Interesting short pedals?

[WhoopingHonky]

I am in a spot where I have what seems to be the perfect issue: After I did a check on my board and removing things I'm either not happy with or not using, I have a space open to add something new. GAS powers, activate!

Now the challenge: I am using a Rockboard that I love, but it absolutely cannot support two rows of full height pedals. I don't want to change the board, but anything I have been finding is too tall for the space available. The space I have available is just enough for an MXR/Catalinbread height pedal, as long as it doesn't have top jacks or power connectors.

Current frontrunners are the Empress Zoia and the Dawner Prince Boonar. Nothing is off the table right now, I'm looking for any manufacturers I may have overlooked, revisiting things I may have not seen it's best side, anything. Make it weird. Make it wide. Just please, make it short.

 

[RJ]

Hm. What’s on your board already? Pics?

 

[Dave W]

^^^ what he said

 

[BEADist]

Yes, without pics there IS no board.

 

[BassBrass]

...so...you're talking about synth or multi function delay pedals Only? because there are some short drive pedals, I'm thinking Zvex and Joyo, and a short looper is Hotone Wally looper, which you can change the speed on, octave faster or slower. The Hotone (which I pronounce Hoe-Tone never Hot one) has some simple things like reverb that are hoe-k.

 

[WhoopingHonky]

Current board, don't really have any decent pics after a phone replacement a few weeks ago:

The Fuzz Bender and Collider are coming off, and the Poly Blue is potentially being replaced by a Digitech Whammy that will sit off the board. I'm finding that the updates to Helix are covering my fuzz and reverb needs more and more, and there's still the part of me that wants to be Justin Chancellor when I grow up.

This will end up being a dual purpose guitar/bass board at some point. I have a lot of pedals I'm interested in, but not exactly willing to commit to. Generation loss, microcosm, zoia, zzombee, etc. The challenge I keep running into is most of them are too big to get on this board, I am always left with a gap about the size of the Fuzz Bender. Trying to find something that fits that space that either the Helix can't do, or can't do without using half my DSP to do it.

The EHX Freeze was a frontrunner for a bit, but the power input is on the top, so it's just too long that it won't fit in front of the stomp.

 

[RJ]

I think I better understand your situation now. I've actually found myself in a similar one. I have a couple analog dirt pedals and rely on the Stomp for time/space based effects and modulation. I keep looking for something odd and inspiring that that Stomp can't do. Problem is the Stomp can kind of do everything.

My advice it to double down on the stomp, get a Morningstar MC6 or similar and have 6 'stomp boxes' at hand via the MC6 controlling the Stomp. Map your expression pedal to the stomp - send your delay into oscillation, ramp your chorus rate, and bend harmony from a 5th to a 7th.

 

[WhoopingHonky]

I think I better understand your situation now. I've actually found myself in a similar one. I have a couple analog dirt pedals and rely on the Stomp for time/space based effects and modulation. I keep looking for something odd and inspiring that that Stomp can't do. Problem is the Stomp can kind of do everything.

My advice it to double down on the stomp, get a Morningstar MC6 or similar and have 6 'stomp boxes' at hand via the MC6 controlling the Stomp. Map your expression pedal to the stomp - send your delay into oscillation, ramp your chorus rate, and bend harmony from a 5th to a 7th.

I'm actually running that as a straight up volume pedal right now, it's been pretty much just a mute switch since I got the Attack/Decay. I considered the Morningstar, but so far I've been getting away pretty well just using the 5 switches I have. Tap tempo, snapshot switch, and the three on the stomp for smaller changes. I'll take another look into it.

 

[RJ]

FWIW here's my board. I tend to use the MC6's foot switches like stomp boxes. I don't really use presets but when the situation calls for it FS1 and FS2 on the Stomp toggle between them.

One of the cool features with and MC6 or similar controller is the ability for a long press action. For example foot switch 'A' on the MC6 turns on my reverb but because you can program a long press to turn on the same block but with altered parameters when I hold foot switch 'A' it becomes and infinite Reverb with the decay maxed out and an increased mix. Similarly foot switch 'D' turns on my chorus, with a long press of 'D' it alters the parameters of the effect creating a vibrato.

Another example, foot switch 'B' turns on my tape delay, when I press FS3 on the Stop it ramps the feedback and send the delay into oscillation, another press stops the oscillation.

Non of the exactly answers your question but the crux of your situation, and maybe mine, is knowing what kind of sonic weirdness you want to achieve. Once you have an idea theres a chance you can get something you already own to do it. Unless of course the answer is you really just want a shiny new toy, which I completely understand.

 

[ItsmeSantiago]

If you want something useful that's also goofy, check out the Malekko Scrutator. It's a great bit crusher/synth/fuzz type pedal that works well with octaves and has a ton of useable functions.

 

[Alien8]

If you are even considering a Zoia, just do it. You will find combined with the HX that possibilities are vast. You can route it into the FX loops and use two blocks for Zoia processing of various needs. It will eliminate a number of your boxes. Keep the Bass Comp.