Let's REVIEW those pedal boards you are using right now.

[eclecticsynergy]

Surprised I hadn't posted this here already. Reworked the small board earlier this Spring.
It was a bit tight fitting it all with cables & power on a little Metro 20, but it still fits in its case.
One Spot Pro CS6 underneath for power. (Little silver one-knob is a Deadbat, starving the Bonetender.)



Signal path isn't straight-line:
Bonetender > Fuzz 50 > Pickle Vibe > Pale Horse > tuner (cheapo but adequate for between-song adjustments)
> Beardsman bi-chorus > JMP Eleven > Blue Rain > Echophonic >
(Super Six / Marvel Drive aren't needed with my Friedman, only there in case of clean backline amps when traveling light)
> always-ons: Emerald Prince (tiny green EP preamp) > Pale Green comp (final EQ plus subtle amplike squeezing)

[Mikelamury]

You're not the only one to get that. It's all in good fun, no matter the critique.

That is a cool footswitch for that amp. I gotta admit, having the switchable master volumes is fantastic. One for rhythm, one for lead. You really don't need any sort of boost anywhere else, it's literally right there. I had a Marshall head like that, the JCM 900 MkIII. A single-button footswitch to change between Master A and Master B. The best single channel amp I ever had.

Tuner, JHS Screamer and that footswitch. Done. Man, I need one of those amps.

I was thinking about that too, using one of the master volumes as a volume boost and I probably will lose the boost as the screamer is doing all of the boosting I need right now.

[Securb]

Whenever I look at boards in this thread I ask myself if I could gig with it. I could blow the ****ing windows out with that board. That board looks like 100% fun.

[Aceman]

Surprised I hadn't posted this here already. Reworked the small board earlier this Spring.
It was a bit tight fitting it all with cables & power on a little Metro 20, but it still fits in its case.
One Spot Pro CS6 underneath for power. (Little silver one-knob is a Deadbat, starving the Bonetender.)



Signal path isn't straight-line:
Bonetender > Fuzz 50 > Pickle Vibe > Pale Horse > tuner (cheapo but adequate for between-song adjustments)
> Beardsman bi-chorus > JMP Eleven > Blue Rain > Echophonic >
(Super Six / Marvel Drive aren't needed with my Friedman, only there in case of clean backline amps when traveling light)
> always-ons: Emerald Prince (tiny green EP preamp) > Pale Green comp (final EQ plus subtle amplike squeezing)

There is a lot to love here, and some not so much. And some really/seriously....

First of all, let me say that there seems to be some sort of "stealth" board factor. Like, there is a board, but I can't see it. That's cool!

Lovepedal Bonetender - rare and cool and in the right spot!
Fuzz 50 - not really familiar, 2nd Lovepedal Fuzz. Is this necessary?
Lovepedal Pickle Vibe - could only be cooler if it was purple! Interesting position, but like Phase, opinions opinions on positions vary.
VFE Pale Horse - Most excellent TS9 alternative!

Tuner is there. Fine.

The Beardsman Bi-chorus. Interesting...another Lovepedal.
The JMP 11 is also very cool, but unfortunately, we have entered the fanboy zone.


I'm just gonna ask this ONE question: Joyop Blue Rain OD. Is that really necessary. I think you know the answer. Then again, if you did, it wouldn't be there, would it? Lose it period!

Lovepedal EchoSo - Lovepedal fanboy intervention time. There are a ton of other companies out there. The Pickle stays, as does the JMP 11. Yes, we all know that Lovepedal is a good, if not great company. But seriously....And I see now why it is "Pedals Akimbo." You are hoping no one will notice. Throw a couple of obvious non-love pedals on the back, sideways to get noticed, maybe a crappy little Joyo in the mix.

We aren't gonna do this cold turkey man. I'll get you through it. Here is the deal. You get to KEEP: The JMP11, The Pickle Vibe, and One Fuzz. (Personally, I dig the Bonetender with the starve!) I'll EVEN allow you to keep either the bi-chorus or the Echo. But not both! Think about maybe an Echoplex pedal. It even looks a lot like the Lovepedal Echo...

And now we are bumping into another problem. The Marvel Drive and Super Six. In case of "Clean" backline??? And three other guitar players without an OD pedal? You have more channels of dirt on this than Mikemurry's DSL40!!!!! Seriously man, Fuzz, Horse, JMP, and ONE other - that's it. Except the Joyo because that goes no matter what.. Just no. If you are too broke from the Lovepedal investment...maybe you just don't need ONE more OD.

Seriously - where do you walk off a plane and need 7 different flavors of dirt? Fuzz, Tumnus, VFE, JMP 11 - Done! And who needs 7 Lovepedals? If we are going with 7 of them, well then, let's go all the way!!!!

And by the way...I'm not counting the Emerald Prince or the Boost on the JMP.

So....While I generally don't even acknowledge defenses of ones board dumb@$$ery....the excessiveness of the OD's and the Lovepedals intrigues me.

I'm gonna allow you to admit you have a problem, and explain how this calamity of brand and type happened.

[Aceman]

I was thinking about that too, using one of the master volumes as a volume boost and I probably will lose the boost as the screamer is doing all of the boosting I need right now.

See - the healing is beginning already!

[v8stang289]

Moved everything over to a Voodoo Lab Dingbat board, and added a couple of pedals.
Board is set up to switch between 2 amps, Delays are in the loop of each amp.
I have no opinion/experience yet on the the cheap noise gate. I have a head coming, and the seller recommended a noise gate. So I picked one up to mess around with.
Switch on the bottom left powers the selector. Otherwise it is full-time on unless unplugged

[Aceman]

Moved everything over to a Voodoo Lab Dingbat board, and added a couple of pedals.
Board is set up to switch between 2 amps, Delays are in the loop of each amp.
I have no opinion/experience yet on the the cheap noise gate. I have a head coming, and the seller recommended a noise gate. So I picked one up to mess around with.
Switch on the bottom left powers the selector. Otherwise it is full-time on unless unplugged

Let's start with 'Pedal Board Overhang"

It's the grotesque overbite of the guitar world.

[Demanic]

The "Simple, Sinister" of the pedal board world. And don't ***** about the camera angle, you know what the pedals are.

And have you entered that "Stack in the box" vid in the "Suck Toanz" thread yet?
If not, why not? Only one more day left.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

[dystrust]

OK Aceman, let me have it.

Excruciating details are available in the build thread if you care, while the TL;DR is available in the other pedal board thread. Otherwise here are the goods:

Rack & pedals


Pedal board & controller

[Blille]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Aceman]

All right...gotta think about how I'm gonna handle this one...new territory.

[eclecticsynergy]

There is a lot to love here, and some not so much. And some really/seriously....

First of all, let me say that there seems to be some sort of "stealth" board factor. Like, there is a board, but I can't see it. That's cool!

Lovepedal Bonetender - rare and cool and in the right spot!
Fuzz 50 - not really familiar, 2nd Lovepedal Fuzz. Is this necessary?
Lovepedal Pickle Vibe - could only be cooler if it was purple! Interesting position, but like Phase, opinions opinions on positions vary.
VFE Pale Horse - Most excellent TS9 alternative!

Tuner is there. Fine.

The Beardsman Bi-chorus. Interesting...another Lovepedal.
The JMP 11 is also very cool, but unfortunately, we have entered the fanboy zone.


I'm just gonna ask this ONE question: Joyop Blue Rain OD. Is that really necessary. I think you know the answer. Then again, if you did, it wouldn't be there, would it? Lose it period!

Lovepedal EchoSo - Lovepedal fanboy intervention time. There are a ton of other companies out there. The Pickle stays, as does the JMP 11. Yes, we all know that Lovepedal is a good, if not great company. But seriously....And I see now why it is "Pedals Akimbo." You are hoping no one will notice. Throw a couple of obvious non-love pedals on the back, sideways to get noticed, maybe a crappy little Joyo in the mix.

We aren't gonna do this cold turkey man. I'll get you through it. Here is the deal. You get to KEEP: The JMP11, The Pickle Vibe, and One Fuzz. (Personally, I dig the Bonetender with the starve!) I'll EVEN allow you to keep either the bi-chorus or the Echo. But not both! Think about maybe an Echoplex pedal. It even looks a lot like the Lovepedal Echo...

And now we are bumping into another problem. The Marvel Drive and Super Six. In case of "Clean" backline??? And three other guitar players without an OD pedal? You have more channels of dirt on this than Mikemurry's DSL40!!!!! Seriously man, Fuzz, Horse, JMP, and ONE other - that's it. Except the Joyo because that goes no matter what.. Just no. If you are too broke from the Lovepedal investment...maybe you just don't need ONE more OD.

Seriously - where do you walk off a plane and need 7 different flavors of dirt? Fuzz, Tumnus, VFE, JMP 11 - Done! And who needs 7 Lovepedals? If we are going with 7 of them, well then, let's go all the way!!!!

And by the way...I'm not counting the Emerald Prince or the Boost on the JMP.

So....While I generally don't even acknowledge defenses of ones board dumb@$$ery....the excessiveness of the OD's and the Lovepedals intrigues me.

I'm gonna allow you to admit you have a problem, and explain how this calamity of brand and type happened.

First of all, I do acknowledge that I'm a Lovepedal fanboy. I like them, and I have for years. But I refuse to admit that's a problem.

Two fuzzes so I don't need to redial for two entirely different uses:
Fuzz 50 is Fuzzface-ish, with stellar cleanup from full psychedelic to iconic Jimi-style semicleans with a twist of the guitar's volume.
It offers such a broad spectrum within that distinctive texture that it generally stays on throughout a tune or jam.
The Bonetender, however, is set more extremely as a once-in-a-while special, starved-fuzz madness on demand.
That's why it's in the front row for quick easy on/off, with the Fuzz 50 in back since it doesn't need convenient access.

~

I love vibe before drives - old school Trower tone. Pickle Vibe is small but epic - sounds fab.

Beardsman is two choruses in series, with separate speed controls. Extra depth & complexity and a far less repetitive sweep.
Running chorus downstream from fuzz and the Pale Horse (love that pedal) so I can do 80s style drive-into-chorus when I want to.
But most drives are after; I generally prefer chorus into dirt. Gives a more organic whorl - like running it into a cooking amp in the old days.

Echophonic is a nice simple vintagey echo, quite warm for a digital unit. Has a modulation knob for a bit of old school drift.
It also does the runaway effect, albeit smoothly. Once in a while I'll put my Garland Cosmo in that slot for wilder distorted runaways.
I have plenty more delay pedals. But the Echophonic has clarity & sweet tone, and it isn't finicky at all.
Even when set high, the repeats never swamp the original sound. To my ear it has real advantages over the Dunlop.

(Still wish I'd never sold both my tape Echoplexes, but that's another story... They wouldn't be on pedalboards anyway.)

~

I just use the Emerald Prince as an always-on sweetener, not a boost. Good thing, too, since its controls are inside on trimpots.
Pale Green is always on too, but isn't there for audible squeezing, just as a final EQ and for a subtle bit of cranked-amp feel.

~

As for having more drives onboard than necessary, I have to concede that. Yet it isn't quite as excessive as it looks.

Basically the drives in service are the Pale Horse and JMP Eleven. Pale Horse delivers trademark liquid TS mids.
COT half of the JMP adds crisp loose drive - but not extra volume; usually it's engaged for several songs at a time.
Neither of those is set for large amounts of gain. And they stack beautifully.
The JMP's drive side is Marshall-flavored and set hot & bright, serving as lead channel for solos and feedback.

But the Blue Rain only gets kicked on momentarily with the echo for pick drags. Strategically placed so I can hit both buttons at once.
Actually the thing sounds pretty darn good on its own (or as an afterburner with other drives) but I don't use it that way.
Footprint is tiny enough that it's worth the space for just one specific use.

As for the Marvel Drive and Super Six (another Lovepedal), I probably should've said "in case of sketchy backline."

Here's the story: I use my own amp whenever possible, set for crunchy grit and backing off the guitar for cleans.
I play quite a bit just on that core tone, no ODs engaged. Get perfectly usable core tone from typical backline amps too.
But occasionally you're surprised with something totally unfamiliar and without time to find its sweet spot.

One time in 2015 the surprise was a solid state Hiwatt combo. No soundcheck; ninety seconds to plug in and go.
Dead clean was it was set for. Going with that - a known quantity - seemed better than experimenting during a performance.
I needed to concentrate on playing; we'd only had two rehearsals together before the show.
Anyway, wound up playing nearly the whole set with an OD808 on.
Afterward, I resolved to be ready if it happened again.

The Marvel and Super provide nice core tones, at controllable volume, through just about any clean amp.
Both are responsive enough that I can still roll back at the guitar for cleanup, the way I'm used to.
They're hardly ever used so I don't consider them active units - more like reserves, a sonic spare tire.

And aside from questionable backlines, if one of the main drives - or one of the other players - has trouble, they'll be ready.

(BTW, aesthetically speaking, sideways pedals bother me too. These two are mounted sideways-and-opposed so I can hit both at once, switching between them with a single tap. Pic doesn't show it but the Marvel is a taller box; metal cap on the Super Six button levels them.)

[NegativeEase]

OK Aceman, let me have it.

Excruciating details are available in the build thread if you care, while the TL;DR is available in the other pedal board thread. Otherwise here are the goods:

Rack & pedals


Pedal board & controller

The road units I design and build for other people look a lot like this on the rack side, not so much on the pedalboard side.. that controller is a beast!

[dystrust]

The road units I design and build for other people look a lot like this on the rack side, not so much on the pedalboard side.. that controller is a beast!

Thanks I think

I've built several racks over the years, mainly for myself but also for a few friends though this one is clearly the most ambitious. I found a few build threads on TGP & Rig Talk to fine-tune my process, otherwise I made good use of the examples Nice Rack Canada posts on their blog. It isn't 100% perfect, but I'd feel reasonably confident taking it to a gig across town. I have backups for just about any cable I need in the 2U drawer at the bottom of the rack, and if worst comes to worst I have a simple pedal board I can plug into the front end of the Marshall and finish the show.

That controller is an RJM Mastermind GT/16 and I can't recommend it highly enough. I believe the case is aluminum, so it only weighs 6lbs despite being 19" wide and 10.5" from front to back. The entire controller board with the wah, volume pedal, tuner, & interface weighs 21.3lbs. I like the footprint of the Liquidfoot+12 better, but I can't argue with the build quality or reliability of the RJM. I've taken both of these controllers apart, and the RJM is clearly designed to be as user-serviceable as possible with lots of modular boards and plug-in connectors instead of being hardwired. In terms of functionality, it'll do just about anything you can think of with an excellent computer editor. The Liquidfoot had a couple features that the Mastermind doesn't, but it was buggy and support is effectively non-existent. OTOH everything the MMGT does is 100% dependable and RJM's support is by far the best I've ever seen in the industry.

[maug2122]

I use old Digitech gear in my rack and pedalboard, it's tuned up perfectly.
A few other guitarist thought I had newer gear, until I shown them my set up.

LOL !!!! , the look of shock when they saw that it was an old Digitech 2112, RP-12, RP-1 and Decibel Eleven Loop Expander..... was totally priceless.