What Gear Should You Invest In?

Episode 31: What Gear Should You Invest In?
Welcome to the Chairmen of the Boards Podcast! The ultimate pedalboard podcast with the foremost rig builders in the world: Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio), Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio), and Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects/The Rig Doctor). We've teamed up to democratize great tone and provide you with our best tricks, tips, resources and hacks so you can build the pedalboard of your dreams!
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//HOSTS//
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#pedalboard #ChairmenOfTheBoards #guitarpedals

[@charlesb7831]

I used a old mxr power brick for 20 years, And recently switched over to a Cioks power supply kit. Came with the two power blocks and all the cables. Amazing power supply and cleaned up some noise I couldn't get rid of. Awesome investment!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Sounds great!

[@jacobpittman1996]

I can’t believe it’s already been 31 episodes!! Thank you, Chairmen, for all the work. Btw, I now only use triple filtered and isolated power supplies!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Hahaha!

[@samuellbronkowicz]

been watching a stack of your chairmen of the boards episodes and loving it! been a great learning lesson and different perspectives on various topics. keep up the fantastic work guys!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Glad to hear it!

[@loganmcgee18]

People who complain about the ads of free content that they can even fast forward through... Are why a video like this is necessary, lol. Keep it up, guys. And in case you haven't make sure during the editing process you are cutting up clips and posting them as Clips. Make sure they're longer than :31 seconds or youtube can't monetize them, meaning youtube won't push them. Look forward to more

[@robertfalconer5054]

My Pedalboard is a Waggi W34 Awesome Multi Level Board. Was Put together by Goodwood Audio, Thanks Grant & Chippo. They Recoed the Strymon Zuma, Absolute Fantastic Power Supply.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Sounds great!

[@michael_caz_nyc]

I love the Waggi. I have the 28" - very happy with it.

[@whodunitpros8555]

My first paddleboard investment was a vertex paddleboard and a CIOKS power supply recommended by the doctor!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Very nice!!!

[@Aja-nt]

The CIOKS power supplies are faultless. Great product.

[@zaddyzalez]

Thoughts on Mission Engineering 529i rechargeable power supply? Not really a cheap power supply but would it be worth purchasing?

[@MassacreVegan]

I’ve gotta say, I use exclusively Harley Benton power supplies, and they’ve been excellent. I’ve never had any issues. But I also wouldn’t consider their products to be bottom tier, price wise. You’re probably not going to have a good experiencing buying some unbranded box on Amazon.

[@Prettynoise]

Saving for one of your travel lite pedalboards

[@guyfawkes7041]

Great Episode and Topic. However, a few-too-many Sponsorship Interruptions during these Episodes now... One at the Start, another at the End is ok and acceptable - just not every 5mins or so (that's what it felt like!)

[@VertexEffectsInc]

We're trying to find the balance of sponsorships to pay for the production of the podcast each week with what our audience can reasonably tolerate. Would you're preference be to pay $4.99/mo for an ads free version on Patreon?

[@ekdguitar123]

@@VertexEffectsInc It was fine. Not sure what Guy Fawkes was complaining about. You explained why. you have them and why you need them and besides, they're all good companies that many of us players might actually need and use! Whiners annoy me - nothing wrong with a paid version but some of us are busy and can't watch them with the regularity that paying monthly would require. Although I would pay it anyway to support you guys - but either way, the whining! Sounds like noise on a pedalboard! Lol! Bottom line - and sorry for this rant - that complaint got to me because you guys are doing a great job and the commercials were direct to the point and useful and needed to support you so bottom line - great job and keep up the great work!

[@ekdguitar123]

Lot's of a-ha moments - thanks for your thoughts - very valuable - we appreciate it

[@joenosser]

Much Enjoyed Boys!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Glad you dig it!

[@thesoundpurist]

still have my Carl Martin compressor modded with 2 9volts input that I don't use but I'll never sell it. Sounds great, even though I'll use it once in 2 years lol can't justify the $$$ for my ChaseBliss preamp mkii but it produces the best od in my opinion, very tube like. Not so much into fuzz but with lower volume it shows quality in clarity and harmonics... another piece of gear that I own almost as a collector. My Suhr custom S in my CAA PT100 does everything to the point I forget my effects and gear.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Nice!

[@gpunkvideo]

Anyone could survive with their: - American Strat of Choice - MXR Timmy( 1 or 2) - Fender Mustang Micro/ or - Pre-Amp pedal & Power Amp pedal of choice! Anything else is vanity fr

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Hmmmm....

[@gpunkvideo]

Don’t believe a word I wrote down on my last comment! Just let me say: I just keep watching Jimihendrix, SRV, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Jake Kiska, Jimmy Page, BB King, cory wong, and Eric Johnson; to name a few of these “guitarists-scenarios” and what I see is that they focus 99% of their time on their playing; Not their pedalboards!! And their technique keeps blowing my head off! every single day! They own their craft back and forth, I mean I love pedals, I own like 100, don’t get me wrong! However, I hope you feel where I’m coming from🤓🤘🎸!! Did that make any sense 🤔

[@offtheleashman]

last year i kept hearing about donner pedals and i've always had pedals like electro-harmonix, but once i saw tomo fujita say they were good i just bought a bunch of types of pedals that i'd wanted for years just to have them. so far they've all been great, but i hadn't plugged them in for a while this year and i think my 10 year old 1spot power supply has died because none of the pedals are working including the old brand name pedals

[@boseefusmacmurphy1156]

I have bought so many $10-20 pedals. I've paid 10x or better. My favorite pedals are a china klone and a tc Rusty fuzz. I use a $30 bbe boost . My delta lab delay is a good space ship delay. And a Beringer compressor I almost never use for guitar all well under $50 used. I've had many cables that cost around that.. if it sounds good play it! If you rarely use chorus why spend the $ when any chorus will probably do? Save the money. You play a musical instrument, you'll find a way to spend it later!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

You can sometimes get away with cheaper pedals, however, best not to do it with power supplies or cables.

[@boseefusmacmurphy1156]

@@VertexEffectsInc to be fair, I kinda suck.. thanks for the reply

[@cloudredgrave5771]

Great vid, learned a lot from this episode 😎👍🏼

[@gschreibministries]

I use an older SKB pedal board with built in power supply and ac outlets. Do you think this power supply is adequate? I use the ac for my big sky and timeline, the built in power supply for everything else. I did get excessive noise when recording at the Soundhouse in Redding but usually it’s fine.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

NO, those are awful! You want a isolated supply.

[@onewiththings]

Congrats Mason!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Thanks for watching!

[@gregrush8237]

Radial JDX Direct-Drive works well as an amp/cab sim pedal.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Cool!

[@cchavez248]

My takeaway: Cheap pedals are usually okay, spend on good cables , power supply, switcher and all the down-low stuff that the average guitarist overlooks!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Yep!

[@Wantar]

My takeaway - Ask yourself a question? Are you professional player or is it a hobby? If that's your job (either in band or solo) and that's your main source of income, don't go cheap. Buy good, brand name pedals, power supply, good cables, pedalboard, amp and of course, good guitar. But if guitar is your free time fun, and a hobby and I'm in that category, don't be crazy. You don't even need Fender or Gibson, less alone all fancy Boss/tc eletronic,/Ciok stuff. I have only chinese pedals (distortion, overdrive, chorus, reverb, delay, looper, fuzz/boost, auto-wah, flanger, looper/tuner). On Yamaha Pacifica 112V plugged into little Fender Frontman 10G. Pedals are on relatively cheap Harley Benton Spaceship 60 pedalboard, powered by Mooer MicroPower supply. Everything works like a charm, costs nothing (AliExpress) and if one day one of the pedals just dies, I don't care, I'll order new one for 20$. I'm not on a gig, I don't depend on my gear working flawlessly 24/7, although so far it does. Just that one question needs to be answered. Is it your work or hobby? Ok, if you're wealthy collector, take brand ones for added value, but otherwise...

[@cchavez248]

@@Wantar That is goid advice, but I wouldn't call that a takeaway from this video. I do appreciate your input though. I would like to add a few things to that though. First, I understand that you have built a budget rig but I own that amp and had used it when I started, that amp sounds terrible! Surely , I would hope that you had other amps; a Katana or a Monoproce 5 watter would both be huge improvements on that amp. Other than that, you've chosen wisely, much more wisely than I did when I started playing. After the g 10, I went crazy and bought a Laney AIR 50, heaviest boat anchor I could find cheap, that was too loud for any gig in New Mexico. Next, I bought a Budda Superdrive 30. That sounded great but it still sounded crap until you peeled the paint off of the walls. I finally bought a Laney LC15, that was the sweet spot! It doesn't have a heavy duty build but it was $300 for an all tube 110 combo that sounded great, especially after upgrading to a THD 10 speaker. I'm glad that you are happy with your rig but just consider upgrading that amp, you'll thank me.

[@Wantar]

@@cchavez248 Absolutely agree on the amp. And I'm planning to change it. I'm rarely able to play loud cause I'm in residential building and some people suggested Harley Benton's Tube 15 sounds good and has a cool 1W switch to bring everything down to my usual level. 😂 You accumulated some nice gear there. I kinda like having a diversity. I would rather have three budget guitars, all in different tuning then one expensive. If I won a jackpot though, I would have all the best gear, of course. 😂

[@Wantar]

@@cchavez248 And I can thank you anyway, because although amp is on my list, it's still a good advice. Thx.

[@DavidCaris]

I own a bunch of high-end pedals. I have had my Wampler pedal at their authorized facility repaired 2 times for bad switches. It happens even to premium gear. My few cheap pedals sound and perform really well. If I were gigging all the time I might have a different opinion. Most musicians don't punish their gear or tour. Few actually make any real money. That's not to say they aren't great players. People want to fool around and experiment with sounds. A Behrenger or Mooer pedal might be the tools they need if they sound great. I prefer/own USA made gear and own lots of vintage gear but my Joyo and Mooer pedals fill a need.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Parts can fail, no doubt, but Wampler failures would be an anomaly. You might have just got unlucky. There are many aspects to cheaper pedals that would fail outside of the footswitch from the PCB, to Jacks, on down. Also, good luck getting them to repair as Wampler did.

[@kevinschmitt4050]

Look boys I drive a Mercedes and live in a trailer. If I want an all Strymon board with a budget power supply and no solder connections then I’m going to do that.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Hahahaha!

[@nathanararal446]

Am I the only one who’s never had issues with Velcro… I don’t like that duel lock it holds it sooo tight

[@MitchellSpille]

You roast harley benton power supplies, and rightfully so. But man. I've got two harley benton basses (p and a 5 string PJ), upgraded pickups and all electronics, and they get gigged all the time..they sound and feel awesome. I always get compliments on my satin black p from harley benton. It's awesome!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

I can't speak to the basses.

[@MitchellSpille]

@@VertexEffectsInc They're so cool! I've got expensive instruments as well, but I enjoy these a lot still!

[@WorshipGuitarSound]

You mentioned you are not trying to make money on this podcast, you should. It is important to make money giving value to us. No need to apologize for that!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Right now we're trying to break even - we'll start there LOL!

[@mikem668]

Very little info here. When stuff sucks, like fake velcro and dual-lock, they don't tell you which pedalboard company uses it. By the way, I bought a Cioks DC-7 partly based on a Mason video. I've also tried the Behringer amp sim pedal. I found it interesting. But I also bought a UA Woodrow and Dream and probably the Ruby.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

How would you have had us lay out the information differently?

[@mikem668]

@@VertexEffectsInc I think you organize it better in your own videos. I'm not a professional. I'm a bedroom player who returned to guitar during the pandemic. You made a comment about how we all do dumb stuff as we learn. I believe, or at least take it seriously, when the three of you agree on a claim. But if you don't elaborate by identifying the "well-known" X, W, and Z it's less useful. I can ask my Sweetwater guy, but it's way more helpful if I know what to avoid by name, not just why. Otherwise it's top much like insider knowledge, or nudge-nudge, wink-wink. And I'm not an insider. Also, it's fairly obvious to me that you had strong feelings about what you can save on and what you can't. Since there was such wide agreement, to be expected, it felt like open-ended questions were the wrong approach. Unlike the video on each of your rigs, I felt this one wandered. And there were more ads than I've ever seen anywhere. Times are tough, I get it. So overall, the signal to noise (or boredom) ratio was low, perhaps less than 1. I suspect that's because the question was "bad" in a group context in that it didn't generate a real discussion. I suppose learning about the two fake products that fail will benefit me in the long run. But I could summarize those points in a sentence. Since I took your advice on the DC-7 and plan on buying the DC-8 - along with your buffer advice - I didn't completely follow the serial discussion, which was over my head. Anyway, the conundrum for the channel is this... I like all three of you, but discussion works better when there's a real question and a difference of opinion.

[@livekaos]

That’s true! I can’t build pedals for this price at home! If I’m building a overdrive type of pedal it will cost me 75 to 100€

[@VertexEffectsInc]

And then there is your labor.

[@testpattern098765432]

Good conversation, but the ads have gotten out of control 😮😅

[@ezymarquez5521]

Hahahahahaha more ads than content

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Thanks for the feedback! We're trying to balance the ads with ensuring that we can break even with the production costs to do weekly podcasts. Your feedback is helpful so we can find a middle ground, or potentially even offer an ad free version for a small charge on Patreon.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Not exactly, 12 mins of ads for 60 mins of content. If you're watching cable TV you're getting a higher ratio.

[@TheFreakazoid89]

Great show guys! My opinion on cheap pedals is that Chinese industry in general is way behind in the quality control area. That's a very expensive subject to consider, expecially in the music instruments world. Chinese way of engineering and manifacturing almost doesn't consider at all the quality control on a final product: that's why you can try 10 mooer green mile, they all will sound basically like a Ts9 but at least 1 of them will have some issues (ground loop, interferences with other pedals, mechanics failures).

[@VertexEffectsInc]

I think it still depends on the objective, high quality stuff can be made in China. Apple products for example. I think it just depends on the objective of the company contracting the product and the price point they want to hit. Cheap stuff has to cut form somewhere. That could be parts quality, labor, QC (which feeds into labor).

[@TheFreakazoid89]

@@VertexEffectsInc Thx for answering! I agree with you. Anyway the companies I meant are not the american/european/japanese based ones. These companies engineer and check their products' quality in their own country, with the highest level of protocols. And this brings to a very long-lasting consistency through the years.

[@phililpb]

for the guy sitting at home and only playing for himself cheap gear is still better than no gear

[@micktheman6]

Tc boss mxr ehx make great affordable stuff I don’t understand why people complain they can’t find good priced pedals power supply is like 200 cables are like 100 i don’t see why a person with a decent job can’t afford that.

[@serranodavid3247]

Pun intended, I suffer from OCD, now there's the SOLDANO overdrive pedal....? Please help....

[@VertexEffectsInc]

I've heard it's good - I have an SLO so no reason for me to get one.

[@schaffner555]

Late to the party, but another great show.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Thanks for watching!

[@derickpower]

I found the podcast really interesting but too many adds I didn’t finish it because of that

[@VertexEffectsInc]

We're trying to find a balance that gets the production paid for but doesn't overwhelm that listener/viewer. If you'd be interested, we may be releasing an ad-free version on Patreon in the near future.

[@jacobpittman1996]

Carol of the wails!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Ha

[@mrmooch2163]

Little excessive with the ad breaks imo. Good job getting them but every 5-7 minutes sucks when you pay for KZbin premium lol

[@VertexEffectsInc]

The podcast has to get its own sponsorships separately from KZbin in order to pay for weekly episodes and production costs. We may end up having an ad free version that appears on Patreon in the near future.

[@cchavez248]

1/3 of the video and y'all have only mentioned the yellow comp and a super-expensive switcher? Oy vey!

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Ha!

[@sonofploppy]

Should start promoting ftx

[@VertexEffectsInc]

What's that?

[@ekdguitar123]

@@VertexEffectsInc Another whiner - everything they promoted was relevant to guitar players. I don't understand the whiners or the sarcasm. I have to say, all 3 of you have great attitudes and I for one appreciate the info. The breaks for commercials were reasonable in length, number and content. Thanks!

[@scottstetzer]

Amount and frequency of commercials made this unwatchable, Had to bail.

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Did our best to fit them in to be the least disruptive possible. If you want to have fewer ads becoming a supporting member is the easiest way to help us do that. You can join us on Patreon, send us a Super Chat, there are many ways to support if you find the ads to be gratuitous.

[@scottstetzer]

@@VertexEffectsInc no

[@destroso]

Behringer pedals are amazing, buy them

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Not well built though.

[@destroso]

@@VertexEffectsInc I’ve had mine for years and not a single failure and they sound awesome. You can make a whole pedalboard for the price of one boutique pedal and then replace them as you see fit, if you even feel the need

[@denniscoverband4369]

Too much shilling brothers

[@PondoSinatra680]

There is alot but it’s easy to ff. Somebody has to pay for these vids, right?

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Did our best to fit them in to be the least disruptive possible. If you want to have fewer ads becoming a supporting member is the easiest way to help us do that. You can join us on Patreon, send us a Super Chat, there are many ways to support if you find the ads to be gratuitous.

[@denniscoverband4369]

@@VertexEffectsInc totally appreciate the free advice and expertise on this platform. The chairmen definitely give out knowledge and I understand your viewpoint. Fewer ads disrupting the flow would be great, it’s too bad that gets in the way of the great stuff you guys have to impart.

[@ItsSadButDrew]

You guys should quit cheaping out on your pop filters, especially Grant. Those plosives are acceptable from a podcaster who doesn’t do audio for a living. but guys….

[@Jazman342]

This is such a completely and utterly annoying video. After sitting through a rather longwinded commercial for a totally unrelated online service, followed by further longwinded justification for such crass commercialism, in total about the first 6 1/2 minutes of my time wasted, we finally get to 6 minutes of content. Then, out of the blue we get more crass advertising. I pay a subscription to KZbin in order to avoid advertising. What do I get? A whole lot of advertising packaged as content. This makes day time television look good. Lift your game fellas. As to the actual topic of conversation here, and no I'm not going to bother with this or any more of your videos, most people in the real world starting on a path of pedal board builds and upgrades do not buy 25 Strymon pedals and power them via a daisy chain. That's such an insult to anybody's intelligence. Most start with a few cheap and/or 2cnd hand pedals, maybe trying the odd multi-effect here and there. I've done that for years and after buying a few good single pedals, start looking into pedal boards. The biggest point here is that nothing, including pedals, is likely to remain after a few years. Everything is a compromise with some components being better and longer lasting. Even the board itself. Another point, given the initial focus on power supplies. Is a Power Supply that was the best you could buy 5 years ago still the best? Will the best you can buy now still be the best in 5 years time? Get real.

[@sergiomeza1783]

Nice ads

[@VertexEffectsInc]

Did our best to fit them in to be the least disruptive possible. If you want to have fewer ads becoming a supporting member is the easiest way to help us do that. You can join us on Patreon, send us a Super Chat, there are many ways to support if you find the ads to be gratuitous.