Fitting each pedal with batteries ensures the cleanest possible signal. However, it is a huge bother and expense to buy, install and replace batteries periodically, especially if a guitarist has more than 10 pedals. Pedal-board makers can install a power supply that can be shared by all pedals. A power-supply design must have isolated power taps or channels for each pedal. This prevents ground loops that can cause hums, buzzes and even shorted circuits in pedals.
Long cables plus a chain of effects pedals can easily degrade electric guitar signals, especially those from passive pickups. A buffer solves this problem by strengthening a signal and lowering its impedance. The buffer is usually placed in front of the guitar-effects chain. This ensures that the signal from the guitar is kept in good shape as it passes through the effect pedals. Although there are buffers specifically designed to perform the function, a guitarist can make a makeshift buffer out of any powered pedal or device that doesn't color the sound.
Some guitar players make use of a stereo setup (playing through two guitar amplifiers), as it provides more timbral variety (i.e. a pristine, clean sound) on a Fender Twin Reverb and an overdriven sound on a Marshall JCM 900. Guitar players would then also use stereo effects pedals in an effort to separate or share effects processing for different amps. However, combining those with mono pedals can cause problems, such as creating a ground loop between two amps. A professional solution is an output box with a single isolation transformer to isolate one of the amplifiers.
Pedal-attachment devices secure the pedals to the pedal board. They could be anything from nylon twine and bungee cords to Velcro. Professionals, however, typically prefer adhesive tape.
A majority of experienced and professional guitar players prefer separate analog and digital pedals rather than digital multieffects. However, there are guitar players who would like to have instantaneous effect-pedal combinations on the fly. Rather than prancing around to get the right combination, some pedal boards have loop switchers that work in a similar manner to switches on multieffects. Each switch on a loop switcher can be programmed to switch on and off a particular combination of effects pedals to get a desired sound.