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What do you consider the maximum practical pedalboard size for live gigging?

#41
micguy said:
I had pedals in the very early days of pedals - before the most important feature was on them - the led indicator that told you if a pedal was on or off. If you see pedalboards from the 70's, almost all of them are pretty small - 4 or 5 pedals max. If you went past that, and lost track of which pedals were on and which were off, you'd end up stomping for days trying to turn things off before you got everything under control. Doug Wimbish's board was not even close to practical in that era.
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You're not Doug and you do not have the kind of roadies he has.
 
#42
Well I have the big board a Nova 24 and managed to whittle it down to the small board which fits the stage better.
IMG_1034.jpeg
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#48
ebo said:
Curious how you use the Spark boost pedal? Just a clean boost or does your levelnn noodle gain add a grit with or without another pedal? I have one and have been playing around with it but haven’t settled on it yet.
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I have been using it as a mild overdrive with bass guitar. I apply the drive only to mids and highs using the Sugar Britches crossover-looper.
 
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#50
I've used a PT-Pro with the rolling hard case and all for my originals band. It was a beast.
I downsized to a PT-Jr which was great.
I upsized to a PT-1 for some reason and found it to be too much for most gigs.
Went back to the PT-Jr and grabbed a Nano for certain situations.
Moved to a Metro 24 which was perfect, then grabbed a Metro 16 for my "small" board, then grabbed a Metro 20 and forced myself to go to a single board.
I just moved back to the Metro 16 last month and I'm enjoying having s smaller board at my feet.

I went from being a heavy effects user to much less. I still use a comp, tuner, DI, and a few others but I've mostly done away with the rest and find that I'm okay with it. I still have all of my pedals and won't get rid of them because I go through phases.

I'm considering another revamp soon so I may end up moving back to one of the other boards that I've got depending on what I end up with. We finally got a sub for the PA so I've been able to run a DI and now I'm trying out what I've got at home and looking at the other options that exist and may try some out before settling into something.
 
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#54
D.A.R.K. said:
I use the vertex TC with a riser everywhere. It's fine. I also have a pair of looping pedals on a side board, that's when it gets ridiculous however those are usually for solo shows. Both boards fit in a single pelican case.View attachment 5196279
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Nice! That’s the one I’m looking at. I like how you have it arranged.
 
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#58
The obvious thing to say is that it depends on the gig. To elaborate beyond that, I'd say it depends on how you use it, and particularly the extent to which you "play the pedalboard" within any given song. Doug Wimbish will have something on the order of a pair of 4'x8' pieces of plywood covered in pedals and he's dancing all over the things, playing his pedals as much as he's playing the instrument on a strap. In a sense, his pedals ARE his instrument and the bass itself is just their trigger, so he's got the whole huge spread of them.

In Mugshot Monday, I have some songs where I play the pedalboard a little bit - there are effects that come on and off in different parts of a song. So the board needs to be big enough for those pedals, but small enough that I can easily reach them (especially since I'm often at a mic singing at the same time).

This is what I'm normally using:
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If the use of effects within any given song is set-it-and-forget-it, though, the board can be as big as you like, because you don't need to worry about being able to reach any given item mid-performance.
 
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#59
hrodbert696 said:
The obvious thing to say is that it depends on the gig. To elaborate beyond that, I'd say it depends on how you use it, and particularly the extent to which you "play the pedalboard" within any given song. Doug Wimbish will have something on the order of a pair of 4'x8' pieces of plywood covered in pedals and he's dancing all over the things, playing his pedals as much as he's playing the instrument on a strap. In a sense, his pedals ARE his instrument and the bass itself is just their trigger, so he's got the whole huge spread of them.

In Mugshot Monday, I have some songs where I play the pedalboard a little bit - there are effects that come on and off in different parts of a song. So the board needs to be big enough for those pedals, but small enough that I can easily reach them (especially since I'm often at a mic singing at the same time).

This is what I'm normally using:
View attachment 5196441

If the use of effects within any given song is set-it-and-forget-it, though, the board can be as big as you like, because you don't need to worry about being able to reach any given item mid-performance.
Click to expand...
That looks nice and reasonable :)
 
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