A Shoegaze Pedalboard for $250-Can Andy Do It? | Steal This Sound

When many players think of the larger-than-life shoegaze guitar sound, they may also think of expensive rack effects and boutique guitar pedals. But can a versatile shoegaze board be created for $250 all-in? Andy was up for the challenge on this episode of "Steal This Sound."
Shop the pedals in this video: bit.ly/3DYv65U

[@bongusdongus2137]

“Just enough for some extra picks” I like to think Andy found a deal on some human fingers for that last 5 beans

[@jeremiahbayani184]

I think the joke is he doesn't use picks

[@bongusdongus2137]

@@jeremiahbayani184 …yeah big dog that’s why I said human fingers

[@GummyWormeon]

You want a toe? I can get you a toe by 3 o clock.. there are ways dude, trust me you don’t want to know about it.

[@calinguga]

@@jeremiahbayani184 oh

[@allenmitchell09]

It took me half the video for this to dawn on me. lol

[@gregbeaudry]

Love the budget gear vibes! All these musician influencers make great sounds with $5,000+ setups, like “…yeah? But what can you do with $300?”. This answers that question. A whole lot!👍🏻

[@hh4826]

Spot on. I would love to see a Noise Rock board. Ring Modulators and other wacky stuff. Or even a pysch Rock board with lots of fuzz and modulations

[@knives_on_static]

Psych board would be simple. Fuzz Face, Tremolo, Wah, Univibe, spring reverb, tape delay

[@timothyquinn4919]

Psyche rock board rat pack, fab chorus, fab flanger, moeen shaker Jimi, used rv3, wah boom done.

[@dijjidog]

yes

[@roryturner9773]

Ring mods suck

[@Instagrump_330]

This is great. I’d love to see this done with more genres. 🤘

[@teenslain]

Nice one, Andy! The Zoom MS-70CDR has a great reverse reverb on it as well as delays, choruses, flanges, etc. A really cool pedal that'll cover a lot of these bases at a very reasonable price.

[@violinmiata]

The CDR is totally underrated for weird time based effects, modulation leaves something to be desired, but it does have a good tuner and stacks well

[@noname-ng6sj]

Around $110 just for that though. I have one but it's a complete moneysink on a board like this. Also, he got a reverse delay already which is fucking DOPE!

[@viceroyraydeen1796]

The cdr does the soft focus better than the catalinbread soft focus

[@gazeunderthesunmusic]

I brought the CDR for that price and I tell you right now along with a looper it's good for ambient sounds

[@teenslain]

@@noname-ng6sj Mine cost AU$50, what's that, one cup of coffee? 😎

[@robanderson251]

The boneshaker and fuzz work really well together - the fuzz pedal is a steal and sound lovely and creamy/smooth. I think being able to adjust the shape and colour of the distortion is really important. I have always run a couple of distortions to do this without having to fiddle but back when i was starting out in about 1989/90 used a Marshall Guv'nor which had the 3 tone controls a DS1 for a real fizzy type sound a GE7 to make humbucker sound like single coils etc. Later added a RAT for some lower end grunt.

[@nowhereweareagain]

Another option for a board like this gain wise is the hm300, which is based on the hm2 that several bands used for shoegaze back in the 90’s

[@roryturner9773]

message him on telegram

[@SkronkJappleson]

Andy rules, love the budget theme too.

[@GoCreateSomething]

So you could do a lot of your building just with the guitar's volume knob. That Boneshaker pedal seems like it cleans up really well. I really think this board could cover a bunch of genres. I'm not sure if you could get a tight metal kind of tone with those gain stages but I think you could do a ton of other stuff. It might be good to swap out the chorus for the Behringer multi effects box. Then you'd have a phaser, pitch shifter and tons of other stuff for added flexibility as well as the chorus.

[@GabrielVelasco]

I think a signature of shoegazing is to put a distortion as the last pedal in a chain AFTER everything, even the time based stuff.

[@georgefromgreece4119]

Spot on!

[@thebreakfastmenu]

Get yourself a Alesis Midiverb for reverse reverb. I scooped one up for 50 bucks. They're not pedals, but Kevin Shields used a rack reverb for his reverse reverb.

[@gazeunderthesunmusic]

I recently purchased a Yamaha fx500 with the soft focus patch, also I can create a reverse gate reverb until like spx90 which I got it for £120 free shipping from Japan, I also brought the recent soft focus by Catalinbread which is really similar to the real thing.

[@AndyDemos]

Excellent tip, those are still an excellent deal!!

[@JulianA-tr6pt]

Hard to find for that price anymore. Working, with supply at least. I managed a working SPX90 for $50 years back, and at the time a midiverb 2 was up for the same price. Glad I got the SPX thought, being more into loveless (and the 2 songs that actually use reverse verb). Led me to make a convenient digital pedal recreation of the SPX sound. Loomer killer basically. The memory man with hazarai is as close as it comes to the SPX90, BTW. Clicky, reverse gate reflections is the sound.

[@thebreakfastmenu]

@@JulianA-tr6pt I got mine only last year. Maybe I just got lucky.

[@mr.champlinssciencechannel906]

I don't know if this series is new but I love it. Keep them coming!

[@Mr.Steve-O]

Love this episode of one of my favorite genres, keep up the great work guys!

[@marcosledesma8529]

hands down one of the most beautiful fender offset that Ive ever seen.

[@PebloNemo]

For this kind of challenge I think that ambient, pysch rock and 80s hard rock would be good genres to cover. Also, I'd be curious to see what Andy would do for a one-man-band on a budget looping pedalboard.

[@pmtxusa9946]

As a fellow one man band shoegaze looper, I support this

[@timbrokkoli7386]

I bought a Fab Chours in my early days for 16$ brand new - one of the best chorus pedals I ever had

[@TheMountainDemon]

Saw the FAb Chorus and knew this was gonna be good. Definitely a fantastic chorus pedal.

[@olivergoldthorpe9493]

I think this is a great pedalboard in general, the fact it's for a budget is a bonus.

[@hailmaryrecordings8255]

👏🏻 I bought a super fuzz too. It’s pretty awesome really & built a bit more rugged than people say.

[@nativeeats8719]

Well Andy there’s going to be some upset pedal companies. that’s sounded killer by the way

[@JimBoom92]

Once again Andy blew me away. For the the next steal this sound maybe something like Stoner / Doom / Desert / Western / Cinema music?

Awesome sound Andy! You are great, I grow up with your videos and it's wonderfull can watch your new videos until now.

[@AndyDemos]

Wow, thanks so much! I appreciate you watching all these years. ✌

[@evanlinsey]

love this format

[@AndyDemos]

Thanks so much, there's more planned!

[@lavender_oni]

Great concept for this video. Even though standalone "real" pedals are where it's at, I've got to shout out the Zoom MS-70CDR MultiStomp for this. It's got a really good reverse reverb that would justify the $150 by itself, but it's also got a ton of emulations of other popular pedals and they all sound pretty spot on. I've got a preset that's great for shoegaze that looks like [ Pitch Shift (PitchFork style) -> Stomp Delay (self-oscillating) -> Corona TriChorus -> Reverse Reverb -> Stereo Delay -> Hall Reverb ]. Having stereo output is also a huge plus for this kind of sound. The only catch is it's hard to swap between effects while playing unless you're a really good aim with your big toe; generally you'll want to set up a dedicated preset for each sonic space and pick one main effect from the set to toggle with the footswitch. Not quite as intuitive as a full board for sure, but VERY cost effective. Add a Big Muff for ~$100 before the Zoom and that's your $250 board right there. It also gives you a lot of room to grow and gradually get dedicated pedals for effects you use often, I ended up adding a Keeley Hydra for upgraded tremolo and spring verb for example.

[@sarova2000]

I have one and agree, it’s so worth it for creating pedal chains on a budget and switching between those specific sounds. It’s also great for all the effects you don’t use so much to justify buying a separate pedal. Aaand since it’s all digital and it has usb, there’s this trick where you can load effects from other pedals from the brand into it using your computer. But yeah, you won’t see Reverb featuring these, because they’re considered “shitty pedals”, although i’ve been seeing them more on Instagram lately

[@PedalExperiments]

Glad someone here mentioned this pedal, so I didn't have to. 😁

[@teenslain]

Such a cool pedal, you could also get a Zoom MS50G and do everything with just two pedals!

[@lavender_oni]

​@@teenslain Also true. Some say the fuzz on the MS50G doesn't hold up to an analog pedal, which is why I mentioned a Big Muff. But that may be one of those "only hardcore audiophiles, mastering engineers, and dogs can hear the difference" situations. :)

[@noname-ng6sj]

How does that justify $150? That's over half the budget.

[@SockbatReplicaOne]

This is a great idea for a series my only suggestion would be to do these demos with budget guitars and amps as well, if a musician's pedal budget is $250 then they're probably playing a Squire Jazzmaster as opposed to a Fender one.

[@OlegUstimenko]

luckily the classic vibe jazzmaster has better stock pickups than the thing andy’s using

[@agecicco1]

This was awesome. Can the next video focus on a post-rock pedal board?

[@timothyquinn4919]

Vox delay lab, Beringer hm2 clone and used sea machine. Bullshit go brrrrr

[@oemoem8446]

@@timothyquinn4919 bullshit go brrrrrr?

[@OlegUstimenko]

big muff clone > old blood noise dark star > boss dd6 > boss rv5

[@_MetaL]

ooh Andy! be sure to try the in-between setting with the switcher on the sf300! "fuzz 1.5" and "fuzz 2.5" textures for days when combined with your guitars vol and tone knobs!

[@therewasascene]

Oo indeed! I’ll have to let my friend who owns one know

[@gazeunderthesunmusic]

Brilliant video Andy 🙂 I love shoegaze and Dream pop they're my big influence in music, have you try the Fx 40 soft focus Catalinbread it's really good

[@gazeunderthesunmusic]

@music man the Loomer by Keeley is a shoegaze hidden gem, definitely worth getting

[@AndyDemos]

Thank you! I need to try the Soft Focus some time, it wasn't in the budget this time around obviously. Take care!

[@therewasascene]

@@gazeunderthesunmusic that thing is killer - such good sounds and options - and one of the first shoegaze in a box pedals of the wave in recent years I think

[@gazeunderthesunmusic]

@@therewasascene definitely

[@aneverflowingstream]

@@gazeunderthesunmusic do you think the loomer is a kinda niche type pedal? like the name obviously suggest mbv soundscapes and such which there is absolutely nothing wrong with that but the soft focus seems more "open" to other sounds if that makes any sense?

[@arydorrego2946]

Soda Stereo Dynamo Shoegaze 💗

[@edadpops1709]

This demo format, Has great merit.we all wonder what would happen if we put this pedal with that pedal.these days budget is important too

[@hectoreduardofuentealbapel7830]

The DSeed also allows to have 2 delays! has dual channel so, it's really a bang for buck

[@dt9r]

nice. I d like to add that part of SOME of most famous shoegaze sound has been made with a reverse reverb INTO distortion pedal

[@therewasascene]

I’m jealous of your deals and steals! You straight up nailed it. Buy a loomer to get started or a whole board for less! Haha love the loomer to death though. I was really happy to see the fab on here. My bassist let me borrow it and I was super impressed. Grabbed the delay for myself bc more delay :P 20 bucks? Okay :)

[@PedalExperiments]

This was great! Some really solid pedal choices here, especially the D-Seed V1 and Nu-X Oceanic. And of course everyone loves the Super Fuzz! All of these pedals are so much better than they have any right to be. 👍

[@timothyquinn4919]

Fab chorus is so underrated though.

[@benjaminfowler4513]

I love the fab chorus, imma have to cop another one. Shouldn't have sold the first one

[@dannydaniels3252]

I really like the Fab, are there any more versatile chorus pedals out there that can get that "detuned" "pitch shifting" sound? (aka- pedals that can give you a wider array of sounds)

[@beowulf1417]

Awesome concept and with brands like Joyo, Nux, Artist etc out there the options for bargain pedals (and music gear in general) that really deliver above their price are just getting better and better.

[@TheBadchord]

Excellent exercise ! Also remember, when you pay for an expensive pedal is not only the sounds as itself but also the quality during the time and for recording Trust me when I say that those cheap pedals (Amazings) after a period of time when you try to use it you'll find a "click click" noise that can affect EVERYTHING

[@drloqutis2492]

i have been building pedals boards like this for years, no cash!

[@tomblaze2]

That chorus 😮fit the genre much better than I expected

[@lordhammerwind]

Why?! It's a HUGE part of the sound...and has been since the late 80's. 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏿

[@TheUnknownBass]

@@lordhammerwind I'm pretty sure Tom is talking about that specific pedal, and not chorus pedals as a whole... Also, the precursors to shoegaze existed in the late 80's, but the style/social scene itself didn't really exist until the 90s.

[@lordhammerwind]

@@TheUnknownBass I THINK that you're missing my point. The seminal bands who pioneered the sound were doing so before the 90's. There may not have been a label slapped on it until 91' or so...but the sound was well established by a few bands at that point. Stop reading Wikipedia.

[@user-le7nf8iv4i]

Why do you have a 3 knob Jazzmaster? How is wired? How it works? I'm not gonna be able to sleep thanks to you Andy!

[@mma1st105]

I still donnt know what shoe gaze is but this sounds awesome.

[@CarlosVargas-cn7rx]

Perfect, I was earning for the Behringer Super Fuzz, now its price goes skyrocket and it will sell out in less than a week

[@HiGlowie]

It will stay cheap don’t worry

[@CarlosVargas-cn7rx]

@@HiGlowie I hope so, would be my best ever spent $30

[@willflint5014]

He forgot to mention the secret mode on the Super Fuzz.

[@HiGlowie]

What’s that?

[@willflint5014]

@@HiGlowie since the Behringer Super Fuzz has a slider switch instead of a rotary, you can get the switch to stick in between Fuzz 1 and Fuzz 2. Thus, having both modes at the same time or something like that. I have heard it explained better but that’s essentially what the secret mode does. Both fuzz settings at the same time, creating some nasty sounds. I have one and it sounds good.

[@darioconstain]

Great vid! And awesome playing! Thank u!

[@AlbinoTuxedo]

Is there any recommended way to set up the pedal order? I'm a newbie at guitar effects and this is a sound I very much want to emulate

[@Poketrainer92]

It looks like the pick ups were changed on that jazzmaster, what are those new pickups?

[@ReadyMindsetGo]

Look like P-90s of some kind to me

[@cletusburst4188]

got three of these five... all good pedals

[@draygosound]

Unexpected Star Roving? You've made my day! (I mean, more than usual!)

[@IamtheWV17]

awesome... though half the fun is collecting mental pedals XD.... The Shallow Water will forever be the most beautifully musical modulation pedal ever made.

[@SfordRog]

Extra picks...good one! 😂

[@ousley421]

Andy, sounds great.love it, why does reverb have such poor customer service? Not everyone has reliable Internet so a phone answered by a human would really be nice.

[@tomblaze2]

Great video 🎉

[@razorfrank37]

Love that guitar color

[@litup6465]

If you can actually hear the speed setting taking effect on that Fab chorus, than it’s probably up too far

[@anacoreta9381]

The Oceanic is absolutely GREAT, simple, really effective and space saver. Got it for 25 eu and its algorithm worths every bloody cent, a steal!

[@kebab_boi]

Omg I can’t believe they brought Kevin Shields for this😱😱😍😍

[@cristoff30]

Beautiful jazzmaster. I see the mastery bridge, but it also looks as if the pickups are not stock.

[@travisthornton1792]

This was really cool. Thank you!

[@guitarvaultstore8032]

If Andy was a pedal he would be the King of Tone.

[@CurtisC685]

Should you have input/output buffers with this set up?

[@russellzauner]

CONTEST? YES PLS There's a jar full of teeth It's been sittin' out all week And I wish I knew how many teeth were in it Though I'll look at it and I'll focus Because if your guess is closest Then you get to keep the jar--that's right you win it And there's nothing in the world that I couldn't do With that big 'ol batch of fangs in my life She'd be my wife Oh those teeth would complete me I would kiss each one so sweetly Oh how many teeth can be inside that jar

[@Zeonoid]

with harley benton 250 incl. guitar

[@ericlayton8888]

Man I've been wanting a Boneshaker for years, expecting them to shoot up on the used market now 😬 Awesome vid tho :)

[@goingferal7393]

But what of the tuning Andy, WHAT OF THE TUNING!?

[@dmac4793]

Andy goes Slummin....the Danelectro was ahhhhh NO...all others usable. Fun Video

[@pahwraith]

Mine is simpler. Ehx harazarai for 150 for proper reverse echo, reallg good regular echo and even a auto reverse tape setting for leads and an op-amp big muff or soviet big muff reissues for 100.

[@noname-ng6sj]

The D-Seed does what your worst memory man model does + more

[@pahwraith]

@@noname-ng6sj so its also a looper pedal like the ehx? Does it crucially, let me set the echoes increasingly louder than the original signal. Like the alesis midiverb could? Thats what most delays lack. The joyo only has a mix knob. The hazarai has seperate decay knob that lets you do that. Thats really the key to the kevin shields loveless sound.

[@G.GordonMidi]

@Pahwraith The Joyo does have a looper, and it has 2.5 minutes of loop time vs. 30 seconds with the Hazarai. And the D-Seed can do a cool tape style effect on the playback. The mix knob does the same thing as the blend knob on the EHX. You can make the repeats increasingly louder on 3 of the modes on the Hazarai, but that is in no way the "secret to Kevin Shields sound"

[@oqsy]

Lol the picks line got me

[@kcartwright2772]

What kind of amp or modeler is this feeding?

[@BrianOboylemusic]

I am here to say the orange fuzz from behringer is an awesome clean boost

[@therewasascene]

Yep. Found those settings but didn’t feel right using them with all that fuzz on tap 😂

[@faunoram]

Awesome video !!!

[@sassycat]

I'd like to see a surf genre pedalboard next.

[@timothyquinn4919]

Nice to see the fab chorus get some love, but you know the fab flanger exists right?

[@timothyquinn4919]

@ghost mall the fab flanger covers so much ground though, it gets a really cool ring modulator type sound. It's worth it for this alone not the mention the 20 other things it does. The fab chorus is still a great pedal. It has kicked a few other choruses off my board.

[@emiliomarquez2163]

I used to love my fab chorus but day it simply stopped working. If anyone has an idea of what to do pls tell me.

[@edadpops1709]

Picks. Right

[@dksouthpawatx]

Okay but what is that red guitar in the background??

[@whatwouldbatmando4130]

AWESOME VIDEO

[@pedrofreire6169]

that's a beautiful sunburst

[@scottcortez1313]

Maybe it’s time I make a budget shoegaze pedalboard video

[@willrobertsmith]

D seed is decent. Got mine for 30 bucks not on reverb of course..

[@tmoss89]

Good job

[@heavenly2k]

This is a great idea for a series. Would love to see a Djent pedalboard!

[@xxczerxx]

Don't think Andy really plays in that style. He loves shoegaze, 90s alternative and stoner rock.

[@virgilebeats3041]

we need tabs on that intro

[@briteboy6131]

First of all, under god Andy can do anything, so jot THAT down

[@patrickhaynes9315]

whats the amp?

[@neudan7788]

That was inspiring!!

[@louisravelino4040]

What the amps?

[@Adamnme01]

Britpop board next? Or a post Punk board?

[@benjaminwoodrowmusic6070]

9:02 is that a song or just made up?

[@willrobertsmith]

Those behringers are cheaper new than on reverb...

[@joermnyc]

My no budget take: Shin-ei/Univox Superfuzz of some type, or a Lovetone Big Cheese fuzz (🧀 gated mode!), Ibanez Sonic Distortion, Walrus Audio Julia or Juliana (if we’re going stereo), Boss Delay (any version works here), and an EQD Ghost Echo or Death By Audio Rooms for stereo. (Note I’ve actually owned, or at least had clones of all of these (except Rooms) at some point, but not at the same time.)

[@noname-ng6sj]

and it'll sound no better than this one, lol

[@joermnyc]

@@noname-ng6sj well ghost echo can do more than this one knob reverb.

[@TellEveryoneRecords]

If the question is "Can Andy Do It?" then the answer is always a resounding "YES."

[@adrianplaysguitar]

One question and I think you have already been asked more than once in your life. Why don't you use a guitar pick? Don't you feel a bit of difficulty playing certain genres without it? Do you use it for certain occasions?

[@CMHobbies]

Look up the video he made about it. He never uses a pick for anything. Chris Buck only uses his pick sparingly. Stephen Malkmus doesn’t use one at all either.

[@AndyDemos]

Hey Adrian, I made a vid explaining my fingerpicking technique here. Thanks! kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZeVZaBqratgiNE

[@AndyDemos]

@ghost mall Too bad!

[@lordmonfort]

Funk/synth bass.

[@9642SM7¹]

Outlaw country

[@boywonders]

So fuzz after the reverb, and distortion before it. Where would you put a gain pedal in a shoegaze board?

[@nicknickson3650]

Fuzz and distortion are gain pedals. Typically for shoegaze you have at least two reverb pedals. One goes before your fuzz/distortion, and one goes after it.

[@boywonders]

@@nicknickson3650 sorry, I meant overdrive! Like not necessarily distortion or fuzz but a boost!

[@nicknickson3650]

@@boywonders I dunno, I don't use boost. If I'm playing shoegaze my pedal board goes Tuner->compressor -> Reverb -> distortion -> chorus -> delay -> reverb #2 -> looper

[@boywonders]

@@nicknickson3650 ok gotcha. I only have one reverb pedal, and then my amp also has reverb, so my setup currently is tuner > compressor > wah (or fuzz if I swap it in) > reverb > overdrive > distortion > chorus

[@JulianA-tr6pt]

You can put anything anywhere really. Fuzz after reverb is more of a modern way of creating the blown out sound at reasonable volumes. MBV had the amps on 11, so it was in a sense distortion after effects. I still run fuzz/dist before reverb. It's a broad genre. You don't even "need" reverb at all to be considered "shoegaze". Half of loveless is just really distorted guitars on a very uniquely mixed and mastered album.

[@daddysentertainment5021]

Jesus and the mary chain on a budget! Their pedals are expensive af nowadays!

[@_MetaL]

DooM for 250 Next?

[@alansong775]

Just make an all Behringer board and you’re set.

[@arthurpiccio7906]

Shoegaze Pedalboard for $250? Without starting the video: Two zoom Multistomps and a Cuvave or something?

[@arthurpiccio7906]

@ghost mall what are you 12 or something?