I'm Rethinking my WHOLE Pedalboard

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00:00 intro
1:09 explaining the board
4:40 the problem as I'm experiencing it
7:05 too many flavours that aren't necessarily playing well together?
7:20 David Barber and @fivewattworld released a Plus pedal which made me rethink
7:40 instead of stacking gain stages - just add a boost in front?
8:45 trying the boost

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

[michael]

I don't use pedals I just go straight into an amp and I don't need an amp. Or a guitar. Tone is my fingers. I just walk on stage and wave.

[ssiowi]

Would enjoy an episode of TPS with Dan, Mick, and you having a think about your pedalboard. Fingers crossed for that show in 2025.

[MrBlank]

I do like the idea of a clean boost after all of your drives, to purely increase volume when you need it.

[picksalot]

Lots of Drives available in the HX Stomp. You can boost the individual Drives there, or have a button to boost the entire signal chain using the Level setting on its Output Node.

[JimmyGallowayGuitar]

As I am in the process of building 2 boards, I feel we are always searching for something that's been there the whole time. Back when I was doing 250 dates a year, I was super happy with one tube amp, a volume pedal, a TS, and a DD5. I made it way complicated eventually: 80# mega-board in a case, 2 amps, 2 4x12s. I've been playing at home in Pod Express w IEMs. Whatever inspires us to reach is the right answer, but it's not the only answer. I just got a Super Champ to gig out, and plan to use the Pod Express as a quick 'everything' pedal, for Boost, Delay, and a volume pedal. It's really good to switch it up. I like trying to keep it simple and go back. Listening to the first Dire Straits record a lot. A Strat, Princeton and cable. Hard to beat that tone.... Great playing as always JC!

[oskarir]

I have a hx stomp with an sd-1 and a polytune in front and a ua lion in the loop. If I need more gain ill tap either the sd-1 or the lions built in ep boost and if I need more volume i have footswitch 3 on the stomp configured to boost the output. Often ep+volume boost for solos. Been working great so far :)

[MNGuitars]

I recently switched back to a clean amp with pedals approach after about 4-5 years of using helix to switch channels on a multi channel amp....i brought back my hx effects and some of my old drive pedals etc, I made only a couple purchases on some new things and went through some test runs and different forms until happily settling on this.. Guitar into wah (off board) hx effects, in the loop of hx i have in this order, pigtronix octava fuzz, tubescreamer style OD, blues driver, ODR1, miab distortion, keeley compressor, boss eq, volume/tuner....i play in various types of bands doing various styles, such as wedding band, cover band, originals, sessions etc etc....this gives me amazing versatility without being too much (i know it sounds it but they are all subtle in the settings and use)....90% is like, compressor for cleans, compressor and blues driver for a touch of dirt, great for old motown and to have cleaner parts a little hairy, ODR1 for medium gain OD...stack that with blues driver and u get great classic rock crunch, the distortion for journey, 90s rock etc...hit the tubescreamer into any of those for even more pre boost (so more gain not volume) or for solos, and the boss eq after everything for a magnitude of different uses...and then 6 effects to step on pre or post drives in the HX and i use an always on 375ms into 500ms delays with mix on a mini expression pedal...the fuzz is for fun and writing, but cool if u need it too and its a mini in my case. Love this set up....if i had to go bare minimum for what I do 9 out of 10 times id have either the blues driver or the ODR1 and the distortion and tubescreamer boost...so bare minimum, boost, od, distortion all set low and very stackable

[grahamcoxon]

I have the angry driver on my board too… I use the blues driver side for rhythm (into clean Hamstead amp) and then the angry charlie side for a type of lead tone…I also have the red muck and the 3rd man plasma fuzz thing for more grumpy leads or fat chords stuff…pretty neat

[chrisgmurray]

I think you're finally getting the best option for minor adjustments live by this layout.

Lots of low gain overdrives on the board. However, I have found that a higher gain pedal was what I was looking for. Wampler Ratsbane works for me. Set up in the traditional mode with the filter cranked giving it a darker tone. Works great on the strat bridge pup. Stacking the a ts style pedal in front to carve out some frequencies and make it cut when needed.
Great videos!

[qovjpfk]

Ah options options - you 'youngsters' have so many. Back when I started in '74 I had an Arbiter Distortion Booster (which picked up taxi signals) and that was it. My amp was the family music centre which had had a jack socket added. Strangely the speakers were elliptical Jensens which were excellent, but turn the amp up and the whole cabinet vibrated. Echo? That was something that happened in mountains. Reverb? That was something that happened in large halls. Wah Wah? You what?
There's a lot to be said for simplicity - it's not right for everyone of course, but you'd be surprised what you can do with say a tele and a small amp.

[jwright]

I use three basic overdrives and a Klon style boost and clean boost. The first drive is a WarmAudio ZenDrive clone set low/medium overdrive, then a Timmy set with a low gain, and finally a blues breaker clone (Duke of Tone) set to the highest rhythm gain I use. Each of these flavors are either boosted downstream with a 6db cleanboost or upstream of the drive with a Klon clone. If I want lots more volume I use the clean boost and if I want gain boosted, I use the Klon.

[GitShiddy]

I'm not a stacker, and it is because of my gain choices going "outside the box" and eschewing the JAFOD fundamentals. It's great. Three unique & uniquely different gain stages that never mix but can all be boosted after by a "preamp booster" not dissimilar to what John's doing. Fully agree that the Carbon X kinda has no place here now. And the Buss is the best sounding pedal imo. The functionality of the Angry Driver is a win, mileage varies of if the sound is.

[DaveSheremata]

FWIW, I use the Helix Floor’s dirt boxes for stacking, and snapshots make it easy to balance. Mind you, I’m usually stacking boosts with pedals, as you suggest in the analog world, usually with an EP or a Rangemaster in front of a Klon model. All this into a real tube amp on the proverbial “edge”. That last part is most critical, as a “governor”, in the words of Julian Lage.

[Furtheronmusic]

Oh John you can NEVER have too many drive pedals at your feet 😂😂😂

[kevinsetbingo]

I solved all my gain issues by using the HX Stomp with a Friedman IR-D in a loop for my amp/drive tones. I have a Prince of Tone infront of the IR-D (just for some extra gain boost) and the built-in boost from the IR-D gets me the volume bump I need for leads.

[zachmiller]

The way I approach my tone is I set the amp super clean then I’ll have my favorite drive set as an always on tone shaper type pedal just boost the amp a little so notes are articulate when I play with my fingers and if I dig in it’ll start to break up. Then I have something more midrange like a tube screamer push into the first pedal for my dirty rhythm tone. Then I’ll stack clean boost into both pedals for leads and solos it’ll give more gain and compress more for sustain. I’ve found that to sit in a live mix well you want less gain your rhythm tone even when it’s dirty should still be very articulate when you start to add gain and you can no longer heard the individual notes when you pick a cord you prolly need to dial the gain back.

[yikelu]

I use the loops in my HX for snapshot control of analog drive pedals. And if I want to push them more, I can always add a clean boost using the gain on the FX Loop block inside the HX.

[JosephCompton]

Everything I do is reliant on Boost. I have a vertex boost at beginning of chain, I use Strymon Sunset, with always on Jfett boost, and I have an extra 30 db of boost at the end of my board with the Para Eq Deluxe. I either go into a tube amp or an iridium. I don’t often need to use a gain pedal, as I can push the amp or the amp model if I want. That give me extra clean sounds as well.

[mattc]

I switch out stuff in the boost/drive/distortion/fuzz area to account for the needs of different gigs (the rest of my chain changes much less).

I understand where you’re coming from to a degree, in that sometimes pedals stack well and sometimes not. My way around this is to ensure I have available headroom and use my guitar’s volume knob. If you want that signal but more, turn up. If I want to stack, I can leave the volume where it is and kick something else in. Green side of Protein for solos, blue side for low-mid gain OD plus a fuzz or something else for variety covers a lot of ground.