Simple pedalboard for Dad with dementia

mrdv

Hi everyone,

Apologies in advance if anything like this has come up before. I have done a quick search but nothing jumps out and this is my first post. 

My my dad has played guitar for 30 odd years now and has kept his setup largely the same. 

Sadly he now has dementia and whilst he is ok setting up his guitar and amp he struggles to use his zoom multi effects unit as he finds it very confusing. 

His amp is a solid state Fender Deluxe 112 with 2 channels, 1 clean and 1 gain channel with inbuilt reverb.

For his birthday I was thinking of putting together a basic pedalboard so that he can still get a range of sounds but with the simple and visible on/off ease of use of a pedalboard. Alternatively I may consider a multi fx unit that is easy to use but I’m not sure if anything will be straightforward enough. 

What suggestions does does anyone have for a 4 pedal board? I would also like to try and keep to a single brand of pedals if possible as this could keep things a bit more consistent when changing pedals.

Thanks for any help you can give!

simonk

What about a Carl Martin Quattro? All essential bases covered and simple as you like to use.

Roland

Boss tuner, chorus and drive. Actually there are many other drives which are the same size and shape as a Boss.

After that it depends what type of music he plays, and what effects he uses. Wah, tremolo, phaser, flanger and rotary spring to mind.

Roland

If you don't mind me asking, how old is he? There must be more than one of us here who will be facing this situation at some point in the future.

jpttaylor

Maybe something like the Mooer Red Truck? It's a really straight forward multi-effect with everything clearly labelled. They're not overly expensive I don't think, not sure if there will be many second hand ones about.

Edit - Red Truck, not Fire Truck.

pintspiller

What kind of music would he play? This may help us pick pedals. Does the amp have reverb?

Tuner / overdrive/distortion / chorus/phaser / delay/reverb

to me this is my standard basic setup.

dindude

Try the budget range from TC Electronic, they are about £50 a pop, there's something there for every sound and the ones I've tried (such as the Afterglow Chorus) sound really good, they seem robust, and are very simple to use.

guitarfishbay

Have you asked him what he thinks will make it easier for him?

It might be that having different shaped and coloured pedals for each effect might help? 

So maybe his tuner could be a Korg, his overdrive could be a Boss, his chorus could be a TC electronics etc.

Just ideas.  Only suggesting because even pedals of the same brand don't always have the knobs in the same place on each pedal, so it might be easier if they're more clearly different.

VJIves

jpttaylor said:

Maybe something like the Mooer Fire Truck? It's a really straight forward multi-effect with everything clearly labelled. They're not overly expensive I don't think, not sure if there will be many second hand ones about.

I think this is a fantastic suggestion.

mrdv

Thanks for all of the suggestions. 

My Dad is 69 this year. He mainly plays 60s stuff like the Beatles, Kinks and Animals but also likes Clapton and SRV.

I think separate pedals might be better as like guitarfishbay suggested the different colours avoids any confusion. 

His amp has reverb which I think he leaves on most of the time. 

Thanks everyone. 

ThePrettyDamned

This is rather touching.

I'll look through my collection and see if there is something I can let go for cost of postage for you. Not sure what I have or if it's worth having, but I'll let you know. 

ThePrettyDamned

My suggestion for those tones is probably to go for a yellow overdrive pedal (od3 is probably a good bet), a blue chorus pedal and an orange or red distortion pedal. I'm not only suggesting boss - loads of products on the market have similar colour coding.

An od3, df2, ce3 and a tuner wouldn't cost the earth and make for a great sounding, quality and reliable board with huge switches that are easy to hit and hard to break. 

ThePrettyDamned

Unfortunately my last clear out has left me spare-less.

However, it's a great idea - I would go with boss as they are the easiest pedals to use, reliable for accidental drops (built like a brick) and colour coded for extra clarity. 

mrdv

Hi ThePrettyDarned,

Thanks for the very kind gesture either way. 

I'm going to look at boss, tc electronic and Mooer as suggested by everyone here.

Probably going to go for a blues overdrive/overdrive, chorus, tuner and maybe a delay. 

Dominic

The Mooer 4 pedal pack in its own little case/board or the Danelectro Cool Cat one
Don't be put off by price they are extremely good and exceptional for the money and ease of use.

mgaw

i have a few peoples sitting doing nowt one of which is a delay CTC time  which you can dial in easily enough and its red also have a CTC stardust which is a lovely blackface voiced overdrive pedal its jet Black if they are of interest let me know. Happy to let them go for a very good price if that helps  say £65 inc postage for both

Teetonetal

Don't get many. Go boss. Nice big footswitches and good range of colours. Easy controls. Built well too.

Get a tu3 if he needs a tuner.
Bd2 would be my drive of choice.
Sd1 for more oomph if required.

Do you know what fx he was using on his zoom?

mrdv

Thanks for the offer mgaw but I think I am going to go for Boss pedals as suggested by many on here with the boss Pedal board. 

Not very exciting but nice and simple!

Ro_S

I suggest V2 series and 'garagetone' series by Visual Sound.   
Each pedal has its own single, solid colour and clearly states the type of effect on them.   
The V2 series has plenty of single effect pedals; not just the dual ones.   
Both series are discontinued but the V2 can be had easily on ebay and the V2 ones especially are extremely sturdy.

A Visual Sound V2 series pedalboard could comprise:

• 66 Compressor (white)
• 808 Overdrive (green)
• Open Road Overdrive (yellow)
• Son of Hyde Distortion (red)
• Angry Fuzz (orange)
• Liquid Chorus (blue)

http://tonequestshop.com/data/cheditor4/1008/U8RdJe4gmgDTYXX4yUaHR9NYwK.jpg

http://www.dv247.com/assets/news/dv247/garagetone.jpg

viz

I've got one of these ibanez pedal boards (they fit boss pedals too). It's great for OD, delay and chorus for example. 

https://reverb.com/item/19506-ibanez-pedal-board-w-3-tone-lok-pedals

MattBanshee

If you end up with any pedals with the standard 3PDT style stomp buttons, you could fit them with the Mooer Candy footswitch toppers, which come in a pack of 10 assorted (very bright) colours, which could help differentiate which pedal is which.

I'd also suggest using a simple in-a-row pedalboard such as the Pedaltrain Nano or the Diago Sprinter, to keep things in as simple a layout as possible.