“I learned the hard way many years ago that daisy chains arenotreliable!” Serena Cherry shares her pedalboard secrets and admits she’d feel naked without “big, cavernous reverb”

Serena Cherry.

“My pedalboard is very simple now – compared to how it used to be. Its purpose is to create a foolproof atmosphere within my live guitar leads with minimal complications so that things that can go wrong won’t. I used to use a Boss Space Echo [RE-202], a Boss Loop Station [RC-5] and a Boss Digital Delay [DD-7], along with a Boss Digital Reverb [RV-5] and a Boss Reverb [RV-6]. The RV-5 was for modulated reverb; the RV-6 was for shimmer.

“But now I’ve cut my ’board way back to just three pedals, all by Boss: a Chromatic Tuner TU-3, a Reverb and a Digital Delay. These pedals create a glassy reverb tone to drench my guitar leads. I use the Modulate setting on my RV-5, with Level, Tone and Time all set to two-thirds. This creates a cool, atmospheric wash on my trem-picked leads.

“I use the Digital Delay on 800ms with a very short delay time and Effect and Feedback set to about halfway. This delay’s purpose is to smear the reverby notes to create an ethereal and slightly thicker sound to one string being trem-picked.

“And I use a T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior with individual power leads for each pedal, as I learned the hard way many years ago that daisy chains are not reliable!”

(Image credit: Courtesy of Serena Cherry)

If I had to choose one pedal for an entire show...

“I’d use my Boss Reverb because the reverb-drenched leads are a huge part of my sound. I think I’d feel naked without big, cavernous reverb all over the majority of what I play!”