THE ANSWERS
Eric, this is possibly one of the most difficult things to achieve, especially in the all-analogue realm, so I’m going to suggest a small rig – plus a wildcard. I’m making the following assumptions here: you have a two-channel amp with both clean and crunch channels; your power supply is high quality, something like the Strymon Ojai or Cioks DC5; your cables are as good quality and robust as you can buy; and you have a quality tuner. There will also need to be a slight compromise if you want to have a pedal like the Keeley DDR as pedals such as this are not fully analogue.
01. Three pedals is a tough ask to create a fully functional and diverse pedalboard covering a number of styles. However, it is possible to cover one or two styles particularly well with just three pedals. Let’s go for bluesrock for one ’board and a money-noobject ’board for the other.
02. For blues-rock I’d choose an overdrive with sufficient gain range to get really nice and dirty but also clean up for more of an ‘on the edge’ style of break-up. I could recommend hundreds in this category, but you won’t go far wrong with the ThorpyFX Dane pedal for drive and boost in one. Mix this in with what your amp provides and you should be golden for driven sounds. For your second pedal, try a dual-use fuzz, something like EarthQuaker Devices’ Hoof Reaper. Finally, go for a dual delay and reverb pedal like the GFI Specular Tempus. However, if you don’t need the fuzz sounds (I’d suggest you always need fuzz), you could replace it with multi-modulation pedals such as Boss’s MD-200 or Wampler’s Terraform. For even more power, I’d suggest the GFI Synesthesia as it allows you to run two modulation algorithms simultaneously.
If money is no object then the following pedals are a fantastic choice: a Klon Centaur (‘gold horsie’ variant for maximum flex), a MKII Tone Bender (original 60s version) and a Pete Cornish TES delay or Moog MF104M Super Delay. With these three pedals you’ll be able to conquer all stages and win any pedalboard shootout. You may need to take out additional house insurance, though…
03. In maximising a small rig, a MIDI controller such as the Morningstar MC6 or Disaster Area MIDI switcher will allow you to programme presets for the different sounds you’ll need in a set. If your amp can accept MIDI control then you’ll be able to control that, too. It will very easily allow you to hone this small rig into a razor-sharp setup. Let me know how you get on.