The FG is such a great pedal. If you need boost, dirty boost, light OD, tube drive, it’s got you covered. Love mine up front for something extra going into my entire chain.
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Show me your compact pedalboard setup
- Thread starter garmenteros
- Start date
Absolutely you should. I previously owned a Mesa Subway 800+ and loved the HPF so I knew that Andy’s filters would be killer on the re/Q and they do not disappoint. The 5 band EQ is subtle between 10 & 2 o’clock, but all of the frequencies are really well chosen, IMO. I feel it’s a great pedal if you already like your tone but wish to tastefully alter it a smidge.
Sascha Erni
Making things go whoomp, whoomp since 1994
General question: What's your approach to building smallish/compact boards? How do you decide what type of box to put on it, and what doesn't make the cut?
I'm in the middle of rethinking my pedals setup and go back and forth between "make it as small and light as feasible, even if you need to reduce options to bare-bones" and "make it as versatile as possible while keeping the footprint as small as is necessary".
For example, I use an envelope filter for perhaps 2 songs out of 30. And I'm dithering between keeping it on the board (the versatility approach), or ditching it to simplify the setup, power requirements, and load (the bare-bones approach).
I'm curious – how do you personally go about such decisions? Do you set out to build a board with exactly XY functionality and this leads to the size required, or do you start with what size the board should be? For instance, if you replace a preamp pedal and the new one takes up too much space for what was on the board, do you get a larger board, or do you remove a box?
I'm in the middle of rethinking my pedals setup and go back and forth between "make it as small and light as feasible, even if you need to reduce options to bare-bones" and "make it as versatile as possible while keeping the footprint as small as is necessary".
For example, I use an envelope filter for perhaps 2 songs out of 30. And I'm dithering between keeping it on the board (the versatility approach), or ditching it to simplify the setup, power requirements, and load (the bare-bones approach).
I'm curious – how do you personally go about such decisions? Do you set out to build a board with exactly XY functionality and this leads to the size required, or do you start with what size the board should be? For instance, if you replace a preamp pedal and the new one takes up too much space for what was on the board, do you get a larger board, or do you remove a box?
Oh boy, this is going to be all personal preference really and totally dependent on what you want. I’d say something like the HX stomp would be the smallest package/widest array of tones/most versatile for its small foot print.
However, I myself don’t use a lot of effects. Used to plug my bass into a nice DI or go straight into an amp (haven’t played though an amp in years now!) so, I run a tuner, a compressor and a preamp/DI (bddi v2) on a PT nano. I wanted something as small, light and bare bones as possible to get good useable tone and for me, this set up works. I plug it in, turn it on, set it and forget it and the only thing I think about is playing bass. There may be something I’d like better… but I’m not chasing it. Maybe I’ll switch it up someday, who knows!
I like being able to grab my bass and a backpack and go!
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I think it depends on if you are a player who does music that requires (benefits from) the use of effects? Are you a utilitarian or prefer on hand selection of colors to mix and blend? Amps? FOH? IEM?
For myself, I want not huge, most flexibility and not trying to get everything on a board.
The Source Audio system I am running is getting to the point where I can just run a long midi cable to the Soleman Midi Footcontroller and leave the board behind my 200 watt Tube amp/4x10" or out of the way totally.
I am keeping an Origin Effects BASSRIG SV on the floor, if used with the effects board or just with the Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Bass or just the compressor on its own. (Using two (2) separate small 9v/150 mA adapters on a power cable/splitter or run a line from the PowerMax)
All (except the amp/cabinet) fit into an appropriate size Mono backpack. I still don't have a laptop in that bag section...I have to draw the line somewhere!
For myself, I want not huge, most flexibility and not trying to get everything on a board.
The Source Audio system I am running is getting to the point where I can just run a long midi cable to the Soleman Midi Footcontroller and leave the board behind my 200 watt Tube amp/4x10" or out of the way totally.
I am keeping an Origin Effects BASSRIG SV on the floor, if used with the effects board or just with the Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Bass or just the compressor on its own. (Using two (2) separate small 9v/150 mA adapters on a power cable/splitter or run a line from the PowerMax)
All (except the amp/cabinet) fit into an appropriate size Mono backpack. I still don't have a laptop in that bag section...I have to draw the line somewhere!
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I've done it different ways, but lately I start with the board and the essentials for the gig. And essentials are truly that, ie a tuner and a DI because my band is ampless.
I had a Nano+ for a while that would do literally anything I could want except tune.
I used a clip tuner and it was alright. This board had all kinds of options, but eventually I wanted a different preamp and was willing to sacrifice for it.
The preamp I ended up with almost necessitated a larger board, and around that time I had swapped a smaller filter for a larger, and also went from a do it all modulation pedal to something more specific that took up more room because of side jacks. Also had room for a tuner. So the Nano+ went in the closet and I got a Metro 20.
Board sounded great, wasn't too terribly much bulkier.
Then I swapped the chorus for a phaser, the filter for an even slightly larger one my wife built for me, and the distortion for another larger box. So this is where I've landed for my big board, and it doesn't do anything the Nano+ at the beginning of this post did. But it sounds better across the board.
That's my current large board, and probably will remain so. The combo of octave, fuzz, OD, modulation, and filter is all the effects I'm likely to ever need for my current gig. But even that's overkill, and I kept thinking about how much I prefer the simplicity of a Nano+, so I got a smaller filter and repurposed an older OD to see how much versatility I could build into a Nano+, given the parameters of the tuner at the front and the DI at the back.
And it was fine, but I had really fallen for that huge filter my wife had made, and was willing to sacrifice the octave to get it on the board. But I had also fallen out of love with the small box OD I had, especially compared to the big box one on my big board, so after sorting through smaller ODs for a while, here's where I've landed.
It's nowhere near as versatile as the Nano+ at the top of the post. Not even close. There's no octave, fuzz, or modulation. To have that kind of versatility with the particular pedals I've come to love, I need a Metro 20. And that's not a big board, really, but there's something I especially love about the single row Nano+, and to get down to that size board with the pedals I've come to love, I had to leave stuff out. And that's worth it to me, sometimes. But when it's not and I'm hankering for a Nano+ for a while, I'm satisfied with great tone from limited options.
I have played at least one gig with almost every iteration in this post, and if that's all I had, I'd be plenty happy. But for me, I'd rather have fewer sounds with the absolute highest quality sound, and for me that means very large boxes for DI and filter, and am willing to compromise on options to get that. Octave, fuzz, and modulation are nice, but with OD and a killer filter between a tuner and a sweet DI, I can dial in enough options for the 20% of our set that I'm not playing dry.
EDIT And if Pedaltrain would just make a Nano 24 rather than the 28 inch Nano Max, I think I could get the octaver and a phaser on the board, and be set for real.
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This is a great writeup! Thanks for walking thru every version of the boards.
This. I’ve gone with a D’Addario XPND for that very reason.
And this is a fantastic post - great explanation of the never ending struggle of utility vs. portability.
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Sascha Erni
Making things go whoomp, whoomp since 1994
Cheers! Seems we're in a similar boat; main band went ampless even before I joined them and whatnot. And you're also mentioning almost the exact same board choices I have.
I think the important bit of your great post, for me, is:
That's what I'm tending towards at the moment, too. Will depend on what the incoming preamp pedal gobbles up in regards to board real-estate, but I know what I really "need".
What power supply? I've got a DC7 with a Grip mount and it just works. I've heard the DC7 doesn't have enough clearance under the XPND. Maybe a different supply, but that's into a whole thing I'm not sure I want to do.
I have gone back n forth from big and small boards, but always tried to keep it small. The problem has been to keep lots of effects and not having things too crammed to have problems stepping lol.
Multi effects and midi solved it for me.
This is where I am for now.
The latest iteration. Re-routed the signal chain to allow IEM monitoring through the HX Stomp and took the Rolls off the board. I could go with just the Stomp in a pinch if I wanted to go without the Khan. The Strobo Stomp is not a necessity but I like the sweetened tunings.
I just need the Nano+ to fit 1 more pedal!!!
Ahhh, the eternal question, cloaked in a conundrum and wrapped in a riddle
I loathe a large board. My preference is that a board should be small enough to fit on top of an average 112 cab. The pedals I use (in rough order of priority) are comp, pre, modulation (I only need one type.....something airy/ spacey/ 3D), envelope filter, octave, HPF, looper, tuner. I ended up with 3 boards. The 1st is a preemie baby board built on the pedal attachment (12x5.5") by Chemistry Designworks. It has all the above pedals, but only the comp and pre are full size, all the others are mini and the tuner/looper is a combined unit. It involved compromises for absolute size: 1) the tuner is at the end because it's combined with the looper and the looper must be last 2)a couple of the mini pedals are not my absolute faves for what they accomplish, but I do like them all. This board is small enough to fit on top of my Mesa WD800 head! The 2nd board is a do it all board, 10.6X13.5". It has all the above functions with no sonic compromises and adds a Quilter Interbass, which can power a cab on its' own for practice or serve as an on the board backup. The compromise for this "normal" sized board is that it has 2 rows of pedals that aren't as foot accessible, and is fairly large/heavy by my standards (although it's small compared to so many I see out there). The last board is intermediate in size between the 2 above. It's 13.5x7" and is all about tone at the expense of versatility. This one is still "under construction" and will have top quality comp, pre, multimod and either looper, tuner or hpf (haven't yet settled).In the realm of pedals, as in life, change is the only constant.
I like this question and will offer my 2 cents even though the previous responses have all been great!
I like the approach that stays as compact as possible while covering any and all likely possibilities. For that reason I have two boards - one small and one smaller.
The former is my ‘covers all bases’ setup that honestly gets way more play time around the home office/music room. To maintain tidiness, I went with a handful of Source Audio pedals that easily cover my compression, synth, filter, and modulation sounds. (Others, like I have in the past, use the HX stomp or similar to do the same). This board also has a dirty boost/OD pedal and a preamp/DI which maintain ‘my sound’ beneath everything that’s happening in between. Oh and a recently acquired Boss looper
The smaller board is actually a Joyo Pedal Carpet that rolls up for transport inside a small backpack, which is way easier to travel with. It’s all analog, and has the BMS to cover what 3 pedals do on the other plus a bit of saturation/drive, preamp, comp, and DI duties all powered via a daisy-chained OneSpot. This one is way more like to get the call since synth/chorus sounds are much less common ‘round worship services.
So maybe to more directly answer your question, I think my approach would be to have the pedals that form the core of your sound, that are used almost all the time, and then find other pedals that cover more bases for less used sounds. For me those are the synthy, chorus-y, filter-y things that are still fun, but much less needed.
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I took my Rock band pedal board to church. Sound great!
So good.
I’m just gonna throw it out there, you’ve got room for a small Bluetooth style speaker that can take the headphone out and amplify it. It’s great when you need to not be loud but you don’t want to be QUIET. Small speakers can get plenty loud at close range but they won’t rattle floors and walls and disturb neighbors. Just something I’ve done and enjoyed so i thought I’d share! The only issue is a lot of speakers are lacking the 1/8” input these days. I’ve got a JBL Go2 and an aged UE Miniboom and both of them sound great for what they are as a “practice rig” on [ON!] the board.
I also have a JBL Go2, but I didn't really like it for home workout sound because it has a frequency range of 180Hz - 20kHz
