Your Pedalboard's Evolution (56k BEWARE!) [Get off 56K already...]

[foomanfat]

The past six months have been quite a trip.
The starter:
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Experimenting with an RV-3 and compressor:
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A sudden noisy influx:
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And the current gen:

 

[cheapbasslovin]

Thought I'd tack more on from my page 1 post. Totally not for self serving reasons.

Here I added some guitar dirt and removed a neat noisemaker.

Here I added a flanger and Bass Driver and chucked together some nicer looking pieces for the board.

Here I moved it all around and made it a little easier to use.

Here I added a Bass Microsynth and eliminated dirt and ended the short-lived flanger experiment.

Here I made my worst pedal sell by hocking my Micro QTron. The G2.1u emulated what I was using the Small Stone and Holy Stain for well enough, but it just couldn't hack the Q-tron sound. MicroSynth has a cool filter sound, but it wouldn't work down below G so I floundered for a bit looking for a good replacement.

Finally got wise and put it all on one board. Added an Alesis Micro Limiter on the bottom of the board and the MXR DI to the top.

Tried a BassBalls. Liked it. Have since rehoused it so now it's the size of a Hammond BB box.

Tried a Q-Tron+. Finally got my Micro Qtron sound back plus a whole lot more. I am currently rehousing it in a 3x4x5 inch box so I should be able to get both it and the BassBalls into that spot on the board. Also added a tap tempo pedal for the Zoom.

Yay noisemakers!

 

[G.Bisson]

My pedal journey start at the beginning of 2009 when I joined a metal band and started playing drop-tuned 5 string bass. The gig demanded higher quality gear than I currently had with an uncompromising need for clarity and zero low end loss. After making some bad pedal choices I realized I needed help selecting pedals that work great with bass guitar. Effects pedals are what brought me to TalkBass.
The setup has changed MANY MANY times, but the basics have stayed the same.
Here is where I began back at the start of 2009:

My basic pedalboard needs are all there: overdrive, distortion, filter, compression, preamp, chorus, delay, and tuner. But there were many problems with this board. The overdrive lost all lows, the distortion made my amp sound like a fart box, the delay would clip, chorus would sound muddy, and I didn't like balancing on foot to rock a wah pedal back and forth. I needed help finding appropriate bass pedals and signed up with TalkBass shortly after seeking advice. Sold off the two Visual Sound pedals and the wah and started over.

Overdrive was my biggest need so that came first. Being very happy with the quality of the MultiComp I looked into other EBS pedals. MultiDrive also impressed me with it's sound quality so I went ahead and bought the reverb too. I LOVE these three EBS pedals. Combined with the Sansamp they are the CORE of my pedalboard.
This iteration was one of my favorite, one of my most basic, and still what I see when I look at my board now after sooo many changes. From the beginning of 2010:

Next I tried to add back in filter and fuzz. The BassIQ and Mastotron were both "close, but no cigar" pedals that really kicked my GAS into high gear. From this version came the nickname given to my board: "Black 'n Blue Board".

So the BassIQ and Mastotron were booted off my board until I could find something more usable. Along came Spencer and his outstanding Groove Regulator. Filter search DONE. Upgraded my tuner too. Where my board was by the end of 2010:

Hard times were now upon me as I embark upon the hopeless journey for my ideal distortion/fuzz. Lots of pedal trading with fello TB'ers occured along the way. Also picked up another wonderful creation of Spencer's. By the start of 2011 only the AGRO pleased my tastes enough to outlast the trading frenzy:

While the fuzz search wasn't going so well so I tried to reintroduce modulation. I had liked the H2O chorus, so I tried that out again with the more compact sized Liquid Chorus. Trying out other compact pedals I squeezed a Malekko trem in there just for fun. My board swelled to 10 pedals at this point. It was getting heavy, a real PITA to power and carry around. Ultimately, couldn't find a use for chorus that wouldn't get muddy in the mix so this version didn't last long. During this time I improved the ergonomics of my board by moving my core pedals, MultiDrive and MultiComp, to the front row. By mid 2011:

Losing hope in finding a fuzz that's right for me I decided to build one instead. Was a fun learning experience. Adds a nice personal touch to my pedalboard. Meanwhile I traded for a Brown Dog which is versatile enough to work nicely with my ever changing taste in fuzz. My pedalboard is now complete, although fuzz and distortion are still vunerable to being swapped out, not much will change in the future. I consider this setup to be as final as final can be. So here is where my pedalboard stands as of the end 2011:

 

[Jared Lash]

Built up to this board:

Then I scrapped that board completely to start over.

The beginning of the new board:

A dash of funk:

Weirdess added:

A few more iterations

Nearly done

And the PT-Mini

Might as well update. I sold this stuff:

and this

and this

and started over.

Began with these pedals:

Sold the B:Assmaster.

Then sold the Randy's Revenge and Superdelay (only to buy it again) and added more IE Pedals (Xerograph, FrantaBit, Oxide, the now gone Nimbus) and received this guy:

When Taylor sends back my upgraded Xero I'll have to post an updated pic.

 

[wolffman]

jared. wow. what a tasty selection you've had. color me green with envy.

 

[CPplaysBASS]

Fun thread ... I seem to be missing one picture, the first one, in my "evolution". I started with three Digitech X Series Pedals: Bass Squeeze, Bass Driver, Multi-Chorus attached to the top part of a music stand with the power bar duct taped to it. OK to experiment with, but not something to actually get usable live tones out of in my opinion ... pretty much 100% loss!

Then the Talkbass influence begun to take hold and my EBS phase slowly began...

This next pic is funny to me only because the file name is "Final Board" ... so naive:

Bye bye OptoStomp, but we will meet again before this post is done!:

OK ... clearly outgrowing the Gator board now:

Hello Pedaltrain:

This last pic is how my board has been for over a year now (bye bye EBS ... just not my thing after all that). Quite confident it's not changing. I actually use every pedal at some point live, and completely 100% happy with the tones I get ... I don't even get GAS when new pedals are announced and hyped up to no end here on TalkBass

Path goes bass - tuner -OptoStomp - Pork Loin - Diamond Boost - Radial EFX Loop - Amp. OptoStomp and Pork Loin always on. Muff is in loop one. Everything else is in loop 2.

 

[s_mcsleazy]

i dont have any pics of how mine started out. i think the earlyest pic i have was from 2007

not bad but fairly limited. so went to a few pawn shops and came home with

a step in the right direction but was missing alot

other ittirations gave me the following

then i used this one for ages. still a great board

ive been working on a new one

 

[ryansalmond]

Jared, who makes the harmonic generator?

 

[wolffman]

Jared, who makes the harmonic generator?

im guessing a rehoused prunes & custard

 

[Jared Lash]

jared. wow. what a tasty selection you've had. color me green with envy.

And I'm not at all bragging when I say that I'm glad I don't have photos of all the other pedals that have been through my hands over the years. I'm glad behndy's around to make me feel a little better about my compulsive pedal habits. I once made a list of every pedal I've owned - it was both impressive and incredibly sad.

But these days I'll leave the crazy buying/selling/trading to others. This last dabble with the Line 6 M9 confirmed that I've really honed in on what works for me and what doesn't and I don't think I'll be swapping out all that much gear in the future.

Jared, who makes the harmonic generator?

EDIT: wolffman is too quick for me, but he got it.

Crowther Audio. It's just a rehoused Prunes & Custard. The controls and especially the knobs give it away.

It's the second pedal I've had rehoused (the Brown Dog was the first) to fit in with the rest of my bare metal/etched board.

OCD can be hard to fight you know?

 

[ryansalmond]

Cool.

 

[G.Bisson]

From the ashes of my first board grew another board even more impressive than the first. Many of the effects that I wanted to play with didn't work out in a metal band. But I couldn't get rid of these wonderful pedals of joy so they were set aside until there were enough of them to form a second board. This board wasn't as demanding as my metal board. There was more tolerance for low end loss and muddiness. This one was for playing rock 'n roll on a passive 4 stringer.The basic were the same as what I was aiming for with my metal board: overdrive, distortion, filter, compression, preamp, chorus, delay, and tuner.

again, here is were it began:

There were some excellent effects that had camo apperances on my metal board but they had no hope of lasting. When I began buying pedals I had the impression that "you get what you pay for". I bought high dollar pedals thinking they would be the end of my searches. Maxon PH350 phaser was an early purchase. I fell in love with this phaser, it was worth every penny, the quality was outstanding. So I also bought Maxon's CP9Pro+ compressor and CS550 chorus. Unfortunately modulation was sounding muddy in a metal band so these pedals were set aside. Next I bought a Woolly Mammoth, the most expensive pedal I've bought yet. Sounded awful plugged into the active bass I was using for metal, but awesome with my passives. This one created intense buyers remorse and quickly changed my opinion of "you get what you pay for". A few pedal purchases later and I was trying to find a way to manage so many pedals. Bought a large Gator pedalboard and an Octaswitch. My second board was born:

Then my dirt pedal search was in full swing. If the pedal didn't workout on my metal board it got a second change on my R'nR board. The octaswitch had to come off to make room for the constant board changes that were happening while trying out so many overdrives. This pedalboard was colorful compared to my mostly black metal board. It gave me the idea for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme. the only decal that was permantantly applied was the VT Shredder .

This is the most dirt pedals I had on my board at one time:

I really wanted to get that octaswitch back in there to clean up signal noise and make pedal stomping easier. Became apparent that a custom board was in order. The custom board was modular and built in phases. When the first phase of construction was completed I was using this:

That iteration was one of my favorites. The Hematoma and MessDrive H+ kicked ass used together. I had two filters so I didn't have to change any settings. It was awesome, but I had bigger ambitions. Finished construction on my monster board and began populating it. By this time the Groove Regulator had found a spot on my metal board and this big board had taken on it's Rock 'n Roll theme:

I began trying out analog delay versus digital reverb with the addition of a Maxon AD9Pro. Around this time Tech21 released the VT Deluxe making for my most symmetrical board ever:

Because this is a basement fantasy board and not used live the VT Deluxe wasn't necessary and I went back to a regular VT bass. A showdown broke out between Maxon and ElectroHarmonix over my chorus and flanger spots.

EHX Mistress beat out the Maxon FL9 for flanger spot. Tried out more analog delay flavors by adding the AD900. Revisited the TMNT theme.

Convinced analog delay was the way to go, I upgraded the AD9Pro to a AD999Pro. Worked in a EHX Worm so I would have a second envelope filter again and so I could experiment with tremolo. I could see swapping out the Worm for some other oddity. Not much else will change in the future. I consider this board near complete. Here is the lastest version of my Rock 'n Roll pedal cabinet: