sounds good to me
personally I like a good chorus with keys or some ring mod, but that’s just me

the frequency analyzer is 150

nothing wrong with cheap danos
they’re cool for experimentation
but then you’ll want better stuff
they’re bypass and headroom are pretty meh

it’s not a purely weird pedal
it’s the cleanest ring mod out there with the most headroom because of the 40V power supply

and yeah it doesn’t have the CV options the MOOG has, but it’s plenty versatile

That’s a killer combo there :rawk:

The Worm is one of my favorite boxes ever, but the old unit is tricky and high maintenance (I haven’t tried the new XO version yet).

You have to LOVE it to want to keep it. First of all, it has a tendency to hiss like a cobra, especially in Phaser mode. I’ve been able to reduce the hiss by moving it around in different places in the signal chain, but it’s never completely gone. Placing an EQ after it helps so you can cut the frequencies around 8khz. Also, if your pickups are really hot, the Worm has a tendency to clip, especially in the wah mode. Placing a compressor before it will take care of that.

Once you’ve taken care of those issues, the Worm will be your warm analog friend that puts a groovy vibe on everything.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for an easier path, go with a Pulsar and a Small Stone. I’d recommend the Wiggler, but those can be much pricier than the aforementioned, unless you find one used. They sound excellent, and have a very vintage tone if that’s what you like.

“Is it better to have one or two amazing effects and several crap ones, or four or five good ones?”

here’s my not entirely helpful answer: it’s best to have effects that you like.
if you get a cheap pedal (Dano or whatever) that you like, then it deserves its place in your set-up. you can spend big money on something else which turns out to be disappointing.

as for the BYOC question, the easiest ones are going to be the dirt pedals (inc. boost) and tremolo. most of the others will have higher component counts – which doesn’t necessarily make them more difficult builds. the most challenging part is usually the wiring, so the more switches and pots there are the higher the level of difficulty.

Quote:

So, for the purposes of this thread, assume I have the exact same tastes in pedals as you.
Except for overdrive. I know what’s going on for that.

which overdrive are you going for?

personally, for delay and modulation i’d be very VERY happy with just a Hazarai and Pulsar (big-box or Stereo XO version).

my current (main) pedal board (which i use for guitar, keyboards and sometimes other instruments) has:

(Korg tuner)
‘You Dirty’ Rat
EHX Germanium OD
EHX Stereo Memory Man w/Haz
EHX Pulsar
Boss DM-3 Delay

i’ve got another board of extras and several other spare effects but those are my essentials.
sometimes i switch the Pulsar for another tremolo but with the Pulsar, Haz and DM-3 i can cover a lot of ground.

The pulsar is versatile, it does vintage trem to full on square wave chop to ring mod. Its great!