u/No-Chance-3892

Clearly I have a favorite pedal brand. I’m in flux trying to decide my next board layout and decided to take a pic of all these since they’re not in-place yet.

My story with Electronic Audio Experiments (EAE):

I saw the Longsword on a pedalboard or two (years ago) and noticed that it had a special clarity while being heavy and distorted. That intrigued me to check one out for myself. They were sold out too quickly for me to have the cash set aside to get one.

EAE came out with pedals since then obviously, and really wanted to see what those were. The Citadel and 0xEAE Fuzz were my first EAE pedals in my possession. I had some pretty excellent gain pedals before, but adding the Citadel to my chain made a world of difference as a preamp stage between my guitar other gain pedals and amp. Of course, pairing the 0xEAE Fuzz into the Citadel was mind boggling. This was the most powerful sounding octave fuzz I had ever used and immediately became one of my top two fuzzes! My favorite fuzz at that point was (and still is) my Reeves Electro Guitar Pedals 2n2Face. I was over the moon when Markus Reeves was on That Pedal Show singing the praises of the fuzz and even saying it was his current favorite fuzz!🤯

Since then, I’ve been totally hooked to EAE and have only strayed to get the Normal Devices Decay Cascade (which is nearly impossible for me to turn off). Each of them have their specialties and quirks. I’m having a really difficult time from just making an EAE board at this point. Maybe John will design a tuner too?🤔 Needless to say, I did end up acquiring the Longsword, and I was not disappointed one bit. It’s excellent at both low and high gain. The thing that is truly the most shocking about it though is that it has worked seamlessly with every guitar and amp I have paired it with.

The latest addition is chase bliss x EAE Big Time. I’ve only had it for a day, but it’s the one pedal outside of a multi-fx where it and a midi switcher could probably be a whole rig. For me, the interaction model is so different from other delays when trying to create a sound. It feels totally different than the Strymon Timeline. I was concerned that there might be too much overlap, but they honestly don’t feel/sound the same at all. You can essentially design any delay you can think of in Big Time, but the Timeline is more like the tweakable “greatest hits” of delay sounds. Also, the sound quality of Big Time is insane. I want to just record it direct or leave it on all the time to make everything sound better. To me it’s totally worth it! I played differently than I normally do for four hours just exploring sounds and freaked put at what time it was when I decided to put the guitar down.😂

If anyone is interested in any of these pedals and has questions, please feel free to ask! I slowly acquired them, so these weren’t impulse purchases, and I promise I’m not a shill!🤣🤣🤣

Pedal List:

Back row

-Longsword

-Citadel

-EAE X Mask Audio Electronics Eldritch Blast!

-Model feT

-Halberd

Front row

-0xEAE Boost

-Big Time

-0xEAE Fuzz

(Picture for attention)
I’m somewhat struggling with making decisions on a board build and had a breakthrough the other day that kind of bugged me. If I removed one of my favorite pedals, the board all fit perfectly and made a cohesive statement/identity. If I kept it on, everything got a little more cramped and required some odd placement to make things work.

So, I’m curious how many of you have a favorite pedal that you’ve taken off your board in order to improve it or if you have favorites that live on a shelf and only sometimes get chained together with your other gear.

Overall, I’m just struggling to put something moderate together instead of going full maximalist, which would require a new board, PSU, etc.😂

I’m curious whether or not this is something that comes up a lot for others.

I promise I’m not an EAE shill, I just really love John Snyder’s creations!

I’m thinking of putting together this board. I’ve always put together jack of all trades or what I would deem versatile boards for quite a while now and realized I need to go back to just using what I really like to play instead of trying to cover all the bases.

I’ve currently got a CS-12 underneath and have a CIOKS Sol I’m going to pair with it to power everything; although, getting a new power supply that singularly powers it all would be very nice. My original idea for the Sol was to create a mini board with it. Somehow I’m reducing my pedal count but I think I’m truly going to need more taps.😂

Anyway, thoughts/ideas welcome as well as any constructive criticism. I haven’t redone my board in a while.