Multiple Drives On A Board

[Mark Milliron]

So I've been checking out the new 2017 edition of the "Show your board" thread, and I've notice a lot of boards have multiple drives that seem like they would fight for the same position on a board.
I'm talking about boards with a KOT, Timmy, Angry Charlie, Dirty Little Secret, and more, all on the same board. I can't help but wonder how all that (seemingly) competing dirt gets used.

Anyone care to share your thoughts on this? Perhaps you have 3 low gainers, 2 mid gainers, and 3 high gainers on one board? I've never had a desire to have more than 1 low gain, 1 mid gain, and 1 high gain/Fuzz.

 

[Andynorth14]

Great question - looking forward to expert answers. Stacking perhaps?

 

[Mark Milliron]

Great question - looking forward to expert answers. Stacking perhaps?

I'm thinking maybe some people just enjoy different flavors of dirt for different guitars, amps, or how they feel that day, and don't want to go through the hassle of swapping pedals on the board?

 

[anubae_obscura]

I found out just last night that the Soul Food stacks amazingly well with damn near everything. I run multi drives/od's on my board. I set them up for different amounts of dirt from slightly boosted clean all the way through full on doomed out fuzz. Dirt is my fave effect so the more the merrier imho.

My board gain lowest to highest starting at spark and then going left:

 

[northstar6000]

You will probably find that people have them all set very differently.
Such as one pedal just to goose an amp (volume up, distortion down), one set to add some grit, and another with higher gain.

 

[wyldesigns]

It makes for better photographs that way

 

[TheRealDeal]

I have 4 drives on my board....(red mini fuzz, arc klone, KoT, arc Soothsayer). The klone is almost always on...and i will use the KoT for good dirty sound...the Soothsayer will get things really going and the red mini fuzz is if i need a lot of push. Rarely will they all be used in one night mostly because of the set list that is happening. I also have 99 presets on my Timefactor but I only use about 4 different ones....it helps that they are there even if they dont get used a lot

 

[anubae_obscura]

I'm thinking maybe some people just enjoy different flavors of dirt for different guitars, amps, or how they feel that day, and don't want to go through the hassle of swapping pedals on the board?

Yup. What our ears hear and what our brains like varies day to day. Different flavors of dirt keep me happy because of this.

 

[reo73]

I currently have 5 drives on my board in this order:

Red Ruby Boost - Use it as a boosted clean sound or to boost my other drives down the line. Love this pedal!
Modded BD-1: This is my lighter OD pedal that is very transparent.
Catalinbread CB-30: Vox flavor pedal. Use it for more rhythm tones.
Catalinbread DLS: Marshall flavor pedal. More for the harder rock stuff.
Mesa Boogie Flux Drive: Mesa Mark inspired pedal. Good for lead work, or thicker mid range rock tones than the DLS.

As you can see all 5 pedals function is somewhat different sonic areas for different songs.

 

[Unchained81]

I have one drive pedal - Lovepedal Dover Drive. It offers an entirely different flavor than my amp.


To answer your question, GAS is behind most of those multi-drive boards. This place breeds pedal whores.

 

[bluesoul]

For overdrives: I have two tube screamers and an OCD. The tube screamers are set..low gain and mid gain (and often I stomp on both)....these are pedals that are used mostly on my clean amp (Deluxe Rev). The tube screamers also serve another purpose...on this clean amp when I use one of the fuzzface type pedals I always stack with a tube screamer after fuzz to smooth things out. With my second (dirty) amp, the OCD works better than the tube screamers and the Fuzz pedals don't need to be stacked. I guess for me it comes down to what I need in order to get a handful of gain sounds that cover the music I play. This is a set up mostly suited for a Strat. When I use a Les Paul...I pretty much don't need a pedal and when I do I just use the beano boost side of a Sunlion. That is my story!

 

[Diogrus]

I'm one of those with a lot of gainers on my board... and am using exactly for what was talked above, different flavors of dirt for different guitars and amps, either to use each one as a stand alone unity, or to stack them for walls of dirty.

 

[anubae_obscura]

I have one drive pedal - Lovepedal Dover Drive. It offers an entirely different flavor than my amp.


To answer your question, GAS is behind most of those multi-drive boards. This place breeds pedal whores.

and the hoing business is boomin

 

[Tom Gross]

I have seven drives on my board! And I actually get my favorite gain from my Amps.
Why? It's fun.
Also there are several different flavors (Dumble-style, MIAB, TS, Klone, High gain, etc), so I can go in many different directions, plus play with stacking.
The Klone is often on, and so there is a with/without option there for all of the others.

 

[Mark.B]

I use the DLS as a foundation pedal so I don't consider it competing with anything. I stack either a Klone or a harmonic percolator type into it. The Klone is almost always on. The DSL and Klone are set to low gain, about 9 o'clock.

I recently added a CB30 clone which I also use as a foundation pedal. It's very different from the DLS. They are never used together.

 

[Mark Milliron]

So as I suspected, most of you with more than a few gain pedals on your board are using them with different gear, or for just something different. I am kind of a minimalist, and very indecisive at times, so the thought of having more than 3 gain pedals on my board sounds like a nightmare lol. Gain pedals are also my favorite, so I do swap out one of the three I have on my board when I want to try something different, but I will likely never have more that 3 designated gain spots on my board!

 

[Absent Ocean]

I have five drives on mine, six if you count a clean boost. I think that there can be big differences in how similar pedals are used depending on how you like that specific one set and where it is in the chain. They can also be useful if you're looping something when playing a song to make certain parts stand out a little more.

Fuzz
-Deus Ex: One of the two Big Muffs. Good, grinding, blown out sound. At the end of the chain because it likes being boosted.
-Colossus: The other Big Muff. Before my ODs and after the clean boost. The ODs smooth it out and a light boost is all it likes to take so the Spark is relegated to that job. Used more for leads and chording that requires more string definition compared to the Deus Ex.
-Carcosa: Nothing like the other two, using for more splatty and weird sounds. Middle of the chain so it can boost or be boosted.

OD
-DOD 250: Set up for pretty light gain to add a little grit and volume.
-DLS: Cranked gain for more rocking riffs and biting leads. Second last in the chain so it can be boosted by the 250 for more saturation or to smooth out the Colossus.

 

[crxshdxmmy]

I'm talking about boards with a KOT, Timmy, Angry Charlie, Dirty Little Secret, and more, all on the same board.

I've got a board with a Timmy and a DLS on it. Like @Mark.B, the DLS is a foundation pedal and it's always on (to give my Dr.Z more of a Marshall vibe). I run a fuzz into it for leads and have a Timmy after it for boosting/shaping.

But the Timmy works great on either side. And it doesn't compete with the DLS in any way, really. I've run into more redundancy trying to have pedals like the Timmy, Em Drive, Gain Changer, etc. coexist.

 

[rkeaton]

Stacking and studio work, layering different dirt flavors on double tracks helps a lot.

 

[ColonelForbin]

I have one drive pedal - Lovepedal Dover Drive. It offers an entirely different flavor than my amp. To answer your question, GAS is behind most of those multi-drive boards. This place breeds pedal whores.

Pedal Johns more like! Whores charge; we're the one's paying! Does that make various online retailers the Pedal Pimp?
I know I'm sure not the one taking in any money for my pedalboard addiction.. Pedal Junkie, I suppose - if we're being most accurate.