The guitar pedal market has been crazy oversaturated for a couple of years now.  I’m one of those old fart purists who gets his distortion/dirt/crunch sound from his tube amps.  And I don’t normally add reverb, chorus, phaser, flanger, or delay until after I’ve recorded my guitar dry.  Then I add it in Logic Pro X, because it has great plugins.  I don’t even really NEED a board.

But I have one, because there’s one pedal I always use before hitting my amp – my Keeley 4 Knob Compressor.  Why use a compressor at all?  Ask David Gilmour.

Anyway, I’m not always at home playing through my own tube amps.  Sometimes I’m out and about and I’m not plugging into my own stuff, so I have my pedalboard.  It can give me every sound I mostly need/want.  Here’s my current lineup:

  1. Keeley 4 Knob Compressor.  I use this to even everything out.  If I’m playing funk, I’ll jack up the knobs for that cool compressed sound.
  2. Wampler Pinnacle.  This is my favorite dirt pedal.  It can cover crunch to Van Halen.  It sounds great.  I can also use it as a boost pedal for my regular amps.
  3. TC Electronics Flashback Delay.  Because I might want a delay.  It’s a great one.
  4. TC Electronics Corona Chorus.  I sometimes like chorus.  But I have to be honest – I don’t love this pedal.  I might replace it with something analog.
  5. TC Electronics Hall of Fame.  A great reverb, but not the absolute best.  Some amps don’t have reverb, and I like reverb.
  6. Wampler Plexi-Drive.  I like the Pinnacle better, but I do still like the classic Plexi-Drive for when I want a throwback 70’s type sound.
  7.  Livewire ABY Box.  Honestly, I need to dump this because I end up with a lot of noise when I use it.  For now it’s on the board but not wired.

So there you go.  In the future I’m looking to add a Wah and replace the chorus.  Might be neat to add a Phase 90.  We’ll see.