My life in the Switchblade cult

**john turner** · #1 10-17-2009, 02:54 PM

lately i've gotten a bunch of pm's about my pedalboard, surprisingly, where folks are asking why i have a patchbay hooked up, so i thought i'd post a little thread about my setup.

first of all, pedalboard...

secondly, my racks :

you'll notice, in the bottom space of the top rack, i have a switchblade gl. this is a midi controllable 16x16 router, meaning it has 16 inputs and 16 outputs, and i can control how those inputs and those outputs connect to one another internally in the machine. how does this related to the pedalboard? well, the short answer is that i have 2 stereo loops and 4 mono loops going from the switchblade to the pedal board (stereo loop to modfactor, stereo loop to timefactor, mono loop 1 to whammy->blowtorch->moogerfooger, mono loop 2 to huckleberry, mono loop 3 to mastotron, mono loop 4 to bassballs->vol pedal) and i can then route these loops any way i want. i also have my aguilar db680, marshall jmp1, ada mp1 and sansamp rbi all on their own loops, and a stereo loop for all the synth stuff, mixed down from the synth brains via the roland mixer in the lower rack.

that's the short answer. i can go into a lot more detail if anyone is interested

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JimmyM · #2 10-18-2009, 12:55 AM

I've always said that the shortest distance between two points is 9 pedals, two racks of preamps and effects, a 16 ch mixer, and a Switchblade.

John, I think nobody asked any questions yet because they're all in awe. That's the wildest rig I ever saw in my life! Can't question your level of commitment, that's for sure.

Gashaponcito · #3 10-18-2009, 08:26 AM

I'm impressed let's see if I understood something... you can change the order of your pedals with the switchblade?

**john turner** · #4 10-18-2009, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I've always said that the shortest distance between two points is 9 pedals, two racks of preamps and effects, a 16 ch mixer, and a Switchblade.

John, I think nobody asked any questions yet because they're all in awe. That's the wildest rig I ever saw in my life! Can't question your level of commitment, that's for sure.

heh. ty sir. the final rig that i will (attempt to) gig with will probably be somewhat simplified from this - trying a few things out in it, only going to keep around what's actually got a usable purpose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gashaponcito

I'm impressed let's see if I understood something... you can change the order of your pedals with the switchblade?

in a sense, yeah - not so much each pedal as each loop. each of the loops i listed i can choose to put anywhere in my signal chain, including removing them completely, based on how the switchblade is programmed. so i don't have to worry about turning a pedal on or off, or if it's noisy when it's not used or not, because i just set up a patch on the switchblade that completely bypasses it when i'm not using it.

i have one loop set up with the mod factor going into the time factor, and another with them reversed. that's sorta fun

. i can also program the switchblade to send midi data, so it will send out appropriate patch change information to all my midi units for each switchblade patch.

Nyarlathotep · #5 10-18-2009, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I've always said that the shortest distance between two points is 9 pedals, two racks of preamps and effects, a 16 ch mixer, and a Switchblade.

Well, you know what they say about guys with large pedalboards.......

René_Julien · #6 10-18-2009, 08:55 AM

What are you using the SE70 for? Part of your synth setup?

Also, can you switch the inputs to outputs?
Not that that would be useful I think.
But in my 10 years of playing I never wondered what would happen if you use the out as an in and the in as an out on a pedal, and never felt the urge to try that.

Nyarlathotep · #7 10-18-2009, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by René_Julien

can you switch the inputs to outputs?

I've done that accidentally a few times, since I've got my looper set up to go left to right (this works for the looper since its just a bunch of switches) away from the GT, then back to it. Fuzzes don't work backwards. If they're true bypass and off you're clean tone still passes, but on? Nothing.

René_Julien · #8 10-18-2009, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyarlathotep

Well, you know what they say about guys with large pedalboards.......

"You know I can dance. You know I can dance."

Guys with large pedalboards are the modern Fred Astaires.

**john turner** · #9 10-18-2009, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by René_Julien

What are you using the SE70 for? Part of your synth setup?

i use it in conjunction with the vocalist to get vocoder output. i also use it for some effects - got it wired so i can use it stereo, but mainly it's for the vocoder.

Quote:

Also, can you switch the inputs to outputs?
Not that that would be useful I think.
But in my 10 years of playing I never wondered what would happen if you use the out as an in and the in as an out on a pedal, and never felt the urge to try that.

ew, yuck. wouldn't want to try that. the software in the switchblade doesn't allow that to happen, from what i can tell.

bigblondeafro87 · #10 10-18-2009, 11:35 AM

Do you have any clips/ songs of you using this beast? This is exactly how I want my pedalboard to be run in the future, the midi routing idea is genius! Is you rack the PA rack also, because I cant see how a 16 channel mixer would fit in?

**john turner** · #11 10-18-2009, 11:44 AM

not yet on the clips - still programming the units, just set this up completely over the past few months.

and no, it's not pa related at all. it only has 6 outputs - a stereo main out that i use to feed the synth returns back to the switchblade, and 4 sends that i use to send the outputs from the boss se70/pedal loops 1 and 2 and the lexicon/pedal loops 3 and 4 back to the switchblade.

eventually i will swap it out with a couple single rack space berhinger line mixers. open up some space in the rack for the synth brain i use with my foot pedal synths.

TaySte_2000 · #12 10-18-2009, 02:16 PM

I'm interested as to why the pedal's aren't racked themselves especially with the midi capabilities of the Eventides, obviously I can understand the whammy and EB Vol not being racked but seems to make more sense to rack the rest of it.

**john turner** · #13 10-18-2009, 03:16 PM

well, frankly i sorta wanted a board

but that being said, i might end up racking the some of the distortions and the fooger, depending on how the setup ends up.

i don't have -that- many patches in the switchblade to change sb patches for every individual effect patch change. in the end it's going to be a combination of sb patch changes and individual unit patch changes - hence the midi patch bay. will probably end up using another midi switcher to change whichever patches i am using. still working through the logistics of that part of it. heh.

TrevorOfDoom · #14 10-18-2009, 03:24 PM

John, after seeing your basses and your rigs, i'm intimidated. that said, if i come see your band live and everything you do isn't totally technically over my head to the point that i can't even comprehend what you're doing, i'm going to be pissed!!

JimmyM · #15 10-18-2009, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrevorOfDoom

John, after seeing your basses and your rigs, i'm intimidated. that said, if i come see your band live and everything you do isn't totally technically over my head to the point that i can't even comprehend what you're doing, i'm going to be pissed!!

Having heard a handful of his songs, you've got nothing to worry about

Let's just say John isn't writing parody songs for Howard Stern.

PilbaraBass · #16 10-18-2009, 08:38 PM

THAT setup is disturbing on many levels...

WHAT???? no cappucino machine???? WHAT THE???

why do I get the feeling that some wild stroke of genius will emerge from this?

**john turner** · #17 10-19-2009, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrevorOfDoom

John, after seeing your basses and your rigs, i'm intimidated. that said, if i come see your band live and everything you do isn't totally technically over my head to the point that i can't even comprehend what you're doing, i'm going to be pissed!!

heh. for me, it's not about -doing- the wacky stuff all the time, it's about being able to do it, when i need to, in my quest to be musical.

but hey, if you come to a gig, i'll be sure and try not to disappoint.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Having heard a handful of his songs, you've got nothing to worry about Let's just say John isn't writing parody songs for Howard Stern.

ty sir. that's me just trying to be musical

.

fightthepower · #18 10-19-2009, 06:24 AM

You've a pretty ambitious setup John, I'm looking forward to seeing(and hearing!) how it evolves over time

Quote:

Originally Posted by René_Julien

"You know I can dance. You know I can dance."

Guys with large pedalboards are the modern Fred Astaires.

What are guys with small pedalboards? Modern-day Phil Collins?

"I can't (tap)dance, I can't talk..."

How much does Phil Collins look like the Amish guy from the movie 'Kingpin'?!

**john turner** · #19 10-19-2009, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TaySte_2000

I'm interested as to why the pedal's aren't racked themselves especially with the midi capabilities of the Eventides, obviously I can understand the whammy and EB Vol not being racked but seems to make more sense to rack the rest of it.

another thing that i forgot when i replied before is that i like the capability of setting up multiple loops in series, and then engaging/disengaging what i want. the various loop maps and such are stored as patches in the switchblade - it would be a waste of space to store multiple sb patchs with just effect patch changes or loops in/out of the path, especially since that can be accomplished fairly easily with the feet, with regard to the pedals.

one of the biggest reasons i have the sb, to be honest, is to be able to preserve the signal path as much as possible. when i'm just using my amp, with no effects, the effects aren't even in the signal chain at all. bass ->sb -> aguilar -> sb -> rane xover/qsc poweramp. however, this kind of thing isn't as efficient where i have a lot of changes in a song. in those cases, i plan on just setting up one or two sb patches, and then do the rest of the changes i need via turning on/off the pedals the old fashioned way

.

jgroh · #20 10-19-2009, 06:44 AM

jeez I just bought a Boss LS-2 and thought I was pretty slick routing my 4 other pedals. It was giving me a headache trying to remember what was on line A and what was on line B. This....is....just plain silly =)