Recently in Pedalboards Category

As i was saying in my last post, i used the combination of my Ladner G1 Hellion and Bogner Uberschall for trackng "The Color Line". My goal for the CD release show was to achieve that exact same tone live; this required me to run both heads simultaneously. First thing i did was to look around and see what kind of products were available in the form of an A/B/Y type switching unit. Needless to say i wasn't impressed at all. I didn't like the configurations on most switchers and the general size of the units. Having size 15 feet makes for difficult "tap dancing" on stage for sure. 

What's up guys. It's been a while since i had a chance to BS about my current rig set-up. So this morning i took a few pics and figured i'd talk about what i'm up to. Back in the summer i ordered a custom rack case from the guys at  KENT CASE in upstate NY. It's got a shock mounted section for my Uberschall, and plenty of space for my rackmounted stuff too. It's built like a tank and makes setting up and breaking down at shows SOOOOO much easier. My other acquisition was the Shiva you see on top of the Uberkab. My idea behind getting the Shiva was more for recording and better cleans. It's an earlier 6L6 version that i'm still getting to know, but like all Bogner stuff, it's got amazing tone. In the future i can see that head being infused into my live rig and setting up my switcher to toggle back and forth between the Shiva and Uberschall. Both heads in my rig work great with the GForce effects unit too. As for guitars, both Matt and i are anxiously awaiting the delivery of our custom Spector ARC6s; they should be sweet; i'll keep you posted. 

Ok guys. I'm making a major leap forward in the updating of my equipment. With some help and guidance from my mentor Tony Marinari from Stage 3, i will be attempting to assemble and utilize a midi-type rig set up. Basically i will be utilizing a Voodoo Lab/Digital Music audio switcher with a ground control unit to steer my channel and effects changing. Yep. The Good Ol' stomp boxes may be put on the shelf after this moster is up and running. I'll be using a TC Electronic G-Force effects processor...that is if i can learn to figure it out. As of right now i'm doing alot of research and reading to prepare myself for this fiasco. By all means, stay tuned on this one; it might prove to be entertaining!! LOL; JD

5) Digitech Multi Chorus: Ok, now it's on to the modulation effects i like to kick in every once in a while. I'm not sure what turned me on to Digitech's pedals, but as you can see i'm running 3 of their X-Series pedals. These are digital effects pedals so no pedal mod guy wants any part of them. Me being a TUBE/OLD SCHOOL/ANALOG guy, it's suprising that the fact that these are digital effects doesn't wig me out...LOL. But they don't; i've tried a way more expensive chorus pedal and it didn't blow my skirt up at all. The thing that i like most about this pedal is that it seems to work the best IN FRONT of the rig. Alot of effects pedals require you run them in the FX loop, which means more cables to run and trip over. The Digitech pedals work better in front, and this chorus effect doesn't sissy out either when i need it for my dirty channel. So it's not a subtle,fluffy effect. It's very deliberate and the different voicings allow you to dial it in to your taste. The only issue i have with it is a slight tonal change when it's in use....not big enough to ditch it though. For the money, i think Digitech makes a good pedal. Check out our tune "LIVE FREE", i'm using the chorus for the majority of the song. ENJOY!! JD  

Here is a review of what my board currently looks like updated with the George L's pedalboard cable kit (we'll chat about that soon): 4) BOSS TR-2: This is a cool pedal. You don't hear alot of guitarists use a tremolo effect too much it seems these days. You can adjust the velocity of the modulation, the shape of the wave form and it's depth. I like to keep it adjusted as deep as possible with the harshest cut-off (personal preference of course). I used this effect on the verses of our song ALONE and it added a nice enviance to the mood of the song. Sometimes between songs at a show, i'll purposely get a little feedback, then activate the tremolo; creates an eery kind of sound that provides filler while our singer is trying to pimp our merch..lol. I read up on a DIY mod for this pedal and tried it out. All that had to be done was to clip off a big capacitor on the circuit board; it worked. No volume loss anymore when you stomp the effect into action. I bought this used on E-Bay for a nice price and modded it myself. Good deal. Try one out if you can find one.

3)BOSS SD-1 Overdrive: Ok, here's where it gets a little "abstract". If you want to sit down and enjoy some interesting reading sometime, go to the HC forums and research the threads dealing with "overdrives" and "boosting".... you'll easily have your afternoon filled. Here's how i see it. Think of overdrive as a very light distortion; transparent however. In otherwords, unlike distortion, it doesn't replace your original sound, it colors it; kinda like adding thin layer over top of your base sound. You can hear alot of overdrives being used by blues players; they can keep the benefits of their clean channel and just add a little OD to color up the sound. Guys like me use OD to boost the signal going into your amp. This works really great with tube amps. It is hard to explain. Bottom line, it allows you to have the benefits of a totally cranked tube amp at lower volumes. Those of you that know tube amps understand the difference between tube breakup-type distortion and fake processed distortion. The OD boost in front just brings out that throaty, broken-up tube gain that we've all come to love about tube amps. It really enhances picking attack and just gives you a more aggressive sound (done within reason of course). If you dig on pinch harmonics you might want to look into an OD in front. I wouldn't suggest any "stock" pedal if you want to do this right. You'll find most stock pedals aren't really transparent, and they change the overall tone. You want the OD/boost to just layer on top of your base tone. My pedal was modded by Mike @ Analogman; they do nice work. If you were going to buy a pedal and not have it modded, i'd suggest going with one of the members of the "tubescreamer" family. Possibly the Maxon OD-808 (my buddy Matt likes that one in front of his Vox.) ; )

2) Boss NS-2 Noise Supressor: Don't think i would play without this thing. I like to play with a goodly amount of gain; couple that with the fact that i like to boost the signal in front and you've got a recipe for alot of unwanted noise. It's a well known fact high gain heads make a little noise. I must say this pedal really works wonders. I will admit i have the threshold turned up to the max and the decay to the minimum. I hear alot of guys whine about noise supression because it takes away from their sustain and what not; this could be true to an extent. I'm no shredder or virtuoso soloist. My main riffs/chops are chordal based so i don't find the minimal loss of sustain to be a problem. It doesn't affect your tonality in my opinon, if anything it might compress the signal slightly...nothing big. I'd much rather have a quieter rig; and this pedal definitely quiets things down. Make sure you run all your effects through the loop of the NS-2, i think that's how it works the best. I would like to test drive an ISP Decimator someday though....  : )

Hey guys, i'm going to attempt to describe/explain the pedals i chosen to use (check out the post with the pic so you can relate). Get some coffee...here we go with pedal #1:  1) Boss TU-2: As far as pedal tuners go, i'd say this must be one of the best. They are a little pricey, but if you think about how many times you'll be tuning up, it's well worth it. More importantly i've found that every guitarist/bassist in your band should be using the same tuner (whatever make or model you decide to go with). I've noticed differences in the overall tonality of a band when cats are using different tuners; let's face it; you have a much better chance of everyone hitting the same "D" if they've all tuned up using the same device. I've owned a rack tuner before, but due to the fact that all of us in BXN use the TU-2, there wasn't much sense keeping it around.

Here is a picture of my current pedalboard. No; it's not fancy, nor does it have alot of effects on it. Other than tweaking the settings of these pedals, the layout hasn't changed that much over time. It's an SKB pedalboard which has served me well. In the future i may move to a larger board simply to accomodate my size 15s (always an issue when tap dancing through effects and channels). The next pic i post of this pedalboard will be after i furnish it with patch cables from George L. I will do my best to explain each labeled stomp box in the following comments. JD