Why would anyone need SO MANY pedals?! 

Just showed this video to my wife. Now she understands why guitar players need more pedals. Thank you Brian! She even helped me list my pedals on Reverb, so people can have more pedals. I sure can't wait for those guitar players to have more pedals :D

I like what what Blake said in one of the podcasts a while back. Most people can't afford a bunch of amps. Or they don't have the space to store them. Pedals offer a world of possibilities!

For me they are tools to inspire. Each has its own sound and takes you somewhere different with your tone and sound.

It's a simple equation: P[R] = P[CO] + P[D] Where P[R] is _Pedals Required_ and P[CO] is _Pedals Currently Owned._ P[D] is _Pedal(s) Desired_ and is always equal to or greater than 1. There's a similar natural law that governs the ownership and acquisition of guitars.

I love it when Wamp's voice breaks and they don't go back and retake things. Always keeping it real and honest

I only need one more pedal...

Just got my Belle in the mail yesterday... so far loving it! super stoked to have another "flavor" in the arsenal. Well done

I just started getting into diy pedals and your videos. Amazing work so far your work is a treasure trove of information! Thank you!

There are so many different ways to achieve the tone you hear in your head, that I think having such rigid views against those methods may end up acting as a disservice towards getting what you want. People's wants and needs change as they grow as players and musicians, that it's nice to be able to follow that anywhere it leads you. Andy Timmons is a great example of this. His current rig is very pedal dependent, especially with a plethora of drives for different levels of gain that he feels provide him with the ability to be expressive. It's just a different way for him to sound like Andy Timmons, which is always awesome. There is no right or wrong way generally, unless it's just plain unsafe. At the end of the day, it's art. And pedals are just plain fun.

Absolutely! They're for the sake of creativity and are sometimes situation-specific. I showed up to a gig one time and had a mystery buzz somewhere on my board. With no time to troubleshoot, I did the whole gig with just my AC-15 and it went great. While the simplicity was refreshing to some degree, I would contend that those other timbral options would've given creative ways to better serve the songs. Similarly, a drummer *could* do a gig with just a kick, snare, high-hat, and maybe a crash-ride, but having multiple toms, flavors of cymbals, etc. opens up a lot more room for their creativity and how their parts can serve each song. As with all things, there are points of diminishing returns. This too is often player-specific and situation-specific.

this video proved to me that I like amp overdrive/distortion better than pedals haha

Love every video you make Brian!

Like your channel, bought my last (unneeded) OD pedal from just because you support the community so well.

your fascination for pedals and circuits is contagious :-) because of you i started building and modifying my own DIY pedals during lockdown in 2020. now i have way too many "flavors" ;-) thanks for your inspiring videos!

Guitarists that play simpler, one tone genres like blues, country or classic rock don't understand that some of us just like putting in the extra sauce to make our band sound like we do on the recordings and effects are a huge part of those recordingd. "But the audience doesn't notice" of course they don't cause you're not doing it well enough. Really put in the effort to make your tones distinct and impactful and people will notice. No one is gonna care that you switched from your ultra transparent blues drive to your second ultra transparent blues drive, hit them with an octave fuzz going through a filter sweep in stereo, that's where the fun is

Same thing but with different flavour. People need to understand this. Thank you for highlighting it out. It's hard to explain to them. This video mostly would help. Thank you. 🙏🏽🙂

I think we're talking volume too. With pedals I can often get the sound I want at lower volumes. Some amps I like also need attenuation. All in all, the pedals are probably a more versatile option.

Great point. Never too many unless you got 2 that are way too similar but there's always enough variety to go around.

Got your andy wood gearbox pedal last week and i got to say it is fantastic so much control and range of tones at your finger tips well worth paying a little extra gets you so much more thanks mate

Variety is the spice of life AND guitar tone. 😁👍 I have always reconfigured my pedalboard for the type of gig I'm doing. It's part of the fun.

Excellent video. Thanks.

My GF is an avid golfer. She saw my massive pedal board and was the same way. Why? So I asked her why she has 9 irons, a putter, 3 woods and a driver? All do the same thing, you swing them, they strike the ball and propel it down the course. She went on to explain how each lay required a different club and then she sort of trailed off when the correlation became apparent. She is very smart and that little analogy made her realize why I need all those pedals. When I am doing my BB King, I need this. When I am doing my best SRV, I need that. Randy Rhoads requires something completely different than David Gilmour covers. Now I get pedals for gifts on B-Days, Xmas and Valentines Day. It’s nice, but a non guitarist buying pedals is a crap shoot. Occasionally I get the DOD Gronkulator, but sometimes a Wampler Plexi.

"All this machinery, making all the music, can still be open hearted." Many disguises___& "endless compromises, shatter the illusion of integrity." And so on, to where" it's really just a question of your honesty" !

Well said.! I whole heartedly agree.! That's why I took the VOX modelling amp I have & noted done what it can't do.? Then went & brought pedals. Eg; Danelectro Back Talk (reverse delay)

Great vid. The only problem is most folks that would question why you need all those pedals probably wouldn't have an ear tuned to guitar sounds well enough to even distinguish one of those tones from another. Ha ha. It's all "distortion" to them!

I'm going to use this video as a great example of why a Telecaster is a great rock guitar ....tone for days ! Love it !

Well articulated way to describe why more pedals is usually better.

Great video. Brian covers pretty much all my points but here is a rant if you are bored. Owning guitar pedals is like owning a part of history. you can own a piece of your favorite song and actually understand how it works. It’s a lot more fun to turn physical knobs than to just use electronic stimulation and often the sound is much different. Anybody who says just plug into a guitar amp is talking about a specific tone but that’s kinda boring if that’s all they do. Sure some genres don’t need pedals at all but it’s no reason to hate on the genres that do. Some people can argue “well this guitar player doesn’t use pedals and I never get bored of listening to them”, well that’s just your opinion at this current moment it’s 100% subjective. Nobody is saying pedals are necessary but they add a lot of spice and flavour to music you won’t get going acoustic or just straight into an amp.

That Soldano tone!!! Also, I love how you turn on the power and standby switch at the same time 🤣. (I do the same) You gonna freak out some guitarists with that! 🤯

I gotta say as someone who builds guitar pedals and owns about 30 varieties of boost / drive / fuzz etc, I mostly use my (70's YRM-1) amp turned to 10 to get those sounds these days.

I've always liked what Nels Cline says about pedals: if your guitar is the brush and your amp the canvas, pedals are your paints (and the pedalboard the palette). Decent analogy, and def how I approach the mega-board!

Probably fair to say that many guitar players would love to keep things simple, but we’re in situations that just require more versatility/options. I’d be perfectly happy with just the Paisley Deluxe, but sometimes the Plexi Deluxe is a better fit, so they both stay on the board. If it’s a 90s country gig, gotta have a little chorus and a compressor ready to go. Church gigs or some pop gigs need more ambient sounds. All depends on what you’re doing and it’s all good 👍👍

Bingo! And it's often a practical thing, especially in covers bands with a wide range of material.

I just like pedals. Don't necessarily need them all, and I'm a grown man that works for my money. I don't have to explain, or even have a reason to buy them as I'm not a gigging musician, nor do I play out anywhere. I can spend my money on whatever I want. 😁 They make me have fun playing guitar with different pedals and getting different tones that may or may not match the tone from a song, songs, or an entire album that I like and want to learn. That's all the reason I need. Don't care what anyone else thinks about it...

To each there own. I’ve messed with pedals over the years, and I always end up happiest with just a cable between my Tele and any decent Fender amp. I am considering the E H Soul something boost pedal.

Great video! Pedals to me are kinda like an fine artist who paints with a bunch of paint colors on their palette to create works of art. That said, there are other fine artists who create fantastic images or illustrations with a single pen and ink only. Neither is really “better” than the other, it’s just how they choose to create their artwork! ✌🏻🎸🎶

THANK YOU! Great video Brian. Trying to explain this to some people..."You're not going on tour, you don't need such a large pedal board". I've given up trying to explain it. The next thing would be "well, why do you need so many pedals though? Just buy a that has all those effects built in." Can't win!

I only use one amplifier and 5 pedals. One of those being a tuner, so technically 4. I use the amp gain on my Orange OR15. That’s all I need.

Brian's playing is on point here! 🎸🎸🎸🎸

i am that person that says "stop worrying about all the gear and just play guitar"...

I'll say I'm very happy with the Wampler Ethereal pedal. Very creative and worth every penny.

The Tumnus deluxe is the single best pedal I have ever owned. I cannot describe the tone other than it turns my blues Junior into a hot twin. It somehow doubles the tone. Such a masterpiece.

I just did inventory. I currently own 40 overdrives. Probably too many tbh but I never use more than 3 on a board. Still, I am totally sending this video to everyone that says one of those bs lines. The amp one is my favorite/most hated

Killer tone!

My response to most of those people is….. “omg thank you so much for finally recognizing all the money I’ve dumbed into gear that no one in the audience cares about until now”. Followed by a handshake and or fist bump.

I agree that we need a few options. On a personal level though I need to work on my playing first and foremost.

Thank you!

"Why do you need so many pedals?" Me: and I quote, "because I needed a little peanut butter."

Why? To achieve different things. Been playing guitar 20+ years: and only the last couple am I starting to realise how much I didn't know about shaping a sound. Having fun learning tho!

A secret weapon pedal of mine is the Wampler Nirvana chorus. I have it set for a subtle chorus, but it seems to me like it has a mythical buffer in there.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for but I hope you can help. I'm reaching out to your because your videos are current and from what I've seen, you really seem to know your stuff, not that I do. Anyhoo, my son has discovered pedals and is really doing his homework on what he needs and wants in a pedal. He decided he wants to build his own board and that's where I come in. I'm the mechanic of the family (it's just him and I). I'm also an artist and a DIYer. So much for him building his own board so I'm doing my homework too. I watched an older video from a guy that builds cases for sale but in one video he showed how all the pedals can be laid out and how they would with cabled and wired on the board. His board platform lifted from the front of the frame. It was very interesting. It showed him cabling his first pedal in the chain to a small box mounted to the side of the frame under the platform and the same was true of the last pedal. I don't know what this box is called. That's the question. What is it called and where can I get them? I can't identify what it is no matter how I phrase my question in the search bar. I believe it is a secured link (a conduit of sorts) between the pedal and the amp on one side and the guitar on the other so that neither of the pedals can be jerked off the board if either the guitar or amp gets moved suddenly. It would just disengage from the pedalboard or it would pull the board as a whole rather than risking damaging the pedal or link of pedals. Ok, I've blathered on too long. I may be imagining/inventing something new. As an artist, I love the process of designing. I also look forward to painting this baby when I'm done. Can you help?

I use pedals and guitars to inspire me to do different things when I write songs. I have 30 original tunes when I play in my power trio. I use two pedal boards that link together. They are wired up as 3 separate boards. I click between each board with 3 switches on a switcher. I literally use one board for the verse, another for the chorus and another for the middle 8/maybe solo. Keep in mind each board has its own Comp, delay, verb and gate. Primarily one board is a selection of low gain OD's another medium gain and another high gain. Modulation pedals, a synth pedal, and Fuzz etc. are placed around where I need them. I use 70 pedals over my 30 tunes. I also use 10 guitars to cover PAF, P90, Strat, Tele, gold foil, Gretsch and Ric. sounds. Most guitars can do two very different sounds like Tele with Ric or PAF with gold foil, or PAF with Stat etc. I feel I get the best sounds and the rig is part of the show live. Unless you dance it is just you and a guitar to look at. So 10 different colours and shapes can help a lot.

That TikTok got to you huh, Brian haha! Great video again :)

Thanks Brian! I can now go back and re-activate my GAS habits 😁

Love the chocolate analogy, works super well especially because you can still stay, just like pedals, " its all chocolate, what's the difference?".

I do wonder if we’d be better off with fewer gain pedals and more EQ pedals. Wouldn’t it be more flexible to have the mid-boost & the gain portions of a tube screamer as separate pedals?

All those pedals! And I keep seeing that old blue Fulldrive 2 on the shelf and that pedal has a magic that the newer versions just don't have. Is there any chance that pedal will make an appearance in a video?

Love your channel, and your brand of pedals. Let me weigh in if I may, one needs to decide, are they mostly playing with single coil, or humbuckers, with differing effects like Overdrive, distortion, high gain pedals as well as the amp either on break up or higher gain, or if you prefer a clean amp platform with effects loop, this will determine your pedals of choice. Until you try them with your own setup you can't be sure which ones you'll want to keep, so buy your effects that have a return policy.

The flavor analogy is an apt one; I’ve got a buddy who rolls his eyes when I put sauce on a good steak-but I like sauce.

Variety is the spice of life! Or two or three long sets.

The happiest I've ever been with a guitar sound was a strat split through A) a Weber MASS 100 direct/clean cranked and B) an EHX mini Muff straight into a Sovtek MIG 30 with a 12AU7 in the second position just over 1/2 way up into a custom 2x12 with Eminence Wizards @ 16ohms mic'd with an EV N/D468. That just rocked, period. It felt like Mark Knopfler and Billy Gibbons had been merged into a singular entity that could do no wrong. There's really not a good reason to have a lot of pedals other than... they're just fun to play with, not in a musical sense because it's easy to get confused and frustrated with too many options. I mean, just the act of exploring different sounds is fun (just like traveling to different/new places is in a car, on a train, by plane, etc is fun instead of the same boring path every day forever). Occasionally, having extra options comes in handy in certain rooms, if you change amps, tour a lot or just like experimenting in a studio environment. That said, yeah, I found a sound once that I could have lived with forever - it just made playing FEEL good as if I could do no wrong - and it only had 1 pedal in the chain, a cheap one. Once you find that, whatever it is for you and however crazy or complicated it is, keep it and never let it go. You might be happy with a non-complex sound, then again, you might melt when you start blending crazy things that at first might seem a total waste of time. Explore and don't let the drummers push you into a corner with only a dry Marshall and a channel switcher. Fight back lol.

I own a PlexiDrive Deluxe, Pinnacle Deluxe, Euphoria, Pantheon, a RAT, Fuzz Face mini, Ceriatone Centura, TS-9, Big Muff Ram’s Head Reissue, and that’s just my drives. I’m still not done with OD/Distortion/Fuzz. A lot of this stuff is also mood/need of the day/week.

Thanks Brian. My credit card now understands!

I have 4 delays on my board, and I even wonder why I need this, until I start doing some weird stoner metal ambient stuff... then I remember why I have all this hooked up, and I still want to add the Strymon Dig too.

EXACTLY!

I'd advise getting the amp that has your FAVORITE tone out of every type. Then you can just get your boosts, fuzzes to go with that and, if you want a tone from another amp, you can always get amp-in-a-box pedals to emulate it as closely as possible, if you don't want to sound exactly like it or spend the money on another amp.

Now I need that many pedals AND that Tele

If my drummer said that to me I'd say, "Why do you need so many cymbals? They all sound the same right????"

I need and use about 4 pedals. I want all of them.

I have 6 different distortion pedals. Yes, I’m crazy 🤘🤘

To quote some Swedish dude, "How can less be more? That’s impossible. More is more!" But seriously though, even a filet mignon needs seasoning. Salt, pepper, oil, rosemary, maybe cooked in onions and garlic with demiglass for flavor. Letting the meat speak for itself is ok. Similarly, a Marshall needs some spice from a DS-1, some washy delay goodness, and maybe a little Wah and chorus for fun.

damn right!

"The tone is in the hands"

When people ask why so many pedals i respond why so many eating utensils in your drawer? Do you really intend on eating soup with a fork, or using a soup spoon? Usually shuts them up pretty quick. This video will add to my rebuttals. Great work.

There's another point too. Amps are large, expensive, there's no easy way to carry them to places, and when you decide to try something else, you need to have the room and the cash. With pedals you have the freedom to experiment.

It's like having a jumbo box of crayons but you can't eat them.

0:17 That's my chick sneaking into all my gear groups lol

Agreed! Please make a pedal called the wampler kitch kat🤣

While I do generally rely on a cranked Fender tube, I have a Tube Screamer, Waza Blues Driver, Klon kit, OCD and a distortion pedal on my board. I've always disliked differentiating with modulation and space effects. I use them, but sparingly. Overdrive pedals can radically change the character of your tone. I get that some people don't want that because they want some consistancy or continuity, but I've just never really cared about that. I want highly specific and variable tone.

It's a thing. that's all that needs to be said. IMO, everyone has their own limit. 5 or 50 good on you.

Especially when it comes to eq.

AMEN!

Pedals are fun....and besides, there's worse things to be addicted to 🤣

Dope tele

As someone who owns almost a dozen ODs, the truth is we don't NEED all those pedals, we WANT all those pedals. And IMO this video actually proves we don't NEED that many. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, the difference in sound between the different sources shown/heard here is negligible. A better argument for having numerous pedals would've been showing, say, an OD, an EQ, a wah-wah, a chorus, a flanger, a tremolo, a delay, a phaser, etc. Those are all different effects/sounds that are quite different from each other. But, as always, YMMV.

Precisely why I have n Xotic RC Booster and an MXR Timmy.

Warning! Putting Cholates in a stocking by a fireplace could make new Cholate treats! (If you are luckey enough to have a fireplace.

Three overdrives, a boost and a compressor is good enough for me. I go crazy on the delays tho

Lmao thought he was walking in with a guitar case.was a pedal board!!!and dude,do you.Whatever makes you happy!!!👍🤘🔥Rock on Brotha!!!

Because it’s fun

Like a plumber with more than 1 wrench. I even have more than 1 wampler in my toolbox. Great video to show your spouse.

I think people with a lot of pedals probably run only a few amps or a single type of guitar, because if we have a good base tone, we can do just about anything People with really simple setups I’ve noticed use a bunch of different amps and guitars

I love your candy shop 😁

I like the part when he talked about the halloween sock

Thank you. I'll prepare dinner for my wife, then, ask her how her day was..THEEEEN...i'll watch this with her. Wish me luck 🤞

It’s a question of taste, and priorities. The people who say those things enjoy music that is made with very few effects. Other people like music with lots of effects. One thing I’ll say about the crowd who says “stop worrying about gear and just play,” they CAN have a point, depending on the person. SOME people can get too caught up in chasing tone and spend more time shopping and dicking around with gear than actually playing. However, maybe that’s fine for you! I’m a hobbyist, so if I wanted to I could do nothing but obsess over gear and never play, and it wouldn’t hurt anyone as long as I was happy. But if I was concerned with improving as a player or being a prolific songwriter, spending too much time fussing with gear could be detrimental.

People have to stop asking "Why do you need..." it's a free world.

I personally don't need so many pedals, it's just that they are so many great pedals out there, particularly when it comes to drive pedals. For something like a reverb or a delay or a chorus, I'm fine just having one good one. But drives? Each type has a particular sound, so while I don't necessarily need to have one of every type, there are multiple types that I like. I like RATs, I like Bluesbreakers, I like Kai Tachibana's designs, I like several of Bjorn Juhl's designs, and I like several of Howard Gee's designs. I love my tc electronic MojoMojo and Spark. I lust after the Origin Effects drive pedals. There's probably others I'm forgetting. The problem is, I'm committed to having a manageable pedalboard, and so I just can't fit all of them. I can have at most 3-4 drive pedals, and two of them have to be single knob clean boosts, so that means 1-2 overdrives at most-1 if a big box, maybe 2 if minis. The only type of drive pedal I really don't like is the Tube Screamer, or any other strongly mid-focused design. I'm also really into my DSM & Humboldt Electronics Simplifiers, so I'm really interested in their new Silver Linings. I even have at least 3 separate pedalboards: one for guitar, one for bass, and another for guitar for jam sessions/practice/songwriting, and there will still never be enough space for all the drives I'd like to own.

Pedals also allow you to dial in lots of tones at lower volume.

Am I the only person who can’t seem to get a pleasing tone out of a TS? I’m just glad others can. Thanks.