For the last week or so, I’ve been going through Five Watt World’s Youtube channel. And I have to say, Keith Williams is definitely on to something. Everything he’s said resonated with me.
In one video, he explains that “Minimalism” could just as easily be called “Just-Enoughism”. And that tends to reflect the attitude of true minimalists: don’t just get rid of everything (including things you need). But be intentional about it, carefully choose the things you want to keep and use, and let go of the rest.
For instance: I have two saxophones. Each one has two mouthpieces. But that gives me a lot of sounds I can work with: soft, full blast, and everything in between. Plus if I’m a performing musician, it pays to have a backup instrument.
Guitars are the same way. I have three: an acoustic, and 2 electrics. One electric guitar I kept because 1. it’s my first guitar, and 2. I had it rebuilt, and it actually plays really well now. My second guitar was a steal of a buy, and I bought it because (at the time) my main guitar needed a refret, plus it has a tremolo and single-coil pickups.
I only have one guitar amp, that I’ve had for 20+ years. It just works. It’s not the smallest, but it sounds great, is versatile, and hey… I already own it. It’s solid-state, so I can play it at whisper levels, or make your ears bleed, and it sounds just the same.
My guitar pedalboard setup is still evolving (This isn’t even my final form!!) but after watching some of Keith’s videos, it reminded me to stick to what I actually need. I don’t need gobs of wacky synth pedals, or tons of overdrives. Don’t even need an actual delay pedal, but I might pick one up if I find a deal on it.
In another video Keith Williams mentions artificial limitations on gear to stimulate creativity. So I’ve decided to constrain myself to only using what will fit on my homemade 17×12″ board. It fits inside of a hard case, and should hold everything I need.
I realize that most guitar players have a LOT more guitars, amps, and pedals than me. But that doesn’t define how much I need for what I use it for. So I need about 3-4 sounds for playing church music, and if I add acoustic, that’s another 2-3 sounds. But some of those pedals can serve more than one purpose! I can use an EQ pedal as an acoustic preamp, or an electric clean boost. The Hall of Fame reverb pedal has multiple settings on it I can choose. The Adrenalinn 3 has all the amps models I will ever need, including a clean preamp. The AMT volume pedal also contains a buffer and clean boost.
I’ve been tempted to buy lots more stuff. A smaller tube amp, or a 12-string guitar, or a handful of pedals. Nice pedalboards, power supplies, cases, etc. But I don’t really need any of those. (Well… I might get a 12-string on a trade. I would definitely use that on a regular basis.)
Ultimately, there’s so many products out there now, you can get a fantastic setup for cheap. There’s more options now than there were even 10 years ago. If you want to go compact, there’s dozens of great tiny amps, pedals, and setups you can look through, at all kinds of price points. Want to use regular pedals? Got tons of those, and everybody’s been going to the micro-sized enclosures, which means 1. they’re cheaper, and 2. they’re smaller, and you can fit more on a space-limited setup like mine.
Things I’ve done to scale down my board:
- Replaced the Danelectro Daddy-O with an MXR Sugar Drive
- Replaced the MXR DynaComp with a mini-sized clone from www.buildyourownclone.com and mounted it sideways, above the Sugar Drive
- With that extra space, I added the Boss OC-3 Octave back in. Helps out a ton when playing acoustic, and can also double bass parts with a separate out. Can also be used as a plain octave, or a fuzz pedal in “drive” mode
- I considered replacing the Hall of Fame 2 with a mini version, because it can use the exact same settings. But it wouldn’t save that much space, and I eventually want to run this board in stereo. So the HoF2 stays.
However, since I now have two compressor pedals and two reverb pedals, I could possibly just take what I use for acoustic and make a separate board for that. It would require building another board, though, and finding a case for it! But really, how would that work as far as cost?
If I make the electric board with only what I’d use there, I could add in some stereo pedals (I already own) and wire it up accordingly. And I could pull off the acoustic pedals and make room.
I still have some work to do, but I’ve decided to split out the Acoustic pedalboard separately. I played a Trace Elliot Transit A (acoustic preamp/effect unit) this past weekend, and it sounded fantastic. It has everything I’d need including XLR outs, and costs about as much as 2 regular pedals, but replaces about 6. I could take that and use it as an all-in-one acoustic setup, which leaves room for making the electric board more what I’m looking for.
I will still need to wire up the electric board in stereo, and I’ve ordered a TC Electronic Alter Ego 2 delay pedal to go on there (got it used for a deal!) but then the electric setup will be finished. When I get the chance, I will probably forego the individual pedals and get the Trace Elliot acoustic preamp, because it just does exactly what I need in one piece.
So the acoustic board would then only consist of:
- Boss OC-3 (for some bass octave)
- Trace Elliot Transit A
- Digitech Jamman Solo XT (for backing tracks)
Maybe I should just be happy with what I have. Isn’t that the whole point? Well, sort of.
It’s about having exactly what you need, and nothing more.