Looking to Build a Small Pedalboard for a Rock or Metal Gigs and Rehearsals

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

In place of using the full-blown rig.

Need clean tones, overdriven and metal tones. I have a small Peavey 80's something combo but was think of using Seymour Duncan Powerstage or something similar to push it all thru a 2 X 12 or 1 X 12.

Can someone point me in the right direction with a complete list. I've always used the amp tones for clean and overdriven and never used pedals for tones mainly just used wahs and chorus type effects pedals.

Also interested in delay and other pedal I may need also for a cover type band setting.

 

[speyfly]

It's very hard to recommend a pedalboard setup, not all amps like the same stuff. There's a lot of pedal choices and you can spend a lot of money chasing tone.

I've down sized my board cutting out the fluff, maybe a visual of what I feel are essential pedals for 60's and 70's blues rock.

Good luck...

 

[timichango]

Unless you need to push a LOT of air, the PowerStage seems like the wrong tool for a small portable rig, IMHO, and unless you’re running a tube pre into it, or some kind of modeller, I’d anticipate it sounding pretty sterile. I ran a solid state power amp for a few years, years ago, with one of the rack processors of the day, and it was never really as satisfying as real tube pre/power.

If you’re used to getting your tones from your amp already, why not look at channel-switching combos that can cover the tones you’re describing? I’ve got a cheap Traynor 50-watter (YCV-50 blue) that does a pretty great job at clean, crunch, and 80s/90s Marshall-esque distortion (Nails the first three Metallica albums, when tweaked right), and while I’m starting to widen my amp collection for other tones, it excels at what it does. And it takes pedals well for what it doesn’t

 

[ARandall]

^ Yep, if you can get an amp that already does a couple of tricks then its only 1 or 2 tones you might need to find.....rather than auditioning 30 or 40 pedals to find the half dozen or so to cover what is a pretty wide spectrum.

 

[tzd]

Since you are used to using amp for your tones, why not just get a pedalboard-sized amp that you can plug into any speaker cabinet?

BluGuitar Amp1 Mercury Edition 100-watt Pedalboard Amp with Nanotube

4-channel, 100-watt Guitar Amplifier Head with Nanotube, 3 Overdrive Channel Modes, Boost, Reverb, Noise Gate, Effects Loop, Speaker Output, and Cabinet-emulated Line Output

www.sweetwater.com

 

[KStopper65]

Recommended:-
-Tube Screamer-ish Pedal
-Distortion such as Rat or DS-1
-Wah Pedal
-Delay
-Reverb
-Chorus

 

[Neffco]

I’d just start with a 5 space board, maybe a Friedman pedal for your heavy dirt, a soul food for od and stacking, delay of choice, wah and still have a spot for chorus or phaser or whatever you are into.

My small board has a donner 5 spot power supply and seems to be quiet. I’ve had it in a few different configurations, here’s the most recent. I use the canyon as a looper a lot but it’s got a bunch of other things that it can do.

I use a Quilter amp at home. It’s small takes pedals well, it’s loud and it was 160$

 

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

I’d just start with a 5 space board, maybe a Friedman pedal for your heavy dirt, a soul food for od and stacking, delay of choice, wah and still have a spot for chorus or phaser or whatever you are into.

My small board has a donner 5 spot power supply and seems to be quiet. I’ve had it in a few different configurations, here’s the most recent. I use the canyon as a looper a lot but it’s got a bunch of other things that it can do.

I use a Quilter amp at home. It’s small takes pedals well, it’s loud and it was 160$ View attachment 554146 View attachment 554148

Could you use the Quilter at a gig in a pinch?

 

[Neffco]

Could you use the Quilter at a gig in a pinch?

Depends on the cab. It will push a 4x12. All my cabs are 4 ohm so that gives me a full 45w. At 8 ohm it’s comparable with a fender deluxe. It’s got a balanced line out as well for going to the board. Cab simulator also if your using a powered speaker. The second video has more high gain stuff.

 

[speyfly]

Now that I have a little more time I'll explain how I have my board setup. I run two single 12" cabs, one with a Vintage 30 and the other with a Greenback.

Through my Marshall O20H-
I run all of my drive pedals through the front of the amp, amp EQ's set at noon with a 6 band EQ at the end of the chain to EQ the drive pedals. Stacking drive pedals gives me a lot of tonal options. I run all effects (chorus, delay, reverb, EQ2 and a JHS LBB (acts as a choke to control effects output signal) into the FX loop. The EQ2 juices the FX loop giving me greater control of the FX loops tone.

When I'm plugged into my Tweaker, it's darker that the Marshall so I change the EQ setting to compensate for the tonal differences. The same for my Fender and Vox amps neither having FX loops.

Don't know if this helps you but thought I would try.

 

[Gfunk_Minor]

I'm going to go full heresy here....
I use an "all in one" Zoom G3X. It's all the pedal I need.
And unless you really really obsess over these things, you can tweak this thing to just about any tone, or effect you want.
I used to run it through a Marshall MG30 and had several years of very serviceable rehearsal and gigging.
Recently I upgraded to the Marshall DSL20, so I had to redo all my stored effects for the new amp. I like the new tones I get with the new amp. All this to say, that in my experience, simpler is better. If you only have one pedal on the floor, setup, and load out is much easier. And, most importantly, I am very happy with my tone, and ease of use. And,in all my years of playing, I've never had anyone ask me...."why you only have one pedal...?"

YMMV

 

[Neffco]

I just did a little test with my suhr riot pedal through the interblock and a 2x12 fender twin 4 ohm cab. Definitely loud enough for gigs and rehearsals with great chunk.

Edit: It’s super loud, and the Suhr Riot is a mean Marshall in a box.The interblock 45 is the best 160$ (Used) amp I’ve seen. Punches way above its weight class, and you could just mount it to your board. Only downside is the computer style power supply. It could be tucked into a board pretty easily though. Quilter stuff is worth looking at. I have the microblock 45 also, and have gigged with it, but the interblock is a step up in features.

 

[Wise Guy]

I use several of these. The guy makes them in various sizes. Stickman Pedal Boards Pedalboard 24" 2021 Black / Oak | Stickman Pedal Boards | Reverb

 

[zdoggie]

dont forget most pedals are tone robbers so be selective ,

zdog

 

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

Unless you need to push a LOT of air, the PowerStage seems like the wrong tool for a small portable rig, IMHO, and unless you’re running a tube pre into it, or some kind of modeller, I’d anticipate it sounding pretty sterile. I ran a solid state power amp for a few years, years ago, with one of the rack processors of the day, and it was never really as satisfying as real tube pre/power.

The tone would come from the gain and boost pedals not the Power Stage.

 

[timichango]

The tone would come from the gain and boost pedals not the Power Stage.

I understand that, but most gain/boost pedals are designed to be run into the preamp section of an amplifier which inherently further shapes the tone, even with the EQ flat, while bringing the signal up to the level the power section wants to see.

If you’re planning on running normal dirt/boost pedals straight into the powerstage, it’s going to sound anemic at best (since most gain pedals aren’t designed to be full-on preamps), and terrible at worst.

At a minimum you’d want something on the board to act as your main preamp. Whether that’s a modelling solution or something else is up to you.

But — referring back to the original intent: simplicity… unless you’re going with a mainly modelling solution, making your pedalboard do your amp’s work seems like an unnecessarily convoluted way to go ‍IMHO.

 

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

I understand that, but most gain/boost pedals are designed to be run into the preamp section of an amplifier which inherently further shapes the tone, even with the EQ flat, while bringing the signal up to the level the power section wants to see.

If you’re planning on running normal dirt/boost pedals straight into the powerstage, it’s going to sound anemic at best (since most gain pedals aren’t designed to be full-on preamps), and terrible at worst.

At a minimum you’d want something on the board to act as your main preamp. Whether that’s a modelling solution or something else is up to you.

But — referring back to the original intent: simplicity… unless you’re going with a mainly modelling solution, making your pedalboard do your amp’s work seems like an unnecessarily convoluted way to go ‍IMHO.

I'm no authority on gain pedals or pedal boards as in the past I've always relied on the amps gain for overdriven, low or high gain tone but every pedal shoot out that I've seen for gain pedals starts with a clean tone pretty sterile sounding and relies on the pedals for the tone.

Its my understanding that the Powerstage was marketed and developed for a substitute for a real amp.

 

[timichango]

I'm no authority on gain pedals or pedal boards as in the past I've always relied on the amps gain for overdriven, low or high gain tone but every pedal shoot out that I've seen for gain pedals starts with a clean tone pretty sterile sounding and relies on the pedals for the tone.

Its my understanding that the Powerstage was marketed and developed for a substitute for a real amp.

In Duncan’s own marketing materials they assert that it’s a power amp. It’s right in the name of the product, which is a double-entendre on “power (on a) stage” and “power stage (of an amplifier)”.

You’re not likely to find many players out there ramming dirt pedals directly into a power amp without the benefit of a preamp stage in between. All of these pedal demos you’re referring to are using a “pretty sterile” base tone on a guitar amp — which inherently has a preamp stage, and some tone shaping going on, as even with the tone controls flat, a guitar amp preamp stage generally goes not have a flat frequency response.

As I said before, I’m fairly certain the power stage was designed and aimed at folks using modellers, with the modeller handling the preamp emulation and gain staging. Go ahead and buy (or better yet rent) one and try it with your dirt pedals, don’t hold your breath for the tone you’ll probably achieve.

 

[ErictheRed]

You might get some good ideas from this video. He's using a bunch of mini pedals and some kind of JCM 800 flavored preamp pedal. Not sure what power amp he's using.

His playing is pretty laid back here, but Katatonia can get very heavy (used to be a death metal band but is more progressive metal now).

 

[Maximus Decimus Meridius]

Thanks that was a very detailed video of those mini pedals. I like that guys playing also.