4 Reasons to Use Single Pedals

1.Freedom of Choice.

With single pedals you are free to mix and match any combination of pedals you want by any manufacturer in the world.

This is a huge plus point as there are often many similar types of pedals available from different manufactures.

Take the overdrive pedal for example.

To this day guitarists all over the world still debate regarding which is the ultimate overdrive pedal, from the classic Tubescreamer by Ibanez, the more boutique OCD by Fulltone, the budget friendly Bad Monkey by Digitech or the more low key Blues Driver by Boss.

Pedals are a very personal thing in the world of guitars as they contribute to a player’s individual sound, hence having the advantage of being at liberty to handpick every tone and effect on their pedalboard as well as the order of which they are arranged will always be something a guitarist cherishes.

2. Adaptable Pedalboard Size

Say you’re going for a small show and only need a tuner, overdrive and delay or compressor. With single pedals consider it done.

Say you’re going overseas for a gig and you can’t fit your pedalboard into your luggage. Once again only with single pedals can you shrink your pedal board and adapt it to fit a situation.

This is a big advantage when thinking of big clunky multi effects units that cannot be dismantled or shrunk down in any way such as a the Boss GT 100 or the Line 6 PodHD 500

3.More Easily Maintainable

Speaking from the experience of someone who has used multi effects for a number of years, as a multi effects unit starts to wear down a few issues become very apparent.

If one particular button or physical pedal on your multi effects unit breaks down that takes out quite a large percentage of your pedals.

In the case of single pedals however if your delay pedal stops responding that is the the end of your problems, unlike with multi effects where that particular button may also be used to activate other functions that may be vital to you.

4. Customisability

Single pedals often offer more options for tweaking compared to multi effects, this allows you to better customise your sound and refine it.

Traditional single pedals are also capable of being modified as was rumoured to have been done by many of the greats of our era.

The rigidity of multi effects in this sense leaves much to be decided for guitarists who are used to being free to tweak and/or mod their pedals

And that’s 4 reasons to use single pedals! What type of pedals do you use? If it’s single pedals, what’s your set up?

Tell us in the comments section!