New Pedaltrain/Pedal(s) Day!

[Mr Anthony]

Hello people of basschat!

I've been playing for 6 years now, almost 2 of those I've spent in a band, and recently I've decided I'd like to expand my options tone-wise at least. I had a quick poke around the internet, and had a chat with some bassists from the other bands at gigs I've been to and played and such, and there are plenty of them rocking either a few little stompboxes, a multieffects unit, and then there was this one guy who used to play guitar in a band, and had one of them mahoosive three tier boards completely packed with effects which he's just been using for bass. And I thought to myself, I want some of that action.

So I went onto eBay, and grabbed myself a couple of pedals, just to begin with, and I plan on expanding further!

So far I've got myself a Woolly Mammoth clone (would kill for a proper Z.Vex model!), a Behringer chorus, and a really cool killswitch from Vein-Tap. All of this is now mounted on my newly purchased Pedaltrain mini which I grabbed from Thomann for a substantially lower price than UK retailers. I think it's on sale still, if you're interested.

I love that it comes with a bag, and it feels pretty sturdy too, which is great. Has a decent amount of storage, and I reckon you'd get some pretty tall pedals inside if you really needed to.


The board itself feels quite strong, and whilst I haven't made the best use of the space, you'll actually get quite a few pedals on here in my opinion. Since I only have three, I've spread them out nicely for now. But I do plan to add a delay and a reverb of some sorts. Hopefully a tuner and a Ditto Looper in the future too. If I rejig everything and cable properly it should all fit. I've used pedalplanner.com to test fit, and it should be alright I reckon.


Here's a couple of pics of the pedals. Currently, I'm using 9v batteries, since I don't want to drop about £80 on the Volto powersupply if I don't actually like using effects. It'd probably be cheaper to just grab a Zoom B3 or something instead. So batteries will do for now, and at least it eliminates the need for any extra cables at the moment. And since I'm not using the board all that often at the moment, they shouldn't go flat too quickly.



I adore that little killswitch. Nicely painted, requires no power (unless you want to use the LED), and it's so very simple and affordable. The Wooly Mammoth clone makes quite a bit of noise so it's nice to shut it up when I need to. Not sure if that's because it's a clone, or if I'm using crazy amounts of fuzz!

If I'm being honest, the supplied velcro isn't all that strong. I'tll do, and it holds the pedals on, but they do tear off pretty easily. So I may have to get some stronger stuff in future. Plus I've not cut it all that straight and it bugs me a little, haha! I'll also be honest in saying I wouldn't pay £70 for the board. I didn't mind paying about £50-something, which feels more reasonable for what you actually get. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely product, and it's a good quality, but I'd probably feel better just knocking something together out of wood rather than paying the full price.

It should see plenty of use though, so we'll see how I get on. Just thought I'd share it with you, as well as some first thoughts.

Any questions, feel free to ask and I'll gladly answer!

Cheers,
- Anthony.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Mr Anthony