Rebuilding my pedal board(s). Nice vid for inspiration.

[sunvalleylaw]

I like these Brits. They are industry insiders who market exactly to me, middle to older guys who are not all THAT experienced. But they do a good job, and are pretty fun to watch. I am rebuilding my board and found this interesting. Hits all the points to consider. Pretty fun to watch, and they get some pretty nice tones when they test out their work in the end!

https://youtu.be/y_Ymybn-8jA

Also, I am still a pedal board and stomp box guy, though my old Line 6 M9 is kind of a Swiss Army knife pedal as a part of it. You won’t find me going to a Helix. I like the visuals of twisting the individual knobs, and messing with @Duhvoodooman’s crazy Screaming Yellow Zonker and Rabid Rodent I have loved all these years, along with my other favorite stuff. Are you guys using stomp boxes or going with the Helix or modeling sort of thing?

[Robert]

Those guys are awesome indeed.

I use pedals like in the old days when I play through an amp. However, I use the AxeFx II for 99% of my tones, since I just play at home nowadays. That's an excellent unit. The other big two would be the Kemper and Helix, as you probably know.

[Robert]

Those guys are awesome indeed.

I use pedals like in the old days when I play through an amp. However, I use the AxeFx II for 99% of my tones, since I just play at home nowadays. That's an excellent unit. The other big two would be the Kemper and Helix, as you probably know.

[sunvalleylaw]

Those guys are awesome indeed.

I use pedals like in the old days when I play through an amp. However, I use the AxeFx II for 99% of my tones, since I just play at home nowadays. That's an excellent unit. The other big two would be the Kemper and Helix, as you probably know.
Yeah, I am aware of the Helix, but don’t really know about the AxeFx II or Kemper. Will check them out just because. I have an old Line 6 M9 I can use for at least some stuff too, so I don’t buy pedals I would probably rarely use, but can still try out sounds. Like phasers, flangers, etc. and I should play with that thing more and see if I can just use it at home sometimes or just as an alternative. I already own it so may as well finally learn what all it can do. I think I can download a firmware upgrade too.

[marnold]

I subscribe to them too. Although, to be fair (and pedantic) one is English and the other is Australian, but who's keep score? They had a cool video a while back with unexpected things you could do with pedals. One was rolling back the volume in the middle position of a P90 guitar through a pretty cranked fuzz pedal. Sounded like an acoustic. Weird.

[sunvalleylaw]

I subscribe to them too. Although, to be fair (and pedantic) one is English and the other is Australian, but who's keep score? They had a cool video a while back with unexpected things you could do with pedals. One was rolling back the volume in the middle position of a P90 guitar through a pretty cranked fuzz pedal. Sounded like an acoustic. Weird.

Yeah, I realized the Aussie part watching a vid yesterday. That is a cool tip. Will try that with the neck P90 in my tele.

Right now, I am trying to learn how best to stack different gain/distortion/dirt pedals to good effect. Using my Catalinbread foundation pedals as the primary sound shaping "foundation" and then shaping sound for what I want from there with my Rabid Rodent, 'Screamer, DS-1, Fuzz, whatever.

I don't know why, but my replies seem to be showing up twice. Hmm. Will delete one.

[helliott]

I still love my tube amphs thru an analog board , and have some decent pedals, but am converted to helix thru good monitors at home.

[helliott]

I still love my tube amphs thru an analog board , and have some decent pedals, but am converted to helix thru good monitors at home. As in

[sunvalleylaw]

I know a lot of people have. Even if I sold everything analog, I would be owing still a lot of money to get a helix, and I like twisting actual knobs and flipping or stepping on actual switches, so though I do have some mult-fx, (M9), I will likely stick with the old analog stuff. :)

[sunvalleylaw]

Some update pics of the projects over the weekend. The smaller board is more intended for the Peavey-C30, and the larger board is more for the Fender Concert. There may be some winnowing and consolidation as I have some cross over. But certain effects just work better with one or the other amp.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7XXeYJsS6aMKaSKS8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xbZFR2moLVvmUbUw5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nvyMk2t8e4suE6og7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ATsm1AuaG6rLLVF39

[sunvalleylaw]

Some update pics of the projects over the weekend. The smaller board is more intended for the Peavey-C30, and the larger board is more for the Fender Concert. There may be some winnowing and consolidation as I have some cross over. But certain effects just work better with one or the other amp.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7XXeYJsS6aMKaSKS8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xbZFR2moLVvmUbUw5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nvyMk2t8e4suE6og7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ATsm1AuaG6rLLVF39

[sunvalleylaw]

Hmm. Not getting the pics to work. Will have to try later.

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, here is a link to pictures anyway. https://photos.app.goo.gl/V4JeCRH8wRYmvrRg6

[piebaldpython]

Love your pedal boards. On your big board, what is the pedal to the right of your RR..and the pedal to the left of your MXR CC?

I am partial to stompboxes myself. For all intents and purposes, I don't use delay, reverb, chorus, flange, etc other than I might use a Donner Yellow Fall delay pedal if using a tube amp. Set it to just minimal slapback as that gives a slight ambience. Mainly, I use a preamp pedal, maybe foundation pedal(s), OD and very occasionally a fuzz.

[sunvalleylaw]

Deleted dup

[sunvalleylaw]

Love your pedal boards. On your big board, what is the pedal to the right of your RR..and the pedal to the left of your MXR CC?

I am partial to stompboxes myself. For all intents and purposes, I don't use delay, reverb, chorus, flange, etc other than I might use a Donner Yellow Fall delay pedal if using a tube amp. Set it to just minimal slapback as that gives a slight ambience. Mainly, I use a preamp pedal, maybe foundation pedal(s), OD and very occasionally a fuzz.


Hey, PBP! Yeah, I like the stomp boxes too. I am trying to explore the M9 a lot more, and resist buying anything I think the M9 can do pretty well, but the simplicity and visual nature of an individual box tends to attract me. Right now, I am trying to figure out how to program a “Janglebox” pedal, which has compression, and some boost/treble boost in it into the M9. But I struggle with the compression aspect a little. Never really used one before. and somehow, looking at adjusting levels on that little screen on the upper right is less satisfying than turning a knob. BUT, that thing has a lot of stuff in it for me to try, without buying stuff if I just push through that laziness.

To the right of the Rodent is a DOD Carcosa, which is a fuzz that is quite versatile and could be used as a base tone pedal. Much less all on or all off as my EHX Lil’ Big Muff tends to be. It also can make things quite heavy (Think the band All Them Witches, for example).

To the left of the Carbon Copy is a Digitech Polara, which is a nice little reverb modeler. I was using spring reverb in my M9 before (the Fender Concert amp I am using this board with does not have a reverb, instead having a preamp based Vibrato with actual pitch shifting occurring), and could have just stayed with that, but the used Polara was a good deal, and has nice buffer, a lot of flexibility and different models in it, even more than the M9, to try. Not necessary, but I have it and like it. It also has stereo capability if I wanted that. So does the CE-5. So yeah, some duplication on the board, but that’s ok. The idea was to get stuff put together a lot better so I could experiment and see what I want.

Thinking the M9 will be a modulation section of the board in large part, and will end up being between CE5 and CC or between the CC and Polara, to leave that reverb last. Right now the M9 is last other than the Trio+, and as said, I think I will change that.

Right now, I am using the Catalinbread F55 as a tone foundation, as it is modeling a tweed 5E3 preamp circuit, and so shapes the tone of my brown Fender 4x10 and gets some nice tone and support that is really controllable via the guitar volume knob, at lower volumes. and then stacks really nicely with the other dirt. I do think I will move the ZYS after the C-bread to use as boost, both the screamer side and the boost side, depending on what I want, and put the little Spark boost earlier in the chain to hit the dirt pedals and drive them when I want. Gonna keep playing with those concepts.

[duhvoodooman]

FWIW, a pedal that has taken up permanent residence (at least for now!) in my chain is a DIY build from Aion Electronics called the Lumin Sonic Enhancer (https://aionfx.com/project/lumin-sonic-enhancer/). It's a work-alike circuit for the BBE Sonic Stomp, a pedal that had long interested me but which I'd never owned. It's difficult to describe exactly what it does to your signal--I'd say it just seems to make it "step forward" and give it more immediacy, if that makes any sense. I just buy the PCB ($12) from Aion and source the other parts from Mouser and Tayda. Aion even gives you a downloadable Mouser parts list on the product page (which they seem to do for pretty much all their PCB's). But if you're not a DIY'er, you can always go with the original BBE pedal.

Here's a pretty good video of how the circuit works:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UySe-ajWcy8

[sunvalleylaw]

Today, I will be exploring the Line 6 M9 more. I like where it is physically placed, but may change how the cables have it routed. Right now, it is at the end of the chain, before the Trio+. Thinking I will put it before the Polara (reverb), Carbon Copy, and CE-5 (in truth the CE-5 may leave the board after I get more used to the choruses in the M9). I like the Polara for Reverb, and the Carbon Copy is just a really nice sounding delay. So I think they stay.

Thinking I will be setting up some scenes using the Modulation effects, and maybe adding in some compression (trying to make a janglebox Roger McGuinn sort of sound, may add a pitch shifter or frequency shifter too to try to fake a 12 string) and things like that. And also see what else I like out of the modulation and time based effects.

As when I first got it, I prefer my own dirt boxes and such. But there is more I can get out of this thing, before I buy any more specific pedals in the modulation/time based sort of arenas.

[piebaldpython]

Hey, PBP! Yeah, I like the stomp boxes too. I am trying to explore the M9 a lot more, and resist buying anything I think the M9 can do pretty well, but the simplicity and visual nature of an individual box tends to attract me. Right now, I am trying to figure out how to program a “Janglebox” pedal, which has compression, and some boost/treble boost in it into the M9. But I struggle with the compression aspect a little. Never really used one before. and somehow, looking at adjusting levels on that little screen on the upper right is less satisfying than turning a knob. BUT, that thing has a lot of stuff in it for me to try, without buying stuff if I just push through that laziness.

To the right of the Rodent is a DOD Carcosa, which is a fuzz that is quite versatile and could be used as a base tone pedal. Much less all on or all off as my EHX Lil’ Big Muff tends to be. It also can make things quite heavy (Think the band All Them Witches, for example).

To the left of the Carbon Copy is a Digitech Polara, which is a nice little reverb modeler. I was using spring reverb in my M9 before (the Fender Concert amp I am using this board with does not have a reverb, instead having a preamp based Vibrato with actual pitch shifting occurring), and could have just stayed with that, but the used Polara was a good deal, and has nice buffer, a lot of flexibility and different models in it, even more than the M9, to try. Not necessary, but I have it and like it. It also has stereo capability if I wanted that. So does the CE-5. So yeah, some duplication on the board, but that’s ok. The idea was to get stuff put together a lot better so I could experiment and see what I want.

Thinking the M9 will be a modulation section of the board in large part, and will end up being between CE5 and CC or between the CC and Polara, to leave that reverb last. Right now the M9 is last other than the Trio+, and as said, I think I will change that.

Right now, I am using the Catalinbread F55 as a tone foundation, as it is modeling a tweed 5E3 preamp circuit, and so shapes the tone of my brown Fender 4x10 and gets some nice tone and support that is really controllable via the guitar volume knob, at lower volumes. and then stacks really nicely with the other dirt. I do think I will move the ZYS after the C-bread to use as boost, both the screamer side and the boost side, depending on what I want, and put the little Spark boost earlier in the chain to hit the dirt pedals and drive them when I want. Gonna keep playing with those concepts.

Just curious as to how you compare the Catalinbread Formula 5 to their Forumla 55. I have the Formula 5 and it gives that mid-50s Tweed sound with a loose bottom end. Just wondering what the difference is between the two.