Post your pedal board - Basschat style!!

[dannybuoy]

On 23/06/2021 at 14:30, danny-79 said:

Just had a quick fudge around to get the Phase90 on. I’m still getting a volume drop when the phaser kicks in ? Any thoughts on that ? 

(And got some toppers seeing as all the  cool kids have them 😜😂)

My Phase 90 has a slight volume boost! I think the newer ones are true bypass, maybe it’s just the older ones that have a volume drop.

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by dannybuoy

[Agent 00Soul]

I hope this thing survived it's six weeks on a container ship!  

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by Agent 00Soul

[AJ567]

Tweaked my main board a bit. Full strip and re-cable using squareplugs and van damme. The Boss dd200 is new, as is the Source Audio dual expression.

Battery power arrangement has been revised so I'm now running a 268000mah battery into the mission 529 adapter via usb-c power delivery, then all pedals get an isolated supply via the Gigrig isolators.

Beta now runs at 18v for a bit less compression.

 

There are some cool but non-obvious features:

DD200 is a midi controller for the Source Audio Spectrum. It sends midi clock to control LFO rate, and toggles presets. This is done via a home made midi TRS to USB host on the underside (the silver box).

There is also an always-on Bluetooth dongle connected to the SA Spectrum so that I can try/change/edit presets wirelessly using my phone.

The expression pedal is on a pressure pad. When I step on it, it brings in the xerograph for LPF sweeps. It is also gives expression functionality to the SA Spectrum (when the xerograph is turned off).

Inside the exp pedal I have added a load of components so that I can tweak the shape of the sweep to my liking.

The blue box in the corner is a home made "mission control box". It does a few practical things:

1. Click-less true bypass loop with the whole board inside, so that I can set up a patch and then toggle it on/off quickly.

2. Gig saver bypass, so if there's a power failure I just go straight into the amp with no interruption.

3. Toggle between battery power and a one spot as "backup", if connected to the top right jack. If it's not connected, then kicking the missile switch cover down shuts off the whole board, and I have true bypass. This is handy if any pedal gremlins appear on a gig.

4. Wired IEM patch through to my "daughter board" which has compressor, preamp etc. (Not pictured)

 

[Al Krow]

@AJ567 - that is one sexy and neatly put together board! Very impressive!

[stewblack]

That's a really, really tidy job @AJ567.

If my gigging board is ever actually finished for good I will have to attend to a good spring clean, neaten wiring and so on. 

What is the function and benefits of the gigrig boxes? 

[AJ567]

19 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

@AJ567 - that is one sexy and neatly put together board! Very impressive!

Cheers!

 

18 minutes ago, stewblack said:

That's a really, really tidy job @AJ567.

If my gigging board is ever actually finished for good I will have to attend to a good spring clean, neaten wiring and so on. 

What is the function and benefits of the gigrig boxes? 

Thanks! The Gigrig isolators take a 9v supply and split it into four isolated supplies with 130ma each.

The "distributor" is just a fancy daisy chain with 6 outputs.

The point of the whole Gigrig system is that you take a single high power 9v source (like a one spot or battery) and split it into whatever you need (isolated, non isolated, different voltages etc) using the various adapters they sell. 

[Al Krow]

2 minutes ago, AJ567 said:

Cheers!

I really like the look of the Boss 200 series pedals. How are you finding the DD 200?

[AJ567]

16 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I really like the look of the Boss 200 series pedals. How are you finding the DD 200?

It's awesome, great sounds. Very cool how they have crammed that much functionality into such a small and reasonably priced box. The fact that you can use it as a midi controller was the icing on the cake.

[moley6knipe]

@AJ567 - that’s next level ‘boarding, my hat is off to you. The GigRig stuff is great - I snagged a 2nd hand isolator which lets me split a 500mA out on my CS7 to four of my pedals. Great solution!

[51m0n]

It's had a bit of an upgrade this last year...

 

 

[lee650]

8 hours ago, AJ567 said:

Tweaked my main board a bit. Full strip and re-cable using squareplugs and van damme. The Boss dd200 is new, as is the Source Audio dual expression.

Battery power arrangement has been revised so I'm now running a 268000mah battery into the mission 529 adapter via usb-c power delivery, then all pedals get an isolated supply via the Gigrig isolators.

Beta now runs at 18v for a bit less compression.

 

There are some cool but non-obvious features:

DD200 is a midi controller for the Source Audio Spectrum. It sends midi clock to control LFO rate, and toggles presets. This is done via a home made midi TRS to USB host on the underside (the silver box).

There is also an always-on Bluetooth dongle connected to the SA Spectrum so that I can try/change/edit presets wirelessly using my phone.

The expression pedal is on a pressure pad. When I step on it, it brings in the xerograph for LPF sweeps. It is also gives expression functionality to the SA Spectrum (when the xerograph is turned off).

Inside the exp pedal I have added a load of components so that I can tweak the shape of the sweep to my liking.

The blue box in the corner is a home made "mission control box". It does a few practical things:

1. Click-less true bypass loop with the whole board inside, so that I can set up a patch and then toggle it on/off quickly.

2. Gig saver bypass, so if there's a power failure I just go straight into the amp with no interruption.

3. Toggle between battery power and a one spot as "backup", if connected to the top right jack. If it's not connected, then kicking the missile switch cover down shuts off the whole board, and I have true bypass. This is handy if any pedal gremlins appear on a gig.

4. Wired IEM patch through to my "daughter board" which has compressor, preamp etc. (Not pictured)

 

Board of the week! Love it 😁

[Kev]

Another little update.  Sold my Alpha Omega pedal last year when 90% of the board went in anticipation of a Quad Cortex purchase, but when life stopped that from happening, i've been able to slowly rebuild.  Don't need the ultra version anymore, this does just fine!

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by Kev

[danny-79]

On 23/06/2021 at 15:10, pantherairsoft said:

The Phase 90 is pretty reputable for the volume drop - just a quirk of that older pedal design. IIRC it is something to do with the resistor on the output (I think it's 150k) and replacing it for a 180k is enough to level that out.

Also note that the very nature of a phaser makes it pretty hard for your ears to detect 'unity' gain, as such they tend to either sound a little quiet, or a little loud depending where in the phase sweep they are. 

Ok so I’ve been speaking to a friend of mine who basically said he can do it but needs to know exactly what parts are needed (I’m lost right about now) so I’ll copy paste this message might be a good idea but if you have any experience with this please share. Would it even be possible to add a external pot so it can adjusted on the fly ?

 

On 25/06/2021 at 00:55, dannybuoy said:

My Phase 90 has a slight volume boost! I think the newer ones are true bypass, maybe it’s just the older ones that have a volume drop.

 

ive got two. (The first is out on loan, not seen it for a while I should get it back!) the second is brand new, it’s quite a decent volume drop, I have tried different guitars basses and amps all with the same results 

[pantherairsoft]

7 hours ago, danny-79 said:

Ok so I’ve been speaking to a friend of mine who basically said he can do it but needs to know exactly what parts are needed (I’m lost right about now) so I’ll copy paste this message might be a good idea but if you have any experience with this please share. Would it even be possible to add a external pot so it can adjusted on the fly ?

 

ive got two. (The first is out on loan, not seen it for a while I should get it back!) the second is brand new, it’s quite a decent volume drop, I have tried different guitars basses and amps all with the same results 

If you google ‘Phase 90 Volume Drop’ I’m certain you’ll find discussion on it. I’ve got no direct experience. I just recall it being discussed a lot in the past.

Given the number of awesome phaser options, it might be worth just picking up a pedal that does the job for you, rather than trying to force an existing one to work. Or, before you mod it, maybe just pick up a loop pedal with volume control (LS-2 or one of the million other options) and use that to bring it up to level. It’ll give you a chance to play with it for a while and work out how loud you actually need it to be before you change its level gain and realise maybe you wanted a small boost or something.

[Stub Mandrel]

Phase is always problematic for volume, a phaser mixes two versions of the original signal with each other, one with a variable frequency phase shift. When the two signals have the same amplitude a particular frequency is exactly in phase, the original's amplitude is doubled or if out of phase it is totally cancelled out. Essentially it's applying frequency-dependent boost and cut, this means that the before and after volume depends both on the frequency spectrum of the original signal and with time as the phase shift varies.

In other words it's inherently difficult to match, which makes it remarkable how my ancient 'Melos Mini Phaser' that just has a speed control does so well!

[danny-79]

7 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Phase is always problematic for volume, a phaser mixes two versions of the original signal with each other, one with a variable frequency phase shift. When the two signals have the same amplitude a particular frequency is exactly in phase, the original's amplitude is doubled or if out of phase it is totally cancelled out. Essentially it's applying frequency-dependent boost and cut, this means that the before and after volume depends both on the frequency spectrum of the original signal and with time as the phase shift varies.

In other words it's inherently difficult to match, which makes it remarkable how my ancient 'Melos Mini Phaser' that just has a speed control does so well!

Thank you. I’ve just started a new thread regarding this. 

What I want to do is add a trim pot so I can mix it to taste. 

Simple sounding request but apparently not as easy as it sounds. 

My last MXR p90 was amazing. New one not so much 

[Al Krow]

Loaded up my board with a WMD which I couldn't resist for very long when it came up used recently, as they're pretty rare over here. I thought it was going to be completely crazy based on some of the YT reviews and that I was going to be at risk of an IED blowing up in my face but, to my slight disbelief, it's turned out to have a surprising number of usable settings and first impressions are that it's actually a more versatile "gated fuzz" than the Mastotron which it has (at least for now) displaced from my board. But even in this Civilian mode, the WMD does make the Mastotron seem pretty un-savage in comparison.

Edited June 28, 2021 by Al Krow

[jimbobothy]

… yet another board finished. A Nano Max this time, very basic but should be useable I think.

I’ve gone for less cable tie mounts than usual as it gets too laborious when you inevitably change things up ha ha 😁

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by jimbobothy
Spelling

[javi_bassist]

3 minutes ago, jimbobothy said:

… yet another board finished. A Nano Max this time, very basic but should be useable I think.

I’ve gone for less cable tie mounts than usual as it gets too laborious when you inevitably change things up ha ha 😁

 

I love the Compressore!! Not very pedalboard friendly, but pretty amazing sounding. I need to get one. Cool board

[moley6knipe]

1 hour ago, jimbobothy said:

… yet another board finished. A Nano Max this time, very basic but should be useable I think.

I’ve gone for less cable tie mounts than usual as it gets too laborious when you inevitably change things up ha ha 😁

 

The IEC extension cable is a good idea, even where the socket is accessible, to take the strain off the PSU itself.

I need to find a really short right angle (in my case can only be angled in one way else it won’t work) female to male IEC. Worst case chop the plug top off an existing right angle and put a rewireable IEC male on there… but over the years I’ve yet to find a rewireable one that doesn’t suck!

[jimbobothy]

… I really bought it so I could turn the DC7 on and off at source. I think to help with the strain relief more I’d need another cable tie and mount lol 😝 

[pantherairsoft]

12 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Loaded up my board with a WMD which I couldn't resist for very long when it came up used recently, as they're pretty rare over here. I thought it was going to be completely crazy based on some of the YT reviews and that I was going to be at risk of an IED blowing up in my face but, to my slight disbelief, it's turned out to have a surprising number of usable settings and first impressions are that it's actually a more versatile "gated fuzz" than the Mastotron which it has (at least for now) displaced from my board. But even in this Civilian mode, the WMD does make the Mastotron seem pretty un-savage in comparison.

I love the Geiger Counter. I used to use the bigger version as part of my huge board and it ended up being one of the most used pedals I had.

[Al Krow]

20 minutes ago, pantherairsoft said:

I love the Geiger Counter. I used to use the bigger version as part of my huge board and it ended up being one of the most used pedals I had.

Fantastic! Love to hear where / when / styles of music you were using it on?

I'm already a little bit tempted to try one of the full sized GCs, but they come with a hefty price tag!

[pantherairsoft]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Fantastic! Love to hear where / when / styles of music you were using it on?

I'm already a little bit tempted to try one of the full sized GCs, but they come with a hefty price tag!

It was a few years ago, but in some capacity it played a part in almost every track you can find here - https://ourhelicalmind.bandcamp.com

We were just live drums and bass, so all the instrumentation that you hear is the bass, loading with effects. The Geiger counter was one of the core elements of all the distorted and synth tones (mixed with filters, modulation and pitch shifting etc).

[Al Krow]

35 minutes ago, pantherairsoft said:

It was a few years ago, but in some capacity it played a part in almost every track you can find here - https://ourhelicalmind.bandcamp.com

We were just live drums and bass, so all the instrumentation that you hear is the bass, loading with effects. The Geiger counter was one of the core elements of all the distorted and synth tones (mixed with filters, modulation and pitch shifting etc).

Damn that's wonderfully creative! Bravo chap!