Well, I feel I can contribute as I have quite a small board; It would take some of the guys on here a month to describe all of what they can do!
My signal chain goes A/B input > Looper > Synth (Digitech BSW) > Chorus (Digitech BMC) > Distortion (EHX MM) > Tremolo (EHX Stereo Pulsar) > Volume (Bespeco Stereo Volume) > Back to the looper, then out.
The A/B in is so I can use 2 basses, or a bass and a keyboard, etc.
All the pedals go in the loop, it's only there if:
1. I need to go from a selection of pedals to clean very quickly (or vise-versa)
2. There's a power issue with my board and my signal is muted, I can stomp on that and carry on playing.
I use the synth for 3 things; firstly for a big dirty synth sweep for a couple of breakdowns and things with my band, secondly for a straightforward octaver, and thirdly for a kind of analogue synth sound for a couple of lines and riffs. I usually only use one of these three sounds per set, so I don't need to get down and fiddle in between songs. If I do need to change mid-set I have a rough idea of the settings memorised, so I don't need to tweak that much.
I use the chorus in conjunction with the synth to beef up the sound of the sweeps, also when I'm playing chords high up on the neck, it gives my bass a really pretty sound.
And I also use it with my volume pedal to sound like a synth pad (this takes practice, but sounds AWESOME).
I use the distortion to play distorted lines (if I was covering Hysteria, for example) and you get this awesome dirty, gritty sound if used it with the octaver.
The tremolo is the most tweaky pedal I own, it's really versatile. Used in triangle mode, with the shape offset all the way to the right, you can get this quantised-synth sound (like you're playing impossibly fast - listen to "Flux" by Bloc Party for a good example) also I use it in triangle, with the shape in the middle, depth quite low and the rate cranked to get a more classic tremolo sound, which is useful some of the time.
A note about the depth control on this trem: if you crank the depth, you get this reverse-trem effect that is really cool, but not what you'd expect. If you look at pics of my board in the PYP thread, there's a little dot on my trem, which is to show me where the depth is actually what you'd expect "maximum" to be (where it cuts the volume to zero each time it cycles)
I use the volume with the chorus to sound like a pad, to mute my signal, and to use as a level controller, so I can really dig in at times, but not be too loud.
Most of my board is pretty "set and forget" for most things I play in. There's a load more things I
could do, but don't because I haven't found uses for them in a band situation yet. My only frustration with this board is the tremolo: it's really hard to match up the tempo's with the rest of the band, I'd love it if it came with a tap, or a footswitch for a tap.
I run my whole board at unity gain, or as close to as possible.
Sorry for the long post, but that's how I use my board, pretty conscisely.
Hope my rambling helps!
JBJ
