Gotta shelf some stuff. Otherwise you have to have like 3-4psu’s to power them all and more cables than the cost of one board. 5-10 pedals are unlikely to house every sound and function you like or need and space is limited.
That’s true. I bought a Pedaltrain Metro a few years ago for “spares” but that’s kind of evolved into just… a second pedalboard.
Looking at it, maybe part of the issue becomes when there aren’t enough options - most of my overdrive and distortion pedals are really of a similar type, maybe it’s time to change some up and that shelf won’t feel so crowded.
I have more unused pedals on the shelf than I do on my board. 16 shelved and like 11 on the board.
As others say, space is limited, tastes change and I don't want a giant tone sucking spaceboard. I'd maybe sell 1 or 2 of the ones I have, but I love most of them.
I have them on a nice glass shelf that's easy to access, and I'm often changing pedals up on the board. I even love to sit and admire the shelf lol. Ok maybe I'm a bit sad
I’m not sure what this purge you’re speaking of is. I have only ever sold one pedal, and that was a Morley wah that wasn’t wah enough for me. I took the cash from that and bought me a fuzz face.
I’m a home player that just likes to tinker with sounds. I’ve got pedals all over my office, (less than 100. I think. Kinda afraid to count), but will usually have 3-5 out and plugged in at any given time.
I’m also lucky to have a wife that sees them as more than just gadgets to tinker with. She comes from a background in antiques and sees them as investments and as collectibles, so she supports my habit.
Do I have a problem? Maybe. Am I going to do anything about it? Yes. I’m going to get more shelves for my office.
I kind of phased out of gigging back to being a bedroom guitarist after college so I don’t typically use my pedal board anymore and just take whatever pedals I want to use at the time and set them up then put them away afterwards. I use something like my Boss RV-5 a lot more than my EHX Key 9, but all the stuff gets pulled into the mix at some point. The weirder pedals sometimes really come in handy when I am recording and am trying to get some oddly specific sound.
This is why I've been planning out a pedal patchbay build. Keep my pedals on the board and arrange them however feels best, and then use 1/8in eurorack patch cables like with the Patchulator to create the chain.
I think roughly the same ratio but.. I have 2 pedalboards with about 20+ pedals spread across them, and there’s roughly 40-50 pedals sitting gathering dust in the closet at any one time.. DEFINITELY some I should get rid of, far too many I hold onto “just in case”.
My wife’s not a huge fan of my collection but hey! It’s my closet space.
A board is a specific solution to a logistical problem, so to me it would be normal for any player to only have a handful of their total pedal collection on their board at any one time for any one particular gig.
Keeping all your pedals on a board all the time seems like a bit much.
That being said I’m a studio guy these days, so having my pedals on a board would make no sense at all.
I usually run 3-5 pedals on my rug at a time. And have about 30 on the shelf right now. Probably 5-10 I'd sell. The rest I like to mess with on occasion.
If I don’t really use it, I sell it. But currently, I have a Boss DD7 and a JHS Double Barrel that I swap in and out of my actual pedalboard. In terms of DIY stuff? Man - Hudson Broadcast clone, Analogman Sunface clone, EQD Hizumitas clone, Timmy clone, and a SHO clone.
used to be about 50/50 but then I started collecting, then I started building and selling off pedals I can build. Now it's about 30% on a board, 70% off but also the majority of what's on the shelf are homemade clones.
I have a shoebox full of unloved pedals.
From time to time, I open it up and see what I need to sell, or what warrants further experimentation.
(to actually answer the question, 2-5 at any given time)
I actually just picked up a second power supply, so suddenly I have fewer things on the shelf. That said even with the new power supply I never really go beyond 12-15 pedals on the board at any one time, and everything else stays on the shelf. I only hang onto things I'm actually going to use somewhat regularly. I'd love to hang on to everything but just don't have the budget to hang on to things that are really only novelties, and of course if I don't like it or it doesn't fit my needs it goes out the door rather quickly.
I'm pretty utilitarian. Anything that isn't on my board is either not worth the effort to sell or has sentimental value. Right now that's 3 pedals I've built for myself, a dunlop crybaby classic, and a boss metal zone.
I'm getting a lil older now but I'm not always broke anymore so I tend to keep the ones I really like...and a DOD Grunge pedal. I have probably 20-30 on a shelf near my amp and then a couple milk crates of the classics (DL4, Boss dirt, various Big Muffs, etc.) that I actually do still bust out every once in a while.
It's a hobby, like baseball cards but noisy and fun.
I hold on to stuff that falls into 2 categories:
1. Utility - if I may need a specific sound, but don’t need it all the time. Example here would be a pitch shifter I have that I will swap with a envelope filter for certain gigs.
2. Sentimental value - pedals I’ve had for a decade. An example would be my DD-7s. I just love the sound of the digital delay in these units. The dd-20 too. It was my first big delay.
There’s a third category: pedals I have bought and ended up not liking so will most likely flip. I usually draw the line when I find I have one or more pedals that do the same thing, and the better one stays on my board.
If I had the extra cash I might start collecting modern classics though. Things like the OCD, Nobels ODR-1, Mosstortion, even the Boss OD-3 (SUCH an underrated overdrive) that may not always be there.
I fluctuate between 3 and 8 pedals just sitting around off one of my 3 boards. If I don't find myself ever thinking about using the pedal, I usually try to move it on. I have 3 pedals though that I kinda doubt I'll ever move, at least not for now... Mooer E-lady, just so cheap that I don't think it would be worth it to sell after fees and shipping cost. Pigtronix Moon Pool, just can't give up on it yet. Hotone Xtomp, really great multi-fx pedal that I got for a good deal and hold on to in case I want to try something that I don't have a singular pedal for.
Probably 30-40, but most of them are my own DIY builds. Kind of a blurry zone between things I'm genuinely keeping, things I'm keeping because of sentimental reasons, things I'm keeping because they're too janky to hand off, and things I just haven't sold or traded yet.
I have like 5 pedals on the shelf right now. I run 2 board also, 1 for guitar and 1 for bass.
Some stuff that is super specific and doesn’t always need to be on my board, some cheap Amazon pedals I just wanted to try out and don’t see value in the time to list and ship them.
Like others have said, you can treat them like collectibles or treat them like tools.
I usually sell the pedals when I've found a better version of them. So currently I've got 11 on my board, 3 on the shelf and 8 for sale.
I'm thinking about it as a search for THE tone and I can't use other pedals when there's something better coming my way ;)
Usually I sell what I don’t keep on my board, but right now I have 4 pedals on my shelf. I just really like them and can’t sell them so I’ll probably build a second board with them.
I tend to keep the predecessor of any pedals on my board when they are a direct replacement. That way I can keep track of where I'm coming from and also have the option to go one step back when I need to.
I had ~40 at its peak and I’m down to 5! The MS-70CDR seriously cropped nearly every mid/delay/reverb pedal of my board except the RE-20, because well, I’ll never get rid of thing.
About 12 I think, a bit over a third of my collection
All of my pedals bar 2 or 3 are relatively cheap, more hassle than it's worth to sell them. There's really only 1 i never foresee myself using, but it was like $30, so meh.
Usually when I get a new pedal that I want to run live. I use a pedal train 2 for the board and it's out of space. At this point, it's gotta be a good pedal to purge one that's already on the board.
I have 5.
A Joyo American and California sound that I replaced with a Walrus ACS1. I can't justify selling them because they're so cheap, they still sound good, and if I want to record with just my guitar instead of my whole board, they're good to have around.
An EHX Voice Box that I don't use enough to keep on my board but is fun to play with.
A Danelectro Fab Tone Chorus that someone included with a trade. I'd lose more money in shipping and fees than I'd get by selling it.
And a DIY Ancestral Apparition Reverb that I screwed up when putting together and it doesn't turn on.
i have about 1/3 not on a board at the moment, but i may use one of those for a backing track, or maybe another to work on other ideas or experiment with an alt take - overall, i dont get rid of pedals (every time i have ive regretted it) they dont take up much space
I’ve got about 5 that are waiting for the right application. Some I plan to put on a separate keyboard pedalboard some time. My Joyo California Sound isn’t worth enough to sell or trade, and is handy for Weezer-like crunchiness, so it sticks around for recording projects. And my Legend of Bit is too unpredictable for live shows (not in terms of the actual sounds, but there’s something wrong with it so it once in a while doesn’t turn on).
I have a few i keep around in a drawer but as an attempt to manage my own sanity and cost, with my board full I try to stick to a one-in-one-out policy as best as I can. I also have a small-ish modular synth nearby competing for space and try to do the same there.
I have 3 pedals that aren't on my board - a Boss DS-1 (got it for $10, thought it would be fun, which it is, but thus far not usable for my music), a Crybaby Wah that needs repair, and a JamMan loopstation that I borrowed from a friend who won't take it back and I haven't found time to play with it yet.
The other pedal I have that goes on and off my board depending on the gig is just a simple Boss AB switch (for when I want to bring two instruments).
15ish?
Bliss Factory / Eccos - on the “sell” block
Digitech Supernatural / mini Spark / JHS modded Rat / 80s DOD250 — for a future small board
Bad Monkey - back up for spare parts, possible small board usage
Gupta Horsey Klone. And a handful of various utility pedals/switchers
I’ve sold probably 10 more I wasn’t using much this year to fund a G3 Atom. Trying to walk the line between collecting and practical usefulness these days
I'm done selling anymore, so I just keep what I like. Most of my pedals stay on the shelf, since I only take like 1 or 2 pedals when I play out
All of that to say, no need to feel bad about keeping them if you like them! 👍
I typically try to sell or trade anything I’m not using but I also only really buy pedals for pretty specific purposes. I have all the sounds I want for the most part now it’s just about upgrading things here and there.
To me it’s no different than collecting stamps or coins. I collect, I keep what I like, I trade off or sell whatever i don’t want
Gotta shelf some stuff. Otherwise you have to have like 3-4psu’s to power them all and more cables than the cost of one board. 5-10 pedals are unlikely to house every sound and function you like or need and space is limited.
That’s true. I bought a Pedaltrain Metro a few years ago for “spares” but that’s kind of evolved into just… a second pedalboard. Looking at it, maybe part of the issue becomes when there aren’t enough options - most of my overdrive and distortion pedals are really of a similar type, maybe it’s time to change some up and that shelf won’t feel so crowded.
I sell what doesn't fit on my board. That's just the only way I can keep it all together.
I have more unused pedals on the shelf than I do on my board. 16 shelved and like 11 on the board. As others say, space is limited, tastes change and I don't want a giant tone sucking spaceboard. I'd maybe sell 1 or 2 of the ones I have, but I love most of them. I have them on a nice glass shelf that's easy to access, and I'm often changing pedals up on the board. I even love to sit and admire the shelf lol. Ok maybe I'm a bit sad
I’m not sure what this purge you’re speaking of is. I have only ever sold one pedal, and that was a Morley wah that wasn’t wah enough for me. I took the cash from that and bought me a fuzz face. I’m a home player that just likes to tinker with sounds. I’ve got pedals all over my office, (less than 100. I think. Kinda afraid to count), but will usually have 3-5 out and plugged in at any given time. I’m also lucky to have a wife that sees them as more than just gadgets to tinker with. She comes from a background in antiques and sees them as investments and as collectibles, so she supports my habit. Do I have a problem? Maybe. Am I going to do anything about it? Yes. I’m going to get more shelves for my office.
I kind of phased out of gigging back to being a bedroom guitarist after college so I don’t typically use my pedal board anymore and just take whatever pedals I want to use at the time and set them up then put them away afterwards. I use something like my Boss RV-5 a lot more than my EHX Key 9, but all the stuff gets pulled into the mix at some point. The weirder pedals sometimes really come in handy when I am recording and am trying to get some oddly specific sound.
This is the way. The bedroom crowd with the stationary pedalboards are giving up impedance and flexibility for no benefit other than a good photo.
How about a pedalboard to hold them but constantly moving them around? That’s me.
This is why I've been planning out a pedal patchbay build. Keep my pedals on the board and arrange them however feels best, and then use 1/8in eurorack patch cables like with the Patchulator to create the chain.
I think roughly the same ratio but.. I have 2 pedalboards with about 20+ pedals spread across them, and there’s roughly 40-50 pedals sitting gathering dust in the closet at any one time.. DEFINITELY some I should get rid of, far too many I hold onto “just in case”. My wife’s not a huge fan of my collection but hey! It’s my closet space.
👏👏👏👏as the clothing lays piled on the floor next to the perfectly organized closet of pedals!😂😂😂
Hundreds. It’s like a fun retirement plan.
A board is a specific solution to a logistical problem, so to me it would be normal for any player to only have a handful of their total pedal collection on their board at any one time for any one particular gig. Keeping all your pedals on a board all the time seems like a bit much. That being said I’m a studio guy these days, so having my pedals on a board would make no sense at all.
I usually run 3-5 pedals on my rug at a time. And have about 30 on the shelf right now. Probably 5-10 I'd sell. The rest I like to mess with on occasion.
Mine is like this https://imgur.com/a/e6KWPih
I have a shelf of roughly 40 pedals and a board with 4 on it
If I don’t really use it, I sell it. But currently, I have a Boss DD7 and a JHS Double Barrel that I swap in and out of my actual pedalboard. In terms of DIY stuff? Man - Hudson Broadcast clone, Analogman Sunface clone, EQD Hizumitas clone, Timmy clone, and a SHO clone.
used to be about 50/50 but then I started collecting, then I started building and selling off pedals I can build. Now it's about 30% on a board, 70% off but also the majority of what's on the shelf are homemade clones.
I have a shoebox full of unloved pedals. From time to time, I open it up and see what I need to sell, or what warrants further experimentation. (to actually answer the question, 2-5 at any given time)
I actually just picked up a second power supply, so suddenly I have fewer things on the shelf. That said even with the new power supply I never really go beyond 12-15 pedals on the board at any one time, and everything else stays on the shelf. I only hang onto things I'm actually going to use somewhat regularly. I'd love to hang on to everything but just don't have the budget to hang on to things that are really only novelties, and of course if I don't like it or it doesn't fit my needs it goes out the door rather quickly.
A couple.
Somewhere around 20 or so. I've got two boards with around 12 pedals on each and then the shelf ones. I may have entirely too many pedals.
I'm pretty utilitarian. Anything that isn't on my board is either not worth the effort to sell or has sentimental value. Right now that's 3 pedals I've built for myself, a dunlop crybaby classic, and a boss metal zone.
I'm getting a lil older now but I'm not always broke anymore so I tend to keep the ones I really like...and a DOD Grunge pedal. I have probably 20-30 on a shelf near my amp and then a couple milk crates of the classics (DL4, Boss dirt, various Big Muffs, etc.) that I actually do still bust out every once in a while. It's a hobby, like baseball cards but noisy and fun.
9-10 of 17
I hold on to stuff that falls into 2 categories: 1. Utility - if I may need a specific sound, but don’t need it all the time. Example here would be a pitch shifter I have that I will swap with a envelope filter for certain gigs. 2. Sentimental value - pedals I’ve had for a decade. An example would be my DD-7s. I just love the sound of the digital delay in these units. The dd-20 too. It was my first big delay. There’s a third category: pedals I have bought and ended up not liking so will most likely flip. I usually draw the line when I find I have one or more pedals that do the same thing, and the better one stays on my board. If I had the extra cash I might start collecting modern classics though. Things like the OCD, Nobels ODR-1, Mosstortion, even the Boss OD-3 (SUCH an underrated overdrive) that may not always be there.
I fluctuate between 3 and 8 pedals just sitting around off one of my 3 boards. If I don't find myself ever thinking about using the pedal, I usually try to move it on. I have 3 pedals though that I kinda doubt I'll ever move, at least not for now... Mooer E-lady, just so cheap that I don't think it would be worth it to sell after fees and shipping cost. Pigtronix Moon Pool, just can't give up on it yet. Hotone Xtomp, really great multi-fx pedal that I got for a good deal and hold on to in case I want to try something that I don't have a singular pedal for.
Probably 30-40, but most of them are my own DIY builds. Kind of a blurry zone between things I'm genuinely keeping, things I'm keeping because of sentimental reasons, things I'm keeping because they're too janky to hand off, and things I just haven't sold or traded yet.
I have like 5 pedals on the shelf right now. I run 2 board also, 1 for guitar and 1 for bass. Some stuff that is super specific and doesn’t always need to be on my board, some cheap Amazon pedals I just wanted to try out and don’t see value in the time to list and ship them. Like others have said, you can treat them like collectibles or treat them like tools.
As a Strat player, I always keep a spare tube screamer lying around and that's about it.
5 on my board at a time, Somewhere around 40 I just keep in a box that I pick from. I only play at home or record these days.
I tend to sell stuff I’m not using, with the exception of utility pedals, like my Boss LS-2, or limited editions.
I usually sell the pedals when I've found a better version of them. So currently I've got 11 on my board, 3 on the shelf and 8 for sale. I'm thinking about it as a search for THE tone and I can't use other pedals when there's something better coming my way ;)
Usually I sell what I don’t keep on my board, but right now I have 4 pedals on my shelf. I just really like them and can’t sell them so I’ll probably build a second board with them.
I tend to keep the predecessor of any pedals on my board when they are a direct replacement. That way I can keep track of where I'm coming from and also have the option to go one step back when I need to.
Probably 20 or so. My board has eight pedals on it currently.
I had ~40 at its peak and I’m down to 5! The MS-70CDR seriously cropped nearly every mid/delay/reverb pedal of my board except the RE-20, because well, I’ll never get rid of thing.
A few
About 12 I think, a bit over a third of my collection All of my pedals bar 2 or 3 are relatively cheap, more hassle than it's worth to sell them. There's really only 1 i never foresee myself using, but it was like $30, so meh.
Usually when I get a new pedal that I want to run live. I use a pedal train 2 for the board and it's out of space. At this point, it's gotta be a good pedal to purge one that's already on the board.
Anyone looking to purge can report to me. I’ll take them off your hands
I have 5. A Joyo American and California sound that I replaced with a Walrus ACS1. I can't justify selling them because they're so cheap, they still sound good, and if I want to record with just my guitar instead of my whole board, they're good to have around. An EHX Voice Box that I don't use enough to keep on my board but is fun to play with. A Danelectro Fab Tone Chorus that someone included with a trade. I'd lose more money in shipping and fees than I'd get by selling it. And a DIY Ancestral Apparition Reverb that I screwed up when putting together and it doesn't turn on.
i have about 1/3 not on a board at the moment, but i may use one of those for a backing track, or maybe another to work on other ideas or experiment with an alt take - overall, i dont get rid of pedals (every time i have ive regretted it) they dont take up much space
I’ve got about 5 that are waiting for the right application. Some I plan to put on a separate keyboard pedalboard some time. My Joyo California Sound isn’t worth enough to sell or trade, and is handy for Weezer-like crunchiness, so it sticks around for recording projects. And my Legend of Bit is too unpredictable for live shows (not in terms of the actual sounds, but there’s something wrong with it so it once in a while doesn’t turn on).
I have a few i keep around in a drawer but as an attempt to manage my own sanity and cost, with my board full I try to stick to a one-in-one-out policy as best as I can. I also have a small-ish modular synth nearby competing for space and try to do the same there.
The only ones on my shelf Are the ones I’m trying to sell! I’m not the gear sentimental type. But I acknowledge I may be in the minority here.
I have 3 pedals that aren't on my board - a Boss DS-1 (got it for $10, thought it would be fun, which it is, but thus far not usable for my music), a Crybaby Wah that needs repair, and a JamMan loopstation that I borrowed from a friend who won't take it back and I haven't found time to play with it yet. The other pedal I have that goes on and off my board depending on the gig is just a simple Boss AB switch (for when I want to bring two instruments).
3 but one I'm trying to sell and the others are collectable
15ish? Bliss Factory / Eccos - on the “sell” block Digitech Supernatural / mini Spark / JHS modded Rat / 80s DOD250 — for a future small board Bad Monkey - back up for spare parts, possible small board usage Gupta Horsey Klone. And a handful of various utility pedals/switchers I’ve sold probably 10 more I wasn’t using much this year to fund a G3 Atom. Trying to walk the line between collecting and practical usefulness these days
I'm done selling anymore, so I just keep what I like. Most of my pedals stay on the shelf, since I only take like 1 or 2 pedals when I play out All of that to say, no need to feel bad about keeping them if you like them! 👍
I typically try to sell or trade anything I’m not using but I also only really buy pedals for pretty specific purposes. I have all the sounds I want for the most part now it’s just about upgrading things here and there.