Doyle Bramhall II pedalboard on a budget2023 documented board rebuilt for ≈ $716

Both are full-size treadles that switch between volume and expression duty, and both put a minimum-level control under the heel so a swell starts from silence. On this board the pedal only ever does one job - set the level going into the wah and the fuzz group - and the Leveline does that with a metal chassis and an optical track rather than a pot that scratches after a season.

Trade-off. The Dunlop's aluminium body and adjustable string tension survive touring in a way this will not, and there is no tuner output, so the tuner has to sit in the chain rather than hang off the volume pedal.

A wah is the one position here where the cheap market is small but real, and worth mapping before spending: below about $60 there is essentially one option, the Harley Benton Space Wah at $42. The Vox V845 at $61 is the first price at which you get a wah built on the circuit the vintage-vocal units on boards like this one descend from, and Thomann has it in stock rather than on order. What is not an answer at any price is an envelope filter - Mooer's @Wah and Envelope sit at $67 and $57, and a sweep triggered by picking dynamics does not do what a foot does.

Trade-off. The V845 is not true bypass, so it colours the signal even when it is off - on a chain this long, in front of unbuffered fuzz, that is audible. The housing and treadle are built to a price and the sweep is a stock Vox voicing. Bramhall's own unit is a King Tone prototype that was never sold to anyone, so no price for it exists; the production Wah stands in as the nearest reference.

The Soul Shiver's first mode is a uni-vibe voice, and set slow and deep it gives the asymmetric throb this board is built around. At a fifteenth of the price it is the cheapest thing that attempts the effect rather than a chorus wearing its name.

Trade-off. The Sir Henry is a hand-built optical circuit: a lamp and photocells modulating in staggered phases. The Soul Shiver models that behaviour digitally, and it flattens at extremes - fast and deep it becomes an ordinary chorus, where the original stays lumpy and vocal.

Both are octave-up fuzzes with separate clean and fuzz levels, which is the part of the Experience that does the work here. The Brassmaster's harmonics control lets the octave be dialled in rather than dumped on top, and a clean level underneath stops low notes falling apart - the same trick the original relies on.

Trade-off. The Experience also does a reverse-style swell and the Brassmaster does not do that at all; a Mooer Slow Engine at $67 would restore it, but that is a second pedal and a second slot. The Behringer is voiced for bass, so on guitar the octave tracks best above the fifth fret.

The Italian Fuzz is Acid Fuzz's take on a Vox-voiced Tone Bender and the Fuzz Bender is Behringer's take on the same lineage - same topology, same three-transistor behaviour, and a bias control that reaches the starved and gated territory these circuits are bought for.

Trade-off. Acid Fuzz selects transistors and voices the circuit darker with more presence than a stock Tone Bender; the Behringer is whatever came off the reel. Expect a brighter, less individual voice, and note Thomann lists it at six to eight weeks rather than in stock.

What this unit does on the board is a cutting, gated fuzz that sits apart from the other two. The SF300's scooped second voice is the nearest cheap approximation of that behaviour, at a twentieth of the price.

Trade-off. This is the least faithful swap on the page and should be read that way. The Zoink is a compact Zonk Machine - a germanium circuit Acid Fuzz built at Bramhall's own request - and the SF300 is a silicon Super Fuzz, a different circuit from a different decade. The plastic enclosure is not a touring part, and gain and treble together turn it harsh.

A tuner has to be accurate, mute cleanly and stay out of the way. The TU300 does all three for twenty dollars, which is the right amount to spend on this position when the rest of the board is fuzz.

Trade-off. No polyphonic mode: the PolyTune checks six strings on one strum, and here it is one string at a time. The display is smaller and harder to read on a lit stage, and Thomann lists it at six to eight weeks.

The C.O.B. is a clean octave blend and the Octave Divider is exactly that: separate direct, octave and second-octave levels, so the octave tucks under the dry signal instead of replacing it. Keeping direct above octave is the same setting that makes the original work.

Trade-off. The C.O.B. generates its octave through a fuzz stage, so the octave arrives dirty; the Behringer divides a cleaner signal and offers distortion separately, which is a different texture. Analogue dividers also stutter on low notes and on anything but a single line.

The PI-01's audible job at this point is splitting to two amplifiers, and the Micro ABY does that in A+B mode with a phase-invert switch for when the two cabinets fight each other. For a rebuild running two amps, that is the part you cannot skip.

Trade-off. The PI-01 is also a buffer, and that is the half you lose. On a board with this much unbuffered fuzz and this much cable, a passive splitter costs treble the original preserves. It is not isolated either, so two amps on different circuits can hum. Running one amp, this position can be a patch cable.

One of the Duellist's two channels is built on the builder's reference TS808, and the Green Mile is a Tube Screamer-lineage circuit with two voices on a mode switch. Set low-gain and loud it lands in the same place: a mid-pushed lift rather than a distortion.

Trade-off. The Duellist gives two independent channels on two footswitches that stack in either order; the Green Mile gives two voices on a toggle and one footswitch, so stacking is off the table. The dip-switch voicing options have no equivalent here.

Bramhall runs two C.O.B.s, one either side of the junction box, set to different gain positions. This is the second one, and rebuilding the board honestly means buying a second Octave Divider rather than pretending one pedal can be in two places.

Trade-off. Same limits as the first unit, plus one that applies only here: this one sits after the split, feeding the buffered section. Behind a passive splitter it will be quieter and duller than the one in front, so the two are unlikely to match as evenly as they do on the real board.

Both are digital delays chasing a tape voice. The Reecho's tape mode darkens each repeat the way the EM5 does, and this position only asks for a slapback and a short repeat before the ambience.

Trade-off. The EM5 is a 1990s SoundTank that has become collectable, which is the only reason the saving here is small - it cost far less than $95 when it was current. The Reecho is the better-built of the two; what it lacks is the grain of the original's converters, which is most of why players hunt the EM5 down.

The Flint sits last and its audible job here is the final ambience. The Shim Verb's spring mode covers that at a fifth of the price, with decay kept short so the reverb sits behind the fuzzes.

Trade-off. This swap loses half the pedal. The Flint is a tremolo and a reverb; the Shim Verb is only a reverb. Mooer's Triangolo at $67 would restore the tremolo, but that is another position and another $67. The Flint's stereo return to the junction box also goes: this is a mono pedal.