how many dirt pedals is too many?

[justinhedrick]

i currently stack 2 rat pedals, but i'm thinking of adding a dano french toast to add some octave fuzziness. one of the rats is my main distortion, and the other is set up in front to boost it a bit, and i'd set the french toast up the same way.

but part of me thinks this is exessive.

how many dirt pedals do you have?

[fallen]

Nobody wants to read a pedal inventory so I won't start listing pedals but on my board I run a more modern sounding high gain fuzz/distortion pedal for early Maiden and RR Ozzy type of stuff, I run a lower gain crusty fuzz for Sabbath stuff and I run a saturated fuzz with an octave built in for leads and other things.

I think it's reasonable to have the whole range between, clean, slightly overdriven, rhythm fuzz, solo boost and then a high octave fuzz on top of that but if I was in a band I would probably build a small board edited down to just the stuff I absolutely needed.

[MikeyT]

   Please, sir. I want to read a pedal inventory.


       

[Chovie D]

Mikey T ...hahaha.

Justin...I dont know man, ask Billy Gibbons with his 6 Expandoras in a row.



to answer the question tho, you can never OWN too many fuzz's.

[justinhedrick]

   Please, sir. I want to read a pedal inventory.


       

yes, i want to read it.

chovis: i'd be running 2 of the same pedal, and 1 other fuzz. that seems too excessive to me . . . i don't know. i guess i'll try it out and see!

[bitter]

I currently have 7 Od/boosts/dist/fuzz boxes, not counting a broken double muff or a Dunwich Fac off fuzz still being built. Of course not all of of those are in use. A few were old, big brand pedals that I used many years ago: Like a ds-1 I bought for bass in 2002ish.

I should sell some of those older boxes but I don't think its excessive. Well, maybe if they were all being used on a board. Go-to pedals fall out of favor as time goes by, but it's nice having them around in case of tonal necessity or experimentation.

Also, I firmly agree that you can never have too many fuzzboxes.

List:

Old

Boss DS-1
Digitech Metal master
Digitech screaming blues OD/dist
EHX Double muff (broken)

current

Maxon OD-9
Earthbound audio effects Supercollider
Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan
diamond pedals Marquis
dunwich Fac off fuzz (being built)

[grimniggzy]

On my board I have 2 true dirt pedals. A 90's RAT II & a Prunes and Custard Clone.

I also have a VTBass on there which I guess kind of counts as a dirt pedal.

I used to go crazy with a bunch of fuzz and OD's but then I ended up realizing it was overkill for me.

[Chovie D]

I guess you can try it and find out huh?

I guess Steve Turner from Mudhoney did it  superfuzz>bigmuff.

ON my home 'board' I have three fuzzes and a rat. Occasionally , by accident I will leave an extra fuzz on, or a fuzz and the rat, and honestly it doesnt sound too bad, but it doesnt particularly sound great either...in fact I usually only notice when I turn one off and still have gobs of fuzz comng at me. Fuzz's definetly sound better to me, one at a time.

try it out, report back!

[justinhedrick]

I guess you can try it and find out huh?

I guess Steve Turner from Mudhoney did it  superfuzz>bigmuff.

ON my home 'board' I have three fuzzes and a rat. Occasionally , by accident I will leave an extra fuzz on, or a fuzz and the rat, and honestly it doesnt sound too bad, but it doesnt particularly sound great either...in fact I usually only notice when I turn one off and still have gobs of fuzz comng at me. Fuzz's definetly sound better to me, one at a time.

try it out, report back!

actually, a recent board i saw of his had like 3 or 4 fuzzes on there. crazy.

how do you have yours set up chovie? like i said, i have 1 main distortion, and the rest are set up in front of it to just add to it.

[RAGER]

I use a Catalinbread DLS into my Super Bass just barely turned on or nothing into my Orange and a SD-1 into my Fender Super Twin or Sunn 2000s on the other side of the stage.  I might start incorporating the fuzz pedal I just built.

[Chovie D]

I guess you can try it and find out huh?

I guess Steve Turner from Mudhoney did it  superfuzz>bigmuff.

ON my home 'board' I have three fuzzes and a rat. Occasionally , by accident I will leave an extra fuzz on, or a fuzz and the rat, and honestly it doesnt sound too bad, but it doesnt particularly sound great either...in fact I usually only notice when I turn one off and still have gobs of fuzz comng at me. Fuzz's definetly sound better to me, one at a time.

try it out, report back!

actually, a recent board i saw of his had like 3 or 4 fuzzes on there. crazy.

how do you have yours set up chovie? like i said, i have 1 main distortion, and the rest are set up in front of it to just add to it.

Id put the fuzz before your rats. Fuzz usually likes to be the first thing in the chain. For this reason, I made a true bypass looping pedal with three loops and put a fuzz first in each loop. so on my home board there are 3 fuzzes, then i have a rat for distortion , and a tubescreamer for overdirve after the fuzz in the second loop.

[clockwork green]

Owning and having on your board/using live are two radically different things. It's always great to own more but on a board you've got to eventually realize that too many can be a bad thing in a hurry. Save the arsenal for the studio and leave your board for truly unique tones. I try and keep dirt to 3 and under...a low, a high and a fuzz.

[tossom]

I have always tried to play with just 2 OD/dist pedals, I can see the appeal to using more but the practicality and my tendency to drink t combat nerves before playing means no - having said that, the last time I played live was October last year.  Currently I use an MXR micro boost with a blackstar distX.

The mirco boost is the best pedal I have ever bought, love it.

[bitter]

Owning and having on your board/using live are two radically different things. It's always great to own more but on a board you've got to eventually realize that too many can be a bad thing in a hurry. Save the arsenal for the studio and leave your board for truly unique tones. I try and keep dirt to 3 and under...a low, a high and a fuzz.

Yep, this is how I currently run my dirt boxes. I have a low gain boost that juices my pedals or amp's gain, A higher output boost/dist for my primary tones thru a dirty amp, and a fuzz for stand alone on the cleans. Only the workhorses have a solid "spot", the rest are for experimenting.

[moose23]

Two dirts and a fuzz is defo not overkill. For bass I run one or two fuzzes and a Tech21 Oxford set to slightly overdriven. For guitar at least two fuzzes an overdrive and a dirty boost.

I'd run the fuzz first every time (well maybe a boost first on occasion), think of it as running fuzz into an already dirty amp.

[Volume]

I have two fuzz pedals (Meathead & Devi Ever SM), one distortion (Keeley RAT) and an od/boost (Box of rock). In a pinch I could manage without any of them or just one. I like the different flavors they offer and also, they affect the way I play.

[hashbrowns]

I definitely want to expand but right now I've got three sounds. My amp running clean. I can then use a footswitch to change over to a low gain crunchy sort of tone. Then I've got a big muff I can step on when shit gets real. I'd definitely like to look into experimenting with different fuzzes and dirtboxes though as soon as get a cabinet to go with my peavey butcher.

[spookstrickland]

I don't think you can ever have enough pedals but for live use I think 2 is best that way you have a rhythm and lead tone option.  I just swap out which two I play depending on what kind of band and or sound I'm going for.

[Hemisaurus]

Tad's setup

[justinhedrick]

I don't think you can ever have enough pedals but for live use I think 2 is best that way you have a rhythm and lead tone option.  I just swap out which two I play depending on what kind of band and or sound I'm going for.

i don't play "lead".

plus, i also have an eq pedal that i can turn on/off. so really that gives me 6 combinations of tonal variations with the 2 rats i have.

[RacerX]

Owning and having on your board/using live are two radically different things. It's always great to own more but on a board you've got to eventually realize that too many can be a bad thing in a hurry. Save the arsenal for the studio and leave your board for truly unique tones. I try and keep dirt to 3 and under...a low, a high and a fuzz.

Bingo.

I have 2 on the pedalboard: a modded DS-1 & a D*A*M Meathead. DS-1 is almost always on; the Meathead adds some serious fuzziness on top. Without the Meathead on, my tone is close to early Iommi; with the meathead added, closer to a Tom G. Warrior tone, but with a lot less treble.

[moose23]

Tad's setup

Kinda interesting that he runs the fuzz face after the HM2. Suppose if he never needs to worry about cleaning up on the FF or if it's silicon it's less of an issue having the buffer between guitar and ff.

[Corey Y]

I think I have 12 or so various overdrives, distortions, fuzzes and assorted "dirt" pedals, if I'm remembering all of them. I hardly use any of them regularly, but I could always use more.

I'd say 2 more than you really want is too many. 1 more pedal than you really want is fine, always leave one in chamber in case of a GAS attack.

I do need a good delay pedal though, I haven't had one for 6 or 7 years.

[Chovie D]

Tad's setup

that must be from 1989 or so.

last time i saw him play he just had a mesa triple rec.

[RacerX]

Tad's setup

that must be from 1989 or so.

last time i saw him play he just had a mesa triple rec.

Really? No V-Twin up front??