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

My board is greatly simplified since the H9 addition

Back living at the amp -down to Friedman OD >1176 Compressor > Eventide H9 > Strymon Flint Trem (and in case if backline provided doesnt have good verb). So 4 Pedals back at the amp -and then in stereo feed to my Deluxe with a G70H and then an Origin Revivance Drive feeding a Powerstage 170 to a 2xV30 cab. I need to post pics for maug2122

Only one pedal in front of me when playing (I cant stand big pedla boards on stage)- OD controlled/Midi pedal/Tuner Pedal combo I made are


If we play large venue -I run my Deluxe and Marshall 2203 in Stereo to 2xV30 and 4 x 12"greenback
 
One thing I'll give the shoe police, it's actually way better wearing shoes when I'm using the HX Effects. Bare feet and even socks can confuse those capacitive switches. I've looked down and found myself in some kind of parameter editing mode by accident a few times because of lingering toe contact. Thankfully not live, I could see that messing me up. Beware the stray brush of uncovered flesh.

All of the settings and most of the "routing" on my current board are internal presets, including the HOG patches I have stored in the foot controller, so the socks weren't hiding anything good. But I did just find this footless pic of my old pre-HX bass board, which is basically the signal path I recreated in the modeler.

20230904-095359.jpg

The whole point of this setup was to run into both channels of my Traynor head at the same time. I started off trying to use each channel separately with an A/B box, but there was always crosstalk, and I decided to embrace the parallel processing. This version of it had the noise gate first, with the EQ and the HOG in the loop of the gate. That wasn't ideal for sensitive note trails but it was never an issue live.

The unlabeled blue box with the two knobs is an active splitter with boosts from Saturnworks. Awesome pedal for this application, it let me fine-tune how I was feeding the distortion and compression downstream. The Emma compressor side of this goes into the dirtier-sounding channel of the Traynor for a nice, big, slightly gritty low end. The Memory Toy is on that side for subtle atmospheric delay during some softer parts. The MXR Distortion III side feeds the cleaner channel of the Traynor for an edgy bite on the high end, and the Carbon Copy is set to self-oscillate for effect in a couple of spots. Blend channels to taste and fine-tune the EQ at the amp.

Would have been nice to clean this up with custom-length cables, but I tweaked it too much to make that worthwhile. I realize the cabling looks a bit messy but it was all held in place with wire ties. Very stable in practice. The wall wart on the back of the power supply is for the HOG, which is a special snowflake. The board itself is pine and Velcro from Lowe's.

My current board is set up with guitar amp and bass amp patches so all I need to do is swap cables between rigs, but I think I might wire this back up. There's a guitar player who might want to jam and it would be cool to have both rigs available at once. Way noisier than the HX but it had some mojo.
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Seashore said:
One thing I'll give the shoe police, it's actually way better wearing shoes when I'm using the HX Effects. Bare feet and even socks can confuse those capacitive switches. I've looked down and found myself in some kind of parameter editing mode by accident a few times because of lingering toe contact. Thankfully not live, I could see that messing me up. Beware the stray brush of uncovered flesh.

All of the settings and most of the "routing" on my current board are internal presets, including the HOG patches I have stored in the foot controller, so the socks weren't hiding anything good. But I did just find this footless pic of my old pre-HX bass board, which is basically the signal path I recreated in the modeler.



The whole point of this setup was to run into both channels of my Traynor head at the same time. I started off trying to use each channel separately with an A/B box, but there was always crosstalk, and I decided to embrace the parallel processing. This version of it had the noise gate first, with the EQ and the HOG in the loop of the gate. That wasn't ideal for sensitive note trails but it was never an issue live.

The unlabeled blue box with the two knobs is an active splitter with boosts from Saturnworks. Awesome pedal for this application, it let me fine-tune how I was feeding the distortion and compression downstream. The Emma compressor side of this goes into the dirtier-sounding channel of the Traynor for a nice, big, slightly gritty low end. The Memory Toy is on that side for subtle atmospheric delay during some softer parts. The MXR Distortion III side feeds the cleaner channel of the Traynor for an edgy bite on the high end, and the Carbon Copy is set to self-oscillate for effect in a couple of spots. Blend channels to taste and fine-tune the EQ at the amp.

Would have been nice to clean this up with custom-length cables, but I tweaked it too much to make that worthwhile. I realize the cabling looks a bit messy but it was all held in place with wire ties. Very stable in practice. The wall wart on the back of the power supply is for the HOG, which is a special snowflake. The board itself is pine and Velcro from Lowe's.

My current board is set up with guitar amp and bass amp patches so all I need to do is swap cables between rigs, but I think I might wire this back up. There's a guitar player who might want to jam and it would be cool to have both rigs available at once. Way noisier than the HX but it had some mojo.
​​​​​​
Click to expand...

Nice, what Traynor are you playing ?

-one note -if you use that board for gigging -be sure to have the feed from your Guitar into the noise suppressor be a right angled jack and not a straight like shown in the pic -as a straight into a pedal raised a few inches off the ground is a disaster waiting to happen IME

Also, Maybe in the future if you get a desire -I suggest moving from a big Power supply on the top to 2 daisy chained Strymon Ojai or a single Zuma -they are the thinnest power supplies and with beef pedal board feet can fit underneath your pedal board out of the way -I use 2 Ojais, so if one fails at a gig im also not screwed. The Strymon supplies also test very well for internal noise and use with digital pedals which plagues a lot of brands.

Here's an example of the underside of a board of mine
fetch


another board

fetch
 
NegativeEase said:
Nice, what Traynor are you playing ?

-one note -if you use that board for gigging -be sure to have the feed from your Guitar into the noise suppressor be a right angled jack and not a straight like shown in the pic -as a straight into a pedal raised a few inches off the ground is a disaster waiting to happen IME

Also, Maybe in the future if you get a desire -I suggest moving from a big Power supply on the top to 2 daisy chained Strymon Ojai or a single Zuma -they are the thinnest power supplies and with beef pedal board feet can fit underneath your pedal board out of the way -I use 2 Ojais, so if one fails at a gig im also not screwed. The Strymon supplies also test very well for internal noise and use with digital pedals which plagues a lot of brands.

Here's an example of the underside of a board of mine
fetch


another board

fetch
Click to expand...

That looks awesome and it's a great idea, thank you. Getting the power supply off the top would be super cool. Right now I'm using a plug strip to accommodate the HX Effects wall wart and the Pedal Power, which is clunky. The only advantage is that I have an extra outlet on top of the board if I need it. Would love to streamline.
 
NegativeEase said:
Nice, what Traynor are you playing ?
Click to expand...

Argh, can't edit. It's a YGL 3A Mark 3 head. I had a smaller Traynor, I think it was a YBA 1, that I really loved. I traded it for this one because I needed more power. I miss that thing. But this one's great for the bass rig. It's powering a very old 2x12 with EV speakers and a Hartke Transporter 2x10. Somehow they sound just right together.
 
Seashore said:
One thing I'll give the shoe police, it's actually way better wearing shoes when I'm using the HX Effects. Bare feet and even socks can confuse those capacitive switches. I've looked down and found myself in some kind of parameter editing mode by accident a few times because of lingering toe contact. Thankfully not live, I could see that messing me up. Beware the stray brush of uncovered flesh.

All of the settings and most of the "routing" on my current board are internal presets, including the HOG patches I have stored in the foot controller, so the socks weren't hiding anything good. But I did just find this footless pic of my old pre-HX bass board, which is basically the signal path I recreated in the modeler.



The whole point of this setup was to run into both channels of my Traynor head at the same time. I started off trying to use each channel separately with an A/B box, but there was always crosstalk, and I decided to embrace the parallel processing. This version of it had the noise gate first, with the EQ and the HOG in the loop of the gate. That wasn't ideal for sensitive note trails but it was never an issue live.

The unlabeled blue box with the two knobs is an active splitter with boosts from Saturnworks. Awesome pedal for this application, it let me fine-tune how I was feeding the distortion and compression downstream. The Emma compressor side of this goes into the dirtier-sounding channel of the Traynor for a nice, big, slightly gritty low end. The Memory Toy is on that side for subtle atmospheric delay during some softer parts. The MXR Distortion III side feeds the cleaner channel of the Traynor for an edgy bite on the high end, and the Carbon Copy is set to self-oscillate for effect in a couple of spots. Blend channels to taste and fine-tune the EQ at the amp.

Would have been nice to clean this up with custom-length cables, but I tweaked it too much to make that worthwhile. I realize the cabling looks a bit messy but it was all held in place with wire ties. Very stable in practice. The wall wart on the back of the power supply is for the HOG, which is a special snowflake. The board itself is pine and Velcro from Lowe's.

My current board is set up with guitar amp and bass amp patches so all I need to do is swap cables between rigs, but I think I might wire this back up. There's a guitar player who might want to jam and it would be cool to have both rigs available at once. Way noisier than the HX but it had some mojo.
​​​​​​
Click to expand...


First the aesthetics of the shot: Carpet not aligned with wood floor, board not aligned on either. Drunk photo or just cross-eyed or something??? Besides that it is fuzzy, and the light is random, not artsy.

Next - all kinds of cable mess. Man, you people never learn. And that one from the Carbon Copy over the top...all kinds of knob hazard! Off the front, or underneath!!!!

I think the space could be a little better utilized - could get the tuner down on level 1. That little tuner/comp/splitter area hurts me. Like a little tornado hit there and screwed up the pedals...



Noise gate first? Nice use of the loop for the EQ and Hog...I think this is the first Boss Noise Suppressor we have seen.

I have no Idea what the Hog does, but it looks so 1972 and is just out of place. I mean, it is a synth module, but you couldn't find a BOSS or more modern box?

The red and green MXR's just look too "Christmas" There MUST be a better dirt than the Distortion III

Also cool use of the Saturn pedal for the amp channels.

Indifferent on the Memory Toy. A lot of people dig them, and as always, more delay is more.

Is that tuner even plugged in???? You know, it doesn't work unless it is.....

Power box UNDER the board!!!!

Now the compressor. Never heard of them. If it is always on, I'm OK with upside down. If not, it's freaking upside down!


I get what you are doing - intriguing wiring. But I don't "get" what you do with the overall rig, and I hate that pedal (purely on looks)

What DO you play with this???
 
Aceman said:
First the aesthetics of the shot: Carpet not aligned with wood floor, board not aligned on either. Drunk photo or just cross-eyed or something??? Besides that it is fuzzy, and the light is random, not artsy.

Next - all kinds of cable mess. Man, you people never learn. And that one from the Carbon Copy over the top...all kinds of knob hazard! Off the front, or underneath!!!!

I think the space could be a little better utilized - could get the tuner down on level 1. That little tuner/comp/splitter area hurts me. Like a little tornado hit there and screwed up the pedals...



Noise gate first? Nice use of the loop for the EQ and Hog...I think this is the first Boss Noise Suppressor we have seen.

I have no Idea what the Hog does, but it looks so 1972 and is just out of place. I mean, it is a synth module, but you couldn't find a BOSS or more modern box?

The red and green MXR's just look too "Christmas" There MUST be a better dirt than the Distortion III

Also cool use of the Saturn pedal for the amp channels.

Indifferent on the Memory Toy. A lot of people dig them, and as always, more delay is more.

Is that tuner even plugged in???? You know, it doesn't work unless it is.....

Power box UNDER the board!!!!

Now the compressor. Never heard of them. If it is always on, I'm OK with upside down. If not, it's freaking upside down!


I get what you are doing - intriguing wiring. But I don't "get" what you do with the overall rig, and I hate that pedal (purely on looks)

What DO you play with this???
Click to expand...

Hmm. You raise some aesthetic concerns about both the board and the photo that I have to admit never came to mind for me. This board started off as part of an answer to the question, "how can I, a broke musician with a bunch of random gear, slap together a cool-sounding bass rig right now?" Later it became a matter of replacing the weak links one piece at a time and trying to fit them onto the existing real estate.

The NS2 - basic but the settings work well for me. Had it forever. The loop is a great feature. I wish it could have encompassed the dirt and compression, but I'd need two channels of noise gate for that. The buffer does color the sound a little bit. Only use it live.

The EQ pedal - Wampler EQuator, great-sounding semi parametric, easy to dial in. I used a couple of different graphics but came to realize the high-mid and low-mid frequencies needed more precise adjustment to really slot in with the guitar. This is always on and does what the crappy preamp in my bass used to do, but better. If I was buying now I would get the Source Audio EQ2 - programmable, two-channel, would knock the splitter off the board. HX Effects EQ is actually great too. But I like this pedal a lot.

The HOG - nothing else I've heard does what the HOG pedals do. I fell in love with it the first time I played one at a guitar shop and finally got one used at a reasonable price about 10 years ago. I have a few settings I like for bass - a big "bass organ" sound, a sort of whistly slow-attack higher synth for lead melodies (which is what this is set to right now), standard octave up and down settings to fill out the sound in certain parts. But it could be capable of a lot more, especially if I had a good expression pedal. Freeze function, whammy and wah effects - all very synthetic, no attempt at realism, just a cool unique sound. It's not something to use all the time but I find more spots for it the more I use it. HOG forever.

Turbo Tuner (ST-200 model) - yes, it's plugged in; its input is tapped off the unused dry output from the HOG so it's not in the signal path. When I first got it I didn't realize the importance of hitting the right impedance first and thought that it just "sucked tone" from my guitar, so I started tapping it off. It's actually fine as long as there's a pedal with the right input impedance upstream, but this way I don't have to have muted tuning if I don't want to. Can mute with the NS2, which still passes signal through the loop to the HOG and thus the tuner. The output in this position is usable as a dry direct signal for recording. Tuner on the HX Effects is not as useful to me. This one hears bass as quickly and accurately as guitar, and I can calibrate it for weirdo projects that don't tune to A440. I would replace this as quickly as possible if it died or got lost. The newer ST-300 has a switch so it can still pass signal when the tuner is on, if you want.

Emma Transmorgrifier - another very old past-life purchase. It is, among other things, the compressor that I have. Which makes it a lot cooler than some other neat ones that I don't have. It happens to sound really good on my bass with this rig. I don't know what I would compare it to, but I've sampled some of the more affordable usual suspects and this is still a good choice. Noisy, but solid enough tone-wise that it's not the first thing on the chopping block. HX Effects "Rochester Comp" model has it beat with less noise, though. Always on.

MXR Distortion III - as a guitarist I can see where you're coming from. It's kind of buzzy and inorganic and not as flexible as some. But in this spot in this rig, it's actually great. It beat out a few other "better" and more obvious dirt choices. Just the right amount of high end and attack while staying smooth on decay. Can dial it in enough between the tone knob and the amp channel EQ. I thought a fuzz would do better but this won hands down. The only pedal I could see replacing it would be something Rat-like, and now I'm actually using the Rat model on the HX in this spot. Turning this on and off gives me enough of a "clean channel" to be useful.

Carbon Copy - like I said, set for self-oscillation as a special effect, only used a couple of times a set. I'm using the CC for this because it resets when I hit the foot switch, unlike the Memory Toy, which will just keep screaming away in silence until I unplug or change the settings. I have a delay set up for this purpose on a momentary switch on the HX. This one and the MT are on long term loan from a friend.

Memory Toy - I actually love the sound of this. I used to use a DD3, which was fine, but between the modulation and the sort of "silvery" high end sheen on repeats, this pedal sounds wonderful on my bass. I haven't found an HX model that quite has the same subtle mojo. The only thing it's missing for me is tap tempo. I just got used to setting it per song since it didn't need to be exact. Again just for special spots in a handful of tunes. Keep in mind that both of these are only going into half the front of amp.

The errant guitar cable, yes... I would usually snake that one output cable from the CC around to the left, under the power supply, and do whatever needed to be done to get to the amp. That part of the cabling didn't move once it was set up, so there was nothing sweeping across the board.

Power supply under the board sounds great; I would need to build a different board and probably get a different power supply to make that work, but that would be worth it at some point if I ever get to play live again. This one only has a couple inches of rise from front to back. All the stuff with the foot switches to the front is the stuff I needed to access during songs, and everything else was always on. I did try to set everything up facing the right way but I couldn't make the space or the cabling work.

Photo is fuzzy because of some resizing during upload. I am sorry. The carpet may have been drunk for this photo shoot. If I do put this board back together, I will probably need newer cables and might be able to make it look tidy, but maybe I can embrace the mess and give it the Wasteland Guitars treatment. Either way, the function was good, this setup never tripped me up or let me down.

This particular setup is for a band called Heavy Meta from where I used to live in MA. Hope we can still make stuff happen, I'm only about 2.5 hours away from them now. There are new demos floating around. This song ("Caffeine Casket") is not one of my top picks from the album, but it's a lot of fun to play, and it's got some bass HOG stuff for flavor. The whole soft intro is bass (all six-string) - that melody is through the higher-octave "lead melody" patch on the HOG. There's also organ HOG later in the tune.


Renaming the band Organ Hog.

Anyway. Thank you for your pedalboard review.
 
BTW - when I mention "patches" on the HOG - I've actually stored my most used settings as presets on the six-button foot controller, which I didn't have when I took this. I used to have it all memorized and change all the sliders between songs. The foot controller takes up an obnoxious amount of real estate but I dig having dedicated buttons more than I would the two-button up/down scroller that replaced it on the HOG2. In general I'm not a huge fan of EHX's oddball form factors or aesthetic choices or power requirements. But the sound, man, the sound.
 
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