Like most guitarists, I like toys. Like most working guitarists, I can’t afford everything I want but in the area of effects pedals, spending $100-$150 every so often won’t break the bank and allows me to have some flexibility with the gear that I work with. I have three distinct pedal boards, and I figured that it would be fun to go through them each and talk about the “what and why” of each one. This week we are looking at my big or “main” board.
Board 1 – “Pedalstar Galactica” or my main working board:
My primary “money” gig is a cover band that plays music from blues to rock music from the 50’s through the present day, country, the occasional swing thing, disco, funk and whatever else people want to pay us to play. I’ve put together this board so that I can cover a wide array of styles and using the Boss ES-8 loop switcher allows me to program preset sounds so that I can more easily manage the tones for each song while singing or otherwise entertaining. If you click on the name of each pedal it takes you to either the Amazon page (where I get a spall commission if you buy anything) or in the case of the Turbo Tuner and the clock to the manufacturers page where I do not but I still like their stuff enough to show you where to find it…
- Boss ES-8: I’ve had this for almost two years at this point and it has simplified my life immensely. Instead of needing to tap dance on several pedals at once while singing and occasionally miss buttons or kick knobs with my size 13 feet and mess up the settings I can have presets of sounds that bring in groups of pedals and even change patches on the Strymon pedals through midi.
- Sonic Research Turbo Tuner – my favorite tuner. I originally bought one when I played Suhr guitars that had the Buzz Feiten intonation system and now I own three. Super accurate and bulletproof.
- Wampler Mini Ego Compressor – I’ve owned three of these over the years and discovered that I like the fact that the mini version has toggle switches instead of knobs for tone and attack options. Fewer things for me to obsess over. I use it a lot with single coil instruments (especially my Telecaster) as a sort of drive/compression but with any guitar for a clean lead sound. I have an Xotic SP Compressor in another board but that is almost too clean for the rock band stuff. I also especially love the blend control, which allows me to mix in the compressed sound under the dry signal. I like that I can have compression without changing the feel or tone of my basic clean sound that much.
- Xotic AC Booster – The pedal in this position changes every so often. This year I’ve had an Analogman King of Tone, Keeley D and M Drive, Wampler Tumnus and a Tube Screamer Mini here and now I’m trying the AC Booster. All good pedals, but in the context of this board it is hard to get a bluesy drive sound that has enough volume without needing to stack another pedal which starts crunching out too much for what I want. This seems to be the best option so far…
- Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive MOD – the pedal that would not die. This ends up being my main overdrive most of the time. With the amp at a decent volume it’s my “rock and roll” Marshall sound. I’ve given up trying to find something to replace it with. Lots of pedals sound great at home but once I’m onstage playing at gig volume next to a live drummer and bassist this ends up working the best. I use the first “MOD” selection which is kind of like a TS-808 Tube Screamer with a little more crunch and less midrange.
- Wampler Velvet Fuzz – I use this mainly for an over-the-top saturated lead sound. Not as “authentic” as my Analogman Sunface fuzz but more usable in this context.
- Xotic RC Booster – a “kind of” clean boost/fattener pedal. There used to be an MXR Reverb here but I don’t use much verb for this gig other than the occasional surf tune and I thought it would be nice to try stacking stuff with this. It was in the spot that is currently occupied by my AC Booster for the better part of a decade but I needed a change. Still a fantastic pedal.
- MXR Custom Shop Handwired Phase 90 – I love this pedal. I could get my phaser sounds out of the Strymon Mobius but this is too good not to use.
- Strymon Mobius – I get most of my modulation from this pedal and change the patches from the ES-8 through a midi cable. Right now I use it for chorus, flange, tremolo and rotary sounds although there are a lot more sounds available.
- Strymon Timeline – Delays – because of the nature of this band I don’t use this pedal to anything close to it’s potential right now. Mostly using it for slap and ambient tape delays.
- Mission Engineering Expression pedal – I currently use it to change the speed of modulation on the mobius although I might just start using it more for adjusting delay mixes. I should be able to do it all through the ES-8 but the midi isn’t working the way I’d like it to and I’ve kind of given up spending time with it.
- TC Electronic Mini Spark Boost – this is actually after everything else on the board as a last resort lead bost. “This pedal goes to 11”.
- DS Engineering Chronograph – yes, I have a clock on my pedalboard. I play gigs that need to run on specific schedules and it is rude to look at your watch or check your phone on stage.
I run in and out of the board through a small patch bay under the upper right corner by the tuner and the entire shebang is powered by a Voodoo Lab 4×4 power supply under the upper left corner of the board
If I really need a wah I can put my Dunlop Mini Crybaby on the floor in front of the board. I love how the pedal sounds but it is so small that I’m starting to think about getting a more normal-sized pedal for my giant feet.
The board itself is a Pedaltrain Pro board that came with a soft case but I ended up replacing the stock nylon bag with a Mono Tour case that protects stuff better (I’ve had a few pedals broken using the stock case) but isn’t as unwieldy as a hardcase.
Next week I’ll look at the two smaller boards (which are REALLY smaller) and maybe a few amps and other items that I use on gigs….
