New pedals, new board

stickyfiddle

As many will have noticed from t'other threads, I've recently ditched the Helix and gone back to pedals. After some time planning and lots of time waiting for deliveries, I'm finally almost there...

It all started with a guitar shop visit in Perth, where I picked up these two drives (Anarchy Gold Class and Selah Feather Drive). That made me realise that while Helix is amazingly powerful, I really enjoy the "tangible factor" of real pedals, which switches and knobs and lights, and I enjoy the process of trying out new things, and finding interesting new pedals in real shops, and that it's ok to have that element within a bigger hobby.



So I got planning, and once the Helix sold, went shopping. 

In: 

Pedaltrain 2
Whammy V (late xmas present - woohoo!)
Strymon Deco (birthday present - double woohoo!)
Digitech Supernatural (not 100% I'll keep this one but always fancied trying an ambient-type reverb)
Cleggy Small Stone
Empress Echosystem (still waiting on Thomann...)
TC Ditto (also still waiting on Thomann...)

...and a Strymon Zuma to power everything.

The plan is to grab a Gamechanger Plus Pedal as well, eventually, but I don't want to completely out-whelm myself with that on top of learning a new deco/delay/reverb/loop setup. I've already had mods and whammys before so no big learning curve there. 

First came many many plans...

stickyfiddle

I've settled on this, I think. 



And a quick check with what definitely worked with my old board & layout to check my dimensions are correct

GavRichList

No tuner?

stickyfiddle

GavRichList said:

No tuner?

Not at the moment. Partly cos I'm not gigging, and partly cos I sold my Polytune mini! I have a polytune clip and good ears  
 
I think there will probably be room for another mini (or equivalent) on the board somewhere (below the Echosystem, most likely) if I find I'm missing it. 

It's also likely that something here won't quite "click" and I'll end up re-jigging again after a few months in which case I'll look at my options

MrMusic

Looking good! Enjoy your new board and welcome back to the analog world! 

You should check out:-
http://www.pedalplayground.com/

It's a really great website for putting boards together, thats if you haven't seen it already.

GavRichList

I’d be inclined to put your empress at the front if you’re not midi controlling; they’re a lot smaller than they look and can be a bit of a bugger to stand on, plus their OS requires lots of stands to cycle through parameters. 

stickyfiddle

@GavRichList Yeah, I was wondering about that I'll have to judge when it gets here*

I use the Gold Class as almost a preamp, so that and probably the Archer could move up if needed. 


* Side note: I'm seriously unimpressed with Thomann. Andertons took two days to dispatch but charged me £20 to go from Guildford to Abu Dhabi and that parcel got here in 2 days. Thomann charged £50 and it's been stuck on "parcel will be transported to destination country" for 8 days, and now I'm at the mercy of our local post office. Now of course I've remembered having exactly the same thing happen a couple of years ago - a set of pickups that took 3 months to arrive

GavRichList

Wow that’s rough. 

GavRichList

Worth complaining - their customer service has always been pretty spot on. 

stickyfiddle

GavRichList said:

Worth complaining - their customer service has always been pretty spot on. 

Yeah, I know they'll refund if needed as that's what happened with the same situation before (then I actually paid for them at a discounted price once they eventually turned up). Just really annoying that they charge more but give worse service than Andertons, who are brilliant with international shipping and I would've gladly used for the ES if they'd had them in stock. Bah!

Teetonetal

As Gav says defiantly get the Echosystem to the front. Also how tall is that plus pedal? It looks awkward to get to the 2nd deco switch.

stickyfiddle

I reckon the Deco will be ok. I'm more using it for the tape deck tape than the saturation side, and I'll chuck a small wedge under it to get the front up if needed. 

In an ideal world *everything* would be at the front but that isn't an option!

stickyfiddle

Progress! 

The Echosystem and Ditto are still not here. That package is stuck in customs hell and could take weeks. So I've decided to do the rest and leave as much space as possible for those. 

Testing... The good news is the Zuma works perfectly and is super-quiet. I'm very confident it'll play nice with the other incoming stuff so cracked on with putting it together.



This is where the Zuma is less than impressive. It fits in the gap between the top 2 rails of the PT2. But that doesn't really work, because Strymon want you to spend extra on the brackets that they don't provide with the unit. And of course it won't fit in the front of the board either, because that would be too easy.





So... because I don't have any brackets and am not going to pay for international shipping just for 2 bits of blue-plated steel and some screws and generally consider myself to be a resourceful chap, I went to the local hardware store and found the cheapest thing I could that was between 5 and 10mm thick and would stick nicely to velcro. 

Presenting some cut-off bits of PVC cable tracking! I'll probably grab some brackets next time I'm in the UK, but these work beautifully and cost about 2 quid and 5 minutes with a stanley knife. I've also glued the two sides of each track together so they won't fall apart with the weight of the PSU. Happy days!



Much better...


And it lets me keep some space to run pedals under the PSU if I need to

dindude

Strymon probably don't expect their customers to use something as lowly as a PT - most Zuma customers will have a custom built Salvage!

Lebarque

@stickyfiddle ; Any chance of a photo of the guitar in the overdrives pic. Looks like a beauty! Jazzmaster?

stickyfiddle

dindude said:

Strymon probably don't expect their customers to use something as lowly as a PT - most Zuma customers will have a custom built Salvage!

lol, possibly! It just seems daft that they make the unit specifically the perfect size to fit on a PT like this but don't put the IEC input in the top corner so you can velcro it. But again I guess they're not targeting those of us who worry about 20 quid on a bit of metal. Indeed, had I realised the issue before ordering I would've relatively happily ponied up for the brackets...

stickyfiddle

More pictures! 

Test fit for spacing. Everything seems about right as per my plan, though to fit the Plus I think whatever is above it will need to go sideways, which makes me itch. The Small Stone is the obvious candidate, since it has 1 knob and won't confuse me, I'll worry about that later. 



Everything in and signal cables wired. There's loads of space on the top row. The bottom will be tight once the ES and Plus are on, but I'm planning on building another booster into a 1590 which will help if needed.




Power wiring. I'll say one thing about the Zuma - it makes wiring extremely easy! I'll do a full tidy-up of the cables once it's all finished.


Testing! It's Alive! etc etc.

And worth noting the £50 Surfing Bear OD I picked up in Japan has knocked the Archer off the board. It's just a nicer sounding low gain OD, and sounds glorious into the Gold Class. I think the Archer will go in the next few weeks. 

stickyfiddle

Lebarque said:

@stickyfiddle ;; Any chance of a photo of the guitar in the overdrives pic. Looks like a beauty! Jazzmaster?

Of course! That's my MJT JM and I love it very much

(I can link to the build thread but photobucket buggered the pics )

Lebarque

@stickyfiddle ; Beautiful, mate. Love it. I'm thinking about doing partscaster at the mo too. That tort guard is lovely. Spitfire?

BintyTwanger77

stickyfiddle said:

Progress! 

The Echosystem and Ditto are still not here. That package is stuck in customs hell and could take weeks. So I've decided to do the rest and leave as much space as possible for those. 

Testing... The good news is the Zuma works perfectly and is super-quiet. I'm very confident it'll play nice with the other incoming stuff so cracked on with putting it together.



This is where the Zuma is less than impressive. It fits in the gap between the top 2 rails of the PT2. But that doesn't really work, because Strymon want you to spend extra on the brackets that they don't provide with the unit. And of course it won't fit in the front of the board either, because that would be too easy.





So... because I don't have any brackets and am not going to pay for international shipping just for 2 bits of blue-plated steel and some screws and generally consider myself to be a resourceful chap, I went to the local hardware store and found the cheapest thing I could that was between 5 and 10mm thick and would stick nicely to velcro. 

Presenting some cut-off bits of PVC cable tracking! I'll probably grab some brackets next time I'm in the UK, but these work beautifully and cost about 2 quid and 5 minutes with a stanley knife. I've also glued the two sides of each track together so they won't fall apart with the weight of the PSU. Happy days!



Much better...


And it lets me keep some space to run pedals under the PSU if I need to

Interesting...wonder if that technique would work with the Ojai I have beneath my board: it's hanging in there using Velcro tape at the moment. 

Currently have one on the board and one below deck, so could maybe even attach both below using PVC cable tracking.

stickyfiddle

@BintyTwanger77 I don't see why not. Though my Zuma is also velcro-ed to the PVC tracks, so not sure if if would help you! 

@Lebarque The JM's guard is actually an original '65-ish one. It is stunning... I was going to go for Spitfire when I started the build, but this came up on here for similar money and I couldn't resist. It's a bit warped and I had to mod it a smidge to get it to fit (widen the pickup holes, bridge holes, and neck pocket opening), but no cracks. That sort of imperfection just adds mojo for me