I think I need a pedal board

[Doc W]

Willie's pedal board thread got me thinking ...

I think I need a pedal board. I am really old school and played mostly blues, rock blues, and jazzy blues, so all I used was reverb in the amp, sometimes a digital delay, and a tuner. Two years ago, I started going to a new church, one that played a lot of contemporary worship music, stuff I had never heard before. They use a lot of effects. I am playing in the band now and need to expand my palette a little.

So I am thinking of getting a decent chorus and maybe some kind of overdrive. These days, I mostly play clean and in the past, when I wanted dirt for lead, I simply used a second amp and a A/B box. I can't do that in church - way too loud - so I need a dirt box that sounds good a pretty low volumes. I have tried a few over the years but most of them always sound edgy to me, not fluid, like a real amp pushed.

As you guys know, there are probably in excess of a zillion pedals out there. I am looking for some suggestions on a chorus and an overdrive (and maybe more), as well as something to house them. I would rather buy a pedal board than make one myself. Call me lazy.

What do you guys in the same situation use to cover the waterfront, so to speak?

[chuckocaster]

I'm not a big fan of chorus, but, I do like the Ibanez CS-9! I'm sure you can pick up a plastic 80's one for pretty cheap.

[Rickenjangle]

Doc, most of the guys I know - if they're using a separate pedal in church - it's the Fulltone Fulldrive II. Really great overdrive and a really useful boost that either adds overdrive or just extra volume.

I'm using the Line6 XT Live board and it's working great. Not new - a few generations old - but it's got everything I need, since we use no amps and in-ears.

If money was no object I'd build a pedalboard that centered around the Full-Drive II and the line6 DL4 because that's what a lot of guys use. But YMMV.

BTW I never ever use chorus - I'd be more inclined to use tremolo for shimmering textures.

The cornerstones of contemporary worship seem to be warm overdrives, clean chimey textures, U2-tap-tempo dotted eighth delays and a full-blown liquid overdrive. Oh, and if there are multiple guitarists, sometimes one of them will play a triple recto sound on power chords that isn't loud but you can hear it as a background fullness.