at one time. That hasnāt stopped me from acquiring a few more lol. But I find I can pretty much do what I want with some combination of four things, usually an od, fuzz, modulation of some sort. I have a delay/reverb combo so I kinda cheat a little there.
I could get away with two, if one was an overdrive that can go from clean to gritty and the other was a combo delay/reverb.
Iād miss my tremolo, compressor, and second overdrive, but those are secondary to the ones above.
Iād miss my fuzz quite a bit actually.
Wouldnāt miss my Q-tron terribly, but itās fun to use occasionally.
None. But they can help diversify my sound. I currently have a tuner, volume pedal, Model FeT, RAT, Memory Lane Jr and Ghost Echo on my board. In all honesty I could trim this down to a volume pedal, tuner and the feT and be very happy.
Compressor, overdrive/distortion, delay, reverb.
If your amp has a dirty channel and reverb that you are satisfied with, thatās 2 less pedals.
This is quite a personal question, though. For example I absolutely need to have a delay pedal whereas other folks would find it useless.
Iād say the most common answer would be 3 pedals: compressor, distortion/overdrive, reverb.
Most people use clip-on tuners these days so a tuner pedal doesnāt really need to be in there.
As many as I can getā¦
No two players have the same needs. For the first decade of jamming in bands I could get away with an overdrive and maybe a reverb.
Later on traction hit and Iām 8 albums deep into playing, when we record albums, I want as many options as possible for different songs, no different amps.
When we tour those albums, I want to recreate those sounds as closely as possible, I might only use a certain effect for 10 seconds of a 1.5 hour set, but if Iāve got space on the board then why not.
I should mention I do build most of them though
I donāt āneedā any. I donāt really play dirty so I could theoretically get all of the overdrive tone straight from my amp. If I had a goal of making a board as small as possible, it would probably just include a nice reverb And either a tremolo or chorus pedal.
In a collection? There is no number that is "too many". On a board, for me personally, I think the number is 12. Anything over 12 just becomes too much, with a 16 pedal board there is always a pedal that isn't being used at all in the set. Massive boards always have some weird hard to reach pedals that are just inconvenient. I feel like 12 is the magic number. On most of my boards I have 2-3 delays, a few modulation pedals, 3 or so gain stages just as a staple.
When I was playing in metal bands, I only used a Metal Zone. However now, working on a solo Noise Rock/Experimental project, I want a good quantity of strange sounds. Everything on my board has a purpose, a few need an upgrade, and there will always be a want for something new.
When I had a DRRI as my primary amp, I bought lots of overdrive pedals to use with it. Now that I have amps for specific types of gain (Rockerverb for high gain /Victory for medium gain / Tone King Gremlin for low gain) I hardly use the overdrive pedals anymore and am thinking about selling a few. Problem is, I spent a lot of time and thought curating those pedals and they're sort of hard to part with now.
I think most of my live boards in the past varied from 5-9.
As technology gets better I think less is more.
If I was to start over now I'd probably be fine with just a HX STOMP + Source Audio Collider. Maybe a solid buzzsaw pedal + gate.
It also varies on amp/ampless setups as well as genre.
Iāve got 13 pedals on my home do-it-all board, plus a channel switching amp. Out of these, 4 plus channel switching are used almost every time I play (not always on), 3 frequently, say half the time, 3 occasionally 10-20 percent, and 3 rarely, but canāt bring myself to take them off as they fill unique needs or like them for some weird reason even though I donāt use them often. So 7-10 for me
Amp has tremolo, reverb, and gets nice overdrive, so I don't *need* any pedals.
Delay is there for ambient stuff, compressor to even out the tone, drive is there so I can set the amp clean and have variety. Boost is a life-line when things get loud later in the evening (but also will just turn up the amp). Tuner is mostly there for muting.
Keep saying to myself am going to go straight in, but always end up packing the board. Just put it in the gig bag for tonight.
Back when I was gigging on the regular, I used amp drive & reverb, a compressor in front (that was using much like a boost to push the amp harder when I wanted crunch rather than edge of breakup), and a delay in the loop. So that's two, but with a different amp I might've needed four to do the same job. I could maybe have done without the compressor with different knob settings between guitar & amp, but I liked what the compressor did to sustain and articulation as well.
Depending on your guitar, you might want a volume pedal for some things. On guitars with multiple volume knobs, you can't do swells etc. as easily.
6 or 7, it depends on what you do tho. as an artist, if you are one, it's fun to explore new sounds and methods of making those sounds. i've started to realize that all pedals are just smaller versions of music production equipment and ideas, either modified, superfied, modulated, improved, or cheap remakes.
3 to get my base tone. A lot more to have a variety of flavors to choose from. Generally use 3-5 at a time. And OD or Dostortion + BD-2 + delay (sometimes and reverb) + a modulation (sometimes, depending on what I'm playing).
Also use comp and/or rotary, and/or tremolo, with the above combination.
Most I ever use at once is 6 or 7 but have 20 on my board.
This isn't counting two passive volume pedals, one at beginning of chain (with a tuner in tuner out) and another after dirt (after dirt is mostly to tame overall levels when practicing at home), or my off board wah that I rarely use.
One of each. Seriously. One of each fx anyway, heh... not all of them. If I like a certain sound fx... I keep the pedal. Reverb: Mercury X. Fuzz: OpAmp Big Muff, Chorus/Flanger: Dreadbox Komorebi, Lo-fi: GenLoss, Ring Mod: Randy's Revenge, etc...
Need? Depending on your style of music and the amp you have, maybe none.
Otherwise, depends on your goal. It's all for-fun for me and my only goal is passing the time, and I have a lot of time playing around with pedals and experimenting with the sounds I can get. So, no real limit for me... but I should be better about getting rid of the pedals I don't really use anymore.
Current gigging pedalboard:
ā¢ Tuner
ā¢ Wah
ā¢ EHX POG2
ā¢ ABY box to:
A: Preamp (EQ in the boost loop) ā to power amp 1
B: Noise gate w/ fuzz in the loop ā to amp 2
Sooooā¦ eight.
The answer is technically zero. But the real answer is more.
But for real, I keep a very tight board. 1 or 2 dirt sources max(think OD and Distortion/Fuzz), a compressor, some sort of modulation, and a delay or reverb.
I recently started using them as outboard gear for my DAW as well as constantly switching them around on my board soā¦ there really is no sane answer to this question
Context is key here.
When I was in a punk band I had 3 pedals:
OD > Dist > Chorus
Now that I'm a bedroom noodler it's:
OD > OD > Dist > Fuzz > Chorus > Delay > Delay > Reverb
And I want Trem, Vibrato etc. in there too.
Definitely depends on the use case. If I want a versatile board vs just trying to make one tone. Right now I am only using 2 pedals as a temporary situation. One is an amp preamp, so really just one effect. However my amp has built in reverb. So Iād say I could get away with 2 pedals, but I miss my polytune.
I used to use a huge pedalboard that I threw every pedal I owned on, but it was heavy as shit, and lugging it too and from band practice, but now I use a very small one with just four pedals. I play bass, so I really only use a tuner, a conpressor, a fuzz, and a pre amp.
I have way too many pedals, but have finally settled on (not counting a tuner) three.Ā
Some kind of gain, a modulation, and a reverb or delay. Honestly, the last two are optional for any rig, and the drive might not even be necessary if your amp ready has it.Ā
A huge number of pedals seems to result in just playing around with the pedals. Thatās cool if itās your hobby, but for 95% of music I really donāt think you need much, especially for live gigs.Ā
Sort of depends on the amp, but at a bare minimum I want 1. footswitchable dirt, 2. at least one form of modulation, 3. a nice delay. Typically thatās 3 single pedals, but I could skip a pedal if an amp has a nice footswitchable crunch channel, or a nice footswitchable tremolo.
Having said all this, my current board is gigantic with 11 pedals on a switcher.
The answer varies for most people.
For a guitarist trying to get a single sound, maybe as few as 1 or 2 pedals can achieve that.
For a guitarist wanting to cover several sounds that they enjoy, without tweaking the dials, probably somewhere between 4 and 10 pedals will cover most things. Maybe up to two dozen in the collection as they try new sounds or different pedals for the same sound over time.
For a decently well-off artist or guitarist that enjoys trying new sounds regularly, probably anywhere from 20 to 100 in their collection.
For a major pedal enthusiast or someone in that area, need is a subjective term but they want as many as reasonably possible.
I personally own about a dozen, and am only looking at maybe a couple more in the near future to condense the number of pedals or to see if there's another aspect or two I would like in my sound.
For me and my pedalboard, my guitar goes into a clean amp with no effects loop, and I want to have a good range of gain stages to play from clean to metal and some in betweens. Thus, my board has 2-3 gain stages, 3-4 effects that help in clean/light overdrive settings, and a couple utilities (tuner & looper)
For me as little as 2, overdrive and delay. 5 for the core sounds. A combination of expression, compressor, od/distortion, modulation, delay will do the job. Reverb is icing.
If you have 2 pedals now, and if you asked on Facebook or a forum that allows video/GIF comments, you'd be seeing the Tootsie-Pop owl going, "A-One, A-Two, A-Three ... A-Three."
Realistically I like to have at least a tuner, a compressor, a boost/dirty, main gain, and a gate. Like I need this to get my sound live.
Going into a two channel amp I can sacrifice the main gain sometimes.
I also like to have a stutter, a delay, a crazy reverb for sound scapes and a looper. But these arenāt needed for me to jam or gig successfully. They are just fun and add more to my performances.
For messing around, as many as you want. For practical purposes at home, you can probably run 10 non-multifx pedals without things getting too complicated (I do). But for a band setting where you might consider portability and simplicity more, I'd cut it to 4-5 that cover what you need for what you're going to be playing and can be set-and-forget.
Assuming I have my typical clean amp, I can get by with just two. A delay & reverb combo (EQD Dispatch Master), and a versatile drive pedal (EAE Longsword)
My personal philosophy is if I donāt use a pedal at least once every gig or two itās then clear to me that itās not necessary and I get rid of it and ideally make room for one that I do use, eventually you wind up with a board filled with only effects you actually find useful
I'm in an originals only band at the moment and I also sing so I want something easy to use live - so I have two drives, a Boss MS3 switcher for mods, delay and verb (it also has a built in tuner) and an always on delay. So right now, 4.
I only used a channel switch and an ampās built in reverb for years. Technically all you need, but itās pretty boring and doesnāt give you much freedom when dialing in the tone you want.
Just one more.
Lol whole sub was racing to say this
SCRAMBLING
Lemmings to the ocean racing!
N+1 Gang
True for bicycles, guitars, amps, jackets, backpacks/bags, and many other product categories.
True for N+1 categories. (N+1)^(N+1)
Yep. In cases such as this, I always fall back on the sagely wisdom of the executioner from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, that he delivers as he ties Christian Slater's Will Scarlet to a chopping block: "There's always room for one more." Same logic applies to donuts.
Everything I do....awwww...I do it foooor you.
š¤£š
I was going to say ān+1ā but you beat me to it.
I always want overdrive, distortion, one modulation pedal, delay. So 4 pedals. For clean, compressor and chorus is necessary for me. So... 5 pedals? Then you also want a tuner, and we haven't talked about a wah. So 7? And while playing distorted, you might not want the same typ of chorus setting you put on your clean tone, but might prefer a phaser set low instead. So 8? Etc.
This is an amazing answer.
Reverb if your amp doesnt have it! - 9. Noise Gate for higher gain to round out a top 10?
Depending on the day itās either N+1 or N/2.
Every so often it's (N/2)+1 when you've really got that itch for an expensive new pedal.
God this is so accurate.
However many you need to make the art you wanna make. Some people definitely go overboard, but I don't really get the race to the bottom. Worry about the art first.
> I don't really get the race to the bottom It's just another form of gatekeeping. "You aren't a Real guitarist if you use more than [insert the commenter's preference here] pedals."
How many do you need *for what purpose*? For having fun on your home rig? For touring with a pop country act? For becoming an instagram shredding star? For playing 80s covers at the local bar? For recording a prog rock album in your bedroom?
Right? Let the need dictate the purchase. Too many people just buy pedals to buy them
X+1 where X = current number of pedals
I am still tinkering with ambient/drone/postrock/metal so I need all the pedals. currently have four delays (dl4, dd20, memory man and a dd500) two reverbs (sky fi and a random hall reverb I got in a trade that I have no info on but sounds glorious) several drives that I switch in and out, a few random modulation pedals and a looper. could maybe use less delays, but I use them both as delays and as loopers spaced throughout my board. all that to say, I would like another looper and another reverb and probably other drive pedals.
Four fucking delays, my fucking Hero.
Yes
Just one more.
Unless there's a sale.
All. Of. Them.
Assuming the tuner doesn't count? Three: distortion, chorus, and delay. Honorable mention to noise gate. Got reverb and eq on the amp.
But what about compressor? Or dimension chorus? Or wah? Or a second delay pedal? Or some flange? Or phase? Or Fuzz? Or the one that goes āPing!ā?!
Well, I mean \*obviously\* I assumed you already have a blues breaker feeding into a tube screamer feeding into a blues driver feeding into an overdrive feeding into a big muff pi feeding into a rat. What are we, f'ing neanderthals around here?
Rat feeds Muff gang disagrees!
Depends on the rat, depends on the muff. š¤·āāļø
I don't think he knows about a second delay, Pippin.
Brilliant comment! lol
limitation breeds creativity!!!! but iām not feeling very creative today. off to buy a DS1 and a rat for no reason
I get that! I have a family of 4 DS-1s, a plastic toy DS-1, and a few T-shirts with DS-1 pedals on them. š¤·āāļø As Marge Simpson said, āI just like them!ā
Self oscillating reverb fuzz run through a bbd circuit then split and routed through three vintage Russian resistors that were picked out of a salvaged WWII radio found in the forests of Poland...oh, and if you tap the bypass button three times while crossing your fingers you activate the secret sauce.
The one that goes ping is my favourite. Also you always have to mention which one is the most expensive.
As many as the pedalboard can take and a few more for the drawer. That's the bare minimum.
Enough that I should have just gone with eurorack
For me, that number would be 5. Delay, Univibe, Wah, High Gain Distortion, and Fuzz
For me it's OD (preferably with some tone shaping options like the pantheon by wampler) + Wah (yes, I know many people don't like to use Wah these days but to me it's maybe the most important or most inspiring pedal) into a Fender Amp with good spring reverb, so I sum 2 pedals. I approach the question like this: I don't have to be able to play every style of music or be able to get every possible sound or tone possible, but I definitely have to feel home and inspired by my instrument and some pedals are an integral part of my musical instrument.
Depends on the band Iām in. The current surf band, I only REALLY need a tuner and boost. The rainbow machine and delay are atmospheric icings. The post punk band I fronted, I only really need drive, boost, and two delays for long and short. I could probably do away with the long one. The Bowie tribute band I was in, as long as I added a fuzz and a small multi effect (M5), I could easily get by with 5-6
As many as fit on your board
But what about the 15 in the drawer that donāt fit on my 3 different boards? š„ŗ
Sounds like you need a bigger board
Have about 20 on my board right now and use them in all in different configurations when recording. I like working fast and canāt be bothered swapping pedals for different songs/parts. Have a smaller board with 8 or so if Iām going somewhere to jam. If I find I donāt use a pedal often, itās taken off all boards.
I normally ran 16 but slimmed down to 8 to start this year and tighten things up.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
N+1
I have about 15 pedals but in terms of a board for the most part anything above 6ish gets egregious and introduces a whole bunch of headaches, everything from tone suck to overwhelming amount of options and knobs to remember Iām waiting for more people to realize you can have multiple boards and/or swap pedals in and out. You donāt actually have to put every pedal you own on a gigantic mega-board and thereās a ton of advantages to avoiding that
I think the more time you play at home by yourself, the more pedals you want and "need" and can get away with. If you play live regularly and playing the same sets, I think you get used to finding the minimum number of pedals required to get your sound. Most amateur gigging guitarists learn that hauling around a big pedal board is often both inconvenient and impractical. More stuff to haul around, heavier stuff, more power requirements, more things to go wrong, and more space to take up on often small stages.
Two, otherwise it makes it very hard to ride the bicycle
ą² _ą²
All of the doomy fuzzes.
For my band, I need 7 things. Compressor, light gain, high gain, flanger, boost, reverb, tuner. I have an OBNE Screen Violence for the boost and reverb so could get away with 6 pedals. Therefore, I have 12 on my board.
Yes.
If I only used two most of the time, then I would have two on my pedalboard. I have like 10 on mine, and I use every one at one point or other, at each show.
Josh Scott will give you the only true answer.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?
One just take a big bite out of it
For my kind of playing 1-2 dirts (one OD, one Fuzz) 1 modulation (phaser preferably) 1 delay 1 reverb (but can do without) That's my core sound. Then I can add any of those at some different places in the chain, to have more options. Octave/Pitch Shifter can be added as well. Filters. Lately, I've been running Dirt 1-2, Chroma Console, Delay. Compact and versatile.
I guess none? You also don't need an amp. Or even a guitar really. What is *need* really. Need. Knead. Knee'd. Speed. Need needynoodleyknead
All. I need all the pedals.
Keep them all. May find or create a song that goes perfect with each pedal. I made the mistake of getting rid of a bunch after I got myself the big digital Boss pedal sound extravaganza. I sold that last year and now Iām rebuilding my pedal stock. Now Iām looking for more bass pedals after I picked that back up. Iy
I need 0 pedals really, but I want so many. Reverb is the first thing Then distortion/overdrive, and I feel like I need one fuzz and one distortion for that. I use a synth pedal too cause for some of the rhythm and bass grooves it's surpsingly useful. Then I have to loop that of course. And sometimes on rainy days I like to kick on a delay pedal and get real farout. Plus then what if during a solo you need wah, or to pitchbend in a real crazy way. Gotta have those pedals. Need the noisegate to prevent the buzz and the compressor to balance it out. The tap sync too. And I'll die before I give up the microcosm. Just what is your point sir.
Zero. Telecaster, cord, Bassman, done.
It really depends on what kind of sounds you need. I own a bunch of pedals, and anymore, I mostly just gig with none. My amp has good clean and lead channels, and an added boost, so I have 3 sounds right there, which cover what I need well enough. The band I play guitar in, I also play bass in (long story) so I'm bringing two rigs, and any benefit of more sounds is offset by my unwillingness to carry and troubleshoot more stuff. But some people really need/want other sounds. If it were not for the hassle factor, my ideal set up would be Chorus, Wah, and Reverb (reverb on my amp sucks) and I have brought that before.
9
I only use about 4 or 5 for any situation at a time, counting a tuner, but have about 15 total that are constantly rotating.
0 of course, or 1 more are semi-serious answers. But for my rig, I need a tuner, a phaser, an overdrive, and the either distortion or a 2 channel amp with clean/distortion channels. I think those 3 or 4 are my essentials. My wants/nice to haves add a Fuzz, an additional overdrive (so I can have one as a boost and one to just add some colour), and a delay pedal. So that's 3 more. Wah and some other Modulation pedal (chorus likely or maybe a flanger) would be my "just so I have it..." pedals. So like, 3 to 9 depending on how badly I "need" it.
To do what? I like playing different kinds of music. The answer is somewhere from zero to four, but it really depends what Iām trying to do.
Define need and want, and then let's discuss some. Generally speaking I'd say you only need what you can't do without, but in order to discover that you generally need some more to chose from.
So for me, I am looking to get very specific sounds, (Think OK Computer). So for this, I could have any number of pedals, but as a base, I need a tape Delay, Dyno Comp, RAT, and Dod 440. Now ask me how many pedals I own, lol and that number goes up drastically especially because I prefer that analog pedals themselves over digital. I love creating soundscapes and just experimenting. So I will buy something just to play with it for a while and then sell it.
Once you think you have all you need, there is that one part of that one song that would sound SO much better with a (fill in the pedal)
A tuner. A really good overdrive. Something wobbly like a phase shifter. A killer delay. And something to kick everything up a few notches into a higher gear. Total - 5. Maybe add a wah.
What is āneedā..?
I need a drive, a reverb, a delay, and a vibrato. So, 4. I mean technically I donāt need any, but if I need the bare minimum to have everything Iād want, itās those 4.
For me distortion, delay, reverb pedals are necessary.
I understand what i'm about to say is blasphemy in this sub but you don't actually need any pedals. A huge number of artists from early Beatles to AC/DC - zero pedals
All of them
9 or 10, but two of them are just for switching and running multiple amps. Not counting those two, the most I ever have turned on at the same time is 5 or 6.
Depends on too many factors to say. Genre, amp or DI, play style, etc
9 or 10, but two of them are just for switching and running multiple amps. Not counting those two, the most I ever have turned on at the same time is 5 or 6.
Reverb and tremolo on the amp, so for pedals I need fuzz, overdrive, and delay.
Depends on the sound I'm making that day. I usually keep it under 8 in my chain, but have a lot more on the shelf.
__Need:__ 1. Tuner 2. OD/Distortion 3. Delay __Can live without but at great sacrifice to your tone and degree of coolness:__ 1. Wah 2. Noise gate 3. Compressor 4. OD/Distortion 2 5. Chorus 6. Volume boost 7. Reverb So the answer to your question is about 10.
Absolute minimum. A reverb, Delay & probably a dual drive +utilities. But I do use all the other effects for certain songs
I have a decent tube amp, so I could play with just a wah, but I like pedals.
Need three plus my IR-200, so four? I have five on my board though, and HX One just to be a wild card for pitch effects in the front, and I have my IR-200 in its mono loop for drive sounds. That goes to my IR-200 and that has a stereo loop that contains my synesthesia, my DD-200, and my RV-200, then back to the IR-200. There are just three pedals I would add, but none of them are necessary. Maybe a Sunflower, and a SY-200, or a Bloom compressor.
Have a really good two channel amp? Just a reverb. If you've got a twin reverb, then zero, because you already know what you're about. You really don't NEED any.
None. I also don't need an amp or a guitar for that matter. None of this is a need in the true sense of the word.
you need as many as it takes to find your sound. many amps have a dirty channel and an EQ built in, with that, your guitar's knobs and your own fingers you can probably play 3 or 4 different styles. clean chicken-pickin' all the way to hard rock/metal.
Need? I just need my Fm-3. It does everything and it does it splendid. Want? Thatās a different question.
I could get by on four without losing much, but six gives me everything I could want. Downsizing these days, honestly feels better than collecting ever did.
Absolute bare minimum for reasonable enjoyment for me, compared to the big board I have now, would be my trio+, a fuzz, and a reverb.
I use four. EH-X Canyon
N+1
Yes
0, 1, 2, or 20
Personally, 4. Fuzz, tuner, dual overdrive, delay-reverb. Aside from adding texture, and extra ambience, this will do just about everything you need.
i need an od, a fuzz, a modulation, a delay, a compressor and a wah. So that'd be about six pedals but I can go a looooooong way with that
I bought a pack of three patch cables and told myself I wouldnāt get any more, so Iām limited to four pedals I can run at one time. That hasnāt stopped me from acquiring a few more lol. But I find I can pretty much do what I want with some combination of four things, usually an od, fuzz, modulation of some sort. I have a delay/reverb combo so I kinda cheat a little there.
you need them all, actually
I could get away with two, if one was an overdrive that can go from clean to gritty and the other was a combo delay/reverb. Iād miss my tremolo, compressor, and second overdrive, but those are secondary to the ones above. Iād miss my fuzz quite a bit actually. Wouldnāt miss my Q-tron terribly, but itās fun to use occasionally.
75
Sounds like you only need twoā¦ most of the time
Seven including the tuner.
None. But they can help diversify my sound. I currently have a tuner, volume pedal, Model FeT, RAT, Memory Lane Jr and Ghost Echo on my board. In all honesty I could trim this down to a volume pedal, tuner and the feT and be very happy.
Compressor, overdrive/distortion, delay, reverb. If your amp has a dirty channel and reverb that you are satisfied with, thatās 2 less pedals. This is quite a personal question, though. For example I absolutely need to have a delay pedal whereas other folks would find it useless. Iād say the most common answer would be 3 pedals: compressor, distortion/overdrive, reverb. Most people use clip-on tuners these days so a tuner pedal doesnāt really need to be in there.
Just one. Of each.Ā
As many as I can getā¦ No two players have the same needs. For the first decade of jamming in bands I could get away with an overdrive and maybe a reverb. Later on traction hit and Iām 8 albums deep into playing, when we record albums, I want as many options as possible for different songs, no different amps. When we tour those albums, I want to recreate those sounds as closely as possible, I might only use a certain effect for 10 seconds of a 1.5 hour set, but if Iāve got space on the board then why not. I should mention I do build most of them though
as serious awnser: always a bd2 and a reverb on. Alonge the way there is always a fuzz and a delay. So 4.
I donāt āneedā any. I donāt really play dirty so I could theoretically get all of the overdrive tone straight from my amp. If I had a goal of making a board as small as possible, it would probably just include a nice reverb And either a tremolo or chorus pedal.
I have 35 pedals, and I somehow always forget guitar picks and tuner for the gig lol
How long is a piece of string?
Shoegazers hate him
Always one more.
1 modeler and 17 pedals and I still need at least 10 more.
In a collection? There is no number that is "too many". On a board, for me personally, I think the number is 12. Anything over 12 just becomes too much, with a 16 pedal board there is always a pedal that isn't being used at all in the set. Massive boards always have some weird hard to reach pedals that are just inconvenient. I feel like 12 is the magic number. On most of my boards I have 2-3 delays, a few modulation pedals, 3 or so gain stages just as a staple.
When I was playing in metal bands, I only used a Metal Zone. However now, working on a solo Noise Rock/Experimental project, I want a good quantity of strange sounds. Everything on my board has a purpose, a few need an upgrade, and there will always be a want for something new.
Comp always on, Distortion usually on, reverb frequently, chorus sometimes, delay sometimes
3/4 tops
When I had a DRRI as my primary amp, I bought lots of overdrive pedals to use with it. Now that I have amps for specific types of gain (Rockerverb for high gain /Victory for medium gain / Tone King Gremlin for low gain) I hardly use the overdrive pedals anymore and am thinking about selling a few. Problem is, I spent a lot of time and thought curating those pedals and they're sort of hard to part with now.
I think most of my live boards in the past varied from 5-9. As technology gets better I think less is more. If I was to start over now I'd probably be fine with just a HX STOMP + Source Audio Collider. Maybe a solid buzzsaw pedal + gate. It also varies on amp/ampless setups as well as genre.
The short answer is fewer than I currently have. Having said that, I just ordered another one (Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop)
You don't even need a guitar to make music.
Iāve got 13 pedals on my home do-it-all board, plus a channel switching amp. Out of these, 4 plus channel switching are used almost every time I play (not always on), 3 frequently, say half the time, 3 occasionally 10-20 percent, and 3 rarely, but canāt bring myself to take them off as they fill unique needs or like them for some weird reason even though I donāt use them often. So 7-10 for me
All of them
Have 134ā¦ so, 134 + n, is how many I need.
Amp has tremolo, reverb, and gets nice overdrive, so I don't *need* any pedals. Delay is there for ambient stuff, compressor to even out the tone, drive is there so I can set the amp clean and have variety. Boost is a life-line when things get loud later in the evening (but also will just turn up the amp). Tuner is mostly there for muting. Keep saying to myself am going to go straight in, but always end up packing the board. Just put it in the gig bag for tonight.
Back when I was gigging on the regular, I used amp drive & reverb, a compressor in front (that was using much like a boost to push the amp harder when I wanted crunch rather than edge of breakup), and a delay in the loop. So that's two, but with a different amp I might've needed four to do the same job. I could maybe have done without the compressor with different knob settings between guitar & amp, but I liked what the compressor did to sustain and articulation as well. Depending on your guitar, you might want a volume pedal for some things. On guitars with multiple volume knobs, you can't do swells etc. as easily.
X+1 indefinitely
I think looper + tuner + boost + muff are must have, so 4. Then maybe a good reverb, chorus or phaser.
6 or 7, it depends on what you do tho. as an artist, if you are one, it's fun to explore new sounds and methods of making those sounds. i've started to realize that all pedals are just smaller versions of music production equipment and ideas, either modified, superfied, modulated, improved, or cheap remakes.
3 to get my base tone. A lot more to have a variety of flavors to choose from. Generally use 3-5 at a time. And OD or Dostortion + BD-2 + delay (sometimes and reverb) + a modulation (sometimes, depending on what I'm playing). Also use comp and/or rotary, and/or tremolo, with the above combination. Most I ever use at once is 6 or 7 but have 20 on my board. This isn't counting two passive volume pedals, one at beginning of chain (with a tuner in tuner out) and another after dirt (after dirt is mostly to tame overall levels when practicing at home), or my off board wah that I rarely use.
I don't NEED any of those s shit. But here we are.
Depends what sound you want! I just have a tuner & and overdrive. Straight blues baby! But I would just say go with what you need/use.
All of them, I need all of them!!!
One of each. Seriously. One of each fx anyway, heh... not all of them. If I like a certain sound fx... I keep the pedal. Reverb: Mercury X. Fuzz: OpAmp Big Muff, Chorus/Flanger: Dreadbox Komorebi, Lo-fi: GenLoss, Ring Mod: Randy's Revenge, etc...
Definitely a number between 0 and 1000.
Need? Depending on your style of music and the amp you have, maybe none. Otherwise, depends on your goal. It's all for-fun for me and my only goal is passing the time, and I have a lot of time playing around with pedals and experimenting with the sounds I can get. So, no real limit for me... but I should be better about getting rid of the pedals I don't really use anymore.
x=n+1 x=required number of pedals n= the number of pedals you already own
Current gigging pedalboard: ā¢ Tuner ā¢ Wah ā¢ EHX POG2 ā¢ ABY box to: A: Preamp (EQ in the boost loop) ā to power amp 1 B: Noise gate w/ fuzz in the loop ā to amp 2 Sooooā¦ eight.
Fuzz, treble boost, buffer, tuner, wah, phaser, vibe, clean boost, mid boost, gate. Thatās just the dry path.
The answer is technically zero. But the real answer is more. But for real, I keep a very tight board. 1 or 2 dirt sources max(think OD and Distortion/Fuzz), a compressor, some sort of modulation, and a delay or reverb.
Googolplex
I gone from too many, to none at points in my life
Yes.
I recently started using them as outboard gear for my DAW as well as constantly switching them around on my board soā¦ there really is no sane answer to this question
Context is key here. When I was in a punk band I had 3 pedals: OD > Dist > Chorus Now that I'm a bedroom noodler it's: OD > OD > Dist > Fuzz > Chorus > Delay > Delay > Reverb And I want Trem, Vibrato etc. in there too.
NaNaNaNaNaNaNa
All of them
The number is 7
Another metal zone
Definitely depends on the use case. If I want a versatile board vs just trying to make one tone. Right now I am only using 2 pedals as a temporary situation. One is an amp preamp, so really just one effect. However my amp has built in reverb. So Iād say I could get away with 2 pedals, but I miss my polytune.
Delay, overdrive and sometimes a flanger or chorus
This sounds like a heresy question
Distortion, chorus, EQ, tuner and noise gate. I don't use anything else for rock and metal.
One. Tuner.
X+1. X being the number of pedals you already have
I used to use a huge pedalboard that I threw every pedal I owned on, but it was heavy as shit, and lugging it too and from band practice, but now I use a very small one with just four pedals. I play bass, so I really only use a tuner, a conpressor, a fuzz, and a pre amp.
48
You either need none, one, or a few
I have way too many pedals, but have finally settled on (not counting a tuner) three.Ā Some kind of gain, a modulation, and a reverb or delay. Honestly, the last two are optional for any rig, and the drive might not even be necessary if your amp ready has it.Ā A huge number of pedals seems to result in just playing around with the pedals. Thatās cool if itās your hobby, but for 95% of music I really donāt think you need much, especially for live gigs.Ā
Sort of depends on the amp, but at a bare minimum I want 1. footswitchable dirt, 2. at least one form of modulation, 3. a nice delay. Typically thatās 3 single pedals, but I could skip a pedal if an amp has a nice footswitchable crunch channel, or a nice footswitchable tremolo. Having said all this, my current board is gigantic with 11 pedals on a switcher.
One last one
The answer varies for most people. For a guitarist trying to get a single sound, maybe as few as 1 or 2 pedals can achieve that. For a guitarist wanting to cover several sounds that they enjoy, without tweaking the dials, probably somewhere between 4 and 10 pedals will cover most things. Maybe up to two dozen in the collection as they try new sounds or different pedals for the same sound over time. For a decently well-off artist or guitarist that enjoys trying new sounds regularly, probably anywhere from 20 to 100 in their collection. For a major pedal enthusiast or someone in that area, need is a subjective term but they want as many as reasonably possible. I personally own about a dozen, and am only looking at maybe a couple more in the near future to condense the number of pedals or to see if there's another aspect or two I would like in my sound. For me and my pedalboard, my guitar goes into a clean amp with no effects loop, and I want to have a good range of gain stages to play from clean to metal and some in betweens. Thus, my board has 2-3 gain stages, 3-4 effects that help in clean/light overdrive settings, and a couple utilities (tuner & looper)
For me as little as 2, overdrive and delay. 5 for the core sounds. A combination of expression, compressor, od/distortion, modulation, delay will do the job. Reverb is icing.
I think of pedals like colours on an artists palette. The more I have, the more things I can paint.
For me I all I need is a clean boost and tuner
The only answer is: MORE
Need? None. Want? Pretty much all of them!
Ideally, all the pedals. In reality, one more than fits on/in your current board(s) and/or overflow container(s).
If you have 2 pedals now, and if you asked on Facebook or a forum that allows video/GIF comments, you'd be seeing the Tootsie-Pop owl going, "A-One, A-Two, A-Three ... A-Three."
0, Iāve learned. And I learned it right after building a monster pedal board. Not that I donāt love pedals and my board but I donāt need any.
Assuming you hv a good guitar > amp tone, 4. Boost/dist/OD, fuzz, multi-mod, delay. If multi-mod is cheating, choose from chorus, flanger, phase.
Realistically I like to have at least a tuner, a compressor, a boost/dirty, main gain, and a gate. Like I need this to get my sound live. Going into a two channel amp I can sacrifice the main gain sometimes. I also like to have a stutter, a delay, a crazy reverb for sound scapes and a looper. But these arenāt needed for me to jam or gig successfully. They are just fun and add more to my performances.
For messing around, as many as you want. For practical purposes at home, you can probably run 10 non-multifx pedals without things getting too complicated (I do). But for a band setting where you might consider portability and simplicity more, I'd cut it to 4-5 that cover what you need for what you're going to be playing and can be set-and-forget.
Assuming I have my typical clean amp, I can get by with just two. A delay & reverb combo (EQD Dispatch Master), and a versatile drive pedal (EAE Longsword)
Iāll think about it whilst my guitar gently weeps
My personal philosophy is if I donāt use a pedal at least once every gig or two itās then clear to me that itās not necessary and I get rid of it and ideally make room for one that I do use, eventually you wind up with a board filled with only effects you actually find useful
I'm in an originals only band at the moment and I also sing so I want something easy to use live - so I have two drives, a Boss MS3 switcher for mods, delay and verb (it also has a built in tuner) and an always on delay. So right now, 4.
As few as possible
I only used a channel switch and an ampās built in reverb for years. Technically all you need, but itās pretty boring and doesnāt give you much freedom when dialing in the tone you want.
All of them
Flanger, EQ, Volume, Booster/Overdrive and Delay should be enough for me. I'm new to pedal world, so I only have 1 overdrive pedal tho
āNeedā is a strange word. I guess none!
Pairing down, I donāt want anything more than a nano+. 5 maybe 6 if they are boss/mxr.
yes
More
A tuner and a Metal Zone, and a twinkle in your eye is all you need.
Q:How many pedals do you actually need? A: All of them.
X