# Do you put reference notes on your pedals?



## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

With the wife retiring a couple of years ago, being home more, and with this pandemic, home even more, I find very few times where I can turn things up, to experience pedals in the manner where they can be appreciated.

As a result they don’t get used, and I forget how to use them to their sweet spots. Playing at lower volumes just doesn’t cut it.

So, I have taken the time to look up, reread, etc., how to get the most of pedals, make notes on painters tape, and affix the notes to the pedals. The end result is much more satisfying, when I have the house for an hour to myself.

I have a couple of pedal boards set up that don’t need any reminders, but they are minimalist in scope or direction. The less on a board, the better, at least for me.

I find putting notes on certain versatile pedals, that do not get used on pedal boards, but rather used singly, or used as an enhancer for one of my fuzz pedals, quite helpful. The results come quicker, and are very satisfying, allowing experimentation to produce better results.

An example would be using my Rockett Flex Drive with Black Cat Super Fuzz. I can get so much more out of the Flex Drive than an OCD, or Rat pedal. The same with using my Kingsley Jester with fuzz pedals. It seems like the more versatile the drive pedal, the more important to have some notes, reminding me how to get the most from the pedal.

















This probably isn’t necessary for most of you, but it speeds up the satisfaction process for me.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Painter's tape is a great idea. 3-way toggle switches without any labelling are a pain. Especially if it's been a while. I have a few pedals like that. I had a J Rockett Lemonaide that was probably the worst from a usability perspective. The switches were highly interactive, but I could never remember what they did. 

Everything else on my pedal boards are either marked off with little adhesives, tape or pencil markings.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

No notes but I sometimes put a small strip of painters tape ( 1/8 by 1/4 ) where I want the gain or whatever setting to be so if it gets moved during transit I can easily put it back.

I’ve seen people just put whack of tape over the knobs so they don’t move at all.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Just be glad you don't have mostly those '90s DOD pedals whose legending was especially uninformative.


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## DavidP (Mar 7, 2006)

These luminous markers are great, but it appears they're no longer available...


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## GuitarT (Nov 23, 2010)

I take cell phone pics of my various settings.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I would tape them down. Then i went digital, and "knob lock" is a great setting to have lol.


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## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

If you are concerned with the precision of what you like, then it makes sense to track settings.

Recording, referencing and reflecting are the definition of intelligence.

Very few musicians have someone other than themselves that enjoy hearing their music. So it’s important that we ourselves like it lol.


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I never have had the need to put notes on my pedals. I find that interesting. Generally I have very simple pedals as far as adjustable parameters. Especially my Kingsley Page. My Cali76CED has quite a range of adjustments I could play with and once in a while I play with that. But generally I have it set the same way. Same with my DM-2w delay and BD-2w. My chorus which is a CE2w has quite a bit going on that I experiment with but not a lot of room for notes. I guess I could always document in a pad and keep that handy.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

GuitarT said:


> I take cell phone pics of my various settings.


This is the same thing I do. Take a cellphone photo. That way I always carry it with me.


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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

I take cell phone photos as well. Having them on your board or pedals is a good way too. I prefer photo's because I like to attach certain settings to parts of songs. This maybe more from a home studio/recording perspective.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

I have a couple grandsons that love tweaking knobs when I'm not paying close attention, I use a white grease marker to mark settings.


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## ga20t (Jul 22, 2010)

I'll sometimes steal a great recorded tremolo or chorus or vibrato sound and use it for my own creations. I dial that in right along side the recording and then mark those settings with a certain colour in grease pencil. Cleans off when I want to, and I can go straight into it when working out the song with others vs fiddling with fx boxes too much.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

GuitarT said:


> I take cell phone pics of my various settings.


I do this for gigs... when I had gigs, so I know they weren't rearranged in transit. I also have the settings of my amp. Especially important for gigging, but also if I went to L&M to try a guitar or pedal. I'd find "my amp" then set everything the way I know and like, then test the pedal, guitar, or whatever.


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

When i had a delay pedal, i had my set lists marked up for the delay settings...rather than more than one pedal, it was just easier to switch settings between songs


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

Tone Chaser said:


> With the wife retiring a couple of years ago, being home more, and with this pandemic, home even more, I find very few times where I can turn things up, to experience pedals in the manner where they can be appreciated.
> 
> As a result they don’t get used, and I forget how to use them to their sweet spots. Playing at lower volumes just doesn’t cut it.
> 
> ...


I keep notes on settings in OneNote. Since I always have my smartphone or iPad with me, they’re close at hand. I also record what voltage and amps they need so if I swap them out, I can double check without trying to find the manual (many pedals have no markings).


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

DavidP said:


> These luminous markers are great, but it appears they're no longer available...
> View attachment 358713


To many “eat the marker“ challenges on social media?


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

1SweetRide said:


> To many “eat the marker“ challenges on social media?


I don't know what that is?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Sometimes I wonder if some controls wouldn't be more usable by more players if they were stepped rotary switches, like 12 or 16-position. That way, you'd know that your preferred setting was 5th click from the top/bottom.


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

Sounds like a spreadsheet in google drive you can pull up on your phone from anywhere would work.

PS There's pretty much no problem in life that can't or shouldn't be solved by a spreadsheet in google drive.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

MarkM said:


> I don't know what that is?


Those markers are no longer available because easily swayed people were challenged to eat them on Instagram so they had to pull them from the market to protect dumb people.


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## BEACHBUM (Sep 21, 2010)

Reference notes? Mine don't even have brand names.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

Joyo EQ on the left.


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## jbert58 (May 17, 2015)

DavidP said:


> These luminous markers are great, but it appears they're no longer available...
> View attachment 358713


I tried one of those some years ago and while they advertise as being erasable, my experience was that it altered (slightly lightened) the finish once removed. Tape strips or small sticker dots are a better choice in my opinion.


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## LouisFNCyphre (Apr 23, 2021)

I'll sometimes leave a little mark if I know I'm only going to use the pedal in one context, otherwise I'll take a cellphone picture.


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## BMW-KTM (Apr 7, 2015)

I once knew a guy who would write his regular settings down on a piece of paper he kept folded in the back of his amp. Then he'd make notes on his copy of the set list. If a particular song required a different setting, he'd note that beside the song title.


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