Post your pedal board - Basschat style!!

[gnasher1993]

Ok, so this is my first post in this thread but not the first incarnation of this pedalboard. I've been playing around with this set up for a while now. There's a few new additions as well. Everything's wired up and on a board which is a first for me.

The signal chain goes:

Morley Power Wah > Russian Big Muff > Ashdown Hyperdrive > Boss PS-5 > Boss BF-2 > DOD Ice Box > Danelectro Reel Echo > Rocktron Cyborg Reverb > DHA DI-EQ > Fender Volume/Tone.

I'm going to build a switcher box so I can change the position of the DI-EQ from the end of the chain to before the PS-5 and vice versa. I'll be adding my Guyatone TZ-2 before the Big Muff and I'll be getting some new pedals (tremolo, envelope filter, possibly a phaser). I'm changing the Reel Echo, for a Pharaoh Echo Jr. The Danelectro is for sale [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=59446"]here[/url].

Anyway...sorry for all the rambling. Here's a picture of the board:



I'm really loving this setup and I can't wait to add to it. Has anybody got any tips, thoughts, recommendations, opinions etc ? My signal chain sounds pretty good as it is but could probably do with one or two changes once there's been additions. I've only played with this board through my practice combo amp so far but it sounds great. It's surprisingly quiet which has pleased me to no end, I have a profound fear of hiss and buzz .

A quick word on the DHA DI-EQ...AWESOME !

I love the Power Wah into Russian Muff combo and with the octave up from the PS-5, I can get a great lead guitar tone .

In terms of wiring, the order keeps changing so it's pretty messy at the moment. Once I've decided on a more definite signal chain, I'll tidy up all the wiring but I'm happy with it for now.

I'll write another update as soon as it's changed .

[cheddatom]

when you start playing proper gigs through a proper rig I think you'll find you want a blender to add some clean back in. It's an interesting set up though. What do you use the PS5 for?

[gnasher1993]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='589364' date='Sep 4 2009, 08:30 AM']when you start playing proper gigs through a proper rig I think you'll find you want a blender to add some clean back in. It's an interesting set up though. What do you use the PS5 for?[/quote]

I don't play 'proper gigs' with my full board. I play double bass in a jazz quartet so the pedal board is strictly for noodling at home with my bass guitar. I don't think it would be welcome at the gigs I play . Funny you should comment about a clean blender. I'm actually building some for a couple of BC folks so once they're done, I'll make one for myself.

I mainly use the PS-5 for octave up harmonising or 4th down harmonising. I don't use the pitch shifter function that much really. The harmoniser is great though.

But yeah, the pedal board is just my home project, kind of a release I guess. I love it though, I like having something that I can carry on developing.e

[cheddatom]

yeh there's nothing more fun than a continuously growing pedalboard! I wish mine was still growing :-( Have you ever tried a Whammy? And is it worse or better than the PS5?

You should take it to your jazz gigs!

[gnasher1993]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='589669' date='Sep 4 2009, 01:53 PM']yeh there's nothing more fun than a continuously growing pedalboard! I wish mine was still growing :-( Have you ever tried a Whammy? And is it worse or better than the PS5?

You should take it to your jazz gigs![/quote]

I've tried a Whammy IV briefly but at the time, I didn't have the PS-5 so can't really make much of a comparison. I'd love to try a Whammy but I don't really have enough to money to warrant having two pedals that do the same thing just to A/B them. I feel guilty enough that I'll have two delays by the end of next week. If anyone has a Whammy they want to lend me, let me know .

[SuperMaximo]

[quote name='pantherairsoft' post='587764' date='Sep 2 2009, 06:00 PM']Is the enigma as as good as the video reviews make it sound... I want one lots... considered selling on the Discumbobulator to fund buying one[/quote]

There are video reviews?! Anyway yeah if you're talking about the Jack Conte video then yeah you can dial in that exact sound (although you may need to adjust some settings on your rig or bass)

Edited September 4, 2009 by SuperMaximo

[Finbar]

The Whammy is a better pedal, I own both. But it depends what you want it for really. The PS-5 sounds more 'metallic' sounding, maybe a bit more brittle if that makes sense. I originally bought the PS-5 and an expression pedal to save some space instead of a Whammy, but if you want what a Whammy does, only a Whammy does it. The big thing that the PS-5 has that the Whammy doesn't is the intelligent harmony function, and I think some of the tracking is a little better, but there's not much in it.

[gnasher1993]

[quote name='Finbar' post='589813' date='Sep 4 2009, 04:20 PM']The big thing that the PS-5 has that the Whammy doesn't is the intelligent harmony function, and I think some of the tracking is a little better, but there's not much in it.[/quote]

I only use the PS-5 for it's harmonist function. The other settings are usable but the harmony sounds great.

[Jarhead]

I like that Whammy sound, with the digital artifacts when you play a chord and your never perfectly in tune so you get that strange digital sound. Can't be beaten really, I think the only one that's better is the Bass Whammy, and I don't think anyone is really going to be selling one on here lol, it's tough enough to find a user with one on Talkbass.

Zach

[Kev]

[quote name='Jarhead' post='590913' date='Sep 5 2009, 07:12 PM']I like that Whammy sound, with the digital artifacts when you play a chord and your never perfectly in tune so you get that strange digital sound. Can't be beaten really, I think the only one that's better is the Bass Whammy, and I don't think anyone is really going to be selling one on here lol, it's tough enough to find a user with one on Talkbass.

Zach[/quote]

Never played a bass whammy, but i don't think it could possibly beat a WH1

[Jarhead]

Well, I've actually got the Whammy IV, the re-issue. I'm sure that the original is great, but I don't know anyone with one lol. The Bass Whammy is supposed to be brilliant though, never used it.
Zach

[lateralus462]

My pedals kind of outgrew my old board, so I knocked together a new one out of some wood I had lying around:

[Al Heeley]

Nice - I'm looking for a reasonable priced (read cheap) flanger for a couple of songs we cover, is the Behringer worth a punt?
Whats the setup withyour A/B box and looper?

[lateralus462]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='591154' date='Sep 6 2009, 02:11 AM']Nice - I'm looking for a reasonable priced (read cheap) flanger for a couple of songs we cover, is the Behringer worth a punt?
Whats the setup withyour A/B box and looper?[/quote]

It's not that great to be honest - I use it occasionally when I'm using my fretless and it sounds OK, but it's quite thin and metallic sounding and only really does subtle flange- it's awesome with the looper in feedback mode though, makes some crazy sounds. It's something I'll probably be replacing in the future though as I tend to use my phaser a hell of a lot more.

The A/B box is just used as a tuner mute and the looper a true bypass for the pedals I have that suck tone (most of them) plus one sound I use a lot is with the Jackhammer running through the Wah about 75% of the way forward then thorugh the bad monkey and then the phaser - it's an awesome synthy distorted sound but a complete pain to switch to from clean, so the looper kind of comes in handy for that.

[cheddatom]

That's a cool board lateralus.

[quote name='gnasher1993' post='589721' date='Sep 4 2009, 02:46 PM']I feel guilty enough that I'll have two delays by the end of next week.[/quote]

WHAT?!?! Everyone should have at least 2 delays!!!

[Finbar]

PS, I just listened to your band cheddatom, and I really like it (Y) Edited September 8, 2009 by Finbar

[cheddatom]

Hah, cool man, we're not going anymore as the drummer's in Ireland. You can download loads of mp3s though, about 15 songs or something.

I love your board!! Are you gigging with that? Where can I hear it?

[Finbar]

Not even plugged it in through my amp in this incarnation yet, so I don't have anywhere it can be heard except at shows... for now We're playing Stoke on Trent on the 25th November though Although there's a fair amount of stuff on it, I don't really have many crazy sounds. I have a lot of things like bypass loops which take up space but don't make interesting sounds, so to speak. Its designed to be functional over everything else. What are you using for your distortion on your band's tracks? I have a pretty full on distortion, and a more subtle overdrive, but nothing like what you have going on inbetween. The clean blend makes it work - very Showbiz-era Muse!

Was an absolute pain actually putting it all together though, getting all the cables cut to length, plugging all the 9v things in, and even arranging everything so it fit at all o_O Judicious use of cable ties (some things are tied into the board itself, and a lot fo cables are tied together) and bits of wood to raise certain pedals helped a lot though.

Shame about your band, it was nice stuff. Are the mp3s available from your myspace? I'll have a gander in a bit

Edited September 9, 2009 by Finbar

[Aussiephoenix]

I gotta ask... are some of these bigger boards even giggable?

I mean, you have to tie them to the roof of you car to get them to the gig, and then, there's so much damn cable running though it, that you must have to bump the Vol and gain to 11.

[Finbar]

It goes in the back of the car with the other identically sized board that our guitarist has, along with the rest of our gear... And I have very little signal loss. Certainly nothing I'd find objectionable.

[joegarcia]

Where'd you get those little bypass loops Finbar? They're really cute.

[cheddatom]

[quote name='Finbar' post='594087' date='Sep 9 2009, 05:38 PM']Not even plugged it in through my amp in this incarnation yet, so I don't have anywhere it can be heard except at shows... for now We're playing Stoke on Trent on the 25th November though Although there's a fair amount of stuff on it, I don't really have many crazy sounds. I have a lot of things like bypass loops which take up space but don't make interesting sounds, so to speak. Its designed to be functional over everything else. What are you using for your distortion on your band's tracks? I have a pretty full on distortion, and a more subtle overdrive, but nothing like what you have going on inbetween. The clean blend makes it work - very Showbiz-era Muse!

Was an absolute pain actually putting it all together though, getting all the cables cut to length, plugging all the 9v things in, and even arranging everything so it fit at all o_O Judicious use of cable ties (some things are tied into the board itself, and a lot fo cables are tied together) and bits of wood to raise certain pedals helped a lot though.

Shame about your band, it was nice stuff. Are the mp3s available from your myspace? I'll have a gander in a bit [/quote]

Where are you playing in Stoke?? I'll put it in my outlook!

I like the idea of having a huge board with lots of pedals but it all being functional. It's basically what I had. I think I only used 2 or 3 weird sounds. I suppose the weird ones I used most were a step phaser with exp pedal to control the rate, and a wah going into digital delay which i'd use when playing chords, oh, and a whammy in a feedback loop for cool noise.

I've changed the link in my sig to the menu which myspace removes. you can download the mp3s there. My sounds were basically heavy compression, going into an ODB3 blended 50/50 with dry going into a zoom GFX707 or B2.1U set to a fairly low gain distortion. I'd turn the ODB off for verses and on for choruses and riffs for massive low end. Then I just had lots of wahs and another distortion after the zoom for extra gain, two EQ pedals, one for extra bass, one to push the dirt pedals, and just occasionally i'd use the French Toast on it's own. You can see the board earlier on in this thread.

[cheddatom]

actually I just found this pic of my gear and thought i'd stick it up. I used to gig this whole lot, and more pedals at one point.

[Finbar]

The little bypass loops were made for me by umph. I used to use more traditionally sized ones, but I didn't have the space, so I downsized I prefer the larger ones for stomping, but these are great for space saving.

I can't remember the exact details of the show we're playing to be honest, but if you go to www.myspace.com/maeslostempire, it has all our tour dates listed in the usual place

I get to try the new board out tonight I hope. Maybe with a band, maybe not. I only just realised how heavy it has become

[cheddatom]

heh, mine was a big keyboard flightcase with 20 odd pedals in it - heavier than my peavey 15" combo!

Just checked your dates (can't listen to the music at work) and you're playing at the norfolk!! I hope you're used to little pubs with a PA for vox only. We're actually playing there tomorrow night. I'll deffinitely come, I love gigs there. You won't get much of a local crowd without a local support band. Is someone on with you yeh?