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My Master Plan - Complete

TaySte_2000

TaySte_2000

Jun 23, 2001
8,084
2,018
Houston, TX
#1
Recently decided to go back to a big board I just can't express what I want to in my personal playing using my small board and a load of pedals patched on before and after it.

So I can up with a plan, my MASTER PLAN of how this new board would be layed out and wired up and how it would work taking into account everything I've learnt over the years, I then decided not to tell anyone this but what's the point, you're all going to see it anyway and maybe you'll have some tips or pointers to improve it so here goes (It also helps me plan it by writing it out in as basic a terminology as possible)

Board is yet to be decided upon as I'm not sure of size needed but most likely a Pedaltrain Pro or possibly 2 EHX Pedalbags but I highly doubt this.

So the signal chain

Bass goes into
Mojo Hand Cream Pie into
Foxrox Octron 2 into
Barge VFB (Loop) Tone Factor Huckleberry (Loop) into
Boss LS2 (Here is where it gets complicated)

(Side A)Catalinbread Hyper Pak into Sinister Analog Soul Provider into Subdecay Gurgle and Moan Prototype into Subdecay Quasar into Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (Not fully decided on this) into Subdecay Echobox Prototype. End Loop

(Side B) Fender Volume/Tone pedal into Tone Factor Mobius Feedback looper
(Loop)Catalinbread V8 into Subdecay FemBot into Boss FZ-2 into Boss HM-2 (Modded) (Loop)
into a 2nd Tone Factor Mobius
(Loop) Into Dod Grunge (Modded) Aria FL-10 Flanger into Digitech PDS2000 (Loop)
Into a 2nd Ernie Ball Volume Pedal into a Guyatone SV2 into a Digitech PDS1002.

This all goes back to the LS-2 which then goes into an EHX SMM/H where this signal goes into Left input, the left output then goes into a Subdecay Prometheus (When released) into a Subdecay Echobox and back to SMM/H right input and then the right output will go to my Amp.

Now I can hear you all screaming *** that is so OTT/Excessive and just plain silly. Well let me explain the madness ;)

Most of side A is my little pedaltrain jr and I love it the signal chain is near perfect...... for playing, I do miss the Huckleberry and the blend on it which didn't fit due to the size of the board and then I've been using the SMM/H as a looper any way and placing the pedals I've mentioned in a jerry rigged loop using the 2 inputs/outputs will allow me to process things and re-loop while also using those pedals in a normal signal chain.

Now side B is basically a noise side used to create squealing oscilation and crazy noise, if you know the pedals I've listed straight off you'll know that the PDS delays can do very short looping which is great for noise and these can be pitch shifted and moved about, now this chain is pretty much useless for playing if you are doing noise as I've found over the years I need to blend or bi amp to do this and I had great results last year on my birthday jam doing this (Some of you have heard the soundclips) but that involved bringing 3 cabs and 2 amps and I want this setup to be easily recordable and use with single amps or headphones.

So the Fender pedal which I'm not fully sold on at the moment is there as most of these pedals can be controlled with tone and volume knobs on my bass which goes out of the window once they are in a buffered loop so it's to get that control back and have it at my feet so I can control all this and play.

THIS IS THE MAIN POINT! using the 2 EB volume pedals I can control both side individually and do swells of both noise and playing and using the SV-2 I can set it to swell the occilation for processing later on. So i can play and groove away and be creating huge soundscapes with my feet.

Last night I was listening to NIN - Ghosts and thinking I could do all that on my own (Not the drums) all the ambient background noise while doing piano like chords and then stabs of mad distortion.

Now all the pedals are True Bypass except the LS-2 which will be the only buffer in the chain and all the other buffered pedals are in TB Mobius loops and then in the LS-2

This will also allow for pretty crazy blending of all the effects using the LS-2 mixed mode which makes the whole thing parrallel processed

Now I have all the pedals listed except for the 3 volume pedals (Of which I'm not sure I'll get the fender), Digitech PDS1002 (Found one to get) and the 2nd Mobius (Found one to get) so once I have everything I'll set it all up and then decide what board it will go on, I'm sure that with out the fender volume pedal it will all fit on a PT Pro.

So feel free to ask questions and post any improvements you can think of, but to answer the first question I won't be using this live my band board will stay the same and this will be used for practice, jamming and doing some soundtrack work I've got lined up with some visual artists.

Thanks for you time I know I've taken a lot of it.
 
#13
Kind of a similar direction to where I'm going. Difference is that you're going for all floor-based switching/looping where I'm going with a four channel mixer with effect sends.

I think this route might take care of some of your problems. You could go about it two ways: 1) put the mixer in instead of the LS-2. Have the first couple pedals go to channel 1, and have only that on monitor send which you can then plug into A and B which will go to channels 2 and 3. Of course either of these will turn into a feedback loop if you turn on its monitor send. This way you have full tone and volume control going in and coming out of the loop and you can select a less wet signal to go with your noise. Have the SMMH bit in the effects loop of the mixer so any or all channels can go through it. This way, you don't need any volume pedals and it should let you have better control over your sound.

2) Don't use the LS-2, just split the signal in three (bypass, A and B) to the mixer with the SMMH in the effects loop. This doesn't solve as many problems or have as many interesting other options, but it may take care of some of your buffer issues and you won't need the volume pedals but to swell.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

What's the mod on the DOD Grunge?
 
#14
Swimming Bird said:
Kind of a similar direction to where I'm going. Difference is that you're going for all floor-based switching/looping where I'm going with a four channel mixer with effect sends.

I think this route might take care of some of your problems. You could go about it two ways: 1) put the mixer in instead of the LS-2. Have the first couple pedals go to channel 1, and have only that on monitor send which you can then plug into A and B which will go to channels 2 and 3. Of course either of these will turn into a feedback loop if you turn on its monitor send. This way you have full tone and volume control going in and coming out of the loop and you can select a less wet signal to go with your noise. Have the SMMH bit in the effects loop of the mixer so any or all channels can go through it. This way, you don't need any volume pedals and it should let you have better control over your sound.

2) Don't use the LS-2, just split the signal in three (bypass, A and B) to the mixer with the SMMH in the effects loop. This doesn't solve as many problems or have as many interesting other options, but it may take care of some of your buffer issues and you won't need the volume pedals but to swell.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

What's the mod on the DOD Grunge?
Click to expand...

See I've done this setup before with a mixer and more signal paths but I found the mixer was noisy as all small cheap ones are so I'd end up with something huge for the quality I need and it wouldn't be footswitchable, but I take your point and I may end up with a mixer or 2 on the noise side ;).

The 2 volume pedals aren't really needed as I can control the volume of each side with the LS-2 but this isn't good when playing especially the noise side which needs constant adjustment.

The mod on the grunge is for more bass apparently it sounds awesome but I won't know for a few weeks while other pedals are modded.

Also getting the SMM/H modded now so I can switch the looper button to a start/stop or a hold down to record which is only going to make it even more useful

YAY
 
#15
Interesting. The first pedal I circuit bent was a Grunge, and it did just that at some settings. Heh, on others it just removed compression and added even more gain, plus a little more signal degradation. Turned my bowed upright electric into the guitar section of Sunn 0))) :D

Actually, I haven't found a good mixer that does what I want cheaply (though it doesn't sound like you have either)... still, any suggestions? I just want four channels with an effect loop with mute and effect send switches on each channel. Midi/footswitch control a plus, but not a necessity.

The master plan is bass/lead board to 1, ambience board to 2, mic to 3, circuit bent toys to 4, with a KP3 in the effects loop, all out to my RC-50.
 
#16
Do you have links to the different mods for the grunge because I was looking for something I can get added to it so at the flick of another switch it spazzes out.

Mixers, I've tried are a Soundlab one and next would be the Dod resistence mixer but both suck really.

Steve Lawson recommended a cheap one to me recently but I can't remember the name of it, I just decided to go a different path with it and avoid the mixers and have everything at my feet.
 
#19
Let's see if this works...I only did it because I couldn't understand just the text :smug:

Code: 
Bass->Mojo Hand Cream Pie->Foxrox Octron 2->Barge VFB->Boss LS2->EHX SMM/H Left In-> (see lower)
					     |	   |
					Tone Factor Huckleberry



Boss LS2-A->Catalinbread Hyperpak->Sinister Analog Soul Provider->Subdecay Gurgle and Moan->Subdecay Quasar->Ernie Ball Volume Pedal->Subdecay Echobox Prototype
       |
       +-B->Fender Volume/Tone->Tone Factor Mobius------------------------------------->Tone Factor Mobius->Ernie Ball Volume Pedal->Guyatone SV2->Digitech PDS1002
				|		|					    |		|
				|		+----------------------------------+	    |		+-----------------------+
				|						   |	    |					|
				Catalinbread V8->Subdecay FemBot->Boss FZ-2->Boss HM-2	   Dod Grunge->Aria FL-10->Digitech PDS2000


EHX SMM/H
	->Left Out->Subdecay Prometheus->Subdecay Echobox->SMM/H Right In
	->Right Out->Amp
 

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