Pedalboard or FX pedal?

As guitarists we love to be versatile right? To that end I have both a PODxtlive and a pedalboard that contains most of what I use on the POD. Now that we're using amps for instruments I've found it less distracting and easier for me to get what I hear in my head out of my pedalboard when we worship. The PODxt is good but I find regardless of the time I spend tweaking it the sound is vastly different in the live setting. The fact that I can't make on the fly adjustments, esp regarding volume, makes it another downer to use. With the pedalboard I feel more comfortable and although I may not use the Proctavia or ChiliDog on it the other effects get their moments and suit my audible tastes much better.
I'd love to know how you guys feel about it.

I agree with you. I have a pod X3live. I used it probably 10 times before I got tired of endless tweaking to find the sound that I was looking for. It pretty much sits in its bag in the corner of my music room.

My pedalboard..
I just keep ordering and adding pedals. The sounds seem so much more alive and natural.

The one area where I believe a pod has the advantage is in the portability. The pedalboard is a little bit of a pain to move pedals around, change cables, change power cables etc. With the pod, you just have the one unit.

Since we're one of those churches where everything goes direct, the multi-FX is just great. Simplifies life, and *nobody* in the congregation cares what I'm playing. We usually have keys, drums, percussion, 2 acoustics, bass, and 1 electric (me), plus vocals, of course; so my sound is just a part of the overall mix.

Even when I was using pedals and an amp, the sound "palette" mostly consisted of clean electric, clean "acoustic-y", overdriven, distorted/fuzzy, +/- modulation, +delay, +more delay. I can do all of that on my POD HD, and have a few different amps, all in one bank. (If it proves reliable, I'll probably start to work on using it with an amp instead of the pedal board.)

I'm a recent convert to a direct rig thanks to the POD HD stuff. The new models sound great, but they "feel" right to me too. I really like my amp and pedal board. I spent a lot of time building it out and getting it sounding just like I wanted...but when I was able to pretty quickly dial in a tone on the POD that not only sounded eerily similar to my amp, but let me do stuff with my effects switching that I have been dreaming of, I had to concede that I am now a POD guy.

A pedals and amp rig can be as simple or complex as it needs to be. It can include only what I want and has exactly the FX that I want. I am entirely too dependent on the interactions between my guitar and amp to get happy with the modelers I've tried. They just don't gain up on the guitar controls the way I'm used to.

I own a Tonelab and a pedalboard with pedals. The Tonelab just gathers dust. I love it for recording, but for playing live, I use my pedalboard. There are times, in the middle of a song live, that I need more or less of a certain effect. That is not easily done on the fly with the Tonelab. That is the only reason I opt for pedals. For what its worth though, I love the Tonelab!!

I have a Boss GT-8 which I still use for recording but I have been buying separates for performance. The GT-8 is flexible and has tons of capability in a single box but it just seems to lack, comparatively, to separates.

Sunday I use a Digitech RP50 run directly into the board. It is eay to carry and has some amazingly good sounds for a $50 pedal.

For my acoustic rig, I use a DI to go into the PA, but I also use a few pedals (e.g. chorus) in my DI's FX loop.

When I go electric, I use pedals into an amp. I haven't been miking the amp, but I'm thinking of trying that the next time I play.

I like the all-in-one units, like the PODs and ToneLabs. I just don't have one. I can also see that some are easier than others to tweak on the fly. I don't have a huge pedal requirement, so it's probably easier for me to just stick with 4-5 basic pedals (tuner, chorus, OD, delay).

Pedalboard...on...off...up...down.. simple..I hate guitarist that spend ten minutes click..click..click...trying to find that right sound.

Just give me my pedal board that I have painstakingly built one pedal at a time to get my perfect tone mix.

The PODxt is good but I find regardless of the time I spend tweaking it the sound is vastly different in the live setting. The fact that I can't make on the fly adjustments, esp regarding volume, makes it another downer to use.

Have you tried doing a tweaking session in the room you play live in? I don't know if you use the gearbox app to control the PODxt, but it is my preferred way of doing patches, it would be great if they found a way to use a iPod touch/iPhone or iPad to run Gearbox

I prefer my pedals...but the only downside is getting the wife to sign off on the pedals I need to buy. I could take the easy route and become a pod-person but I started out with crappy pod effects way back when and I really disliked the mushy generic sound it gave.

i swore against line 6 products for years and years until I fried my marshall a couple of years ago. repairs would've cost nearly as much as the amp so I looked for a mid-range replacement (as money was very tight at the time). I took advantage of guitar center's return policy and returned 4 different combo tube amps. When I went to return the last amp, I saw the X3 Live on the shelf, and out of frustration with trying to find a budget friendly tube amp, i sold my soul and went home with the POD.

I took it home, uploaded some patches, grabbed my guitar and went straight to church. The first time I heard it was when I went through our sound system, and it was the most fun guitar-related four hours of my life. I was in there by myself, rocking out and having a blast.

I will always agree that tube amps are better, but when it comes to versatility, ease of use, and the price, I'll put my POD up against anything.

I have learned that I am often restless and though not as much so as I used to be. I tried the Pod 2.0 until I realised which amp sound was my favorite. Then it broke anyway.

Since then I have stayed with tube amps under 30 watts from Fender or the other makes that use 6V6. I have a few carefully chosen pedals for delay, chorus, reverb, and overdrive, but there are many songs where none of them get used.

When I am asked to go direct I have a pre-amp/DI from ART that has a tube in it.

I believe cost is also an important factor. My pedal board is basic in function with 7 pedals (wah, volume, compressor, OD, chorus, delay, tuner), but pretty nice selection (not the cheapest). Total cost is $840 effects, $50 cables, $140 case... $1,030.

The price range for floor stomp multi effects seem to be in groupings $100-$200 & $400-$500. There are a few at $700 and some at $1200.

Even if I get 7 budget pedals that would still probably be $350, cheap cables might be $35, and build your own wood plank with a gym bag might still be $20. So for $400 you have essentially the cheapest of everything.

Then we're in the position of saying the cheapest individual effects are better than the good level multi effects rig dollar for dollar.

Pedalboard...on...off...up...down.. simple..I hate guitarist that spend ten minutes click..click..click...trying to find that right sound.

I may be the only one, but I make changes on my board for different songs in the set. OD drive level, delay time/repeats, chorus level/depth. Then throw in an amp channel switch/gain adjust.

I'm not hunting for the right sound, I know what the set up for the song is, but none the less, I'm pushing buttons and turning knobs sometimes.

It depends on the device and the rig.

I run an Axe FX rig that I love DI'ed or to a tube power stage.
I have tube amp rig that I love as well.

There are plenty of modellers and other amps I would be less happy with.
YMMV.

Just give me my pedal board that I have painstakingly built one pedal at a time to get my perfect tone mix.

If you're anything like me, you forgot the relatively expensive part if you add it all up.

Pedalboard all the way. What I want when I want. Plus it keeps me in shape from tap-dancing around on it :-)

My current rig goes Tele>ToneLab LE>Egnater Rebel 30 Combo>DI from Egnater into board. Makes me happy and keeps the sound guys happy. I use an amp stand to raise the Egnater off the floor and point it at my left ear so I can keep the volume down but still hear well with floor monitors and drummer. Outstanding little setup. Not cheap though.

Pedalboard + amp. Pods are nice, but no pod will EVER be able to give you the same sound as a couple of tubes.

Wish I could find the link where the sat a couple of recording engineers in a studio and played through modelers and the amps that they model and I think the engineers got it right somewhere around 30% of the time.

The recording engineers didn't play them, they listened to them.

I did the multi-fx thing all through the 90s and early 00s. They are gettin' better, in fact they are really very good. The problem is, I can't easily try a new type of effect like I can with pedals. That and it is really easier to tweak pedals, since they don't have the endless parameters the multi-fx units have. I used to spends hours tweakng parameters. With pedals I don't seem tempted to tweak them as much.

The thing I do like about the multi-fx units, is the ability to have an entire chain of effects able to switch with one button. I had rhythm and lead patches for each song, and just stepped through them. Using pedals I have to do the pedal dance.

I mix single effects with multi.

The recording engineers didn't play them, they listened to them.
Correct, that was clear in my head but got lost in translation somewhere on the way to my fingers

My setup has some of all three. I've got a pedalboard to a line 6 amp. I don't use the on-board effects, only the amp models. It works well for me. It feels like a real amp, but with the flexibility to change to a different amp at whatever volume all the time. When sound guys are good it can be silent and for show, when they suck it is a monitor only I can control.

Honestly, I can't imagine a better set up for church.



Also, the line 6 interacts very well with drive pedals - a major selling point. I had a vox modeler which didn't at all.

I have 2 setups.
1) A Pedalboard into a DLR. Analog, baby!!
2) A Digitech GNX4 into a Laney A-1 acoustic amp. Digital and solid state!
The analog setup wins hands down, but the digital setup is good for a more controlled environment, like Church.

Ill give yas a rundown of what I have learned over the years of how to use effects for my personal style that give me the most flexible options and maximum tone. All IMO!!:) I did the multi fx pedal thing for many years, and used some great boards. I had come to the conclusion that I liked all the time based effects in these units, but hated what the amp models and od effects sounded like through a good tube amp. I decided once and for all the multi fx pedal had to go, but missed the simplicity of patches, presets, and the routing options some of these provided.

Fast forward to my current rig. I run 3-4 pedals infront of my amp now. Volume/wah, comp, od, and sometimes a boost. All kept off until needed allowing minimal signal degradation between guitar and amp. I always have 1 good buffer in the chain.

Stage 2 is my TC Rack unit. Its all those excellent time bast effects I loved from multi fx units, in the fx loop where they sound best, and at a much higher quality because, well tc rocks!! I use a midi pedal to switch between presets, and fx on/off, and it even controls my amp channels.

So the fx units are all in the optimum location for best tone, and there is nothing in the units that has to be turned off (amp models) allowing my amp to rock, with choice effects when needed, or analog pedals hitting the front end giving that well known glorious tone!!

Long post sorry... My pedal board is small, but extremely flexible, but no tone suckers!!

Wish I could find the link where the sat a couple of recording engineers in a studio and played through modelers and the amps that they model and I think the engineers got it right somewhere around 30% of the time.

The recording engineers didn't play them, they listened to them.

Think the point is, the engineers weren't given a chance to hear with their eyes. I have a belief that if players didn't know what they were plugged in to, and the volumes were equal, the players wouldn't be a whole lot more accurate. Don't get me wrong, I love my tube amps and pedal boards, but...there is something to be said for the simplicity of a POD when it is finally tweaked for your sounds at church. If you have decent monitoring of your own playing, it works fine.

That being said, I generally play through a Princeton Recording Amp whose DI goes to the board. I use it's built in reverb, compressor and TS clone, as well as up to 5 external pedals on a small board. The volume on the PRA is cranked down to allow monitoring on a pretty quiet stage. The one thing I don't have with that that I have had with a POD is multiple delays. But I don't use that much...

Really, you need to play whatever works for you in your situation, and keep an open mind.

Think the point is, the engineers weren't given a chance to hear with their eyes. I have a belief that if players didn't know what they were plugged in to, and the volumes were equal, the players wouldn't be a whole lot more accurate. Don't get me wrong, I love my tube amps and pedal boards, but...there is something to be said for the simplicity of a POD when it is finally tweaked for your sounds at church. If you have decent monitoring of your own playing, it works fine.

Bingo.

Think the point is, the engineers weren't given a chance to hear with their eyes. I have a belief that if players didn't know what they were plugged in to, and the volumes were equal, the players wouldn't be a whole lot more accurate.

I do get it. It's just that's where I find the difference. I'm with you modern DSP and algorithms being what they are, I can't call it. But playing them, I feel it in the guitar's volume knob, every time. I love setting up an amp so I can roll between clean and scream on the guitar. With the modelers you are much better off having different presets for the different gain levels.

Really, you need to play whatever works for you in your situation, and keep an open mind.

That's the bottom line. It's best to not get emotionally involved in inanimate objects, even guitar amps. Just use what works for you and your gig.

I once used a boss ME-70 with a fender ss. I got tired of the muddiness(and other factors) and sold it...I bought my first OD pedal and volume pedal with the money from that...I then saved up and bought a small Vox ac4. After all this, I now have a pedal board with about 7 pedals and the little ol' vox amp and really the only place I play is at my church.

I did the multi-fx thing all through the 90s and early 00s. They are gettin' better, in fact they are really very good. The problem is, I can't easily try a new type of effect like I can with pedals. That and it is really easier to tweak pedals, since they don't have the endless parameters the multi-fx units have. I used to spends hours tweakng parameters. With pedals I don't seem tempted to tweak them as much.

The thing I do like about the multi-fx units, is the ability to have an entire chain of effects able to switch with one button. I had rhythm and lead patches for each song, and just stepped through them. Using pedals I have to do the pedal dance.

Wow, I never run into that.
I setup my basic sound for the verse/rhythm part of the song and my lead tone is basically the rhythm tone boosted with a boost pedal. But then again, all I use are two OD pedals and the third is a wah.

This is my current worship pedal board. I'm still trying to figure out my rhythm/lead mixes.

a few pedals plugged to an amp, and using a "multi" through an amp. You don't have to "dance" to a "multi", but you have to take the time to program the thing...and I'd rather have a pedal board where I have my pedals on "set and forget" settings.

for recording i prefer effects in the software (logic) so i can change later.

I finally got the Briefcase on saturday night and started work on my proper pedalbriefcase. I put the pedals and my power supply in there just to see how it worked. It looked pretty good! (Minus the Rats-Nest wiring...need some better cables)

http://img7.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/8578/8578487f64c6468620118f19f83f2e362449eeb.jpg

I still have to put down the velcro and hold them all in place once I figure out an optimal positioning for everything. But it worked out GREAT in church! Settting up was as simple as opening the case, running the output to my amp, the input from my guitar and plugging in my power supply (One-Spot). I was ready to play in 5 minutes.

=]

I used an X3 Live for while and enjoyed it but in the end I
went back to my pedal board. With some delay and distortion options
and a chorus for occasional use I'm good.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/jazzrat/stuff%20for%20sale/DSC00833.jpg

I stick to my pedalboard into a 100 watt Marshall. It's my tone!

The pedalboard grows and shrinks depending on my mood...

Pedal for me all the way!!!

My setup has some of all three. I've got a pedalboard to a line 6 amp. I don't use the on-board effects, only the amp models. It works well for me. It feels like a real amp, ...

Maybe we had the wrong line 6 amp at church (think it was spieder something) - it sounded ok but when I hit it with an OD it clipped digitaly, like when a mixing board channel is overdriven - really horrible.

If I gig with my normal bands it's tubeamps all the way, we usually play 45 min at least and the audition is there to listen to music + I can turn up real loud. At church it's a different situation for me: We usually only play 5 songs + the audience is not there for the music primarily + we play pretty quiet. I tried different things (5w tube amps, multis, beamblockers, ampstands) and I found this works best for me and stick with it for the last couple months:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLsrUQmTlXY/TUbUrRmB_7I/AAAAAAAAA1U/8n2mP9DPN-s/s1600/1.JPG

I finally got the Briefcase on saturday night and started work on my proper pedalbriefcase. I put the pedals and my power supply in there just to see how it worked. It looked pretty good! (Minus the Rats-Nest wiring...need some better cables)

http://img7.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/8578/8578487f64c6468620118f19f83f2e362449eeb.jpg

I still have to put down the velcro and hold them all in place once I figure out an optimal positioning for everything. But it worked out GREAT in church! Settting up was as simple as opening the case, running the output to my amp, the input from my guitar and plugging in my power supply (One-Spot). I was ready to play in 5 minutes.

=]

Finally added the velcro and cleaned it all up. Much better...and room for 2 more pedals!


http://img7.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/8667/866773477b4b0f4ca6d17ceb405e1c4a3faeeca.jpg

The pedalboard grows and shrinks depending on my mood...

amen brotha, and i bring 2 amps with me to church also. stereo never fails me

I play a multi-effect (Zoom g7.1ut, with a built-in tube) and it works great when plugging direct...no tap-dancing, all the sounds for rhythm and lead are only one click away...

Yes, you do have to spend time tweaking your sound, but i did the same thing when i was using pedals...

The clean sounds are among the best i heard! Even compared to tubes amps! (and yes i own some of them too!).

The way we play the notes is where its really at, where is your volume and tone level, how you attack the strings, where you play them...

I play the old school way (work more with my guitar than anything else) but i do tweak my basic sound on my Zoom...never had any problems.

And they are a lot cheaper to come by than buying sometime only ONE pedal (i know, i see the adds all the time!).

Not saying this of anyone here but crappy player gets crappy sounds, no matter what they go through...and the opposite is true.

I think that the most important thing is having a sound that fits the overall sound and mood of the song.

If we were to take out some guitar tracks out of their context, we would often find that they sound bad on their own...but they did great in the context of the song!

So pedals or multi-effects is irrelevant (IMHO); what YOU do is!

p.s. but it is still a lot of fun to read all our different experience and opinions!!

Cheer!

Pedalboard + M9 = best of both worlds baby!

Line 6 Pod HD500 ended the thing for me! Great tone, feel, response and effects. Never going back to pedals. Sold 'em.

I'm a bit old school in my love for stomp boxes. I have always loved going into a room at the music store and trying out individual pedals. This dates back to before BOSS pedals were on the market, to the 1970-somethings... BOSS hit the scene back then and drove most pedal makers out of business (or so it seemed at the time).

Now-days, it is completely different. The local music store where I frequent has 7 or 8 cases FULL (stacked on top of each other and running over) of nearly any type of stomp box, including the boutique varieties. I find it is a blast (still) to do pedal-for-pedal shoot-outs. A couple weeks ago I honestly played through every chorus pedal they had in stock... what fun.

And how could I have this same fun if I bought an all-in-one pedalboard? There is the social element of talking to the guys at the store, then telling them what I think about each pedal, and hearing what they think. None of that if buying an all-in-one gizmo.

Even when the rack-mounted all-in-one gizmos hit the stores in the late 1980s, I never went for that.

So today, I still love my individual pedals. Some I have held on to since the 1970s. I have an original ProCo Rat that just rocks, and still works great. I got it in about 1979. But most all of my pedals these days are brand new. I'm not a "vintage" kind of guy. Not for pedals, amps or guitars. Vintage to me, means that I am possibly going to need to babysit it and pamper it, instead of sweat and beat on it with every emotion that's within me...

I know this is subjective, but to "my" ears, the all-in-one boxes don't have the quality of effects over-all as I can find by test-driving pedal after pedal and comparing live one-on-one. If you buy the all-in-one box, then you are stuck with their interpretation of what they think is a good sound. You might be able to tweak it some, but sitting in my living room tweaking and reading a 600 page manual doesn't appeal to me, either. Plug it in, crank it up, if it works, awesome, if it doesn't... then attend to the store's return policy (if any). But I literally spend oodles of time test driving (I DO NOT buy on the Internet because of pretty pictures, what folks say on gear forums, etc, etc.). Any time I have bought something online, without a prior test drive, it goes to the trade heap. But the things I can touch, fondle, listen to and twiddle said knobs of in the store... usually come home and stay for a good period of time.

Until of course the next cool thing comes out that sound better, has more options, or just seems like I'd like it more.

Contentedness and a kind of happiness and pleasure to just enjoy the shopping-of experience is part of the thing, too.

Then to see it all come together and work the way I planned on stage... big smiles all around.

:-)

pedal board. the last time i had a multi-fx unit was when i was like 15 (zoom 505 lol)

I have been thinking of multis lately for alot of different reasons, recording, convenience, having it all. But just like alot of you have said, I love pedals. If they make a multi in the future that is hands down better than stomps and everyone agrees that it is, I would still buy pedals. It's what I'm into. By the way, that be all end all multi, I'd buy it too. Gear in general is just alot of fun. I know you pro guys have to take it a little more serious than I do, but its still fun for you too. You only do this because you love it, so get what you want.

I've own two modelers ( Tonelab SE and the L6 X3L)
While they have their advantages, ( easy set-up) I missed being able to look directly at my pedals and tweak them on the go.
I'm back to a pedal board, and really liking it.
I bought a Carl Martin Rockbug which allows you to "go direct" with your pedalboard, if amps break down.
Plus, I'm back to tube amps ( Mesa Express 5:25) and loving it.

both.....

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/audioadrenallen/pedals.jpg

God sent me a random check in the mail for the cost of the X3 as i was joining the worship team at church been on it ever since.........

It took durn near a YEAR to start buildin amazing tones but im getting there. When I minister with my band i try and use my stompboxes and since i just started building that up its second to the X3 even there ......

Im working with what I got but starting to seek better gear....... still the X3 is easy to use and can get so many great sounds Its been a LOVE/HATE relationship i must say

Still something to be said for a few high end stopboxes and a good amp though

YMMV

Pedals.

I've never seen an ad for a stomp box boasting about how good it captures that digital multi-effect sound!

Click on the link in my signature and you'll see my pedal board and the Samsonite suitcase I carry it in!

Wait.

I actually got these to upload! (That never happens.)

I stick with pedals. I don't use enough effects to justify a multi (comp, OD, Trem, & Delay).

I sold my digitech rp500. All analog now. Wampler hotwired, bbe boosta grande, tech 21 blonde.

I am very pleased with the blonde pedal. Good clean tone. The hot wired has a light crunch tone you just CAN'T get with a processor. But the red side of the hot wired is amazing. The boosta grande does change the tone slightly, but it's good. Just as big as the blonde, though.

Built my own board and put it in a suitcase too! Saving up for an ego compressor and I guess a tuner.