My DIY Pedalboard

[tubedude]

Sound wise, there's a lot to discuss. The Mobius is a lot more featured than a Lunar offers in terms of selectable modes. One of the attractions that the Mobius offers is a User Interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate on the fly. Probably more so than most larger digital panels. It's got that big mode dial that is very easy to operate. I can call up a patch using my Boss ES-5 and then spin the dial to any one of it's nearby modulation settings / patches. This is fast and easy to use, but can be a bit irritating if the specific chorus I'm looking for is patch #2 and I've jumped in at #47. With 12 clicks on the dial...that's a lot of tuning. Of those 12 modulation options, I found some were more useful to me than others. I like the d-bucket and Multi Chorus options. Both are nice and clear chorus sounds. However, the tone control is useless on bass and the mix is a parallel blend and not so useful on bass. If I loose some low end and dial in the mix, It waters down some of the chorus effect too. I've often felt that a variable LP filter on the clean side would fatten up the loss of low end that chorus effects often cause. But that's not on offer on the Mobius. Enter the Lunar with it's Low retain control....guys are SA...this needs to be assignable to one of the unit's 4 device knobs. No bassist needs the Mix control on the Gemini.
I found two Chorus sounds that I liked from the cloud patches: "Wet 80's CE-5 for Bass" and "Dual Chorus". I haven't yet found a Corona multi (TCe) patch yet...so I might need to make one myself. Patch 1 & 2 sorted.

Next on the Mobius dial is the Flanger setting, that I hardly used. In all my Boss ES-5 patches...I have only 1 with a flanger. The mobius offers a lot of different flanger settings. To be honest...I found one that I like and then looked for something similar on the Lunar. One slot 3 loaded on the 6 patches list...tick.

The Rotary on the Mobius is amazing. It's easy to use and by hitting the tempo button it can flip between 2 speed settings. It's one of the best rotary sims I've used, the Lunar has two Resonator effect types, they don't thrill me as much as the Mobius offerings. I found a cloud patch "lesliemr" and once I dialled in the control a bit more...I've got it to a place where I like it. It's not quite as good and the Mobius if I'm honest...but it's close enough and I can assign the speed knob to an external midi expression pedal...nice. However...there are better sounding rotary options on my nearby H9.
Next up is the Vibe, on the mobius it's a funky and strange effect...covered completely by the Lunar's Vibe Effect type. I think the Lunar's offering is more versatile and has a greater speed range and adjustable LFO shape. I loaded "Chop Tremolo" into slot 4 and I like it a lot. I didn't expect it to cover this much ground and makes a good vibe and Trem option.
The Phaser option on the Mobius was good, but the Lunar's options are simply fantastic. It has a clarity and movement that the Mobius can only dream of. Surprisingly I loaded 2 of these, the Stock "Classic" and "Multi" went into patch 5 & 6. So that's my Lunar loaded. I can only add more patches from the scenes on my Neuro hub.
The other Mobius settings: The Filter. It's good, but I never used it as a filter. For me, this function is covered by either my H9, my C4 or my new EQ2 (once I get my head around that feature, and the volume swell option). The Pattern Trem is a nice feature, but u have similar options on my H9's, The Vintage Trem is fantastic, but I'm finding similar options on the Vibe Effects Type on the Lunar and again similar options on the H9's. The Swell never worked reliably for me, I prefer to swell with an expression pedal. The Formant is replicable on the Lunar, just not something I'd use. I had one patch using the Quadrature and to be honest...I don't miss it much. The Destroyer setting is more useful for a guitarist...and I have similar on the H9 or I could EQ2 it better...although I doubt that I'd bother.
So is the Lunar a replacement for a Mobius? Yes and no. If you like all the other weird and wonderful features of the Mobius then you will find the Lunar lacking in certain areas or patches in a direct feature comparison. If you are looking for a dedicated modulation pedal that stays in the niche (where the Mobius creeps out of into other areas) then yes it's more than capable.
The Lunar gains with it's small foot print, Low retain option and flexible 4 band EQ. It has a HPF that's a sweet addition. I was surprised at how useful the one knob tremolo is on the Lunar. It easily matches the flexibility of the Vintage Trem on the Mobius and then exceeds it with the Vibe Effect Type.
I think the Resonator options aren't quite as good as the Mobius. However, they are still very good and more than usable. I have since found that there's a Rotary patch on my H9 that is better than both of them. I should have gone looking earlier.

Sonically, I suggest that the Lunar is slightly better on bass than the Mobius. The Phaser is simply better. But I've not yet found any Chorus pedal (and I've tried a few) on bass that really knocks it out of the park for me. I'm often left with a sense of "mehh". That's not directed at the Lunar or Mobius specifically, I think that these class of effects operate best with frequencies that the bass doesn't produce much of. I think the Lunar's Chorus options are slightly less "mehh" for me. I've found a pair of Chorus sounds on my H9 that are stronger than both the Lunar and Mobius. "Classic Chorus" on the Vintage Delay Algorithm and "Boss CE-2" in the Chorus Algorithm. The "Tumbleweed" setting on the "Tremolopan" Algorithm is fantastic too.
View attachment 4084027

For me, adding the EQ2 was a necessity and was the main reason for pushing the Mobius off my board. It was a land grab and I needed the space. I was happy with the Mobius' sounds and functions, but now that I've integrated the lunar and EQ2 in to my board and patches...and I've worked around some of the holes left by the Mobius...I'm not actually sure I'll ever miss it.

No liquids on the electronics.

 

[GMC]

New knobs on my Aftershock and C4, still waiting for the blue versions for my Lunar to arrive:

I've bought some more power cables. A pair of 2 into 1 Y splitters and, new 5 gang angled daisy chain set (angled) and a cable extension. Now that the Mobius is gone, I have some more spare power available. So I've put the SA EQ2, Lunar and Hub on the Mobius' old power port. That now leaves my Boss ES-5, Aftershock and C4 on a single port. Reducing the power draw on that port too. I've eradicated a slight mains hum with the newer cables and better routing...not bad for an hour's work.
Next month, I'll be drilling and fitting some stereo jacks for my bass input, pair of output sockets and expression pedal jack. I bought a bag of 10 stereo jacks, the stereo-ness is only really needed for the expression pedal jack.

 

[GMC]

Here's my Source Audio Lunar with some blue knobs on.

 

[GMC]

I've had a re-org of the loops on my ES-5 so that I can fit in my new Source Audio UltraWave Beta onto my board without too many hassles. It's en-route from the USA and it'll arrive at some time when the Covid pixies are happy. In the mean time, I've moved my Source Audio Lunar / modulation pedal out of loop 5. It's now placed as the first pedal in my post ES-5 output chain. So now my out put chain looks like OUT > SA Lunar > EQ2 > H9 (ambience). I've wired so that the Lunar is Mono in but stereo out. So everything on my output is now stereo. It's the first time I've wired modulation in a pure stereo context. It also means that If I want to dial in some modulation at any point I can turn on the Lunar and / or choose any of the 6 patches. I've also gone through my Neuro Hub scenes and switch off the Lunar to bypass as it's default state. I've then gone through all my ES-5 patches and changed the commands where I would engage loop 5 (modulation) for a Midi CC signal that turns on / engages the Lunar.
So when my SA Ultrawave arrives, It'll be slotted into Loop 5 and I'll use the ES-5's loop moving ability to move it about as I need it. I suspect that this pedal might need a bit of order swapping.
I'm also looking at getting a further Strymon Ojai PSU hub so that I can get the all of my Source Audio eco-system on dedicated PSU feeds. I'm also thinking of putting the SA EQ2's power feed in a separate switch so I can easily reboot it as required. When the EQ2 has Midi din cables attached it becomes a bit sensitive to the Strymon's soft start power up.

 

[kesslari]

Here's my Source Audio Lunar with some blue knobs on. View attachment 4105391 View attachment 4105392

So now I'm singing "Devil with the blue knobs, blue knobs, blue knobs, devil with the blue knobs on!"

 

[GMC]

Latest update. The new Strymon Ojai Expansion box has arrived and it's now in. Cables are a bit of a mess...I'll sort that all out laters. So now every digital box on my board has a dedicated 500ma PSU feed. My Source Audio Ultrawave Beta arrived earlier this morning and I spend a wee while plumbing it in. A set of blue knobs are on order from Amazon for it! Lol! I've plugged it into my Neuro Hub and assigned it Midi Ch #10...wow...10 midi devices now. Only one last analogue pedal on my board left. I've placed it in the spot where my EBS MultiComp lived (going on ebay next week) but wired it into loop 5 on my ES-5. I wanted this pedal in it's own loop so I can move it about on the board a bit. The Ultrawave has a few very useful additional features. It's got a very sweet sounding multiband tremolo and an awesome compressor. Plus there's the 8 band EQ...all of which can be accessed via Midi. It's a pretty mind blowing versatile pedal. I can see a vast array of weird synth dirt, normal dirt, compression and tremolo patches. I've already dialled in a very nice overdrive, If I can dial in some nice Muff and Rat tones...I might even flip my Aftershock.

Not quite so neat under the hood at the moment....I think I need to spend some time here and bring it all to order...

Weirdly, it's operating very well. No ground loops or hum, the lid closes cleanly and securely...everything is working as it should...just a bit of a mess though!

 

[GMC]

4 new shiny blue knobs are in...thank you Amazon Prime and on my Ultrawave...looking pretty sic:

 

[GMC]

Today is defiantly a "with coffee" type of morning....
Also notice with my new GMC - Mastotron III patch (available on the SA / UW cloud) on the Ultrawave....my lovely hand built (by me) yellow Mastotron pedal is no longer on my board. It'll stay in my play box of reference pedals, but I've modelled it so close now in my Ultrawave, I just don't need it on my board any more. It's the same with my Titan II fuzz, I've pretty much modelled that too (very similar to the Mastotron circuit). My EBS MultiComp has gone too...soon to be on ebay. This pedal has been my longest serving pedal ever..and now it's gone. So this pedal has killed off three pedals.
So here's my current board with a gaping hole / space for something new:

 

[GMC]

My Bass effects history was re-awakened in late 2013 when I purchased a Zoom B3. It was effectively the re-kindling of bass effects...like a gate way drug. I found the Dirt and compressor options to be quite weak compared to the modulation, verbs and delays.
I bought a MS-60B in early 2014, but by Summer 2014 I had flipped the two zooms and replaced them both with a Zoom MS-70CDR. I figured...let digital do what digital does best (at that end of the market). I had also purchased an EBS MultiComp, a MXR Bass Preamp, MXR Bass Envelope Filter, Bass Octave Deluxe, MXR Bass Overdrive and MXR El Grande Fuzz (which I then modded). I then bought a Way huge Swollen Pickle and a TC electronics Corona Chorus (love that one), all powered off a daisy chained one spot and I was pretty set for a further year. Pedals came and went...my Meridian Funkulator is still in my reference box. But the core of what I wanted at the time was there.

Around summer 2015, deeply inspired by JohnK's work...I stated to scratch build or modify dirt pedals. I built lots and lots of dirt pedals....If I didn't like them...I modded them until I did.

Great call outs here are the Barbershop clone, Dam Ezekiel clone, Woolley Mammoth / Mastotron clones (only just moved to my reference box) and Wampler triple wreck and Wampler Ecstasy (really sweet pedal) and Catalinbread SFT (still the best Ampeg sim imho).

I bought my first Source Audio pedal, Dimension Reverb around winter 2014 but I didn't warm to the Soundblox shape, size or user interface. I really fancied the Bass OFD, but I waited the Aftershock to become available. My Source Audio Aftershock and first Eventide H9 arrived on my board around late 2017. By Strymon Mobius and arrived a bout a month later and the same for my trusty Boss ES-5. So I've been a Source Audio fan from about late 2017. It was around this time I bought my first mini board (another thread).

It was around that time that I realised that my trusty Boss BCB-60 pedal board wasn't going to cut it any more and my thoughts started imagining my own DIY board space.
So that's my pedalboard history to to page 1 of this thread!

 

[GMC]

I've now maxxed out my C4's patches. I probably need to supplement it with a Spectrum. I've finally got to grips with my SA Lunar, very happy with the Chorus sounds I'm getting from it. I bought a Digitec SDrum to help me with my practise during lock down...it's a lot nicer than a metronome.

 

[GMC]

I've been using the EBS Blue Dot midi cables, which are by far the smallest and most versatile Midi cables on the market. However...since Covid and the Suez issue...they are like gold dust here in the UK. I think I've just bought the last remaining cable in the UK to replace an older and clunkier cable. Once more element neatened! lol!

 

[GMC]

No liquids on the electronics.

Ha! Actually liquids ON the electronics isn't the problem...it's liquids IN the electronics that is the bigger problem! I actually only put my coffee there for the photos...and it's placed very very carefully....

 

[tubedude]

Ha! Actually liquids ON the electronics isn't the problem...it's liquids IN the electronics that is the bigger problem! I actually only put my coffee there for the photos...and it's placed very very carefully....

On is the leading cause of in.

 

[Grahams Groove]

I've now maxxed out my C4's patches. I probably need to supplement it with a Spectrum. I've finally got to grips with my SA Lunar, very happy with the Chorus sounds I'm getting from it. I bought a Digitec SDrum to help me with my practise during lock down...it's a lot nicer than a metronome.
View attachment 4377147
View attachment 4377146

Good reminder to break out the SDRUM today. It’s ridiculously cheap for what it does, and it’s a great practice/writing tool…

 

[GMC]

My new Spectrum. It's here and it's in and the gold knobs are on.....
I'm still playing with routings and placement. At the moment is connected just before my Lunar.
Loop1: C4
Loop2: Hog2
Loop3: Aftershock
Loop4: H9a
Loop5: Ultrawave
Post ES-5: Spectrum>Lunar>EQ2>H9(ambience)
However, I'm thinking about moving swapping the H9, Ultrawave and Spectrum about. I might put the H9 next to the lunar and run stereo from the H9 onwards, then put the Spectrum in Loop 5 and the Ultrawave in loop 4. Maybe tomorrow....

 

[GMC]

After a fair bit of tinkering, moving things around...wiring, re-wiring, moving stuff. I've come the to conclusion that what I need is a filter that's just where I put it initially. Right before my modulation. I can then switch it on when I need a filter layer or I can create an ES-5 patch for it.
With complicated (and quite compact for what it does) board like mine. Every time I integrate a new pedal I have the issue of where to put it...plus powering it, plus the signal chain and which loop to put it in. Then there's the midi / hub hook up and then finally there's the USB cabling too. That's before I do any of the software based edits. Each SA pedal has 5 cables to think about.
Amazon is my friend!

I'm currently getting over slow covid and it's allowed me some spare time to work out some stuff. I'm not up to big heavy manual labour projects like making a new pedal board...however, I do have time to play with my new filter (first patch is posted on the cloud - GMC Funkulator) and play with it's wiring and board configuration. I've also been playing with the expression port on my Neuro hub. It's another avenue for external control, although complicated, it's works well. I think next month, I'll invest in another SA Dual Expression pedal and make a wee box for them to sit in. I also need to obtain another SA160 TRRS cable to connect my Spectrum to my the last port on my Neuro hub. If and when Source Audio launch anymore best of breed pedals, I'll probably need a 2nd hub...and that opens up another Expression port.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

That looks great! I'd paint it mat black.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

MXR El Grande Fuzz (which I then modded)

What was the mod?

 

[GMC]

What was the mod?

There’s an internal micro pot that I desoldered and replaced with a mini surface pot. It made the pedal a lot more versatile and less of a “melt your eye balls” one trick pony. However, I can nail this sound using my aftershock. It’s basically a heavy gain muff with extra treble. Great for bass noodling / solos.

 

[GMC]

After a bad night with my Covid recovery, I was up at 5am this morning in a fair bit of pain and discomfort. So after a Nespresso and an amazon delivery of a few more cables....I think my Spectrum is nearly plumbed in. I'm just waiting on a pair of SA 160 cables to link it to my hub.

The undercroft is looking a bit neater too.
I think at some point, I'll need to make some input and output patch ports for this board. At the moment, my bass lead in connects directly into the back of my ES-5. I'd far prefer to be able to plug into my board and have an internal cable that goes to the ES-5. I also need to think about an array of TRS expression jacks too. I'm currently running a pair of expression pedals and I need to add a third...and manage the cabling...maybe make a box for the expression pedals to sit in too.