I'm down to two pedals for my live rig, and it feels good.

I use an overdrive for a boost with solos, occasional chorus and a tuner pedal. All Joyo but they've lasted thru many rehearsals and gigs.

Apart from that I use the amp reverb/gain and vary the pickup I use. Seems to work well for a fair range of songs. In fairness I've never really used pedals much, although I can totally understand the fun and variety of a well stocked pedal board.

 

Which Bassman?
I played bar "gigs" with a Tweed Bassman RI and no pedals, not distorted but a fine sound.
Not classic Rock either though, singer songwriter sort of hard folk IDK what, but they put up with me playing too loud between the vocals, and the drunks liked some noise in the mix.

It's true that we don't need a bunch of pedals but we CAN if we choose, and some of us like that.
As much as we debate how many pedals is too many, we debate playing covers the same as, or different from the original version.

 

My amp is a ‘70 Bassman head that the guy I bought it from (20 years ago) built it into a 2x10 cabinet (just a bit larger than a DR). I replaced the Fender speakers with Celestion Vintage 30s, and have been in love ever since. My Tele has Rio Grande Dirty Harrys, so they give me just a touch if growl going into the Bassman. I can (and do) play without pedals once in a while but I do like having a mild distortion pedal to dirty up the fairly clean Bassman. Can get the same dirt from the Bassman with the volume dimed, but bar owners don’t like me to do that!

 

I use a Zoom 707 and a DOD FX17 wah , thats it, My studio rig has all the bells, gongs and whistles , but I'm a minimalist by nature. ( I know its hard to believe )

 

I have 17 pedals on my board but I'm not dependant on any of 'em. Give me anything I can tune and fret and you'll get music. In fact I've been playing my vintage Burns just through my Trelicopter (not on the board) recently, as an alternative rig, and it makes a great single effect (and preamps beautifully).

 

For the last 20 years or so I’ve gigged with a TU-2/3 tuner and MXR MicroBoost. I’m on my second of each.

 

I’m mostly going straight into a DRRI. Just a little reverb. When I’m playing out (not often these days) my board has 4 pedals. A dyna brain pre amp (always on with a Gretsch);a Carbon Copy (always on for slap back); Keeley 2 knob for Teles and a seldom used OD. All analog stuff that works well but I certainly could do without.

 

I'm just a hobby player, but years ago, I was fortunate to sell a few of my pedals to a young guy who was becoming quite a good player.

I still have an old Tube Screamer and a Compressor for playing bass. I wonder what the hell I was thinking to have all the others.

 

l like the ‘less pedals is more’ trend

i’m down to 3

boss tuner, eventide H9 and dunlop volume

the Eventide H9 is an incredible piece of gear

 

If push came to shove I could get by with one pedal which happens to also be my amp, an Ethos OD Amp. I've been using a DynaComp for decades and a touch of reverb. As tasty as the Ethos can be I still love the sound of my Keeley modded Blues Driver in front of it. Based of the infrequency of its use I could probably remove the RotoSim but when you need it nothing else will do. Beyond that there's the obligatory tuner and wireless receiver so I guess I'm committed to running a pedalboard even at the most minimal. My speaker is something I wish I'd gone a little lighter on. I have a RevSound 2x10 with Celestion Golds. Sounds great but it's a brick.

 

Totally agree re; SD-1 vs Treble Booster.

And I have 12 pedals on my board

 

Hard to knock Surfy Industries!

 

I only use Fender Delay and Fender overdrive pedal on small gigs.
Come to think of it, on larger gigs a take my complete pedal board and only use those 2 same pedals as well ...
Stupid me, killing my back for nothing !!

 

I keep trying to minimize my pedalboard but with this I have made it so I don't even require my Vibrolux on festival stages (JDX+BlueSky) as they have a quality monitor person. If anyone can see where I can cut out a pedal I'd love to but I don't see it ...

 

Me personally, I don't have a pedal board per-say. My typical gig-rig consists of a '68 Super Reverb Reissue and my MXR phase 95 and EHX Badstone. Occasionally I run those through an EHX Hot tubes. Although I recently acquired a Visual Sound/Truetone Route 66, which is likely going to become a permanent addition to my gig-rig because of our rapidly expanding repertoire. I like it because it has a built-in noise gate to go with the compressor/overdrive. It has quickly proved it's value. Someday I may just plug everything in and see what it sounds like...if I can find enough plugs without a daisy chain. Definatly not selling anything though. Never know what you might need, or when you will want to change your sound a little.

 

I like my board because I can get any sound I want with just a Tele and the board. Tap dancing is not much of an issue, as the switcher is programmable. It's heavy but lighter than am amp.

 

Tech 21 Fly Rig RK-1.
Done.

 

I cut down my 12 pedal board to this. I like the mini pedals for their simplicity. A Crybaby Wah, A Boss DS-1(Monte Allums mod), Marshall Bluebreaker II, Rowin Dumbler, Donner Golden Tremolo, Donner Metric Bender, and Donner Yellow Fall Delay. Also a $20 buffer. Covers all the bases for my Bitmo modded Ep1phone Valve Jr, and a Bill M modded Blues Jr.

 

I usually use a Tweed Deluxe clone turned up (sometimes attenuated) and control distortion with the guitar's volume. I'm old school and play old school music. I'm down to this for a slapback:

and this to occasionally slam the front end of the amp:


The rig always sounds good to me if I'm playing well, not so good if I'm not.