pedals under board good idea?

i've been thinking about re-arranging my board which is currently a classic pro, and selling a few pedals to make a smaller board. Mostly a practicality thing, I currently have a chopping board that i take to gigs/ rehersals and i want my whole board to come with me.

Idea 1 is to get a classic Jr, which is quite cheap, infact i would probably make a slight profit from selling the pedals that wouldn't be on the board. Only issue I have with this is it's still a decent size- not huge but still could be smaller

Idea 2 is to get a custom board (currently looking at a company called caseman- supporting the aussies across the ditch) which is basically metro 20 size but slanted so power supply etc could fit underneath. The plan would be to also have a couple of pedals under that I use less often (comp, plexi type drive, reverb) and then have a loop swicther controlling all the pedals (thinking Road Rage 8 Strip Looper). Benefits of this is the small board, and also having a loop siwtcher (could be handy if cable goes bad, and just seems to make pedals more of a tool than something to stress about in live scenarios), however the disadvantages is that it costs far more, just the board is probably about 3x times the cost of a pedaltrain classic jr, plus the looper which is $195USD+ shipping, and my main worry of having pedals underneath (the main point of this post and yet its taken this long to get to it ;)) Although I don't really like to change settings after soundcheck I feel as though it's nicer to have the ability to change them on the fly? DO you think the pedals underneath the board would be an issue? Is the extra price worth it for a smaller board and looper?

Thanks, Sorry for the long post btw :)

do you really need so many pedals you have to get a custom made board?

I like iea 1, sell some pedals and do more with less. You're not getting too much smaller than a PTjr unless you go my route lately and abandon all effects but a wah wah, Cream style. I'm not even bothering with my polytune lately.

well its the same ammount of pedals, just a tiny board versus a small board. but i agree the jr is pretty small. My plan for pedals atm is tuner, comp, fuzz, dist, overdrive, light overdrive, modulation, delay, reverb

if i really tried i could get rid of the dist, an overdrive, and reverb but that would be a struggle

maybe the comp as well but i like to have an always on thing to control my dynamics

if you NEED all those gadgets how's your technique? you need multiple ODs and a distortion? I mean, a comp is cool if you're fingerpicking as well as well as flatpicking but if not, you can't control your dynamics? go shed

hahaYeah I like my little gadgets, the comp I mostly have for the volume difference ofpicking andstrumming. the drives do have their purposes too the dist I usE as a Marshall sound for the rock band I play in, thenI've got a Ts for bluesy/ lead stuff and then a liget drive/ boostmostly fortacking or to break up a clean amp, I could definitely only use one drive Pedal etc but I wouldn't really be able toget the sound i want

I don't think you really know what a comrpessor does if that's how you're using it. You could get the same ffect with a boost pedL OR YOUR GUITAR VOLUME

a compressor's gain control is a little more like micromanaging things, its evening out the level of each note and also the overall volume envelope of each note. Like what on a synth would be ADSR? This is why country guys who d hammer claw picking really dig compressors for their chickin' pickin' runs, evens out the level and also the tonality of pick versus the figners.

here's another tip, any flat out rock distortion meant to sound like a marshall or bassman will become bluesy if you switch to the neck pickup and roll you volume back to about 7 or 8 more or les like playing through an amp (unless its a shitty epdal design). Unless you're going for SRV brasy strat and tubescreamer blues, in which case, you got me dude, not sure why anyone apes that sound, its done to death.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time but if yu're not doing a sideman gig where the artist wants you to reproduce every album tone and you're not in a sea shore cover band where people want it to sound like the radio with different signers? then you don't need all those distortions and you probably don't need reverb AND delay.... you probably don't NEED a comrepssor… and you probably only need 1 type of modulation, if that... a wah pedal can do double duty as a faux modulation device when rocked really fast in time to the song to produce a tremmy, univibey pulse for instance

another thing to think about is that you have a line6 modelling delay and a TC digital reverb, if you got one compact unit by either company that does reverb and delay it would save hassle. If you're not using them at the same time you could go super small like an M5

ok thats handy, thanks ill have a look at a little multi-effects things

ok thats handy, thanks ill have a look at a little multi-effects things

modelled comrpessors tend to be quite good too, they really have all but the most esoteric studio units down cold now

but seriously play the guitar, use the controls and your hands, you won't need so many effects.... all those redundant stomps are just causing the guitar to play YOU