Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

[Lewguitar]

You guys know I'm not one for using a lot of pedals - although I own a million of them, just in case.

So I bought a Pedal Train 2 with Voodoo Power to organize all of my favorite pedals:

Boss TU2 (tuner)
ShoBud Volume Control
Homebrew CPR (compressor)
Vox 847 Spina Modded Wah Wah
Vox Satchurator (overdrive/distortion)
Rat (overdrive/distortion)
TS-808 (overdrive/distortion)
TS-9 (Spina Modded (overdrive/distortion)
Ibanez Jemini (overdrive/distortion)
Fulltone '69 (Fuzzface clone - overdrive/distortion)
Boss DS-1 (overdrive/distortion)
Line 6 DL-4 (Stereo Delay)
Line 6 Verbzilla (Stereo Reverb)
Boss CE2 (Chorus)
Boss CE3 (Stereo Chorus)
Danelectro Cool Cat (Stereo Chorus)
Kendrick ABC amp selector

I quickly discovered that I couldn't fit all this stuff on one Pedal Board ( lol! ) and that I'd have to narrow it down to eight pedals on the board and put my Vox Wah Wah, Sho Bud volume control and Kendrick ABC on the floor - which is where I like them best anyway.

We were snowed in again up here at 9,000 feet above sea level - so I spent the entire day experimenting and finalizing some choices. I made up a jillion little George L cords and had at it.

Did a lot of work with placement and the order of the pedals and found that some pedals sounded very different early in the chain than they did near the end of the chain.

My '69 pedal sounded smoothest mounted after all my other overdrive/distortion pedals, but had the most presence and perhaps the best sound early in the chain right after my wah wah pedal.

Surprisingly, my chorus pedals all sounded best dead last in the chain. Putting them before Delay seemed to lose the chorus effect.

I was surprised at which overdrive/distortion pedals made the cut...and which didn't.

The winners:
Vox Satchurator
Rat
Ibanez Jemini

The losers:
Ibanez TS-808
Ibanez TS-9
Fulltone '69
Boss DS-1

All the winners do what the losers can do and do it better!

As far as my chorus pedals go, the winner is my little blue Boss CE 2 - the Boss CE 3 moved to the auction block on Ebay this morning. My Dano Cool Cat is going to stick around for a while - it's a noisy but otherwise great sounding chorus.

So here's the order of the keepers:

Boss TU2
Homebrew CPR
Vox Wah Wah
Vox Satchurator
Rat
Ibanez Jemini
Boss CE2
Line 6 DL4
Line 6 Verbzilla

I'm not ready to glue everything down with Velcro - a little more testing first.

But I'm really pleased with how much better everything sounds with the Voodoo Power. Much quieter and everything seems to work together better.

Anyways, that's today's report...

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

I want to add that I'm still loving the Ibanez Jemini.

I keep it last in the chain of distortion devices because when I run the Satch or the Rat through the Jemini's Green Channel there's no arguing that they sound better. BIGGER! DEEPER! Makes those pedals sound HUGE, and the Green Channel of the jemini sounds just fabulous all by itself too.

And a real surprise was my olf big box Rat. It bumped my Fulltone '69 pedals off of the board. Just a really nice plucky organic quality to the Rat. It's never sounded this good before and it earned a place on the board. I've been using it: Distortion 2 o clock, Filter 4 o clock and Volume 2 o clock. Killer jeff Beck tones but smoother the way I use it and through my gear.

And I've been using my Strat with the short scale (24 3/4" like a Gibson) with the two Tom Holmes Humbuckers. Just an awesome little guitar.

And I've been doing the two amp thing, using either the Verbzilla or DL4 to split the signal into either a Fender Deluxe Reverb and Princeton Reverb combo or a Fender '51 Super and '58 Deluxe combo.

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Mixing a Rat with a TS style OD is pure excellence.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Mixing a Rat with a TS style OD is pure excellence.

That's the thing about the green channel of the Jemini. It doesn't really sound like a TS 808 or TS-9 (the Jemini Green channel is not as compressed, has a better low end, and doesn't have that huge nasal mid range "HONK" of a TS pedal) but it does some of what a TS pedal does and does it even better and with a more natural tone - to my ears. More depth. More low end. More transparent and less compressed. So when I run the Rat by itself it sounds awesome and when I run it through the Jemini it sounds even better. So does the Satch!

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Yeah, I run a Rat into a Fulldrive II. Lovely.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Is it one of those warmoth conversion necks?

care to do a comparison?

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

So here's the order of the keepers:

Boss TU2
Homebrew CPR
Vox Wah Wah
Vox Satchurator
Rat
Ibanez Jemini
Boss CE2
Line 6 DL4
Line 6 Verbzilla

Lew, if you're gonna be a pedal freak you have to have a tremolo!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Lew, if you're gonna be a pedal freak you have to have a tremolo!

Got it - all of my blackface Fenders have tremolo. Never been a big fan of tremolo, although I like it when it's very slow and gets kind of a swampy bluesy quality to it - like the way some of the T Bone Burnett produced guitar tones sound. Thinking of that Allison Krauss & Robert Plant CD.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Lew, you keep talking about the Jemini and I'm going to end up w/ 3 of them! I really want one!

 

[Sanford]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

So as far as Rat pedals go: Turbo or non-Turbo?

 

[Farkus]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Lew, you keep talking about the Jemini and I'm going to end up w/ 3 of them! I really want one!

It really is a great pedal. It does mild OD on the green channel all the way to metal on the red channel. You gotta try one!

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Lew - with 3 overdrives/distortions I'd experiment with putting a modulation pedal behind one of them... I find my Maxon FL9 flanger usable before the Rat if I use a clean amp... just because I don't need airplane "wooshes" all of the time. When I use it with a dirty amp (depends on the rehearsal room) I like to have both options.
Pushing your wah wah with a distortion or putting a distortion right in front of the amp may give you interesting results...

Sanford:

So as far as Rat pedals go: Turbo or non-Turbo?

I find all the Rats a little similar with their grungy voicing. Comparing them is, in a way, like comparing between different pickups... while the normal models are your average pickup and the You Dirty Rat is a version with softer voiced magnets (more or less the same output IMO), the Turbo Rat is your over-wounded version on the same concept.
So it all depends on what you need - I went with the Turbo Rat because I needed something that would help me cut through the mix in my previous band and because it has something very "British" in it. Do bare in mind that it gives you a volume boost almost every time you use it, so balancing it might be problematic.

 

[Hoss]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

sounds like fun Lew!?

my pedalboard is still in the works...the guy who's building it for me has alot of projects going and i told him to put me last on the list...no hurry, plus i have a few pedals on the way still anyways.

how do you like that Homebrew Compressor...i'm thinking about adding a comp sooner or later!?

 

[tone4days]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

cool! ... enjoy!

just for giggles, try putting the tu-2 dead last in the chain and see if you notice a difference or not ... for me, it made all the difference to have it after my wah, and boost/ODs

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

how do you like that Homebrew Compressor...i'm thinking about adding a comp sooner or later!?

I really like it. It's the best Compressor I've owned. I also have an old MXR Dyna Comp but I haven't used it in many, many years.

I can use the Homebrew for a lot of things:

1. Makes a great booster! Just set the level high and the compression low.

2. At very low volumes, like church volumes, it thickens up both my rhythm and lead tones.

3. With my Danolectro 12 string I can get much closer to those Mr. Tambourine Man tones with it than without it. You, being the Tom Petty fan you are, would probably like it just for that!

I wasn't even in the market for a compressor - my buddy Duane bought a Homebrew and told me I had to try it. He gave me his for a few days and then I ordered one. It does everything I've always wanted a compressor to do: everything from extremely subtle to extreme sustain - especially when using it before overdrive/distortion pedals.

Lew

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

cool! ... enjoy!

just for giggles, try putting the tu-2 dead last in the chain and see if you notice a difference or not ... for me, it made all the difference to have it after my wah, and boost/ODs

I'll try that. I'm still playing around with the order of things. I'd have to put it after my overdrives but before my stereo effects like chorus and delay and reverb.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

Lew - with 3 overdrives/distortions I'd experiment with putting a modulation pedal behind one of them... I find my Maxon FL9 flanger usable before the Rat if I use a clean amp... just because I don't need airplane "wooshes" all of the time. When I use it with a dirty amp (depends on the rehearsal room) I like to have both options.
Pushing your wah wah with a distortion or putting a distortion right in front of the amp may give you interesting results...

Sanford:


I find all the Rats a little similar with their grungy voicing. Comparing them is, in a way, like comparing between different pickups... while the normal models are your average pickup and the You Dirty Rat is a version with softer voiced magnets (more or less the same output IMO), the Turbo Rat is your over-wounded version on the same concept.
So it all depends on what you need - I went with the Turbo Rat because I needed something that would help me cut through the mix in my previous band and because it has something very "British" in it. Do bare in mind that it gives you a volume boost almost every time you use it, so balancing it might be problematic.

Never liked flangers and phasers. I had a Fulltone Choral/Flanger and sold it within a month.

I don't hear the Rat as being grungy, BTW. Mine is set very smooth. The tone control works in reverse: turning it up makes the tone less trebley and makes it sound sweeter and smoother.

In fact, now that they're all three next to each other on the board, I find myself trying to get the Satch and the Red channel of the Jemini to sound more like the Rat! LOL!

But my Rat sounds very smooth and plucky.

Played last night for a few hours - wound up putting the '69 back on, then taking it off and putting the TS-808 in its place. I have one spot open that will be for my "whatever" pedal.

 

[Hoss]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

I really like it. It's the best Compressor I've owned. I also have an old MXR Dyna Comp but I haven't used it in many, many years.

I can use the Homebrew for a lot of things:

1. Makes a great booster! Just set the level high and the compression low.

2. At very low volumes, like church volumes, it thickens up both my rhythm and lead tones.

3. With my Danolectro 12 string I can get much closer to those Mr. Tambourine Man tones with it than without it. You, being the Tom Petty fan you are, would probably like it just for that!

I wasn't even in the market for a compressor - my buddy Duane bought a Homebrew and told me I had to try it. He gave me his for a few days and then I ordered one. It does everything I've always wanted a compressor to do: everything from extremely subtle to extreme sustain - especially when using it before overdrive/distortion pedals.

Lew

ooohhh sounds RIGHT UP my alley for sure!!!

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

I don't hear the Rat as being grungy, BTW. Mine is set very smooth. The tone control works in reverse: turning it up makes the tone less trebley and makes it sound sweeter and smoother.

But my Rat sounds very smooth and plucky.

:scratchch
Are you using an old model? I only had a chance to play the modern models and I can't describe them as smooth pedals. They are great for grunge and The Darkness types of distortion to my ears. Not the best choice for the tones Scofield or Gilmour got while using a Rat.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Progress Report on My Pedal Board!

:scratchch
Are you using an old model? I only had a chance to play the modern models and I can't describe them as smooth pedals. They are great for grunge and The Darkness types of distortion to my ears. Not the best choice for the tones Scofield or Gilmour got while using a Rat.

Yes mine is an old one. The tone/filter control works in reverse: to cut treble you turn it up not down. I think that's why guys try one out and then describe the tone as harsh and grungy. It threw me too! But once you get that together in your mind, it's very warm and plucky.