Do You Even NEED a Pedalboard anymore?

Let me ask you, if you could have a sweet pedalboard or one of the flagship modelers like a Quad Cortex, Axe FX, Helix, or Kemper, what would you choose? If you asked me that question two years ago, I would choose a pedalboard hands down. Primarily because there’s no way modelers can sound anywhere near as good as pedals… right? Yeah so… Modelers have come a LONG way, so the answer to that question is much less obvious. And ultimately I think the answer to that question really depends on what are you hoping to accomplish... and money.

Today, I want to share with you my experience with guitar pedals, pedalboards, and modelers from both a hobbyist and professional perspective. We'll talk about the first guitar pedal I bought as a beginner in the pedalboard world, and how that evolved into a love of U2, producer guitar playing, and my go-to pedalboard setup featuring the: Walrus Audio Deep Six, JHS Bender, Jackson Audio Belle Starr, JHS Moonshine, Strymon Mobius, Strymon Timeline, Strymon BigSky, Walrus Audio ACS1, and the RJM Mastermind PBC. Obviously, I love pedals but once I started touring and music directing, my needs changed.

As I learned pretty quickly on my first tour, and every tour since, tour is rough on your gear. Things break and having to find the pedal or cable that's causing your guitar to not have signal in the middle of a set sucks. Likewise, re-wiring and re-programming your pedalboard every time you need a new sound can be expensive and annoying. Ever since switching to a modeler, I've been alleviated of the usual pedalboard issues, refreshed by the tones, and ultimately, inspired by the incredible flexibility. But what do you think: do you need a pedalboard or are they a dying breed?

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Chapters
0:00 Can Modelers Compete?
0:42 Pedals are a Rabbit Hole of Fun
3:28 Something Changed
5:34 This Matters
6:55 Where I'm At Now

#quadcortex #neuraldsp #pedalboard #guitartone #guitarpedals #neuralquadcortex #worshipguitar #guitarpedals #strymon #jhspedals

[michaelgriffin]

If I were still doing the 'Church music' thing, I was digital and would have went with QC. I quit the worship scene after realizing it was just costing the church a ton of money to provide entertainment. I can make money doing music elsewhere, doesn't feel right. I get it, we have to draw people in, yada yada, don't wanna get into it. When I was doing studio work, I used digital still. When I started doing live shows with a band, I went to Tube amps and pedals. If I were touring a lot, would probably go digital again for ease of use. If I were just getting into the gear market and recording at home, with today's prices, I would probably go digital. Seeing as I currently have a tube amp that has silent recording and run that into a board and also into an interface w effetcs, it helps me get the best of both worlds. Great video!

[johnnylayton]

Human memory & nostalgia informs all our thoughts & opinions, so we especially strive to reclaim our favorite, most joyful ones.

In music, my first live experience of U2 in concert remains my own Holy Grail. I never noticed The Edge's Vox AC30s, Adam Clayton's Fender bass, Larry Mullen's Paiste hi hat, or even the PA brand filling the basketball stadium with sound to (almost) eclipse our singing 40 for the last encore. I only wish I could experience it again at least one more time.

I understand The Edge is using the UA Ruby for his live guitar amp sound now and I'm sure the audience today doesn't care about that change any more than I do. But if he was still using vintage Voxs & 80s era rack effects I wouldn't mind that either.

[MickelMart]

The more I explore the QC, the more I love it. The ability to change your amp in a matter of seconds is amazing. Plus, it makes for such a clean and simple setup.

[saltstream]

Nice vid Justin. The hybrid rig seems to be the thing right now. Lots of people adding pedals to their QC setup. I would personally have a pedalboard all day long. Integrating something like a HX Stomp means you don't need to unplug everything when you are faced with the situation you mentioned about adding some specific effect for a project. If you use one solution for everything you need to remember you have one set of DSP to handle everything from Compression - Overdrive to Reverb Delay etc. I can 100% hear that in every modeller out there. None of the popular units deliver wet effects like the Strymon units.

[mssi]

I have been using Fractal since 2018 but i always had classic pedals and amp too. Recently i assembled a new board….i will never do it again….i have enough of cables…velcro etc. at these days with helix, qc or fractal you have awesome tones, really worth the money.

[Andreas_tropicalwinter]

For me, I don't care much what I play through. I'm recording on GuitarRig for 15years and was always happy with, but also own Amps or the ACS1. I went direct for the first time last week and it sounded pretty decent.As far as Amps, Delays, Reverbs, Distortion pedal and what not goes, it all sounds pretty good to me. What it comes down to are pedals like Mood and Microscosm, Generation Loss, or the Baklengs by Pladask, because those niche pedals which are impossible to emulate since every knob interacts with another one. Those are hands on pedals for me to play with and aren't made to have just a preset running in my case.

Today it's just about personal preference since mostly everything in the modeling world is really decent sounding. 🙌

[slickcross]

I have 2 boards, main and small, working on a 3rd medium size board. I also have a Kemper Stage which is super convenient. But when im at home, im playing through my amp and pedals. There's nothing like it. But if touring, it can take a toll using a full amp and pedalboard rig for sure. Its always good to have different tools for different situations.

[smeemusic]

Okay so I’d Like to drop my 2 cents in. I’ve spent the last 3 years acquiring the specific gear that suits my needs. I had to sale many things and try again as some stuff didn’t work out as I wanted. Now I got what I need. Awesome. So I build a board. It was awful. Took what I learned and looked around and built something else. This thing is awesome! It’s really similar to a Schmidt array board but I have 2 shelves that open (one forward and one backward) exposing the full center of the board. It’s quite awesome. And now I’m on wiring. I got all my midi wired in and looking uniform. All the power is ran. And I’m currently finishing up on signal. For reference I’m using a boss es-8 and it’s LOADED down. I have expression and wah. Gating. 4 cable method. Midi switching amp. I mean I got the works going on here. And it’s looking super sharp. And then it hit me… like a ton of bricks… I could do every last bit of this with a quad cortex and a couple of expression pedals. And for MUCH cheaper. Hell I’m like $700 in on cables and 1/4 connectors alone. Yeah I went with high quality stuff and could have gotten away cheaper but if I’m doing this, IM DOING THIS. It absolutely has to be 100% reliable. But now I have his thing that’s gotta be 80 pounds it’s 34 inches wide and 19 deep (external). And I think I made it 7 inches tall. This thing is MASSIVE…. Is this really necessary?! Sure it looks cool. It was fun building. It all sounds incredible and does exactly what I need. But there’s SO MUCH programming with the midi. I think this is all more of a hassle than I meant it to be and I honestly thing I wanna size down after all this. Because now, when I wanna use it somewhere other than my studio, I have to actually bring it!!! lol oops.

Sry this was so long but this is where I’m at right now and if someone reading this is considering building a board I just hope this gives some sort of insight I missed before I got started. Yes it’s fun. No it is not cheap. This is not a way to save money if you have complex needs for your signal routing. This will need be a passion project for you or it will likely frustrate you to no end. Wanna save money and simultaneously have a practical solution, get a quad cortex. Wanna have a really cool looking piece of gear and don’t mind going a couple grand into it, build a board.

[waitinwinter]

“I would pick a pedalboard hands down solely because there’s no way pedals could sound as good as a modeler.”

You got that backwards

[Leychen]

I'd pick the pedalboard all day. Not because of some tone snob sound reasons, but for usability in jam sessions.
I really grew into hating all these menus, sub-menus and buttons which don't show the setting they're actually set to because when jamming with friends i can't really start programming to adjust stuff while playing.
What i want is a board where each parameter has it's own knob, i can look down to see how it's set and adjust it on the fly.
I mean i'm a hobby player in his mid-30s, i already have my amps and cabs, my pedal collection and the money to buy stuff in case i don't have it yet, the board just works better for me. As a professional musician who has to play the same set on a different stage every day i'd probably pick some lightweight modeler with all the sounds for the tracklist programmed, but that's not what i'm doing.

[BillySoundFarm]

They are obsolete, but they won't go away

[LYLOCrafts]

I remember that day clearly, high school worship try outs. Your tone and skills have come long way, I’m your biggest fan! You are so extremely talented and a tone master. ❤

[thecruddybug]

Do you need one? No. Are they fun? Yes. They're not going away, just like vinyl hasn't gone away. There's a charm to having specific pedals rather than doing it all in plugins or a Helix, etc., even though it'll sound just as good.

[timthompson]

Line 6 Helix after 21 hernias were removed from lugging around too heavy equipment. I love it.

[Mike.D.Martinez]

Definitely would say as I got a bit older and seasoned in my journey of sessions and playing live, I cared less about how big and flashy my board was versus just having the necessities covered. I find myself caring a lot less about “the gear” and more about convenience because (not trying to toot my own horn) but I have a nag and enjoyment for tweaking things for hours and making things my own, to sound good and get super close anyway.

[calebwhitcraft]

Pedalboard or modeler, the answer is... yes.

Also I'm trying to wrap my head around showing up to my first band tryout with a Gibson Les Paul... I got a lot of mileage out of my Epiphone SG Special.

[WeaponsRemorse]

i have 20 pedals so yes i do still need a board as every effect has a hand selected purpose

[virtusful]

Yes and no - I still think pedals and even amps have their place and to a degree, always will, but I get the simplicity and efficiency of a modeler. I’ve had probably 4 or 5 modelers from something as crappy as Korg AX1G up to a Headrush and also an iridium. They sound light years better today than in the 2000s, but there’s always a wall you hit whether it’s headroom in amp modelers or just really thin sounding cleans/drive tones in modelers. I believe the days of $5000 pedalboards are done, but I think there’s still a compelling argument to make about hybrid rigs. My board is about $1200 if you include effects and power supply and it covers a lot of ground. I might swap out a few out for different functionality, but it’s generally hovering around that price point. A basic pedalboard can still sound better than most budget modelers. The Quad Cortex, Ax Effrcts and Helix are all $1500 or more and you really have to be in that tier to get a truly high quality sounding unit. The Headrush is there in terms of functionality and interface but the sounds leave a lot to be desired and I ultimately dumped mine after getting bored of the few good tones I could find out of it. Long and short, a good pedalboard still beats most modelers all day, but the higher end units are closing the gap.

[charlesg.]

I choose the modeler all day. Pedals are cool too but it hasn't been the way I been going in the last three years. It took some adoption time but it's the way to go for me.

[ChuckLopez]

I've always enjoyed having a compact pedalboard with pedals that have multiple functions. Something like that paired with a Boss IR-2 or POD express could go miles. I like amp modelers but I feel like its going to become one of those things in which if a QC2 comes out, I'd feel as if my QC will be outdated.