Putting Together A Pedal Board

Caffeined

Looking to put together a decent pedal board for metal and hard rock sort of stuff.
I already have a Fender delay pedal and a cry baby wah. I'm playing through a Marshall AVT150. It has its own overdrive channel, but i'd like something I can adjust on the fly, depending on what i'm playing.

Guess I really need a distortion pedal that I can do rock and full on thrashy/death metal. Any suggesions on that and a pedal to get good reverb, or chorus would be appreciated.

And any other general advice on setting up the board itself.

Cheers in advance.

BintyTwanger77

What's your budget?

Caffeined

I guess around £150 ish. Not adverse to finding second hand pedals online.

hubobulous

I'd be looking at an overdrive rather than distortion pedal if you are wanting to use amp crunch. In my experience, distortion pedals work best into a clean channel.

If you got a Spark Boost and Bad Monkey second hand, you'd cover a lot of bases and with both of those hitting your amp, you'd never need more gain.

Some of the micro pedals are cheap and good so they could work for your chorus and reverb.

With your budget I'd only consider second hand at the moment, unless shops are doing deals. In fact I think I just read a thread about PMT doing a good reverb pedal for £25 so check that out.

hubobulous

Boom, here you go....

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/92726/pmt-25-pedals#latest

You our can get your chorus and reverb for £50. Get a boost and Bad Monkey for £100 second hand and you are rocking.

MattBanshee

Using a solid-state amp like the AVT, I'd actually suggest using a distortion pedal rather than stacking overdrives/boosts as the amp just won't respond in the same way. I'd recommend looking at some of the low-cost Joyo, Donner etc clones of boutique pedals - something like a Suhr Riot or Fulltone OCD clone would be a good start.

professorben

MattBanshee said:

Using a solid-state amp like the AVT, I'd actually suggest using a distortion pedal rather than stacking overdrives/boosts as the amp just won't respond in the same way. I'd recommend looking at some of the low-cost Joyo, Donner etc clones of boutique pedals - something like a Suhr Riot or Fulltone OCD clone would be a good start.

@Caffeined I have a Joyo OCD clone that's pretty good, also if you check my pm I've got a few others you might like too. 

Caffeined

Thanks for the PM professorben. I've replied!
So looks like the £25 PMT reverb pedal and a good distortion pedal is the way to go then.

Any advice on set up of the board itself guys?

professorben

Reverb? Seriously?
sorry it's just in my mind it's the very last effect you would need for a metal/heavy rock board, but that's just me.

professorben

How do you mean set up?, do you mean fx order?

Caffeined

I like reverb for clean stuff. I don't just play rock and metal, its just my main thing.
Yes, set up order etc would be good to know.

hubobulous

Wah first
Then Distortion
Then delay and Reverb at the end, (or in fx loop)

professorben

Fair enough.
I prefer it this way.

Eq altering ( phase, flange, wah, univibe)
Gain ( overdrive, fuzz, distortion, amp drive)
Modulation ( chorus, Vibrato)
Delay
Reverb

I would also place an Eq pedal after the drive for a solo sound that cuts the low end and boost the mid.

its not the 'classic' pedal order, but I feel that putting phaser, flanger AFTER the gain section cuts the low end too much.

Caffeined

Cool, thanks for the advice guys. What would be a good way of boosting the mids for solos?

Dave_Mc

In my experience (I had one, but the 100 watt version) the avt didn't take distortion pedals all that well, and also didn't take boost pedals to its od channel all that well.

Gadget

professorben said:

Reverb? Seriously?
sorry it's just in my mind it's the very last effect you would need for a metal/heavy rock board, but that's just me.

A short / room / ambience can be great for fattening up rhythm sounds.

MattBanshee

Caffeined said:

Cool, thanks for the advice guys. What would be a good way of boosting the mids for solos?

The guitarist in my old band gigged with the AVT150, and I strongly recommend just sticking to the channels on the amp. Disregarding the acoustic sim channel, you've got a clean channel and two gain channels - why not just use those, with one set for a boost? You can also independently assign the in-built DFX to the clean or dirty channels and turn them on/off with the footswitch IIRC, so why not use that for the reverb?

DesVegas

Get a rat or a rat clone and a caline snake bite reverb for around 50 for both and maybe a ehx small stone for phaser modulation, that'll work great after the rat

professorben

Gadget said:

professorben said:

Reverb? Seriously?
sorry it's just in my mind it's the very last effect you would need for a metal/heavy rock board, but that's just me.

A short / room / ambience can be great for fattening up rhythm sounds.

Ok, I think the opposite, it's just gonna cloud up the definition for faster riffs.
but it's just my experience and opinion