Must have pedals that remain unused.

[Arpangel]

I have a couple of these, and they very rarely get used, I thought they’d be really useful at the time.
I’m reluctant to sell them, as sometimes I find a new thing about them I didn’t know about, which brings up the question, I can have too many things, we joke about it, but in reality my attention is too thinly spread, and I don’t make the most of what "I actually need" sometimes.
Some pedals aren’t cheap, far from it, and some are undoubtably excellent from the word go, some seem to gel from the very beginning, like my Zoom CDR70, Big Sky, but others languish around and I’m not sure.
There are some dodgy pedals out there, by dodgy I mean nothing special, mutton dressed up as lamb with fancy graphics, clever YouTube videos that make a pitch shifter and what is basically a really bad reverb into something "mystical" "magical" something that they convince you will ad "mojo" to your sound, basically, if you can’t explain it in simple terms it is, nothing but marketing blurb.
How many more dense reverbs do we need? How many more delays with a zillion different flavours? There is reverb, and modulation, basically, everything else is a twist on the same tune.

[shufflebeat]

I've got.one of these which I do love to play with but can never really justify taking it to gigs, usually because it requires the cooperation of others to StFU and let it be heard.

[Drew Stephenson]

Ha! I've actually been thinking about one of those recently.

[BJG145]

I'd love a freeze pedal, I've been thinking about a Gamechanger Plus for ages but the right planetary alignment hasn't happened yet.

[shufflebeat]

It does some very weird stuff if you put it through other processes. I was gigging with a Tak dread and mandola, both through first the Freeze and then a Yamaha AG Stomp. Having finished a song with the Tak I'd hit a 1:5:8 (in Drop D) and freeze it to a drone. When I switched over to the mandola preset on the AG the drone sounded completely different and seemed to be modulating somehow with the mic modelling section.

Then I'd play a song/tune on mandola over the drone.

I was really pleased with this until one evening when the bar manager of an Irish pub in Manchester beckoned me over and said, "it sounds fine but there's a bad buzz coming from somewhere".

PHILISTINES!!

[BillB]

Brilliant. Esoteric Effect or Bad Buzz. Beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.

[shufflebeat]

Beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.

Artistically and philosophically correct but some people should keep their beholdings to themselves until they know what they're beholding about.



While we're on the subject if anyone has an ambition to start a museum of acoustic instrument preamps and processors I may have some items of interest.

[BillB]

Mmmmm, processors. Do let us know...

[shufflebeat]

That's not a proper museum you're thinking of.

Bad BillB!

[Luke W]

In general I'm fairly well behaved with pedals, although along the same sorts of lines as the Freeze I do have one of these sat in the box still:



It's mainly because I haven't quite finished putting together the rig that I bought it for, but apart from a quick play when it arrived to get to grips with what it does it has done very little.

[The Elf]

In general I'm fairly well behaved with pedals, although along the same sorts of lines as the Freeze I do have one of these sat in the box still:

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with the Superego+. I've given this one a few sideways glances as I think it would be great for my 'One Man and a Mellotron' improv gigs.

[Luke W]

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with the Superego+. I've given this one a few sideways glances as I think it would be great for my 'One Man and a Mellotron' improv gigs.

I'll keep you posted, that sort of thing sounds right up its street though. My initial impressions were good, a lot of potential but I think it'd definitely need some time invested to really get the hang of it.

You can connect a sustain pedal to control the freeze as well which I think is a nice touch. My feet are a bit unwieldy so I find the stompbox footswitches a bit tricky.

[Martin Walker]

I must apologise to Luke W, as only by looking closely have I finally realised that his avatar is actually a clever design using his initials Luke Wood Audio, and not (as I've mistakenly thought for ages) a pair of trousers.



Martin

[Guest]

I thought it was a moustache!

[Dynamic Mike]

The best way to solve the unused pedal conundrum is to buy something new to go on the other end of the cable

[Luke W]

I must apologise to Luke W, as only by looking closely have I finally realised that his avatar is actually a clever design using his initials Luke Wood Audio, and not (as I've mistakenly thought for ages) a pair of trousers.



Martin

You're not the first to think it! I myself can't unsee it after my friend kindly drew the rest of the body on for me...

I thought it was a moustache!

Drawing please!

[BillB]

That's not a proper museum you're thinking of.

Bad BillB!

Oh, you were thinking of a proper museum. I thought you just meant a collection of gear which is often admired and occasionally played with. I already have one of those and your processors might have fitted right in...

[Arpangel]

True sods law style, recorded three tracks yesterday with a pedal I was on the verge of selling, fantastic.

[shufflebeat]

That's not a proper museum you're thinking of.

Bad BillB!

Oh, you were thinking of a proper museum. I thought you just meant a collection of gear which is often admired and occasionally played with. I already have one of those and your processors might have fitted right in...

Ah, sorry, I see you have entirely appropriate intentions.

We are curators for future vintage.

[shufflebeat]

That's not a proper museum you're thinking of.

Bad BillB!

Oh, you were thinking of a proper museum. I thought you just meant a collection of gear which is often admired and occasionally played with. I already have one of those and your processors might have fitted right in...

Ah, sorry, I see you have entirely appropriate intentions.

We are curators for future vintage.

[Please insert emoji for "heavy irony" if the other thread ever bears fruit].

[BillB]

We are curators for future vintage.

Sounds almost heroic when you put it like that

[shufflebeat]

We are curators for future vintage.

Sounds almost heroic when you put it like that

Oh, I can talk myself into any old nonsense. Luckily I have several representatives in the real world who can tell me to wise up from time to time.

Keep up the good work.

[Arpangel]

These days I only every use what I would call "traditional" effects pedals, I’ve got a few "trendy" ones, that claim to do all sorts of magical mojo, and have great paint jobs, but I’m still left with a blank expression on my face.
I find these types of pedals, the sounds are easily got with other things, and my mixer, these days my pedals are reverb, delay, a looper, distortion, plus my trusty old Boss effects box.
I'm selling a few pedals, no point in having them just sitting there, also I’m finding oedals are taking up so much desk space, it’s unmanageable.

[The Elf]

What happened to 'You can't have too many'? And in less than the space of a month?!
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=77800

And what did you buy between then and now that's tipped the balance?

[Arpangel]

What happened to 'You can't have too many'? And in less than the space of a month?!
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=77800

And what did you buy between then and now that's tipped the balance?

The more I work with what I have, the less I need, it’s like a distillation, down to what I "really need" it takes time.
The only two synths I ever use these days, my Moog Grandmother, and an Alesis Micron, pedals are a broken T-Rex Replay Box, a Big Sky, and a Zoom CD-R 70.
Everything else is falling by the wayside, as I continue to find the minimum I can get away with.