How many Guitar Pedals do we really NEED for a Gig?  

Dear Andy, I cried through this video. I am praying hard for your band to take the world by storm so you can pay for a roadie and get back to your bluesbreaker and 6 pedal boards. Peace

You don't have too many pedals. You have just enough for what you need it for.

Happy trails everyone and we love you!!! Have a blessed day!!!

Seeing you adjust the pedalboard to a gigging environment got me back on the subscriber rooster. Love it. I am in a similar journey and really enjoyed this video

This was pretty satisfying to watch actually! Great video as usual Andy!

what is "really needed" is an ongoing hot topic for sure but a zero "needed" if you have an amp like the boss katana or H&K grandmaster IMO,! i still use my old digitech and rocktron all in one floor & rack stuff and couldn`t be happier with the sound..this just saved me a lot of effort and money, the pedal marked has become just overpriced and nearly unmanageable imo.. cheers 👌🎸

While my current board is 5 pedals outside of a tuner (albeit, still waiting on one), in quest for building one to gig, I've come to the conclusion that the max I'd want is six, with room for one or two extra pedals. I've been wanting to build an ampless board, so, that already takes up the spot of one pedal. Five pedals is a good balance between having a far too big rig, and not having enough. But I still feel the need to have room for an extra pedal or two with character, since they can do some niche things that adds that extra cherry on top

I love that jtm45. So clear and warm. It sounds really similar to my cot50 clone. Great video, that explores the human condition of too much choice, not enough time or board space to enjoy it all. ✌️

Just a shot in the dark, but maybe try the Ripped Speaker without a buffer in front of it and see if it sounds better.

How many pedals do "I" need? I've arrived at the number of 14! My pedalboard is for my Recording! I need to cover a lot of sonically diverse ground. Clean, Crunch, Heavy, Ambient... and then there are the other "Spices" that need to flavor my tones depending on what that Tune "needs". Then I have a mini pedalboard that I use for other things...and instruments. Yeah!

Love your videos. Well done. I have wrestled a lot with pedalboard and how many pedals to have. I definitely know I have maybe too many on my board, yet mine ended up compact enough to justify it all. Thanks for the reminder that less is a good thing. Makes me want to put together a minimal board. ;) keep up the awesome videos!

We love a simplified pedalboard 🔥

For the smaller pedal train boards the power supply that really works best and powers any pedal you want practically is the Ciocs dc7. I have a metro 20 with six petals on it and the DC seven mounted underneath. Absolutely perfect for small stages or gigs where are you are backing someone else up for instants/need to get on and off stage fast. I use mine for travelling but I also have a larger pedal train Junior with different petals on it for large festival stages, bigger clubs and different sounds in general. Nice to have the two different boards. It’s a luxury but I’ve come to this after years of gigging and having a couple boards that were way too big for the Number of petals I had on them. Always been a 6/7 Pedals max kind of player. Typically I only really use two or three of them and the others are just turned on once or twice in a show anyways.

Please keep throwing in the band stuff occasionally, all your content is great but the band stuff I enjoy because it gives me ideas to try with my band. 👍

How many pedals does one need? Depends on the gig. A jazz gig I’ll use none, a pop gig or theatre show I’ll use up to 10 pedals or more depending on what they want

Good stuff.

With a half-decent amp, all that's really needed is a telecaster and a cable. I've used this setup at many gigs (with a Fender BDR). Generally though, I'll use a BOSS tuner and a couple of O/D pedals before the amp, with a delay pedal in the loop. To simulate a wah pedal I use the guitar's tone control.

I did a board build a couple of weeks ago and I'm glad to see it isn't just me who gets frustrated and bewildered at getting the placement and signal chain order right. Problem with mine is that I knew in about a month's time I'll be doing it all again as a new board is arriving, so I didn't want to put full effort into this one.

Great video. I found myself in the same boat. Have a larger board with about 15 pedals and full midi implementation, but I get locked into analysis paralysis all the time. So while I'm keeping the board around for another time, I'm downsizing to 6 pedals to cover the songs we do.

A Strymon Deco would be a nice addition

The answer to the question "How many guitar pedals do we really NEED need for a gig" obviously depends on the gig. It's like asking "How many ingredients do I really NEED in my cupboard/fridge?" It depends on what you want to cook. There are gigs where I need NONE, but there are also gigs where I need MANY! When I play fill-in guitarist for some bands with more adventurous setlists, I use everything I have on my board (10+ pedals, including rotary, several delays, several drives, multiple mods, etc.) or use my Helix, where I'm functionally unlimited when it comes to effects. When I'm doing session work in the studio, I like to bring lots of pedals to have many options available for the producer. Same when I play in the house band for open mic nights. On the other hand, if I was playing in a blues band, I might not bring ANY, depending on the setlist... I'll just gain up the amp and use my volume control. (BTW: for those of you saying you need a fuzz in addition to a Helix in order to get the fuzz to clean up off your volume pot, you're setting up your Helix patch wrong. I have quite a few patches using the "Arbitrator" fuzz face and you only need to ensure A: it is first in the chain, and B: you set the input impedance to it's lowest setting.

That Guitar Strap is Stunning! 🤩 How long does it take you to pick out the right waistcoat to compliment it? Would you consider making a video about this?

I’ve been on a fly board kick & I’ve been using pedal amps (terror stamp, quilter, etc…) to make crazy small boards to gig with. As of late, my “do it all” board fits in an overhead carry luggage case with all cables included. I don’t plan on traveling with it, but a case with wheels is quite savvy & I’d highly recommend using boards that fit in those sized travel cases, quite the back & shoulder saver!

What about taking less drivey pedals and take them to the limit a bit more then control the gain with your vol pot? That way you might only need the 45 a solo boost and a maybe a specialty sound like fuzz (plus wireless) If you have something like the benson germanium fuzz you’d be able to get around the issues the low impedance wireless unit causes with most fuzzes That might even fit on a nano plus. (Mission Engineering 529 fits underneath even with dual lock)

Greetings, for the Pedaltrain flat boards e.g. Metro and Mono, I replace the rubber feet on one side with a 1 inch size. This increased the height enough to fit a power supply under the board. You have to drill out the original feet and you’ll need threaded rivet nuts to fill the holes along with matching screws. Cheers!

Great video, I've a HB Spaceship Power 40 with an integrated power supply with 7 individually isolated and 4 non-isolated outputs including a USB-A. Highly recommended.

Best board for that small build would be Warwick RockBoard. I guess 3.2 would be enough. Try one and you will fall in love. Use the tray also for easy power supply mounting.

I'm glad I don't have to choose which pedals have to go when I have fun playing through all of them at home.

I'm currently mostly happy with my board but I've got a similar problem to what you had! When using my HX Stomp while singing I really often hit both footswitches which moves through presets - which is then really difficult to change back mid song! Need to come up with a solution really. I do also want to put my favourite Boss HF-2 Flanger back on, the Flangers in the HX just don't quite cut like the HF-2. Need to make a new board for myself though as I can't afford a normal one and they don't do what I need with tiered levels for the back pedals. (My current board is also made to fit into an old briefcase)

It's not a requirement. Carlos Santana uses a Wah pedal. For the longest Time, Ted Nugent rarely used any pedals, except "Children of the Woods" and "Survival of the Fittest" was heavily Wah's I abuse Pedals. I'm in a twelve step program with only 2 pedals to go to get the Golden Ring Modulator. I bought my 13, now 14 year old Grad Daughter a Boss ME-50 which give her the opportunity to check out the various options. In my case (at 71, I'm not currently married to a band, but looking. I'm easy and like long walks on the beach) MxR Commade Preamp, Crybaby, MxR Carbon Copy, Dunlop Volume, Keeley DDR, Boss DD3, Whirlwind Selector to Laney GH50L and Marshall 50 watt JCM 900 which loops Boss RT-20 to Ibanez FL-9. I got a few other toys sitting in boxes as Being a guitarist, things change. so to summarize It all depend on what you are planning to do with it. Home Studio allows to the time to program digital effects By If you play live, then you have to adjust stuff on the fly to cover room acoustics and your bands. If your playing with 2 guitarist, general modulating gets cluttery, either lost or over bearing. If you are not using a high gain amp, then you need a gain type pedal. So I'm suggesting Boss Multi Effects to get a feel for what you want. I chose the ME-50 because you can change on the fly in manual mode. Other Boss pedal boards may have more options, but the ME-50 lets you reach down and adjust a knob without have to pull up "edit". and if you like to Multi thing, then you can create YOU and it's always there. You're never going to be Hendrix or Cobain, but you will always be you. Find yourself and set yourself free.

This was a fun Monday morning watch! Maybe you can give the EQD Special Cranker a shot instead of the Ripped Speaker?

21:09 hahahaha :D. Very cool enjoyable video! Why there is at least no small Reverb/delay pedal?

your board looks fine especailly if you play live! I would use the Wampler euphoria for over drive tho.

I sometimes use no pedals and sometimes a lot I have a small bass pedalboard and a large guitar one If I want a small guitar board I swap out a couple of pedals from the bass board and do that, so in effect I have three boards, two for guitar Depends what I feel like and what I am doing

Enjoyed the video! You might look into the Great Eastern FX Co. small speaker overdrive pedal in place of the ripped speaker pedal. In fact, Sean Tubbs did a good review on it that you might want to check out. Again, great video!

I have that mini wah and it's great! Auto return Wah's are so useful I have 3 different ones

Great video, thanks! It's no surprise that the big fancy switcher box had to go. The one thing I LOVED but have never seen before is the mini CryBaby pedal. I have an original CryBaby which is awful! It sounds very good, but the pedal mechanism is crummy and the on/off switch is impossible. Plus the pedal is too large to put on your board and it's hard to power the thing. One could use a battery, but if you accidentally leave it hooked up or turned on, then the battery is history. The 9V input is oddball, requiring an adapter and extension for my power supply. Plus it doesn't really fit right and whenever I look at it funny, the cable will pop out. I quit using my wah wah because it was too annoying to try to use. The mini CryBaby seems to solve ALL of my problems. I especially like the spring-loaded auto-turn-off when your foot is off the pedal. genius!

I figured you'd have gone with a Fuzz Face. Even if it was one of the mini reissues, it's still in that 60s lineage.

More fun to watch,then ta do lol thanks

I've got one of Rockboards biggest pedalboards! It came with a roadcase, with wheels! We (my band) call it "The flight simulator"! ..... It only fits across the back seat of my car...a coupe, so getting it to the back seat is back breaking! So I leave it at my drummers rehearsal room, which he hates cos he has to move it! I do have two smaller pedal boards....with handfuls of unused pedals available... A line6 HD500X... A Digitech RP20 Valve...... The last boyscout would say have everything available in case you need it! Or perhaps I need a psychological evaluation......

I think i may have to finally breakdown and get the St. James. I've been deliberating betwixt that and the Bad Cat Black Cat. But I already have my vertical 4X12 with cream backs in it...

Why do folks get Pedal Trains and similar when they are heavier than, for example, the Harley Benton boards (which, by the way, also have adjustable threaded-rod feet at the back and no lateral beam that would prevent one from straddling a mic stand with the board - great for singers). The HB boards also have sufficient space underneath the raised rear portion for mounting a power supply. For me, saving weight and being able to position the board closer to the mic stand are important. (No need to have the mic beam sticking way out, with the tendency to droop over time.) Other tip: When trying to position pedals multiple times on various boards before deciding, I just toss a few pieces of paper or cardboard onto the board so I don‘t have to yank things off so much. Final tip: the MXR reverb pedal is compact and highly versatile, and sounds great. I have a Golden Reverberator and a Cloudburst, but the MXR really does a great job, too. If you‘re saving space, you might like it.

I play in an ambient band, and I use a lot of pedals, and I use them!

A Carl Martin AC Tone would sit nicely on your board,Andy.

Try out all the cheapo fuzzes and drives that are sitting in the cold dark corner of the cupboard and do a reverse snobbery pedal on the board! I use a TC Cinders into my Blackstar HT5 and it rips like a goodun'. It cost me £20 in a music shop sale 5 years ago (the pedal... not the HT5...).

I am always trying to lighten the load for gigs. I hate carrying and setting up loads of gear so now I am using the Headrush Gig board and an 8 inch FRFR speaker. Compressor and reverb on most patches leaves four stomp footswitches. If a song needs more than five different sounds it's probably too complex. I play in a covers band and original songs band. In the future I think we will all be using Multi FX units with Amp simulation. If your luck enough to plug into a PA your onstage amp is mostly for monitoring anyway. There is too much emphasis on creating a "sound." The audience and even most other guitar players cannot tell the difference between a strat, tele or humbucker guitar in a live situation.

Can't believe I only just saw this! I use 3 pedals. Tuner > Noise gate > Overdrive. Not fussy about brands or whatever, but all the ones I use live right now are Boss, using the SD-1 as my OD. I run it just as a boost to hit the front end of my amp nice and hard, but also as a bit of an EQ. Would happily gig with just a tuner. Our other guitarist uses my tuner (not ideal) and uses no pedals at all, just goes straight to the amp. None of my HM-2s or clones are on my main board. Shameful.

Through the 70s, and 80s I didn't have any pedals for gigging. I have one pedal now.

I was like - where’s the fuzz?

I heard an interviewer of the Kinks say that Ray Davies had found a wire in his guitar was hanging by it's last strand. Going to some component. I dont remember if it was specified. He felt it gave his guitar a special sound. He refused to fix the issue. Where that wire was. And where it was attached at which end. I dont know. That's the question.

got any live footage of your band - we're all so curious and not in Austria

🤩🤩 👏🏼👏🏼

So what are the differences between the blackstar st James 50 and the Blackstar debut 50? Just would like to know for purchasing reasons.

Andy, I would ask you to suggest to your audience what you feel are the top three resources for adult guitar students who practice at home. More than new gear, pedals, software downloads, what or who would you suggest an adult could get their hands on and study, read or practice? Thank you.

I have the Boss pw10 v-wah pedal my first wah peday but i never used as i could never understand why not auto return system ? I looked to other pedal and all same system, till now that i can see exist a wah pedal with auto return 🥰 i need to have a Dunlop cbm535ar

There are pros and cons but you should have a play with an aclam pedal board. I love mine especially with the new quick swap release clamps. Mines an L2 free route system 👍🏼

Wish I had your big shovelly hands!

Hi, have you tried to get the woman tone by the wanpler pedal and turn down the tone on the guitar. Then you can have another pedal instead of that

With A laney TT50 or a bogner ecstasy 35 you need a Wah and a delay/reverb. Point.

kiling me man.

Less is sometimes more. Kurt Cobain got away with 4 pedals on his board but mostly used only 2 of them. Jimi Hendrix got away with a wah and fuzz face. Blackstar St. James is the Boss.

tuner pedal and eq pedal. you're welcome

Yeah, there's a reason we use velcro and not screws and glue.

Great video as always 🙂 As a person struggling with re-building my pedalboard of 16! 😱 pedals, have you tried the OBNE Alpha Haunt fuzz? It has sliders and sliders are always good hahaha. Maybe you could give it a go? I use it mid scooped and very gated

Im 25 years ahead of the curve on this one, ive never used more than 3 pedals at any one time.

Man, being a traveling & gigging musician seems like a giant pain. Staying home, 12-15 pedals and not caring how much they weigh is the secret sauce to happiness. No one ever needs to hear me play. 😅

I go back and forth between big boards and small boards. Whenever I do a big board I gig and end up just using 3 pedals.

Get a tone x and capture the amps you want. Put it on your board then add pedals and a switcher to taste. That’s what I use now. Everything on one board. Ps get a smaller wah and nux wireless. Cioks power supply are low profile

From listening to you play, you'd probably be ok with the 45 caliber and the Woman Tone. I don't think you'd need much more. You get all your tones from those anyway and you seem to like your sound the best with those pedals. The others aren't part of your sound, if you know what I mean.

You need a bigger board and a tech to do the changes for you. I’m no heavy metal hitchhiker but if I’m around I’ll tech for ya. 👍🏽

EH "Satisfaction" fuzz will get you the nasally, thinner fuzz raspiness you're looking for!

Zero modulation?

About 10 pedals is fine

I gig with 11 pedals, most I use in a gig is 7. This feels almost like a personal attack. Also if you find a 60s style fuzz that actually does what you’re looking for please let me know, I’ve been looking for years and they are all fine for lead but don’t do that kinks sound at all.

5 on my board 95% of the time I am gigging.

None, just crank the amp and use your guitar volume knob!

duallock! 10x better than velcro

The longer I play the smaller my board gets.

Dude mvalve 8 pedal power usbc phone charger powered psu

Let us know how that mini-wah works with you big feet....

I dislike double button functions SO MUCH!!!! You press two buttons at the same time by accident and if those buttons have a double function you end up shutting yourself off or switching to a different patch/bank. If you can disable those by configuration, fine, but most - especially affordable products - have those hard wired, which is endlessly annoying.

this is the second time that you clickbaited us with the white Albatroz in the thumbnail. STOP IT and really bring the Albatroz!

next you'll be saying you have too many guitars, bite your tongue, you heathen.

I used no pedals my last gig.