Pedals that have come and gone, pedals that have stayed

Wow. From casual observation I'm most surprised you moved on from the HPTT. You seemed to really like it.

Have you detected a common theme/strain to the survivors vs the castoffs?

Beyond sounding great and working with your sound, which is of course the goal. But why those did and the others didn't?

 

A lot come in. I mean, a LOT
Few go anywhere, though

I'm a sucker for a stompbox

 

Last year

Out:
Boss Blues Driver
Maxxon 808
EHX Small Clone
MXR phase 90

In:
Wampler Plexidrive
Wampler Tumnus
Full tone Soul Bender v2
MXR Phase 90 Script
Boss CH-1 Chorus

 

Haven't sold anything this year, which is new to me. I used to get rid of stuff that I'd miss in a few months. I think I got about 10 pedals this year. I've decided not to get any more units until 2021 (I know we're halfway through November, so that may sound funny; however, well, you know... GAS!)

 

I should make a similar list, and loosely what made me keep vs jettison them. It's going to be an undertaking, when I do. The list of dirt/boost pedals I have currently is embarrassingly long as it is!

 

I bring alot home, last one is a Lovepedal purple Plexi 800 that is just the bees knees imo. I'm really gonna try to keep them all now, i have around 35 atm. I've gotten rid of alot in the past and always seem to miss them later, some ,like the Danelectro Dan Echo which is really not that great technically but something i seem to have fun with, i've bought four times. Now I'm wanting a stupid MXR Blue box again, ive had how many????

 

I think this is an interesting excercise for reflection and introspection. Revealing.

I have always stuck with a pedal for a few years before selling it. I suppose I was content with all of my pedal selections until it became stale to me. My main and most significant change was the Tech 21 "California" for giving me that Santana "Boogie" tone. Then I bought the Catalinbread 5F6 and my world changed. I purged all of my traditional OD and dirt pedals for amp-in-box emulation pedals. No changes whatsoever for a few years now, except for a $30 fuzz pedal for some experimentation.

I assume changing amps influence people's decisions to swap out pedals. I have always stuck with a Fenderish clean foundation for my pedalboard. Perhaps that is why my pedal history is more linear than others.

 

The only pedal that matters to me is my Boss 7-band EQ. And my Mesa/Boogie V-Twin.

 

@theprofessor - I am the opposite in one respect. I prefer pedals that do one thing really well.

My lone exception is the Boss CE2w. It does great chorus and great vibrato.

... but I only use it for vibrato (faux Hammond/Leslie)

 

Two of the ones that have endured seem to be the simple ones that a lot of people criticized, and still do. They were good enough to withstand the criticism.

Boss DS-1.
Boss Metal Zone.

 

Too many to list, but aside from dozens that are in boxes and drawers, these are currently on the floor in front of three rotating amp stations:
Strymon Deco/Flint/El Cap/Lex
Cali76
Diamond Comp Jr
DC-2
DM-2
Ditto
Boomerang III
Source Audio EQ
Dover Drive
Tu-2/TU-3
Camel Toe

The pedals set aside are exiled temporarily for the most part. They are within reach. I do a have a separate box that will go up for sale some day.

 

I'm kind of a hoarder by nature, and I came into the pedal game pretty late, so I've mostly kept every pedal I've ever bought. There are a few that I consider selling (mostly the overdrive/boost type, since that's the majority of what I have) but I sort of rotate through them every few months to years. Something I really like gets used for a while, then it goes into my closet for a while (usually after I've had a gig/session where I wasn't digging what it was doing or else when I've found something I seem to like better), only to be rediscovered later and brought out for an encore.

The few that I've sold are:

MXR Phase 90 (since I bought a Phase 95, so it would've been redundant)

Ibanez Mini Analog Delay (as I've probably written elsewhere on the forum -- I tend to repeat myself (no pun intended ), so I do apologize in advance for that -- I like analog delays but this one had a cold, metallic sound that I found hard to dial out. In hindsight, in listening to some of my gig/session recordings using this pedal, there was a neat quasi-overdrive "grunt" [think late '70s Keith Richards or Marc Ribot] that I liked from this pedal. I've since bought a Carbon Copy and, although I haven't been able to gig with it, it seems to get me a similar "grunt" sound in addition to slapback/delay.)

Boss Metal Zone (I got one of these for a steal. Thought it might be neat to experiment with, even though I don't go much heavier than '70s rock, but I couldn't do anything with it so off it went. In hindsight, I wonder if I could've gotten a mild overdrive sound at apartment-friendly volumes using my PRRI.)

 

I had a board size of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier a couple of years ago and a smaller travel board.

Then off with 20+ pedals, only pedals that stayed was Strymon Lex+Deco, Xotic RC booster+SP comp. And bought Keeley 30ms back, because I was stupid enough to sell it.

 

Not a big pedal person. Currently own a Providence delay, Wilson effects Haze, J rocket Animal and an Arc effects Klone V2.

My fave pedal I’ve ever owned and couldn’t be without is the Arc effects Klone V2.

The one brand in particular I’ve never got on with and really can’t understand the hype is Lovepedal. I’ve owned and sold many of their pedals. VERY overrated in my humble opinion.

 

I guess my angle is that life is either too short or I'm too lazy to care too much about owning things I don't use. Some look for a pedal that will cover all their bases or trade for one that does. I've been told that I have 'a sound', but it's not because of what effect I'm using. Isn't that true for everyone though?

That's where different music, different guitars, different amps come into play. I definitely comp other sounds that require different gear. Some people plug straight in, play covers and don't care about getting 'that sound'.

I'm fortunate in that I can use just about any guitar or amp and get comfortable with them. I have many. They may require, or inspire, grabbing something from the drawer that has been there a couple years.

 

theprofessor: blimey, that's a hell of a lot of pedals! My main board has a tuner, compressor, boost/drive, tremolo, reverb and delay. However I've built up a secondary board that includes a couple of pedals that have been hanging around here for years. Both are good sounding, bombproof Rocktron boxes -- the Surf compressor/tremolo and the Austin Gold drive pedal.