Blonde Pedal Board

Strangely one of the most difficult boards to build for me...

Now I am quite aware of my colour compulsion but let's take a look anyway...

Visual Sound "Route 66"  Compressor and Overdrive (V2).

Korg tuner off to the left corner.

There is a nice home made fuzz as well, a version of the Sodameiser Fuzz with Boost and Chaos switch - my basic needs are covered: Compressor, Overdrive and Fuzz...

The Vox Delay Lab is great, adding more options my tiny mind can't comprehend.

Guitar and Gear update

I think I will have to do individual posts for all the stuff to remember settings and combinations but at the moment I'm just happy about finishing another pedal board and of course the final conclusion of the neverending "Pelham Blue SG project".

Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde V1

Now here's a trusty companion that keeps coming back to my pedal boards.

I managed to dial in some satisfying settings for both sides of the effect, so I better take some pictures to fight forgetfulness.

Since I acquired the pedal Visual Sound managed to release two more versions of the pedal and even change the company's name to Truetone.

Although I haven't used the newer versions, I can say that at least version V3 has one improvement I would like to have on my pedal too, namely the ability to change the order of the two effect sides.

As its name implies the "Jekyll & Hyde" combines an distortion and an overdrive, both can be used independently or together.

The signal hits the distortion side first, then going through the overdrive.

Now I would personally prefer it the other way round. As I said V3 offers this by giving each side its own outputs.

Most sources on the www consider the Jekyll section a "Tube Screamer - ish" overdrive with an added bass switch while the Hyde part of the pedal is described as "Marshall Shredmaster - ish" with a Sharp/Blunt option.

I won't comment on that but I will say that I like the sound of both sides and I use them separately as well as stacked on top of each other.

Looper used as A/B Switch

Small problem and a simple solution: How to switch between two amps on the fly?
I was already looking to buy an A/B switch when I remembered my old passive looper.

I got this true bypass looper years ago and it works in a lot of situations.
Here I'm switching between a Palmer "Eins" and a Randall "Diavlo RD 5" - the Palmer does clean, the Randall does distortion.
Guitar goes into the looper and the signal is passed through to the Randall.
When Loop 1 is engaged, the signal goes to the Palmer amp instead. Only the send connection is used.
Loop 2 remains unused but one could easily connect a tuner in the same fashion and use Loop 2 for silent tuning.
I had to post this just to remember myself not to buy new stuff but use the tools I already own!

A Place for Music in my Life

My quarters were in dire need of an overhaul - here is the result:

Making my pedalboard even smaller

The world seems to get smaller in so many ways, even oldfashioned guitar gear is shrinking.

Nice and square - fitting a fuzz, delay and echo in one row and still having enough space for a tuner and the power supply. Neat.

Five fuzzes for every occasion, easy to carry around.

Building a basic pedalboard with affordable effects

A little compressor first, then the nice Digitech Bad Monkey into the Nobels ODR-1 and finally a little bit of "Analog Delay". Oh, and a Korg tuner of course.

This serves my needs a a simple practice setup, nothing special but a few tonal options.
I sometimes add a volume pedal and a wah when I'm in the mood.

Trying to keep it as compact as possible.
These are all inexpensive tools to provide some options while jamming and I don't have to worry about breaking something boutique or unique.

Two pedals to drone - The Chain Gang #12

Infinite notes created by long reverb tails.

A reverb pedal set to 100% wet can achieve this on its own, the delay pedal just makes the wall of sound bigger.

Since I want to mask the transients of my notes, my guitar volume is all the way up but I make an effort to hit the strings very gently and keep my attack consistent.

A compressor pedal could also help with the guitar's attack and volume.

So, the "Time Core" delay is set to a quite high amount of time and repeats.

The mix knob can go all the way, depending of how pronounced you want to hear the notes that you add to your drone.

Turn up to blend new notes in, turn down to hear them more clearly.

The "Snake Bite" takes out the original guitar signal completely, leaving only the very long reverb tail to ring on and on and on...

Le Faux Leslie - The Chain Gang #9

No Hammond or Leslie within my reach so a makeshift will have to do.

Of course it's not the real thing but it's good enough to inspire my playing.

The "Highway Man" is ment to simulate the tube drive of the Leslie cabinet, it also allows me to cut highs and boost the bass to my liking.

The "Super Chorus" gives various warbles and worbles.

The "Pulsar" tremolo simulates the volume changes of the rotating speakers inside the Leslie cabinet.

Everything is set to pretty fast, there is no way to simulate the slow setting on the Leslie with this set up.

I use my B.C. Rich Mockingbird on the bridge pickup.

With the volume almost all the way back clean chords sound quite nice to my ear.

I turn up the volume or switch to the middle position when I want more drive out of the Highwayman.

Delayed Delay Delayed - The Chain Gang #8

Stacking delays has gotten fashionable, this is just my idea of a starting point.
Thes two delays go from 25ms - 600 ms, which is quite enough for the application I use here.

The "Time Space" is set between 450 and 550 ms, a delay time that works as a basic setting for most common song tempos or for trying out ideas with a bit of nice ambience added to the guitar sound.
I like the feedback so that two repeats are clearly heard befor the effect dies off.
This pedal on its own works behind the sound so to speak, giving your chords more volume and fills the space between single notes.

The "Blue Ocean" is set to a matching sub division of the longer delay with fewer repeats.
When both delays are engaged, the delay is kind of multiplied - like switching from quarter note  to 16th note repeats.

Depending on the correlation of the delay intervals there are some nice rhythmic variations to have.

Two Overdrives for Clean Tone - The Chain Gang #7

The clean tone of the Crate Palomino can be a bit bass heavy and the highs of the cheap tube amp are piercing my eras in certain situations.
The amp's EQ can only do so much, but with this two overdrive pedals in front, I am able to enhance the clean sound and tailor it to my liking.

The guitar's volume is dialed back a bit which filters out some of the highs already.
I use the neck pickup for single notes and the middle position for strumming chords.

The signal then goes into the "Orange Burst", a medium overdrive / booster.
The volume of the pedal is almost all the way up, gain is turned down completely.

The "Pure Sky" is a low gain overdrive which is set up with the gain all the way down and the volume is set to unity level when both pedals are on, compared to the pure signal of amp and guitar.

Both pedals provide a treble and bass knob to reign in the harsh highs and booming lows.
So two overdrives provide quite an effective way to eq the guitar signal before it meets my amp.

There are a multiple of ways to achieve the same goal, you could of course use a dedicated EQ pedal, some sort of booster or filter and every combination will yield different tonal results.
This variant worked for me, so I post it before it vanishes into the obscurity of my fleeting mind.

Electro Harmonix Double Muff & Soul Preacher - The Chain Gang #6

Many people are left irritated and confused by the Double Muff. Me too.
It is one of those very sensitive effects and its sound is highly dependant on where you put it and what you choose to put into it.
It likes to be first in the signal chain, getting a high impedance signal (1 Mohm) from your guitar.
So there seems to be only one way of using it - as an overdrive in front of your already dirty amp, giving you more drive (Works nicely with some bass guitars actually).
And that's pretty much what it was intended for too.
Not very versatile.
I like to combine it with a compressor - and behold - the classic compressor into overdrive combination opens new doors.
Let's see:

I set my amp to slightly dirty, the volume of the guitar drives the preamp. With the Crate Palomino I use the Overdrive channel, setting the gain knob and the volume knob of the guitar so that I hear some crunch and setting the master volume as loud as I dare.
One might use the clean channel too but the Double muff gives such a huge volume boost when engaged that my amp simply gets too loud before I can reach the tone I am looking for.

Settings on the B.C.Rich Mockingbird - I like it with the neck pickup, the middle and bridge position gives me more treble if I want it. Tones are rolled back slightly, volume is set so that the pure guitar signal pushes the amp into overdrive. When I find "the spot" I prefer to leave it where it is at.

On to the pedals.
Setting the Double Muff is simple - just switch it to "single" and turn the "Muff 1" knob all the way up.
With that your amp receives additional volume and clipping and gets pushed further into overdrive.

Putting the Soul Preacher in front of the Double muff enables you to "overdrive the overdrive", tricking the double muff into thinking it's a distortion pedal.
The sustain knob of the compressor is all the way down, I just need the volume boost of the Soul Preacher to push the input of the Double Muff.

So with just two pedals I am able to cover the "core sounds" I am after:

Switch on the Soul Preacher into the dirty amp and play kind of clean.
Switch on the Double Muff without the Soul Preacher into the dirty amp and play crunchy rhythm.
Switch on both the Double Muff and the Soul Preacher for distorted lead sounds.

As I like to keep unity gain between my switching options, the hardest thing was to get the volumes at an even level.
The treble changes too when switching things on and off but once I found the right balance between amp, guitar and pedals, I was very happy.
As always, this is a mere reminder for myself, I tend to forget things and settings, so don't take this as a guarantee for great tone.

Electro Harmonix Soul Food & Soul Preacher - The Chain Gang #5

Praise the healer!
EHX allowed me to enhane the sound of my old Vietnamese amp so much, I might never switch off those two pedals anymore. Soul Preacher into Soul Food, what a lovely combination.

I have to post this "Chain Gang", lest I forget.
But keep in mind - these aren't any kind of recommended settings, just what sounds best with my setup.

So guitar goes into the Preacher, which goes into the Soul Food, which goes into the amp's intput.
The levels of the pedals are set at about unity gain, the pedals are both on all the time.
The Preacher gives me an even signal from the guitar, the different strings and pickup combinations.
The Soul Food provides a little bit of drive for the slighty dirty clean channel of the amp.

The amp is not set totally clean, the level is high enough to make the clean channel brake up when hit hard by the guitar signal alone.

Settings on the B.C.Rich Mockingbird, playing in the middle position, master volume rolled off a bit, as well as the two tone controls.
Now, if I changed to another guitar, the settings on the rest of the signal chain will of course change accordingly.

But as it is now, this combination just works great for me.

Compressor, my guitar's closest friend - The Chain Gang #4

There are three big reasons why I love to use a compressor as the first pedal in the signal chain:

1. To get the strings to equal volume.
2. To get the pickups to equal volume.
3. To push the pedal that comes after the compressor.

I like to play with my fingers most of the time. Now if you pick several strings at once and you don't have the perfect technique down all of the time, chances are that the strings will not sound equally loud and might not ring out equally long. The compressor mitigates volume and sustain differences for me.

I like to mix and match pickups on my guitars which often leads to huge output differences between two pickups.
So let's say you like the sound of two pickups working together in the middle position of a humbucker guitar but if you switch to one single pickup position, there's a change in output.
Now that may be exactly what you want, you might get a higher output and have an instant lead switch on the guitar to get a volume boost for your solos - say you play rhythm in the middle position and then switch to the bridge pickup for your louder leads.
Yes, I know that you can also try to even out the volumes of the pickups with the screws but that will only work as far as the turning of the screw goes and maybe you already found the perfect sound of your guitar in the middle position and don't want to change the height of the pickups around anymore.
So if you really just want to change the tone of the guitar without the increase or decrease in output, a compressor can even out the output differences of your pickups.

I like to use the classic compressor - overdrive - combination. You can use the compressor for a nice clean sound, use the overdrive for rhythm and engage overdrive and compressor at the same time for a lead sound. Stacking compressors and overdrives gives you a nice push in drive (not necessarily volume) and it enhances the harmonics of the overdriven signal.
So with say a single channel amp and two pedals you'll have the core sounds covered.

Hughes & Kettner Tubeman II -The Chain Gang #3

Clean, rhythm and lead at the tip of your toe. Quite ancient preamp now but it works well for certain situations.
With two low impedance outputs you can put it in the FX loop if you want to avoid your amp's preamp section or you can use the "Mixer signal" with the built in Red Box Pro straight into the line - in of your recording interface.

Don't put it in front of your amp though, stacking two preamp sections might work but most of the time it doesn't.

Technical Specs:

Input
Impedance 1 Mohm
Min. level -40 dB
Nominal level -26 dB
Max. level +17 dB

Output to Guitar Power Amp
Impedance 220 ohms
Max. level +12 dB

Output to Mixer
Impedance 220 ohms
Max. level +6 dB

Current consumption 540 mA at 13.1 V
Max. power draw 7.1 VA
Tube type 1 ECC 83 or 12AX7A

Crate Palomino V32 - The Chain Gang #1

I'm still using it as a kind of practise amp.
30watts valve amp, 1x12 Celestion 70/80 speaker, spring reverb, FX loop, footswitch for the channels and the boost function.

Concerning channel switching: There's "clean" and "overdrive" and if I'm not mistaken, switching to the "overdrive channel" basically adds two clipping diodes (LED) to the existing circuit.

So in my eyes, the Palomino is essentially a one channel amp with two built - in pedals: A diode overdrive and a +10db mid boost, both accesible per the foot switch that comes with it.
There's no master volume but you could work around that by putting a volume pedal into the FX loop.

I tend to stay on "clean" which actually stays clean up to three or four on the volume knob, then it starts to break up and you get overdrive.

Since my guitars (luckily!) all sound quite different, I like to have this amp set rather "neutral" to check the "character" of an instrument. The Palomino reacts nicely to the guitars volume and tone pots (as a valve amp should) and it also takes pedals well.

As a bedroom amp it is actually way overpowered, it could easily hold its own at band rehearsals or small venues but I suppose it would not survive the hardship of everyday gigging and if I were a working musician I would never rely on it as my main amp.
Yet it still lives after all this years so that must say at least something about its built quality.

The bass response is very boomy - so you have to dial the bass EQ down quite a bit.
All other settings depend on the instrument and gear you put in front of it.

Two settings:

V32 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

OUTPUT POWER RATING 30Watts RMS @ 6 % THD, 8 ohm load, 120VACSIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO 71dB TypicalGAIN Clean 56dB, Overdrive 101dBTREBLE 12dB range @ 6kHzBOOST +10dB @ 900HzMID 10dB range @ 1kHzBASS 8dB range @ 150Hz
PRESENCE +8dB @ 10kHz
INTERNAL SPEAKER 12”, 80W Celestion, 8 ohm, 1.75” voice coil dia, 30oz magnet
PREAMP TUBES (3) 12AX7A
POWER AMP TUBES (4) EL84
POWER REQUIREMENTS 120VAC, 60 Hz, 35VA
100/115 VAC, 50/60Hz, 35VA
230 VAC, 50/60Hz, 35VA
SIZE AND WEIGHT 21” H x 17-1/2” W x 10” D, 44 lbs.

"The Chain Gang" - amps, pedals, gear

There will be some posts that will cover topics besides guitars, concerning the gear guitarists like to spend so much time with (instead of practising their instrument...).

It will cover stuff I tend to forget like gear specs, signal chains, settings etc. so I don't have to look things up everytime details might escape me.

I don't intend to give advice by posting my personal preferences - this is no guide to achive the "ultimate guitar tone", no "buyer's guide" or tutorial.
It's just what works for me - for my purposes, for my combinations of gear, for my budget, for my ideas... please keep that in mind while reading (whilst probably shaking your head over my foolishness...).

I will say this though: There is a considerable amount of research and reasoning behind the decisions I make and if you are interested in the thought process, feel free to ask or kindly provide your own point of view.

Regards, Bart Bowles.

Skyripper Fuzz

Skyripper Fuzz with EHX Double Muff in the Loop.
Built by "Goldenratio", original circuit by "ninevoltnirvana".

Just some random notes played through a humbucker guitar to showcase the sound effects you might achieve.

Stepdance on Nanga Parbat

Posting the setup used on the live recording "Nanga Parbat", mainly for the sake of remembering since it's already dismantled.

Creating a new signal chain again - can't stop playing with toys I guess.

Line 6 POD - Remain in the digital domain

POD XT by Line 6.
If the local PA sounds better than your actual guitar amp.
Or if you can't afford to buy a battalion of amps to get a specific sound.

Quite decent thing, at least in my humble opinion.
Works quite well with my Variax, If one wants to go "all digital".