Full-on batshit crazy pedalboard in a rock band?

[Zork]

I play in relatively "traditional" rock band. We used to be a trio with Bass VI, organ and drums but we have a new bass player now, became a four-piece band and I'm playing guitar now. We have sort of a 70s vibe, a bit proggy sometimes, often spacy, and psychedelic, but still a rock band. If you wanna hear it, it's here: https://moseisleyspaceport.bandcamp.com/album/further

I have a pedalboard that mainly consists of "traditional" effects, too. Wah, Fuzz, Overdrive, Phaser, Delay. Looks like this:


It is pretty straight forward, uses kind of standard effects and settings and mainly serves the songs and compositions. I used it more or less consistently for quite some time with the Bass VI and now with guitar. However, the new bass player opens a lot of space in the band and I see more room for going a bit bonkers. I added a Parasit Studios Into The Unknown lately, a phase locking theremin fuzz, and I have kind of a desire to replace the effects with more of my weird stuff like ring mods, filters and synthie stuff like EHX Superego, Micro Synth, Boss PS-3, Line6 FM-4, Moog MF-102 and the likes. So the idea is to use less common effects and more "special effects".

I've seen the latest Idles Rig Rundown (https://youtu.be/bysQjUgXPj0?si=wv5O_Yqr1IMdhoSD)
and they seem to go exclusively batshit crazy with their pedals. So, obviously, it's possible. But then again I don't want to lug around a huge pedalboard, I don't want to tap dance all the time and how often in a set can you really use an outstanding, super weirdo effect without making it kind of boring? So the question is: Can I really use a board of a moderate size, that's going full-on batshit crazy? Is anyone here using "weird effects" only and how does it work in a band setting? Audio examples are very welcome!

[Blackened Soul]

From my experience.. think along the lines of combinations to get where you need.. personally I think a good OD + lead OD/distortion + fuzz that actually all work together and fit sonically is pretty key.. even though we are a duo I run my rig as a guitar and a bass rig in parallel to achieve basically the same sonic spread as when we were a 3 piece (called N@meless) and because of that my “guitar” chain is very similar to what my guitarist used.. I use a mesa v-twin on my board instead of a guitar amp for my of and distortion because it sounds “right” but.. finding a fuzz that worked in all combinations was hard.. for me it needs to be a octave fuzz because they don’t bog down with high gain OD settings… for weird… personally I think a vibe, a cool phaser maybe a univibe plus some pitch effect is a lot to use.. only thing I personally find overrated in a band context is oscillating fuzzes.. I like the things but in a rock band just use feedback it works better.. also stack delays at the end my guitarist had 3 maxon ad600s (one in a loop with a extra OD and a univibe for instant Robin Trower/Jimi leadscapes)

[Zork]

Yep, that's how I feel. I could basically play the set with guitar straight in the amp. It would be nicer with a boost or drive pedal and a delay. A bit more glitter would require a tremolo or phaser. But that's pretty much it.
Now, on the other hand, they're called "effects" for a reason. If I can do the bread and butter sounds with minimal tools, why not add pedals that do something really special? It would be a lot of fun for sure but it has a huge capability to annoy the shit out of everyone else, right?

[dubkitty]

my main board is huge--17 pedals--and i wound up building a smaller board to use for conventional settings because i never use 2/3 of the stuff on the big board in normal circumstances. i've never even turned on a delay, the phaser or the ring modulator in a normal context. the Normie Board has a tuner, envelope filter, three dirt/fuzz pedals, a multi-modulation, a tremolo, and reverb.

[D.o.S.]

Yep, that's how I feel. I could basically play the set with guitar straight in the amp. It would be nicer with a boost or drive pedal and a delay. A bit more glitter would require a tremolo or phaser. But that's pretty much it.
Now, on the other hand, they're called "effects" for a reason. If I can do the bread and butter sounds with minimal tools, why not add pedals that do something really special? It would be a lot of fun for sure but it has a huge capability to annoy the shit out of everyone else, right?

Yes. You just have to balance the art of annoying the shit out of everyone else in a good way with keeping the board as simple as you can get, if only to avoid things going wrong at gigs/recordings/rehearsals. Sorting out broken/crackling/etc gear is always the bad kind of annoying.

[dubkitty]

and find weird pedals that actually contribute to the overall vibe rather than just chucking the weirdest shit in the closet at your situation. many of my favorite pedals wouldn't stand a chance in a band context because my love for them doesn't make them applicable to many non-experimental uses. someday i'll sneak the ring mod into something nice and standard, maybe at a low mix setting to make a high part jangle uncomfortably. i tried to include weirdness potential in the Normie Board, e.g. the 3699 Fuzz does crazy enharmonic shit in ring mod territory if you play double-stops with the octave switch on, the fast Leslie on the Nebulus rotary setting will tickle a sleepy chord, and the Fender Marjorie Taylor Greene Tube Tremolo (i enjoy calling the "MTG" that name as one of my ritual gestures of disrespect similar to how i spent a decade calling Van Halen "Von Halen" because i knew Dutch people would take the Germanization as an insult) is a monster that can do the hard CHOPP like a Zvex sonar or do gentle little ripples with a lovely tiny-tube coloration. i'm going to get a Cioks 4-slot expander so i can run additional stuff on either end, which could be the Attack Decay, a delay, a looper, or whatever kind of device i find to make the Alvarez pickup sound more like a hollow electric 12.

maybe that's a strategy...start with a small, normal setup and then find odder things to add that complement the normie stuff.

[coupleonapkins]

The HOLD function on Boss Digital Delays will do wonders for very little board space, and can also be an extra delay for more real-time knob twisting madness, so that any sound you can scrape or plink! from your guitar can be repeated infinitely, or (as with the later models) played backward.

If you need more time, a 16 second delay a la Frisell or Nels Cline might be worth the extravagance

I'd also recommend getting a cheep monosynth (Behringers or ye old Korgs) or a Volca (all of which have sequencers and can be programmable to sound like blowingz up) and plug that into yr chain for additional affordable madnezzes.

IDLES have never been interesting in my eyes (Ritchie Rich type goons w/ moustaches), but goons gotta goon I goonz

[dubkitty]

there's a hidden Freeze setting on the Gen Loss MK II that i need to investigate. of course, that's not on the Normie Board, but still. i generally abominate freeze stuff because it always seems deeply artificial, but maybe they found a version that works. i can see freezing stuff that's been faux-tape-degraded working better than the clean-ish stuff one usually sees in that application.

[Seance]

Expression pedal freezables or tone-sweepable freezables can make anything glitch/frigid-shimmer slushy sound/feel either OTT or fade back into the background weave (condensed into a drone note that harmonizes with each and every chord in a progression).

[Zork]

Great input here. I added my EHX Ring Thing to the pedalboard. It will provide a healthy dose of madness and I can see how far I can go from there. Thought about adding the Superego for freeze but there wasn't enough pedalboard space for both the Superego and Ring Thing. @coupleonapkins I have a synth already in my band setup, but it's not running through the pedalboard. One day I want to experiment with my chopped Microkorg (it runs on pedalboard friendly 9v and is not huge without the keyboard) and a guitar to Midi converter. But the time hasn't come yet.

I'd like to go back from the gear perspective to the musical perspective, though. I had sort of a revelation today but I caught a nasty cold and my brain is not braining enough to type longer posts. I come back later.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Every time I try to add weird pedals to an actual rock band board I find out I hate it and go back to simple stuff. But I play in a new band with a guitarist who has all sorts of fun stunt effects, and when they do it it sounds great and is very fun. so it's all a matter of finding sounds that actually add something but also are weird, I guess.

[dubkitty]

a possible solution could be using a fairly normal base setup with the ability to run things before/patched into/after the board. i totally plan on running the SMMH at the end point of whatever setup i’m running before the loop board, and will similarly be running the Attack Decay ahead of or after the board(s) in use. i once inserted a pair of patch points on the main board before the delay/reverb section by using 1/4” 90° adapters that could be plugged into, with the shafts between the pedals facing the underside of the board. how well that works is 100% dependant on the quality of the adapters. Hosas suck; i found a couple of good examples on Amazon. the position of your power supply could also be relevant here. it’s a good idea to have extra ports available on your power supply to run the auxiliary stuff…i’m adding a module to the Normie Board so i have 3 spare outlets, did the same with the FEB, and still want a expander module on top of the 15 AC outs provided by the Cioks Superpower Bundle on the main board. that’ll be the one with AC and DC outlets so i can try using the EXH Black Finger tube compressor.

[dubkitty]

i think the big trick is choosing pedals that actually work well in the specific context. something like a Leslie pedal (check the Fender Whirlpool) adds unusual movement.

[goroth]

I used to have a loaded PT-Pro. Eventually I got stressed out about having pedals on there that I only used for like 10 seconds in a whole gig. It just felt stupid. Here, have 1000 bucks worth of pedals for 50 seconds of shit the audience won't hear anyway.

For the last few years I've had a PT Junior, and my life is just better. I don't have to worry about shoehorning sounds in because I can, and I don't have to tap dance to make it work. Every now and then I miss a certain thing that would fit just perfect for a certain spot but fuck it. Less tap dancing means less mistakes and better contact with the audience which makes for better shows.

[PanicProne]

Sounds great, Goroth!
I still miss your big boards though! They were cool to look at!