RW James
New member
...or why this is still the best place on the web.
On December 2, 2007, my church was burned down by an arsonist. I lost over $2,000 in equipment in that fire - including a Crate Power Block amp, a homemade 2x12 speaker cab, a pedalboard, and a lot of cables. Here is my old pedalboard:
A few days later I started a thread about the incident. It was obviously very upsetting to me and I wanted to let you guys know. I also knew that I would be replacing the lost gear, and I was asking for advice about what to get.
I got a lot of sympathy and prayers (as I recall, over three pages of responses) a blessing that really has meant a lot to me.
I got a lot of good advice, such as pros and cons concerning multi-effects vs single effects. Probably the best advice was to buy used.
But the most unexpected responses came in the form of genuine offers of help. I hope I don't embarrass anyone, but I want publicly thank everyone.
formula73 sent me his EH Small Clone Chorus to replace the one I lost. I loved that pedal and it hurt to lose it. This was an unbelievable blessing.
d1dsj offered to send me two Eminence speakers. A very kind offer, but we both agreed that the shipping from the UK would be more than the speakers were worth. Still I appreciated the offer.
Gr8Scott sent me a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal and made me a great deal on Bad Monkey (another pedal I loved). He also offered a Tube Screamer, but found that critical parts were missing.
Lazarus1140 gave me a good deal on a Boss TR-2 tremolo pedal.
RockStarNick similarly gave me a good deal on a MXR Distortion.
But the beyond the call offer came from Vibrolux. Greg had previously made the Switcheroo pedal for me which I used as an input switcher to select guitars. In the midst of all his wedding plans, he offered to make a new pedal. An awesome offer. I couldn't believe it.
But I thought it would be cool to use the original blackened box as a kind of memento. Thankfully Greg agreed. So about two weeks after the fire, we were allowed into the building to look at the damage. I crossed the police tape and grabbed the charred box off my pedal board. Then sent it to Greg.
He did a great job, and it works even better than the original (I had an odd polarity issue that has mysteriously gone away.) If you're reading this Greg, I don't know what you did but thanks, and I have to say that every time I open the case, I still get a whiff of the smoke.
So again, thanks to everyone - for your generosity, and your prayers and kind thoughts.
Here is my new rig:
The amp is a V Series V3112 that I bought used at my local music store. The 2x12 speaker cab is from Avatar. My wife picked the color, but I'm digging it.
My pedal board - in it's case:
and a close up of the layout
and the cabling system
In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of color coding. I used three different colors of GeorgeL cables - Red is the input section up to board preamp. Blue is the section before being sent to the amp. White is for the effects loop.
In order - Red:
Switcheroo - used to select guitars
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Board preamp - I haven't played with this much, but I like the idea. It enables me to select a volume level for the input.
Blue:
Ibanez WD7 Weeping Demon Wah Pedal
Yamaha Compressor (still learning how to use this)
Boss DS-1
Bad Monkey
MXR Distortion III
White (effects loop):
Boss TR-2 Tremolo (Analogman modded)
Boss PH-2 Phaser
Boss DD-6 Delay
EH Small Clone Chorus
Most of this stuff is used, which for me adds something special to it all. My insurance along with the church insurance came through for me - but without all your help here, I couldn't have done it. Again a big THANK YOU to everyone.
On December 2, 2007, my church was burned down by an arsonist. I lost over $2,000 in equipment in that fire - including a Crate Power Block amp, a homemade 2x12 speaker cab, a pedalboard, and a lot of cables. Here is my old pedalboard:
A few days later I started a thread about the incident. It was obviously very upsetting to me and I wanted to let you guys know. I also knew that I would be replacing the lost gear, and I was asking for advice about what to get.
I got a lot of sympathy and prayers (as I recall, over three pages of responses) a blessing that really has meant a lot to me.
I got a lot of good advice, such as pros and cons concerning multi-effects vs single effects. Probably the best advice was to buy used.
But the most unexpected responses came in the form of genuine offers of help. I hope I don't embarrass anyone, but I want publicly thank everyone.
formula73 sent me his EH Small Clone Chorus to replace the one I lost. I loved that pedal and it hurt to lose it. This was an unbelievable blessing.
d1dsj offered to send me two Eminence speakers. A very kind offer, but we both agreed that the shipping from the UK would be more than the speakers were worth. Still I appreciated the offer.
Gr8Scott sent me a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal and made me a great deal on Bad Monkey (another pedal I loved). He also offered a Tube Screamer, but found that critical parts were missing.
Lazarus1140 gave me a good deal on a Boss TR-2 tremolo pedal.
RockStarNick similarly gave me a good deal on a MXR Distortion.
But the beyond the call offer came from Vibrolux. Greg had previously made the Switcheroo pedal for me which I used as an input switcher to select guitars. In the midst of all his wedding plans, he offered to make a new pedal. An awesome offer. I couldn't believe it.
But I thought it would be cool to use the original blackened box as a kind of memento. Thankfully Greg agreed. So about two weeks after the fire, we were allowed into the building to look at the damage. I crossed the police tape and grabbed the charred box off my pedal board. Then sent it to Greg.
He did a great job, and it works even better than the original (I had an odd polarity issue that has mysteriously gone away.) If you're reading this Greg, I don't know what you did but thanks, and I have to say that every time I open the case, I still get a whiff of the smoke.
So again, thanks to everyone - for your generosity, and your prayers and kind thoughts.
Here is my new rig:
The amp is a V Series V3112 that I bought used at my local music store. The 2x12 speaker cab is from Avatar. My wife picked the color, but I'm digging it.
My pedal board - in it's case:
and a close up of the layout
and the cabling system
In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of color coding. I used three different colors of GeorgeL cables - Red is the input section up to board preamp. Blue is the section before being sent to the amp. White is for the effects loop.
In order - Red:
Switcheroo - used to select guitars
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Board preamp - I haven't played with this much, but I like the idea. It enables me to select a volume level for the input.
Blue:
Ibanez WD7 Weeping Demon Wah Pedal
Yamaha Compressor (still learning how to use this)
Boss DS-1
Bad Monkey
MXR Distortion III
White (effects loop):
Boss TR-2 Tremolo (Analogman modded)
Boss PH-2 Phaser
Boss DD-6 Delay
EH Small Clone Chorus
Most of this stuff is used, which for me adds something special to it all. My insurance along with the church insurance came through for me - but without all your help here, I couldn't have done it. Again a big THANK YOU to everyone.
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