Building my pedal board again...

NickyBass · #1 10-03-2007, 04:05 PM

I've had a few boards in the past, but never really kept them around long. I just never really thought through my setup--and it never really achieved what I had hoped.

Looking back, I had two styles--one was a filter based board (discomBOBulator, moogerfooger Low Pass, Dr. Q, Bassballs, BassIQ) there were a few other pedals, but, that is just WAY too many filters. The other board was more of a dynamics board. (Black Finger, LPB 2ube, SansAmp, BiCompROSSor.) I realized that neither of these worked for me because I was just complicating my signal instead of augmenting it.

I have a few favorite pedals and want to start over again, so any advise would be appeciated. Here's what I have:
-Analogman minichorus.
-z-vex Wooley Mammoth.
-Van-amps Sole-mate spring reverb.
-Boss AutoWah.
-Boss tuner.
-emma DisconBOBulator.
-Toadworx Redux.

I'm thinking about replacing the emma with a Maxon Auto Filter. I may off the Redux, but the other pedals are great.

Is there a good order to arrange them? Anything to avoid?

00Funk · #2 10-03-2007, 04:11 PM

Andy V. · #3 10-03-2007, 09:34 PM

Like most of the guys, I prefer true bypass pedals.
Of course, a good buffered bypass works equally well.

The true bypass strip that 00Funk suggested is a nice aid to most of the boards, but then you'll have to buy more cables and, if you're going the george l route, more plugs.
At the end, your board will be just fine, but very expensive.

That being said, I'd replace the Boss autowah with the Maxon AF9, and I'd throw a nice compressor in there too.

A preamp, maybe...

Oh, and a Bass Micro Synth!

A POG...

NickyBass · #4 10-04-2007, 11:21 AM

Thanks for the info. A Loop Master, POG and Bass MicroSynth would be cool. Hmmm..I may need a bigger board.

I'm digging the Boss Auto Wah. It has alot of sculpting abilities and does more than just Wah. I would like the Maxon though.

I'm leaning away from preamp and compressor pedals. I like the tone I'm getting from my bass and amp, and just need a bit of spice here and there.

pickles · #5 10-04-2007, 01:02 PM

My only advice is to build the whole thing around a true bypass looper, ideally with blend for distortion. Makes a huge difference in the final tonal product.

assboglin · #6 10-04-2007, 01:46 PM

My advice would be to build a small, simple board, so you've got a few things to add some color when you want. Personally I would do something like Boss Tuner -> Wooly Mammoth -> AF9 (or other filter) -> Mini Chorus, and of course you could play around with that order for different sounds. A blend is handy, but I don't necessarily think you need one for any of the pedals I just mentioned, though a looper would help avoid tone suck, though I wouldn't think you'd notice any with a setup like that.

One thing I try to do when building a pedalboard is to think, ok, what am I going to use in the context of my band? What could fit? I try to avoid putting pedals on my board that will sit there through an entire gig without me stomping on them, because in that case, all they can do for you is suck tone. I mean, do you play music that is really going to call for you to use multiple different autowah/envelope filter effects? I want my pedalboard to be a usable palette of tones for the musical project I'm working in, and while creatively I WANT to be able to make all these different sounds, what goes on my board is what I'm actually going to use. Just my 2 cents.

Andy V. · #7 10-05-2007, 06:32 AM

NickyBass · #8 10-05-2007, 05:40 PM

That makes alot of sence. I'm trying to find out which pedals are going to get the most use. So far, the Sole-Mate reverb looks like it's going to get some serious play time. I love to put on a touch of reverb for soloing. The MiniChorus is a great pedal for fretless. I am going to leave it on the board and have just one for fretted and fretless.

The Mammoth is still proving it's usefulness. I love to use it as a buzz saw synth tone. But how often can you really do that. The good news is that it's small and well built, so I can leave it on without much concern about space or signal degradation.

I think the only thing missing is a good filter pedal. The moogerfooger is cool, but I think I can find a better sound in a smaller box.

It's still a work in progress.

assboglin · #9 10-06-2007, 02:40 PM

There's a lot of filters out there, and I'm sure you'll be able to find one that gets a good sound with a small footprint. If you're not satisfied with the ones you have, the AF-9 is a good option. I used to own one, and in my opinion, it didn't sound anything like the Mutrons and Q Trons I've owned despite all of the reviews I've read saying that it does. It has it's own sound. One thing you might want to try is to combine the filter with your Wooly Mammoth, both Mammoth -> Filter, which will probably give you a cool synthy sound, and Mammoth -> Filter, which will probably give you a more aggressive synthy sound. Even when I have a small board with maybe 4 pedals on it, I like to have some cool combinations on there, but that's me.

The Lurker · #10 10-06-2007, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickyBass

That makes alot of sence. I'm trying to find out which pedals are going to get the most use. So far, the Sole-Mate reverb looks like it's going to get some serious play time. I love to put on a touch of reverb for soloing. The MiniChorus is a great pedal for fretless. I am going to leave it on the board and have just one for fretted and fretless.

The Mammoth is still proving it's usefulness. I love to use it as a buzz saw synth tone. But how often can you really do that. The good news is that it's small and well built, so I can leave it on without much concern about space or signal degradation.

I think the only thing missing is a good filter pedal. The moogerfooger is cool, but I think I can find a better sound in a smaller box.

It's still a work in progress.

I got better results with the Maxon pedal than the Moog; it's also much more user-friendly and is true-bypass.

NickyBass · #11 10-17-2007, 11:23 AM

The board is coming along well. The Wooley Mammoth is now officially off the board, though I will be using it from time to time in my little home studio setup.

The VanAmps Solemate reverb is just INSANE. I love it--especially for soloing on the 6 string. A tiny touch of reverb just makes the 'c' string sing. The Analogman Chorus is also cool. It's a nice touch on fretless.

Other than that, I'm using my tuner pedal and a John East preamp pedal. That's really all I need at this point. I still have the Boss AutoWah on the board and it gets some use, but I'm still thinking about the Maxon pedal. There's no hurry on that one though.