So arrived at rehearsal and....

Fez

Shock horror and indigestion No pedalboard! 
Ahh it's still in the dining room.
Which amp have I brought? oh yes DSL401
Footswich? well for the Jet City Hmm.
So Digitech Blues Screamer to the rescue.
Actually got a good sound and enjoyed a break from tap dancing.

roberty

Yeah I did a couple of pop up style gigs last year with just a rat pedal, it really made me use the controls on the guitar (was an SG with A4 PAFs). I felt very clever afterwards lol

viz

I was called on to do an acoustic set recently and just took my nylon-strung acoustic guitar. It went surprisingly well apart from Eruption. 

Keefy

Mrs Keefy and I went to see Dale Watson last week and he was just playing a Tele into a Twin. Most of the time he wasn't even using the reverb as far as I could tell. Inspired by this, I just took my Squier Tele and my amp* to last night's open mic, where I was doing a short vocal set and then playing in the house band. No pedals - sounded great, nothing lacking.

*OK the amp is a Matchless. but it's the principle that counts!

Dan_Halen

I used to do the odd gig where I’d have to lug an amp, guitar and board through a field or something to get to the stage. Small festival or something similar. Obviously wanted to travel light. Would take a tubescreamer or something similar an a clip on tuner.

With a 2 channel amp and one pedal as a boost type thing you can easily get 4 sounds - clean, boosted with the pedal, channel 2 of the amp with some breakup and then pedal again for a lead sound. Even 1 channel, 1 pedal and use of the volume knob you can cover a wide range of gain. Usually easily enough for most gigs anyway.

Did feel quite liberating to not have to piss about with or worry about a whole board. Get a good core tone and just worry about playing.

Obviously depends on the type of gig/band situation though and for some gigs I’d feel lost without a whole board in front of me.

JDE

Screamin Blues is a great pedal. Excellent eq, large gain range and lots of volume on tap. Cleans up great with the guitar, too. Mixer out (which obv ain’t great but it’s better than plugging your guitar into thin air and cancelling a gig). Can be had for less than £20. Well worth keeping in a gig bag or whatever in case shit hits the fan. 

fastonebaz

I use a dsl401 and sometimes I rehearse with it

Musicwolf

A key moment is my, part time, musical 'career' was when I was in Japan on business.  I got taken to a 'Piano Bar', which is a cross between Karaoke and Open Mic, and had to perform.  There were a number of guitars hanging on the wall including an old Epiphone Casino (I'd never played one up until then) which I selected and plugged straight into a little Fender transistor combo.  I had to get up on stage and wing it (I was also singing).  Had a fantastic night and went back on another trip only to find out that I was a local celebrity with my picture on the wall.  I, of course, bought a Casino when I got home.

A good guitar, amp, effects etc make things better but you need to learn the basics of performance.  I can still remember the feeling of being stood there on that stage thinking 'there's no way back, it's sink or swim - start paddling!'

newi123

viz said:

I was called on to do an acoustic set recently and just took my nylon-strung acoustic guitar. It went surprisingly well apart from Eruption. 

Surely you treated them to Spanish Fly instead? 

Fez

It is good not to be too hung up on having loads of effects. Also it can be quite liberating playing without them. If we do a short set at a festival or something and I tailor the set to suit, the Jet City 50h and footswitch is all I need. 
I may even institute doing the odd rehearsal sans fx as it is always good to be prepared for eventualities.

ICBM

Some of my most rewarding playing and sounds - not necessarily the best, but the ones I'm most happy with being able to achieve - have been with borrowed gear or unexpected solutions to problems.

A couple of very memorable ones -

Arriving at a provided-backline gig and finding the promised "Fender Twin" was a (solid-state) Princeton Chorus - I used my Mesa V1 pedal into it and got one of the best tones I've ever had. I nearly went and bought a Princeton Chorus - I'm actually not quite sure why I didn't...

Arriving at an open mic where there was supposed to be an electric guitar amp, and finding that there wasn't one. DI'd my Rickenbacker straight into the PA and got a very nice electro-acoustic tone. It was so good I have now done this on purpose on several occasions.

slacker

My guitar playing history is that I've been playing for 40 years but the first 20 was acoustiç (and bass). So whilst I love, choose to use and own too many effects pedals I really don't have a problem not using any. 

The way I look at building a board or three for applications is what do I want and what options do I have? This obviously gives scope to buy more pedals. 

My current home board has two over drives, two synths, a trem and a reverb/delay.

My current band board has an overdrive and delay. 

Unless you are playing originals where the effects are integral to the song writing or a u2 tribute you won't need effects for all the songs. The question is what do I actually need?

Fez

Hence why I went down to a metro 20 recently.

dogload

Gawd, that happened to me a few weeks back. I was horrified as I didn't have any pedals whatsoever - my board is quite large and I usually use loads of delays - and had to rely on my amp (Laney Cub 15W head) which fortunately has a pre-amp gain control and my guitar's volume knob.

I felt like I was tightrope walking naked, but it sounded surprisingly good (apart from the lack of all my swathes of ambience) and the only bit that sounded a bit duff was one where I have a loop of glissando guitar going over part of a song.

Not going to do it again though!

BintyTwanger77

I’ve only got 4 pedals on my board at the moment, and only really use them sparingly: in fact, I’m mostly just playing clean with a bit of reverb these days, but twatting around with the H9 is still huge amounts of fun.

PolarityMan

BintyTwanger77 said:

 I’m mostly just playing clean with a bit of reverb these days, 

I can see the appeal but I find the brutal bits lose a certain something....

BintyTwanger77

PolarityMan said:

BintyTwanger77 said:

 I’m mostly just playing clean with a bit of reverb these days, 

I can see the appeal but I find the brutal bits lose a certain something....

I like playing brutal, but can't really because housemates.

Mark1960

JDE said:

Screamin Blues is a great pedal. Excellent eq, large gain range and lots of volume on tap. Cleans up great with the guitar, too. Mixer out (which obv ain’t great but it’s better than plugging your guitar into thin air and cancelling a gig). Can be had for less than £20. Well worth keeping in a gig bag or whatever in case shit hits the fan. 

+1 For the Screamin Blues. I've had one for several years, and was until I bought a Thorpy Gunshot, my only drive pedal. I now use it on my slide guitar, as it gives a lovely over driven sound with plenty of punch when coupled up with a Tele with humbuckers.