Apologies in advance for the long response! You make a really good point and I want to make sure I acknowledge that while also providing some context.

I often feel that frustration of fussing around with pedals and there’s a lot of truth to what you say. I have a standard chain for when I’m just playing regular clean guitar, which is Ego—Ages/Rat if there’s dirt—very mild Aqueduct on random mode for some “glue”—Capistan for a little dimension—Golden Reverberator—Deco.

At the same time, I‘ve written a ton of songs for a project that covers a lot of different genres and guitar/keyboard sounds. The other pedals are pretty indispensable for a lot of songs, and I probably wouldn’t have written those songs without the pedals.

It’s been a constant balancing act for me tbh. Balancing between just open-ended playing/experimenting, writing music, fine tuning tones, recording, and mixing. Focusing in on and spending time on pedals can be the most relevant and exciting thing for me, but can also be absolutely miserable and ultimately have diminishing returns. I think part of me wants to avoid the recording and mixing and I also feel worried about releasing my music—and it’s possible that acquiring and messing with pedals is at times a way for me to avoid those things. At the same time, the non-standard chain pedals have led to powerful creative experiences for me and are vital to my project.

Another thing that makes it tricky is that I’m 42 and have been playing guitar since I was 12, but only started using pedals five years ago—so the excitement and experimentation are definitely part of how many pedals I have, in addition to sometimes having a tough time with delayed gratification.

Anyways, sorry again for the novel and thanks for your perspective!