NPBD

[Agileguy_101]

So I went from big board:



To little board:



It's so nice to be rid of the PT-1 for a while. I've not actually sold any pedals yet, the ones that aren't on the Nano are on the big board. I'll be keeping most of them and buying a bunch more for my cover band, where I'll actually need a bunch of different pedal tones.

I've been playing for the last week or so with just these pedals on the PT-1 and it's extremely liberating not to have to worry about all of my pedals for this band. With the kind of music our band plays, the less tap dancing and staring at my feet I have to the better.

Plus, the paint looks awesome if I do say so myself.

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: NPBD

Who did the paint job? Is it powder coated?

A guy like you needs more than one board... like one big motherboard and two smaller boards for your bands or projects.

You are a pedal guru in my book for sure. : )

[Agileguy_101]

Re: NPBD

Thanks, Geoff =D

I did the paint myself, just a rattle can from Home Depot. It's not my best paint job, but I'm not too worried because with a smaller board it's easier to be careful with it.

I've definitely accepted the idea of a motherboard, but she's woefully light on pedals at the moment. It's meant for my upcoming project where we'll be playing a bunch of 70's rock covers and eventually branching out into original music within the style. For that band, I'll use the motherboard, but at the moment it's without even a tuner pedal or a boost pedal for solos. Once I get those, I'll at least be able to gig with it. I can't wait to use the JMP drive in that application, for what it's worth. I hadn't utilized that pedal to its full potential in my current band, so I'm excited to be able to play it all the time.

Just for kicks, before I put the pedals that belonged on the Nano there, I mocked up a cool looking board for my other pedals. It has me wanting to do a board just like this plus maybe an EP booster for leads:

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: NPBD

The paint job looks KILLER!

I think it's time for me to get a good fuzz... and I am totally in love with the above set-up. That set-up is just purrrfect and sooooo expensive! lolz.

Preach to me about the Analogman Sun Face and good dynamic fuzzes that can achieve different colors with variances of the volume knob and pick attack. Have you seen the new Aqua Audio Visage Fuzz demo yet?

I'm also curious about a good fuzz box's ability to impart good amounts of useable sustain with lower gain levels.

Do you use the Sun Face and the JMP Drive at the same time or are they for 2 distinct and separate textures?

And you are using an already dirty amp?

[jimijames]

Re: NPBD

IMO the value of the Analogman lies in those nkt 275 transistors - they're near impossible to find.

The circuit itself is ridiculously simple. I think it's a total of 4 resistors, 3 capacitors, and two transistors? It's very nearly like that. They make great starter projects because they are so simple.

As far as transistors, you can get matched transistors on smallbearelec.com, or on ebay. Whether or not they'll actually sound as good, I can't tell you, as I've never played through a pair of NKT 275s myself. But for the price difference you may want to consider it.

[SongsForTheDeaf]

Re: NPBD

nice... simple and effective! I wanna do something like this but I use all my pedals alot but I too hate the tap dancing

[Agileguy_101]

Re: NPBD

The paint job looks KILLER!

I think it's time for me to get a good fuzz... and I am totally in love with the above set-up. That set-up is just purrrfect and sooooo expensive! lolz.

Preach to me about the Analogman Sun Face and good dynamic fuzzes that can achieve different colors with variances of the volume knob and pick attack. Have you seen the new Aqua Audio Visage Fuzz demo yet?

I'm also curious about a good fuzz box's ability to impart good amounts of useable sustain with lower gain levels.

Do you use the Sun Face and the JMP Drive at the same time or are they for 2 distinct and separate textures?

And you are using an already dirty amp?

Thanks man, I like how the color came out too. I was looking for something in the 50's Ford vein and this looked good. I think for my next board I might go with another color of the era, something like this. I'll take it to a powdercoating shop that's local to me when I get to that point though because I would want a pro job done on my bigger board, and I don't trust myself to put out that kind of quality work.

When I got the Sunface, I was kind of new to the fuzz world. I had previously owned a modded NYC Big Muff (blargh), a Fuzzhugger Algal Bloom (cool but way too much for a fuzz novice) and a Lovepedal Silicon Fuzzmaster. I got the Lovepedal on the strength of PGS Andy doing 'Spanish Castle Magic' with it and sounding fantastic. It was a cool pedal for sure, but I found it had too much gain and noise for me. I really liked the character of the fuzz though, so I knew I wanted to get a fuzz face that sounded better for me.

Enter the Sunface. I figured I'd try it because it was touted as the most vintage correct and best sounding fuzz face clone. Plus, nearly everyone has used one in the fuzz world, so if I didn't like a certain aspect of it I figured I'd be able to figure out exactly what was right for me.

The Sunface wound up being the perfect pedal for me. Run into a quiet and clean amp, it's not got much gain and doesn't sound too good. But fortunately for me, I can run my bassman loud enough to get the power section cooking, so that's not an issue for me. However, a good solution with Fender amps is to run a Marshallesque pedal into the Fender and the fuzz into that. I've run the Sunface into the Weehbo and it sounds absolutely fantastic. I used it live to play Hendrix before and it kills. The secret is to keep the gain on the Weehbo low. You want enough distortion to give you some grit and kerrang, but not more than that - keep the gain between 10 and 1. Then run the Sunface with the fuzz maxed and volume at least at 2pm, preferably maxed. Use the Volume knob on the Weehbo to act as the master for the whole thing. From there, you use your guitar's volume to control to control how much dirt you get.

That's really the best thing about a great fuzz face - how interactive it is to both your pick attack and volume knob changes. I've not used a comparable silicon fuzz face, so I can't speak to those, but the germanium models are just so much fun to play. Remember though that the vintage correct clones are not made for heavy tones, 70's at the most. But it's such a musical experience to play one of these pedals that it doesn't even matter. It's my favorite fuzz, and it's why I'd really really love to re-buy these pedals so I can make a PT-nano with the fuzz, vibe, JMP, and delay as my jam board.

nice... simple and effective! I wanna do something like this but I use all my pedals alot but I too hate the tap dancing

I used to think that it was totally necessary for me to have multiple dirt pedals and even a few pedals I only used rather rarely. I was just lucky in that the riffs I write for my band don't require me to have a bunch of different types of pedals. That's what it came down to really - I let the music dictate what my pedalboard looks like, and I just happen to not need as much as I thought I did. If you need a big board, there's nothing wrong with that. Within the next few months I'll have my PT-1 loaded back up to capacity for my other band, where as a covers guitarist I'll need to get a bunch of different tones on the fly.

[FretFire]

Re: NPBD

Nice! I just got a Nano from PT, too. I don't want to cart my PT-3 around to gigs where I only need OD & delay. Looking at your pics, I could probably sneak a reverb of some sort on there too!