Here's what my whole pedalboard looks like:
There's also a Dunlop Original Crybaby, which goes along outside the pedalboard, as I don't currently use it in my rythm parts right now.
I think it's quite a smooth chain, finally. Classic, practical and compact.
Great tone.
Show what you're currently stepping on!
Between the modeling amp on the left and the digital amp on the right, I haven't hooked up a pedal in quite a while. In fact all my pedals are in their boxes put away on a shelf. Does that make me a bad doggie?
I forgot what I was going to say...
Not at all, my older brother!
As a matter of fact, I do use a lot of the amp effects when studying or just playing at home! It is good to explore and enjoy what your amp has to give, I think.
Pedals are Gig tools.
I even like to pick up songs with the guitar unplugged (ok, call me old school). But I do, really!
Yeppers, the last pedal board I was building almost cost me my left arm. I was cutting some 1X12 oak planking with a 7 1/2" circular saw when my right hand lost it's ability to grip the saw. The vibration of the saw caused numbness and the saw moved and got out of the kerf, jumping toward my left forearm. Fortunately I still have good reflexes and the rotating guard snapped into place just in time as I felt it barely kiss my arm as I moved it away. Ever since that stroke, my right arm/hand never acted right again. Gettin' old really sucks!Probably as good a reason as any not to build stuff anymore huh? Never finished the new board and had already given the old one away. Can anyone say
??
I forgot what I was going to say...
Too good you avoided the left arm injury!
Anyway, you can always do what I do: buy a good used pedalboard.
It gets real cheap and you can place the RAT and the Bad monkey in line! I know you fancy both and they're some of the best pedals
EVER.
I plan to own both too!
Dirt pedals are like rounds when you're at war: you can't have enough!
Electric:
Acoustic"
"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain
For now, I am using this setup, when I don't have my Snark tuner on the headstock.....
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Let me guess, Frank: and lots of neck pickup.
Actually - when I play guitar, either into my HRDx or DRRI - I uses this......
this is a web pic - not mine......
On acoustic - I am not developed enough to have a "rig" but do play some with others, mainly through PA with a DI.
On bass - I like my setup enough to go straight in, and if there is a FOH, I don't need to obsess about the stage sound, they take care of it out front. As long as I can hear myself, and know I am at least in the right key - I am good.
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Zvex super-duper clone (by Chuckocaster) --> OCD --> bypass switcher --> DD7. At the top left is a homebrew footswitch for my twin.
The marshall 'verb and tuna melt trem switch in/out of the chain, as does the tuner - they're there for when I'm using amps other than the twin.
[IMG][/IMG]
I am like Frank. I just the tuner now although I occasionally hook up the DD3. The problem with the headstock tuner is that my eyes are so lousy these days, I can't always see it. The Boss tuner has all these little funny lights that any idiot can see!
I am going to build a pedalboard nonetheless, even if only for two pedals, just to tame all the wires lying about.
"The beauty and profundity of God is more real than any mere calculation."
OK, laugh if you must, but for several gigs, long ago, I'd show up with just this. My bandmates freaked out but the soundman found it easy to plug me into the house and it sure was simple! No Twin or DR to haul around and no pedals all over the place. I'd show up with a guitar case and the Zoom with the expression pedal. I only went back to taking all those amps and pedals when the guys threatened to assassinate me. I really think that they all felt like I was cheating by not lugging all that gear like they were! Shoulda heard them whine!I always thought of it as a pedal with everything in it back then. That ancient Zoom 505 made a small footprint and it sure was easy to set up too. I still have it and will goof with it some even to this day. Sure is smaller than a massive board that qualifies for it's own zip code huh?
And speaking about huge boards, I'll see these folks like on the late night shows that play at closing. Nearly everyone there with a guitar will have monstrous pedal boards filled with what looks like 20 or more! Now is it just me, or does anyone else think this is really stupid?
I forgot what I was going to say...
Here's my current pedalboard. I use this mainly with a 5E3 Deluxe clone and sometimes with a Princeton Reverb clone.
I've had that '69 Pedal on there for a long time- the pedal that I've used the longest. It was the only dirt pedal on my board for a long time. I love that pedal.
I just built the Silver Pony a few weeks ago to go with my Princeton Reverb clone (though I think I prefer a Rat).
The Fat Bastard is the second longest on there. Depending on the guitar, I'll sometimes use an AMZ Mini Booster instead.
The Malekko Spring is really more like a slapback delay, anyway. It's great with the 5E3 clone.
The Voodoo Lab Tremolo has a great sound! It's only issues are build quality (I rebuilt it to a degree) and the speed and intensity knobs are way too sensitive. I removed and replaced them on their shafts so they point to 12:00 where I like them set. After last week's rehearsal I meant to remove the volume and slope knobs. They're in the way when I need to tweak the other two knobs real quick.
I don't use the Tremolo and Malekko Spring with the PR- I prefer the amp's own tremolo and reverb.
The Rotochoir replaced an H&K Rotosphere that replaced a Leslie 145 (that never left the house). I like it better than the Rotosphere and it fits on my pedalboard better, is quieter and runs on 9v.
Believe it or not- I don't use any of these pedals much. It's mostly just a Telecaster and a 5E3 clone set dirty and backing off the guitar's volume and/or picking lightly for clean sounds.
The main reason that I don't go with an all in one type of pedal is that I really enjoy playing with these gadgets. They're a good time!
Don - same thing for me. I like being able to twiddle the knobs. Also, when I'm playing out, the musical ground we cover demands different settings on things,Originally Posted by Don
and I'd rather just grab a knob and twist, don't feel like dealing with digital menus and such between songs. Dunno though -- maybe the menus/interfaces are good now..
Old Ranger -- I certainly understand. I imagine for a lot of those guys, it's the same type of issue that I have, but they're pros.
They have to have every sound they could possibly need with them at all times, ON TAP, NOW. I just want what I want, they need to carry it all with them.
okay, de Melo,
I suppose I better show my board, too!
Here it is:
In no particular order, these are the pedals:
Morley Little Alligator volume pedal
Dunlop CryBaby Wah
Ibanez TS-9 TubeScreamer Overdrive
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Ibanez CS-9 Chorus
TC Electronics ND-1 Nova Delay
Electro Harmonix Metal Muff
Ibanez FL-9 Flanger
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
The Marshall switch is just a channel select for my amp. A Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus power supply powers the whole thing.
All the pedals are stock, except the TubeScreamer and the Boss DS-1. The Tubescreamer is slightly modded, but the DS-1 is heavily modified with the Monte Allums Tri-Gain mod.
The small gray box in the upper right is just an A/B switch I built to switch between two guitars.
This shows the left side of the board. This is a plate I made to interface with an amp with an effects loop. The Main Out plugs into the amp input and the FX In and FX Out plug into the the amp Send and Return.
If I need to use the board with an amp without an effects loop, I just install a jumper, as shown, and plug the FX Out into the amp input.
And to provide a sense of scale as to the size:
I like to have my space!
Last edited by smitty_p; 07-20-2015 at 03:23 PM.
current pedalboard, and my new to me Clark Beaufort hiding off to the side, and you can just make out my Ceriatone 1987 above it:
I notice d that you use the George L patch cables. Do you hear a improvement in tone quality using the George L brand?
Here's my current pedalboard. I use this mainly with a 5E3 Deluxe clone and sometimes with a Princeton Reverb clone.
I've had that '69 Pedal on there for a long time- the pedal that I've used the longest. It was the only dirt pedal on my board for a long time. I love that pedal.
I just built the Silver Pony a few weeks ago to go with my Princeton Reverb clone (though I think I prefer a Rat).
The Fat Bastard is the second longest on there. Depending on the guitar, I'll sometimes use an AMZ Mini Booster instead.
The Malekko Spring is really more like a slapback delay, anyway. It's great with the 5E3 clone.
The Voodoo Lab Tremolo has a great sound! It's only issues are build quality (I rebuilt it to a degree) and the speed and intensity knobs are way too sensitive. I removed and replaced them on their shafts so they point to 12:00 where I like them set. After last week's rehearsal I meant to remove the volume and slope knobs. They're in the way when I need to tweak the other two knobs real quick.
I don't use the Tremolo and Malekko Spring with the PR- I prefer the amp's own tremolo and reverb.
The Rotochoir replaced an H&K Rotosphere that replaced a Leslie 145 (that never left the house). I like it better than the Rotosphere and it fits on my pedalboard better, is quieter and runs on 9v.
Believe it or not- I don't use any of these pedals much. It's mostly just a Telecaster and a 5E3 clone set dirty and backing off the guitar's volume and/or picking lightly for clean sounds.
The main reason that I don't go with an all in one type of pedal is that I really enjoy playing with these gadgets. They're a good time!
Years ago, when I went on an all hard wired bypass kick, I noticed that my tone degraded. It wasn't the length of cable I was using, but the quality of the patch cables. They were really low quality. At the time, George L's were not too expensive so I replaced them all. The tone improvement was pretty noticeable.
I'm not an advocate of expensive cables- they just need to not be really low quality and worn out.
I ask because I used the same cables for my pedal board and guitar. Since it is my first pedal board I have nothing to compare them to. I do not notice any hum or static sounds once the cables have been assembled correctly and routed properly. I will post a pic of the board.
If your pedalboard contains even one pedal with a buffer (i.e. not all true-bypass pedals) then you might not notice much high-treble loss in long cable runs. Your Mileage May Vary, or course, but I've found that as long as the cables to and from the pedalboard are good quality, and are not all beat up, I can use decent-quality pre-fabricated pedal jumpers (i.e. the little short between-the-pedals cables) and don't have to spring for the more expensive George L's or Planet Waves setups.
Another thing I've noticed: No matter what, every 3 - 6 months, I need to completely remove the pedals from the board, clean them all up, spray contact cleaner on them, and exercise the switches and jacks (i.e. plug a cable into each one a couple of times to help clean off the contacts) and then re-seat everything. Why? I don't know - but I suppose it's because dust gets in everything...and I do a lot of outdoor, backyard BBQ gigs. As I said...YMMV.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
This is my current pedal board. I just put the big muff into the circuit. I dont think it s a true bypass pedal. If I like it I think I will sell it and get a nano big muff. Disassembly and cleaning of the pedals and connections regularly seems like a good idea. I still need to finish zip-tying the cables into place. I found the pedal train board on Craigs List with a hard case for $100. I had to order a set of brackets to hang a pedal power 2 plus power unit under the board which i had. The guitar feeds in through the peterson tuner then into the Vise Grip compressor and then into the Sentry noise gate. The three distortion pedals are in their own loop from the Sentry noise gate feeding counter clockwise starting with the plexi and out the Big Muff back into the sentry noise gate. The time pedals are between the sentry noise gate and the amp with the signal entering the shape shifter tremolo first and exiting the the hall of fame reverb. I previously had these pedals in a road runner bag which i liked but the zippers would sometimes not lock properly if the locking unlocking mechanism was moved to quickly. so in the bin it goes. The Peterson tuner looks unusual because i removed all of the rubber off of it to lighten it some. When i get some time i will disassemble it and remove the nerf bar fastened to the front of it.
Last edited by Trav-ler; 07-07-2016 at 09:17 PM.
changes are coming to my board.
the pharaoh, @t signature, corona and purple plexi have come off and their replacements are a Bogner Burnley, Earthquaker Organizer, Earthquaker Sea Machine V2 and Dr. Scientiest Bitquest
I've also picked up a mxr dyna comp which is something. I still dont get compression but oh well at least I have one now (like a wah and a tubescreamer).
I am relatively new to electric guitar playing. I am curious to know what the pedals on your boards do, why you chose them and what songs or type of music you use them for and what order you find they work best.
@redisburning. I have a compressor pedal and find it to be a subtle effect. It does not seem to be very useful for strumming. It will attempt to quiet all of the sympathetic tones the guitar produces. It seems that its best use is for various styles of picking. Especially fast picking. It brings up the low tones and pulls down the high tones to fit within a particular bandwidth of which you decide. It will help to quiet an errant loud note caused by a hard attack or make a soft attack a little louder within a series of picked notes. It will attempt to remove dynamics from your picking causing all notes to sound off at a similar volume. If set high it will squeeze the tone signal creating a different tone probably most noticeable during the attack portion of a note. Supposedly it will create sustain. I have not noticed much extra sustain unless it is set high enough to create a lot of extra unwanted noise. Country pickers use them to create that twirpy attack sound for lead playing or steal slide guitar. I think it mostly tightens up the bandwidth of a note causing the attack to sound a little thicker and extend the decay some to make a note ring out a little longer or giving the note some sustain. I put a swamp thang speaker in my amp and got gobs of sustain. At least fifty times more than what the compressor can ad. I don't use it for blues lead. It effects dynamics too much to be used for blues lead playing. I have spoken with people who leave them on for all of their playing. They say that they set it so that they hardly hear its effects. If you know what your listening for you can detect a subtle compressor setting.
Last edited by Trav-ler; 07-09-2016 at 01:40 AM.
@Don. Does the rotochoir sound like a tremolo? What do you think of the sonic research tuner?
The Rotochoir is a rotating speaker emulator. The goal is to sound like a Leslie cabinet. It does a good job. I like it a lot.
The Sonic Research tuner is great! It's accurate enough to use for setups (I have a Peterson VS-1 for that) and is very quick. It might be overkill.
yup.......For now, I am using this setup, when I don't have my Snark tuner on the headstock.....
same set up for me
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Well, really I'm a
But, I was having that ever-ongoing battle with myself where I gig a Les Paul and love, love, LOVE the lead tones I get. But I'm such a Strat guy for rhythm stuff (because we do a ton of Soul, R&B and Funk material) that a Lester's neck pickup is just too much. My new LP has the push/pull pots and can be split, but the sound there isn't up to snuff for my tastes.
I tried to think of a way I could use an EQ pedal to shape the clean, neck pickup tone, but the idea of tap dancing with the EQ pedal on for rhythm, then off for leads while simultaneously hitting the overdrive pedal and possibly the delay... too much.
Then I found this little A/B box that fit beautifully on my small board and gave it a shot, and... voila!
The A side goes to the Ego compressor for a little pop, then into the EQ with the lows rolled back and a slight high-end bump, which then goes into the Deluxe Reverb channel of my '68 Custom DR. The B side goes to my OCD and delay, which then goes into the Bassman channel. (The wah feeds both). One button push goes from funky, snappy rhythm to creamy, warm leads. Cool!!
As an aside, putting the Les Paul in the middle position but then pulling the coil splitter on the bridge pickup, run through the compressor and the EQ, sounds astonishingly like the neck/middle "quack" combo on a Strat. So, bonus.
yay another excuse to post my pedalboard. I do love pedals tho
Sérgio, I like your Boss pedalboard. Like Frank and Doc, I use a modeling amp, but I've also purchased a couple of pedals (and another on the way). I don't want to hijack your thread, and created a separate one for suggestions and recommendations. One thing that I find appealing about a pedalboard is that it contains the power source for all the pedals, negating the need to by 9v adapters for each.
Latest version:
Finally spent a little money on a road-worthy case. The board lifts out of the hard case, and is well protected when inside. This board is designed to use with a wet/dry, two-amp rig. The wah, compressor and OCD go to the humdinger, half of which then goes on to the dry amp ('68 Custom DR), the other half of which goes to the flanger and two delays, which feed the wet amp (Marshall Silver Jubilee combo, or Yamaha G50-112, depending on the gig).
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