Shoegaze is one of those genres that’s perfect for guitar geeks. There is a particular focus on gear and creating unusual, distinct guitar sounds, with the conventional concerns of songwriting taking somewhat of a back seat to tone chasing. Music that's all about crafting unusual sounds and textures? Sign us up.

Music referred to as "shoegaze" typically features complex guitar parts that are peppered with all different types of sounds. You'll hear interstellar ambience, elaborate echoes and delays, massive modulation, and different types of dirt all working together to create epic, atmospheric soundscapes. Pedalboards of shoegaze guitarists often feature multiple types of various kinds of effects—and indeed, the sprawling pedal setups of early "shoegaze" bands are what earned the genre its popular title.

Let's dive into some of the ins and outs of assembling a pedal board focused on the shoegaze sound, some of the best pedal choices for the style, and how you can create the perfect shoegaze signal chain for your music.

Building a Pedalboard for Shoegaze

So what exactly does building a pedalboard for shoegaze look like? There are a few elements to consider. The first one is obvious: the choices of effects pedals (also known as the fun part). When it comes to the shoegaze genre, the options for valid or viable effects are pretty much limitless. The genre has a much broader scope of sound options than many others.

You’ll find guitarists in some of the most popular shoegaze bands of all time, like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Mogwai, and Explosions in the Sky, rocking some seriously large pedalboards…sometimes even multiple boards!

This means that a well-constructed, organized pedalboard is even more important than usual: with so many elements, it's important to keep things organized and reliable. So, before diving into effect pedal recommendations, let's briefly discuss some important considerations for getting your pedalboard itself organized and ready to go.

Pedal Order and Signal Routing

Pedal order has a significant impact on tone no matter what style you play. Do you want your drive pedals before or after delays and reverbs? What about pedal circuits that prefer to be at the beginning of the signal chain like tuners, wahs, and certain types of fuzz?

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Pedal arrangement plays a key role in overall tone, so the best thing to do is experiment with your setup to find the right order for you. The article linked above goes over some basic, conventional approaches to pedalboard signal flow—and offers a great primer on deciding how to organize your board. So, check it out—you just might discover some new ideas.

And remember, the way you have your pedals physically lined up on the board does not mean that you have to have them routed that way. With some clever layout and signal flow design, you can tailor everything so all pedals are as accessible as you need them to be.

Cabling

Don't get it twisted: quality cabling matters…especially in a genre like shoegaze, where there are often a lot of effects in the signal chain. This means more cabling and more points where tone suck can start building up.

Keep the connector cables between the pedals as short as possible. This goes for the cable connecting the guitar to the pedalboard and the cable(s) that run the output of the pedals to whatever is last in line whether it’s a single or dual amp setup, interface, or mixing board.

No matter what lengths you need for your runs, always use the best quality cables you have available to you. Note that Perfect Circuit carries a ton of quality pedal board patch cables, including rad low-profile cables from EBS: recent favorites among folks with particularly dense pedalboards.

Layout + Accessibility

When you're dealing with a lot of pedals, the board can get crowded quickly. This means you need to make sure that every pedal is easily accessible and you don't have to be tap dancing all over the place (though of course, some tap dancing comes with the turf).

There are several ways to work around this issue, whether it’s an ergonomic pedal layout, a multi-tiered pedalboard, or using a loop switcher for easy access and recall (more on that in a bit). Making sure the pedalboard itself is the right size will allow for much-needed real estate for what you’re using now and as you consider future expansion.

There are some more logistical points to discuss—namely, choosing a pedalboard and power supply. But because these are both dependent on your particular complement of pedals, let's take a detour into the fun part: the pedals themselves.

Best Pedals for Shoegaze

One of the most fun parts about building a pedalboard for shoegaze is that anything goes.

Virtually every type of effect comes in one of two build designs: analog and digital. Some are a hybrid of both. They all offer their own distinct sounds and pros and cons. By and large, analog pedals sound more organic, but usually offer fewer options. Digital pedals range from simple to insanely complex and everything in between. Using a combination of analog and digital effects gives you the best of both worlds, whether they’re on the floor or rack mounted. Of course, shoegaze embraces both equally.

Here are some types of pedals that we consider hallmarks of the typical shoegaze sound.

Fuzz

Fuzz is known to be one of the most unpredictable types of gain pedals. While they don't fit perfectly into every musical style, it’s one of the best types of dirt pedals for shoegaze: fuzz can be weird, unpredictable, gnarly, and downright wild.

Sure, the usual suspects like the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fit right in. But shoegaze is known for pushing tonal boundaries, and oftentimes, a more complex circuit can give you just what you need.

If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary that offers a variety of tone and control settings, there are some fantastic options from boutique manufacturers. Take, for instance, the Death By Audio Supersonic Fuzz Gun that goes from sine wave simplicity to square wave insanity. Or, one of our favorites, the Roger That! from Fairfield Circuitry, which takes inspiration from failed radio transmissions and turns any sound into unique, gnarly, touch-sensitive, explosive tones. Alternatively, scope out the SOMA Harvezi Hazze, which applies the uncommon distortion technique of waveshaping to your guitar's signal.

Note that older fuzz pedals sometimes don’t work well with buffers before them in your signal chain, so they need to see the high impedance (Hi-Z) signal directly from the guitar output. Commonly, more modern fuzz pedals stack well with other effects no matter where they sit in the chain.

Reverb

Time-based effects are the cornerstones of a good shoegaze pedal board. The style is often drenched in ambience, and a good reverb (or three!) is essential to getting you there. But most of the time, a standard spring or played-out plate just doesn't cut it for shoegaze sound design.

Some of our favorite "standard" reverbs include the Universal Audio Golden and Evermore, which model the behavior of some classic high-end reverb processors. Likewise, their Del-Verb and Galaxy 74 combine delay and reverb effects to profound effect.

For more unusual reverbs, there are luckily tons of options. One recent favorite is the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star V3, perfect for creating atmospheric pads from any incoming sound. The Strymon Nightsky and BigSky MX are some of the most advanced reverb effects on the market, allowing for access to a huge range of tones and textures—indeed, it's quite possible to push both of them (especially the Nightsky) into territory where it starts to feel like a full instrument in its own right. Likewise, the Meris MercuryX is possibly the most customizable reverb available—it sounds excellent, and it rewards deep dives into detailed tone tweaking (which, if you're into shoegaze, seems like a quest you're ready to take on!).

But the list doesn't stop there: if you're looking for interesting and unique takes on reverb design, we'd also recommend checking out the Noise Engineering Batverb, GFI Solis Ventus, and Erica Synths Nightverb, each of which offer their own unique takes on deep, atmospheric spatial effects.

There are so many unique models to choose from that you’ll probably find yourself switching reverbs out on your board frequently. That’s okay! Shoegaze is all about experimenting with sounds. Scope out our full selection of reverb pedals to scope out some other options, as well.

Delay

Like reverb, delay provides ambience, depth, and thickening for lead and rhythm parts. It’s right at home in an ambient genre like shoegaze. But since there are so many different styles to choose from, how do you know where to start?

If you’re looking for an analog delay on a budget, the MXR Carbon Copy Mini is just that. For those that need more analog-style options in a single unit, the BOSS DM-101 is one of the coolest analog delay pedals ever made—sure to have you turning knobs forever (in a good way). The Vongon Polyphrase is also an incredible choice: it's a stereo delay with an analog-like interface, which can extend well into looper-like territory (with up to 22 seconds of delay time!). Likewise, Maneco Labs makes multiple devices inspired by the Electro-Harmonix 16-Second Digital Delay—a famously strange, playable, sound-design machine capable of standard delay, looping, reverse, speed shifting, and much more.

When it comes to more full-featured delay workstations, there are plenty of amazing options. As MercuryX is to reverbs, the Meris LVX is to delays: it's a deceptively powerful multieffect processor with powerful delay engines at its core, truly allowing you to design your own deep effects. The Eventide Ultratap, Erica Echolocator, and Strymon Timeline are also excellent choices for crafting deep, unusual delay tones.

Again, there's no shortage of options—feel free to scope out our full selection of delay pedals for a sense of what's out there.

Modulation

By nature, modulation pedals are meant to add texture and movement to guitar sounds. They're normally used for specific song parts and not generally meant to be "always on" effects. They come in a few different varieties, with chorus, phase, flange, and tremolo being the most common. Chorus, flange, and phase have elements in common, but they all sound distinctly different.

Chorus pedals do everything from tone thickening to out-of-tune warble. It does this by varying the pitch, often with short delay and mixing the wet signal in with the dry signal. This is why a lot of chorus pedals have a mix or blend control. The BOSS CE-2W is a modern refinement of a chorus that was all over music from the '80s and '90s; on the other hand, modern devices like the Fairfield Shallow Water, Asheville ACV-1, and Eventide Micropitch all take unique approaches to chorus and chorus-like effects. Flangers are similar to chorus pedals, and oftentimes you’ll find them together in hybrid designs like the Dreadbox Komorebi. The way that flangers differ is that they use much shorter delay times than choruses.

Vibrato is similar to chorus, but it functions a little differently. Instead of incorporating some of the dry signal into the effect like a chorus does, vibrato varies the pitch of the entire signal. If you’re looking for a dedicated vibrato pedal, the JHS Unicorn is great.

Phasers are a little different. They add a swirling tonal element that’s just as useful for lead lines as it is for arpeggio and rhythm parts. The MXR Phase 90 might be the most famous model ever, but if you’re looking for something more experimental the Benidub PHASE is an optical circuit that allows for all kinds of experimentation. As with other types of effects, there's no shortage of options out there.

Looper Pedals

Last but not least are looper pedals. This type of pedal lets you layer sound-on-sound, creating thick, epic parts. They’re a perfect tool for shoegaze if there’s only one guitar player in the band (though bass players can use them too!), or if you just want to make as much sound as possible.

They range from simple models like the MXR Clone Looper to creatively complex models like the Electro-Harmonix 95000. And of course, remember the somewhat more unusual Maneco 16-Second Delay reissues and the Vongon Polyphrase mentioned above, each of which can handle looping duties.

We'd also be remiss not to mention the SOMA Cosmos—an experimental looper that can also cover ground typically handled by delays, reverbs, and more unusual granular effects.

Additional Logistics to Consider

Loop Switchers

Loop switchers provide you with a centralized hub to control all of your pedals. They're especially useful for large pedalboards, making engaging and disengaging multiple pedals at once much more streamlined.

Some only offer a predetermined amount of loops, like the models from Loop Switchers. But when you're using a lot of pedals, one of the best benefits of loop switchers is the ability to use preset configurations. Not all models offer this feature, but they allow for different pedal combinations to be engaged through a single switch instead of having to hit them all one by one.

Even better are loop switcher models that give you preset banks, like the Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher. Preset banks let you cycle through various layers giving you more total effects combinations overall.

Power Supply

It takes a good, clean pedal power supply to provide the proper juice to a pedalboard—especially the complex boards of shoegaze guitar players. But not just any type of power supply will do.

You have to consider the power requirements of the pedals you’re using. The majority of guitar pedals take standard 9V power, and some even offer the option of running them at 12V or even doubling it to 18V. Pedal circuits that are built this way offer a number of advantages when running them at higher voltages like changes in tone and increased headroom. But if a pedal is rated to run at 9V only, you can fry the circuit by running it at voltages higher than it’s regulated to handle. Then there are other pedals designed to run at a minimum of 12V or 18V. Most of the pedals designed this way are digital pedals that require the extra power to function properly. Further still, some take 9V connections and boost the level internally in the circuit.

And of course, you also want to consider your pedals' current draw—the number of milliamps they require in order to run comfortably.

The reason all of this information is relevant is that when you’re choosing a power supply, you have to consider the power requirements of all of the pedals in your chain. If all of your pedals run at the standard 9V—and if they don't have especially high collective current draw—then you’d be fine going with a more basic power supply model like the Gator GTR-PWR-1MAX (though it’s not isolated) or Voodoo Lab Pedal Power X4.

But if your pedalboard chain consists of effects with different power requirements, you’ll want a power supply that’s more sophisticated like the Strymon Zuma (one of our overall favorites). It has nine total power outputs, and two of them are switchable between 9V, 12V, and 18V. The Eventide Powermax is another great choice. It has seven outputs, four of which let you select between 9V, 12V, 15V, and 18V operation.

A good pedalboard power supply isn’t cheap, but considering the consistent, clean power they provide and their versatility make them a worthwhile investment. Just make sure that you've got enough power connectors for all of your pedals, and that you'll be able to supply each of them the correct voltage with enough amperage to run comfortably.

Pedalboard Size

Once you’ve selected the lineup of pedals and the perfect power supply, you have to make sure you have a pedalboard with the right dimensions to accommodate everything.

But you don’t just want to cram things in anywhere they’ll fit. You have to consider how you’ll lay out your existing pedals to provide you the best accessibility, as well as opportunities for future expansion.

Recap

Building a pedalboard for shoegaze is a guitar geek’s dream. But if it’s not planned out properly, it can quickly become a nightmare. The fact that “normal” rules don’t apply is a huge part of the appeal, but it can also provide a situation that presents many options.

Knowing what kind of sounds you want to have on deck is a great starting point. But remember, you can always swap things out and expand later if necessary. Budget is always a concern when it comes to gear, but with the right game plan and solid research building a pedalboard for shoegaze that fits your style should be a fun project.

Brandon Stoner is a lifelong musician and audio engineer who owns more guitars than anyone needs. As a lover of all things writing and music technology, he crafts every piece with his dog Max on his lap.

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