Some years ago, when I decided to go for a pedalboard solution instead of the rack setup that I’ve used for years, I searched the market for quite a while to find the right pedals for my new board. I ended up buying some really good, and unfortunately not cheap, pedals. The upside is that they are reliable and sound awesome, so now I don’t have to worry about purchasing ‘upgrades’ … or? 🙂
Why should I get a new pedalboard?
Well, last year I was invited to play in Canada this summer. When I got a little closer to my trip and started thinking about what to bring, I realized I had to cut down my current pedalboard, if I wanted to avoid spending a fortune on surcharges at the airports. What could I remove?? Actually, I loved my board as it was and didn’t want to lose anything, but I had to let something go. Some tough decisions had to be made, so I started browsing the internet again… and I inevitably ended up checking out what the brands I already used (on my main board) had to offer.
What can’t I live without?
A buffer for sure. A buffer makes everything sound as you would expect it to without a buffer, if you use expensive pedals. But even if you play through expensive pedals, you will lose some signal, some brightness, and some of your wonderful warm tone. If you have more than a few pedals in your signal chain, you definitely want a buffer … at least if you’re me 🙂
What else? A nice overdrive… that sounds like a overdriven tube amp – I mean TUBE amp – and some clean boost so all my solos can be loud and present.
I also knew that I wouldn’t be traveling without my Empress Compressor, just like I couldn’t travel without a Wah, Volume pedal, some reverb and a nice warm delay with a tap-tempo.
To be able to perform well I also needed a tuner, and more important than I thought some years ago when I made my first pedalboard… the right power supply. When you’re traveling to the other side of the world it is even more important to think about this in advance!!
All in all, as well as being very excited about playing with some extraordinary musicians, and visiting a country that I hadn’t visited before, I suddenly had an excuse to make my new pedalboard and buy some new stuff again – awesome 🙂
Soon, I will write more chapters about my new board and explain more about my thoughts and decisions, and also about some of the products I ended up bringing with me on this trip. I hope you’ll chime in and share your thoughts and comments on this.
All the very best
Soren
NB – remember you can always visit my official site if you need more info – you’ll find my site here.