Last week we took a look at my main gigging board, which a friend of mine has dubbed “Pedalstar Galactica”. This week I want to go through my two smaller pedal boards, which give me some flexibility for small gigs ad rehearsals.
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I actually use this board mostly when I teach my performance classes, when I play with the Ken Feorch Band (which is a Fusion Jazz band) and when I play with the cover band on incredibly small stages. It actually gets used the most because it is easier to drag around but still covers a lot of sounds. Both of these boards are powered by the CIOKS Adam power supply, which I like because it gives clean isolated power in a box that can fit under a small Pedaltrain board. It has four isolated power outs that can power five pedals with the included cables. I might have an extra daisy chain cable to power the 6th pedal on this board. Here is what we have on this board:
- Sonic Research Turbo Tuner – this is the smaller version that barely fits in this setting. Like I said last week, I think they are the best tuners on the market and totally worth the money.
- Xotic SP Compressor – This one is kind of new for me. I’ve used Wampler Ego compressors for a long time but they can sound kind of crunch the way I like to use them (which is great for the rock band) but in this application I prefer the cleaner sounding Xotic SP. It also has a “blend” control that I love and the second knob is for volume. Another thing I like about this pedal is that the amount of compression is determined by a three position toggle switch marked “low” “med” and “hi”. I set it where I think it works best for the music I’m currently playing and it is one lesson knob for me to fiddle with.
- Analogman King of Tone – Yes, I was on a waiting list for 18 months, bought it and then didn’t try and flip it for twice what I paid because I actually liked it. This pedal does not work well with my large board even though I ordered it with the “four jack” option so that you could use each side like a separate pedal with a loop switcher but in this setting it is killer. The right side I usually run pretty dirty and the left side is more of my cleaner boost. And you can always go nuts and kick them both on at once.
- Malekko Omicron Chorus – I’ve had one of these before and sold it to a friend when I got the Strymon Mobius for my big board. When I needed a small form factor chorus for this setup I ended up replacing it. For some reason this one really only sounds good when you run it at 18b, so I have an Xotic voltage double under the board to give it better clean headroom.
- MXR Phase 95 – I love my Phase 90 on the big board and this version came out right when I was rebuilding this board so I bought one. If I remember correctly it does a Phase 45 and then both script and block logo versions of the Phase 90 sound and you select them through the little white buttons on either side of the big knob. It is different from my hand wired custom shop Phase 90 but it still sounds great. The nice thing with this is that I can kinda fake a rotary speaker kind of sound as well as getting a good phaser. I can also turn u the rate on the Malekko Chorus but it doesn’t do that sound quite as well.
- Strymon El Capistan – this is a digital emulation of a tape echo machine and it has to be my favorite sounding delay for guitars ever. I have the Timeline on my big board for the versatility but to my ears this pedal sounds better. I use it either for a slap back echo or usually an ambient delay that I can run behind most playing without it interfering with the intelligibility of my parts.
This board was actually put together for school last year when I thought I was going to need pedals for one of the combo classes that was going in a more modern direction. Originally it had an Xotic RC Booster in place of the Kelley D&M Drive but this seemed to make more sense. Again, this board has a CIOKS Adam power supply and a Sonic Research Turbo tuner. It actually is small enough to fit in a Mono “Guitar Tick” bag that clips into the front of my Mono m80 gig bags, which is super convenient.
The rest:
- Keely D&M Drive – I’m a “That Pedal Show fan and I like drive pedals with two sides so this was almost a no-brainer for me. I usually use the clean side as a “Klon” style boost with the other side set up for higher levels of dirt.
- Boss Waza Craft CE-2w chorus – I had an original CE-2 when I was younger and sold it some time in the early 90’s. When they came out with this version with the CE-1 and vibrato features I figured it would be a great addition for this smaller rig.
- MXR Carbon Copy Delay – I use this just like the El Capistan, either as an ambient delay or a slap echo. This is also the second one of these I’ve owned. See a pattern forming? Some stuff I should just keep because it works for me. I like this pedal because the repeats can be darker and tuck under your playing, giving the sound some depth without the repeats stepping on the parts.
Here is the “Tick” on my gig bag:
