I like to collect gear for making music, primarily pedals. I've slowly been building up my collection for a while now—partially in an attempt to stave off depression. Nothing quite like anticipating a new pedal to come in the mail to dissuade me from killing myself.
Current primary signal chain:
In all it's a relatively simple setup. The J bass is flexible and the active onboard EQ is really handy. I generally have bass and mids cranked and leave the treble knob in the middle. The Peavey is a pretty utilitarian amp; nothing really exciting or special. It breathes the signal into the world and that's all I need it to do. For the pedals: The Vitriol covers high gain stuff, making single notes huge and power chords unbelievably massive. When playing doomy and punky it's on almost all the time. The Grey Stache is a wonderful fuzz. It has a fat low end and provides some gnarly but extremely musical compression when the sustain knob is cranked. The El Cap is just such a beautiful delay. It's so lush and the tape emulation gives it a magical quality that's really unbeatable. The RC-2 is a simple looper that I generally only use at home. Sometimes I'll use it to set up a drone or some ambient wash with the band. I run this board plus one or two others depending on what's needed or how I'm feeling.
In general my philosophy is that the instrument creates sound and the amp amplifies it; the primary range of tones and general flexibility of sound is best handled by pedals. There's no way to make a good fuzz tone with just a bass and an amp, and definitely nothing like delay or modulation. Pedals are also cheaper than investing in a really nice amp, and they make it easier to get a consistent sound across different setups. I also only play with my band a couple times per year and we don't tour or anything, so it's hard to justify spending the $1k+ to have a reeeeally nice amp. All I need is a solid pedal lineup to entertain myself and for home recording.
Other pedals in my collection: