Behold: the Mega-Board!

[ratherdashing]

Okay, maybe I'm a bit full of myself, but I'm pretty sure I have the best pedal board ever.

Maybe.

Top row, left to right:
- Korg Pitchblack
- Boss CE-2 (MIJ)
- MXR Micro Flanger
- Maxon PT-999 Phase Tone

Middle row:
- Catalinbread Manx Loagthan
- Raptor!
- Boss CS-2 (MIJ)
- Way Huge Aqua Puss
- Line 6 M5
- modded and repainted Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby
- Ernie Ball VP Jr

Bottom row:
- Mesa Mark V foot switch
- TC Electronic Nova Repeater
- home-made loop switcher

Here's a close-up of the switcher:

I also have a "patch panel" tucked under the board, which has an in and out jack, and a home-built JFET buffer on the input. I mounted it on the left side because I'm a lefty, and I hate having to plug in on the right of the board.

The signal path:

1. Patch panel input w. buffer
2. Looper, which has:
- Tuner out
- Main (bypass all)
- Comp loop (CS-2)
- Drive loop (Raptor and Manx)
- Mod loop (phaser, flanger, and chorus)
- M5 loop (duh)
- Delay loop (both delays)
3. Patch panel output

The idea is I turn on or off the pedals I need before a song, and engage/disengage them with the looper.

I've played with it a bit over the past few days, and I'm very pleased with it. It's much easier to stack pedals and flip them on and off now that most of my stomps are on the bottom row. I put the Nova on the bottom row to make tapping the tempo easier. The M5's isn't as easy to reach, but it's still do-able, plus I don't tap that as often.

Cool, eh?

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Nice clean work!

I was following your loop switcher thread and think I may have to build one of those myself.

 

[Jay 77]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

This is pure awesomeness. Well done man!

 

[AlleeCat]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Nice board! You made that bypass switcher?! wow I need to check out that thread....

Very nice!!!!


AlleeCat

 

[FretFire]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Does the Nova work with an external tap tempo? If so, you can do what I'm planning to do in the future, and add one of these to your board. I'll mod my M9 so it will take an external tap tempo, then connect the master tap to it and my DD20. Then I can set the tempo on both at once.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Nice board! You made that bypass switcher?! wow I need to check out that thread....

Very nice!!!!


AlleeCat

Thanks! Here's the build thread: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=243631

Does the Nova work with an external tap tempo? If so, you can do what I'm planning to do in the future, and add one of these to your board. I'll mod my M9 so it will take an external tap tempo, then connect the master tap to it and my DD20. Then I can set the tempo on both at once.

That's one complaint I have with the Nova: no external tap.

Not that I even have room for a tap switch. I've pondered the possibility.

With the M9, how are you modding it? Wonder if that's applicable to the M5 as well. I know I can hook up an external tap via MIDI.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

With the M9, how are you modding it? Wonder if that's applicable to the M5 as well. I know I can hook up an external tap via MIDI.

I ran across this thread, the mod seems pretty simple.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

I ran across this thread, the mod seems pretty simple.

Ah, of course! As soon as I saw the solution I had one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments.

I think if I were to go down the road of wanting a single tap switch, I'd probably replace the Nova Repeater with an Empress Superdelay and connect it and the M5 to a small MIDI controller. That way I'd get universal tap and program changes too. Doubtful I'd go down that road, but it's a possibility.

 

[Hoss]

Very NICE!

You've definitely got all your bases covered!

Mega-Boards ROCK!!! :headbang:

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

That's a lot of board but I must say it is very nice and I love the layout!

Looks like a lot of thought went into it which is what most big boards do not have.

Nice work.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Lotsa cool stuff on the board, but Id never get any playing done if I had to dance with that!!

 

[CTN]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

not to be a dick or anything, but you must like dancing.

I do not understand how people can have so many damn switches to click on and off on a pedalboard. I have only 3 that i use regularly (amp switch, EQ pedal, OD pedal) and I find the tap dancing gets annoying.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Very NICE!

You've definitely got all your bases covered!

Mega-Boards ROCK!!! :headbang:

Thanks, and agreed!

That's a lot of board but I must say it is very nice and I love the layout!

Looks like a lot of thought went into it which is what most big boards do not have.

Nice work.

Thanks! I've been planning this for months now, and it's great to finally have it working the way I want it. As for the pedals themselves, it's taken me years to accumulate them and at the moment I can't think of anything I'd really want to improve. They're all awesome! And if there's an effect that I don't have a dedicated pedal for (e.g. tremolo) the M5 has me covered.

Lotsa cool stuff on the board, but Id never get any playing done if I had to dance with that!!

Yeah, well ... I love effects! This is just part of playing guitar as far as I'm concerned.

not to be a dick or anything, but you must like dancing.

I do not understand how people can have so many damn switches to click on and off on a pedalboard. I have only 3 that i use regularly (amp switch, EQ pedal, OD pedal) and I find the tap dancing gets annoying.

It's probably not as bad as you think. I do a few clicks at the start of a song to get everything set up, then maybe one or two clicks while I'm playing. The idea with the looper is that I never have to hit any switch in the middle of the board during a song; everything important is on the front row.

Example: for the song in the video below, I have the amp on channel 3 the whole time. I do the following switches:

- Raptor on during feedback part
- Raptor off when vocals come in
- Chorus on at start of bridge
- Solo on during the solo
- Chorus and solo off at the end of the solo (though when playing live I usually leave the chorus on until that A chord at "just like you")

In terms of switching complexity, I'd say this song is above average for me. For most songs I am pretty much "set it and forget it" when it comes to effects, and in a few songs I use no effects at all.

Like anything, it comes down to experience. I've been using a big pedal board for years now, and I'm not intimidated or annoyed by it at all.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

I wasn't really sure if it was the best board ever or not, but then I saw his noodly appendage and it spoke to me.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

I wasn't really sure if it was the best board ever or not, but then I saw his noodly appendage and it spoke to me.

I was wondering when someone would notice that!

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

As a pastafarian I noticed but neglected to comment

 

[eschoendorff]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Pretty cool... I really like the (idea and execution of) switcher.

 

[Grindspine]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

Nicely done, impressive board!

 

[NevermindUs]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

im trying to convince myself to conserve some cash for other various things (such as something to replace my much hated emg 707s) but then i see this and immediately flip over to sweetwater. damn yous!

 

[Kam]

Re: Behold: the Mega-Board!

And if there's an effect that I don't have a dedicated pedal for (e.g. tremolo) the M5 has me covered.

Ya know, I've been considering an M5 for just this reason. The next step for my own board is to add a few modulation pedals, but I'm not sure how much I'd even use them. The M5 seems like it's pretty much designed for that kind of situation.

Also, that's the biggest ****ing amp footswitch I've ever seen.

That's a really great board, man. I really love how it doesn't look like you just walked into a music shop and grabbed a bunch of pedals you liked the look of just so that it would be done. It just reeks of time well spent and real attention to detail.

I'm sure it also reeks of salt and vinegar crisps.

Anyways, nice work, man. :beerchug: