Essential 80's to mid 90's pedal board

[mekhem]

The release of the DS-1w got me thinking - Since we effectively live in the "Golden Age" of pedals with so many options, combo pedals, multi-function, re-releases, Boo-Tique, what would the modern iteration of an essential 80's board?

So If you had a board, say a metro 24, with enough space for a tuner and 6 boss sized (boss pedals are not a requirement but i was thinking along those lines ) pedals What would be on the board?

[marqueemoon]

I'm not exactly sure what an "essential 80's board" means. Anyway here's my "updated classics" board

Phaser: Jam Pedals Ripple
OD: EQD Plumes
Distortion: DRV (because I've never tried one)
Chorus: Boss CE-2W
Volume: Lehle Mono (sorry, but I don't do wah)
Delay: MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe

[stevejamsecono]

Probably whatever you would have found in a well-stocked BCB 6 back in the day, so I'm thinking --

Boss CS-2 Compressor
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Boss CE-2/3 Chorus
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Boss DD-3 Delay

Leaves one spot that could easily be a GE-6/7 or a Boss Reverb depending on what amp you are playing into.

Worked for Robert Smith!

[fever606]

Probably whatever you would have found in a well-stocked BCB 6 back in the day, so I'm thinking --

Boss CS-2 Compressor
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Boss CE-2/3 Chorus
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Boss DD-3 Delay

Leaves one spot that could easily be a GE-6/7 or a Boss Reverb depending on what amp you are playing into.

Worked for Robert Smith!

CS-2
GE-7
HM-2
PN-2
BF-2
DD-3

With one of those long Boss tuners (TU-12?) in the upoer slot of a BCB-6 was my alt-rock-into-shoegaze board for much of college in the early 90s…

[MrShake]

Is this

"what would you use given all today's options, new and old, with what we have access to now?"

Or

"How would you get that '80s/'90s sound using strictly current production pedals?"

Either way, I'm in. This era and style is my jam: '80s-'90s American Underground.

"My board could be your life."

[stevejamsecono]

Probably whatever you would have found in a well-stocked BCB 6 back in the day, so I'm thinking --

Boss CS-2 Compressor
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Boss CE-2/3 Chorus
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Boss DD-3 Delay

Leaves one spot that could easily be a GE-6/7 or a Boss Reverb depending on what amp you are playing into.

Worked for Robert Smith!

CS-2
GE-7
HM-2
PN-2
BF-2
DD-3

With one of those long Boss tuners (TU-12?) in the upoer slot of a BCB-6 was my alt-rock-into-shoegaze board for much of college in the early 90s…

Delicious. I'd happily rock one of those.

"My board could be your life."

[rumfoord]

Nice,
I was approaching this question like,
"If I was going to explain to someone from the 80s/90s what my pedal board was like and they could only 'speak' the language of boss pedals, how would I describe my board?"

Basically, it's something like
tuner
-> fuzz (FZ-2)
-> analog delay (DM-2)
-> overdrive (BD-2)
-> volume pedal
-> digital reverb (RV-3)
-> distortion (DS-2)

much more second tier and for occasional use,
I have an analog octave pedal (OC-2) at the beginning, and a digital chorus at the end (let's stretch and say Ibanez DCL?)

Probably any combination of the modern equivalents would get you pretty close (as long as everything works when stacked together, which I am not actually sure if the boss versions would work well for that).

[fuzzjunkie]

Fuzz wasn’t really a thing in the late ‘80s to early ’90s outside of the Jesus and Mary Chain until the shoegaze bands and Dinosaur Jr. sparked a revival. Overdrive and Distortion ruled the land. From amps if you could get it, but pedals and compressors still had a role for a lot of people.

Compressor - almost always a Dynacomp or Boss
Overdrive - Tubescreamer
Distortion - Rat or Boss
Modulation: Chorus and Flanger mostly
Chorus - Chorus Ensemble or Boss
Flanger - Electric Mistress or Boss, maybe an MXR
Phaser and Trem: less popular, but usually a Boss or Phase-90
Univibe - played out except for guys copping Hendrix like SRV, Eric Johnson and Robin Trower
Delay - Tape echo was still a thing, but mostly Boss or DMM if they weren’t using a Rack unit like an SPX-90 or tc-2290.
Reverb - almost always a Boss if not a Roland or Yamaha rack. Guys with label $ might have a Lexicon.

So a typical board I remember seeing a lot was:

Tubescreamer > Rat > Boss Flanger > Boss Chorus > Boss Delay > either a Boss Tremolo or Reverb > Marshall or Fender amp.

[sessylU]

"My board could be your life."

This line a nice cross section between two niche interests. It needs to be a t-shirt or something. Possibly a magazine feature back in the day.

[panoramic]

Man I am actually about make a board with 5/6 pedals anyhow
with what I have now it would be :
tuner/ boss trem/Plumes/86 rat/ red panda context/ehx 720 looper
what I want it to be :
Tuner/boss trem/plumes/86 rat/ context or soft focus / boss super feedbacker/ looper

[s_mcsleazy]

depends what genre of music i was playing. i like the idea of a 90's skate punk/post-hardcore band pedalboard with pedals of the era. something i can keep it simple with. maybe boss tu-2 >> coloursound wah (i know these are 70's but they were kinda worthless at the time) >> dod metal maniac (these are great for skate-punk) >> boss ce-3 >> dod 680

[del]

I found a report on Prince's pedalboard from the 1999 and Purple Rain eras. I think it would be an excellent option!

Dunlop Crybaby
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Boss DM-2 Delay
Boss VB-2 Vibrato
Boss OC-2 Octave

[øøøøøøø]

If we’re going for historical accuracy, probably an Eventide H3000 (or something like a Digitech GSP-2101) in a rack with a preamp and power amp, feeding a couple of cabs. Then a MIDI pedal controller on the floor

Pedals were kind of at their nadir of desirability during that time period… everyone wanted to be touring with big racks.

I was just a ~10yo kid reading guitar magazines back then, but I remember pedals becoming cool again right around the time hair metal started going away

[DrQuasar]

Zoom 1010, an A.R.T. Xtreme, and Jimi Hendrix Signature Dunlop Wah into a Fender Ultimate Chorus.

[hulakatt]

DoD 250
MXR Dyna Comp
Boss CE-2
Dunlop Uni Vibe
Dunlop Stereo Tremolo

If we're being honest, the most 80's pedalboard would be a rack. For a lot of the 80's, pedals were old, passe and what your dad might've used to store his weed in before he knocked your mom up.