This is a small, no-frills pedalboard for players who like to keep it simple or for players who need a setup that’s ready to go when they get a last-minute call for a gig. It’s just enough to get you through the gig.

First, you need yourself a solid power source, and in this case, we recommend the Mini MXR® Iso-Brick™ Power Supply. It’s just the right size for our purposes, and it’ll provide more than enough juice. The first pedal in the chain is the MXR Phase 95, which gives you four different phase options in a mini housing for some nice texture and coloration to your tone. Next up is the MXR Super Badass® Distortion, a super versatile dirt box that covers a whole range from dirty boost to crushing distortion. Finally, the MXR Carbon Copy® Mini Delay provides those classic warm repeats and spatiality while keeping things tight and tidy on your pedalboard.

This pedalboard is all about covering the basics with just enough options to experiment and indulge your creativity. Here, we go with the MXR Iso-Brick Power Supply, which has more than enough outputs and the power to handle more demanding pedals. A staple of many genres, the vocal and expressive Cry Baby® Wah starts off this board’s chain. The MXR Dookie™ Drive Pedal comes next for your classic amp stack distortion sound, followed by the MXR Timmy® Overdrive for when you want a nice boost or just a little bit of grit in your tone. For iconic modulation sounds, we’re going with the MXR Analog Chorus, which gives you syrupy power ballad tones when clean or super textured and ethereal riffs when distorted. Finally, the Echoplex® Delay provides vintage tape echo sounds with a hi-fi analog dry path. We’ve got it connected to an MXR Tap Tempo Switch so that you can tap in your beat for the repeats to follow.

Alright, busy players, this one’s for you. Say you’ve got a Friday night gig with your cover band, a Saturday night gig for your original work band, and bright and early Sunday morning, you’re handling six-string duties at church. If you’re playing that many shows over a three-day span, you probably won’t want to spend your downtime swapping pedals in and out of your pedal chain. We put together a group of pedals that’s comprehensive enough to be more or less multi-purpose.

Once again, we’re powering our board with the MXR Iso-Brick Power Supply for its high number of outputs and its plentiful power. The CAE Wah goes first, providing two different wah voices—one warm, the other bright and aggressive—along with built-in boost circuit and controls to tailor the sound of the pedal to the needs of your gig. In the gain department, we’re bringing plenty of options. First, the MXR Octavio® Fuzz is for when you need to break out some sizzling, synth-like saturation. Next, the MXR EVH® 5150® Overdrive provides hyperdriven amp stack tones with a three-band EQ, a boost, and a noise gate so that you can have it the way you like it. The MXR Timmy Overdrive is back again to cover the inevitable need for impeccable sounding pedal overdrive, while the MXR Booster gives you a ton of extra gain with a little tonal sweet sauce on it for good measure. We chose the Way Huge® Supa-Puss™ Analog Delay for your time-based needs—it has a ton of features for customizing the tone and behavior of your repeats, including an onboard tap tempo switch. The MXR Reverb avails you of six different reverb styles, and when combined with the Supa-Puss Delay will take you way out there on Saturday night so that you can bring back the angelic atmospherics for Sunday. The last pedal in this chain is the Volume (X)™ Pedal for when the singer complains about how loud you are, or in case you want to control the Supa-Puss Delay pedal’s delay time.

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These are just starting points, and an infinite number of arrangements exist before, between, and after the three different examples in this article. As always, experiment with these suggestions to find the best solutions to your specific needs.