Building a pedal board from scratch

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skinfreakskinfreak Frets: 200
I’m building a pedal board from scratch and my goal is to emulate elements of my tone while I had my Marshall Valvestate 8280. That had a bi-chorus and dual channel and the chorus had an almost phaser tone to it. With it and my Tone Zone equipped Jackson I would get a fairly decent Van Halen balance tone thanks to the valve preamp. 

Move forward a bunch of years and now I have my little Blackstar HT-1 head and want to build a small but usable pedal board to go with it. The shortcomings of the amp’s drive channel have come out - i.e it ain’t usable if you need to change your tone at all and the ISF is more than a little blunt. 

I already have a an MXR GT-OD for gain and boost. A Mooer Ensemble King Chorus is in the post.

Clearly an MXR Phase 90 is a necessity, but to save some cash I am thinking of a Mooer Ninety Orange.
Additionally, a Boss DS-1 for the distortion. 

Plus I have a Thomann gift voucher to use up so was looking at a neat little power plant to get 5 or so pedals juice. If I’m ordering form Thomann then there are seme dirt cheap knock off pedals up for grabs but I am not averse to stumping up some change either. Maybe an EQ pedal after this...

In terms of sounds, everything form a classic overdriven Marshall 70’s rock through to Alter Bridge. Pulling out the odd Alice In Chains sludge would be fun. 

Thoughts?
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Comments

  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12315
    The Harley Benton junior power supply has lots of fans, so that could be a good use of your voucher. 

    If you want classic Marshall tones, the Catalinbread DIrty Little Secret is a really nice pedal. 
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  • samzadgansamzadgan Frets: 1471
    yes...the DLS Is awesome...you dont hear much about that one these days...but one of the best marshall drive pedals...or just drive pedals around.
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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    boogieman said:
    The Harley Benton junior power supply has lots of fans, so that could be a good use of your voucher.  
    Yep. The only potential drawback is the limited current available from each outlet- 100mA I think. That should be more than enough for any analogue pedal (everything you've listed so far with the possible exception of the Mooer chorus), but may struggle with some digital pedals.


    So far it looks like you've got an OD, a distortion, a chorus and a phaser. If it was my board, I'd fill the last slot with a delay- for something simple, versatile and good sounding, there's a reason (three, really) why they've been making the Boss DD-3 since 1983.


    Have to say it though- you don't sound very impressed with your amp. Rather than construct a "turd polishing" pedalboard around the things it can't do, should you be considering a different amp? For not a great deal more than you'd spend the stuff you've mentioned buying you could  buy a Jet City head... 

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • skinfreakskinfreak Frets: 200
    I am happy with the amp actually, it's just you cannot expect miracles from the tone shaping. Plus it comes in a broncho colour which makes my wife happy ;-)
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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    You could do worse than checking out a Tony City Golden Plexi on YT, decent driven sound for cheap if you're on a budget. The HB Power Plant Jr has five isolated outs, each 120ma.
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  • skinfreakskinfreak Frets: 200
    Slight Change of plan . i just bought a gator powered pedalboard for £59...
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  • skinfreakskinfreak Frets: 200
    . .. Comes with Gator G-BUS-8 Multi Power Supply
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  • ragingbenragingben Frets: 106
    Great move - I've used one for 6 ot 7 years with no problems, that's a bargain! 
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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    skinfreak said:
    . .. Comes with Gator G-BUS-8 Multi Power Supply
    That should be more than enough power supply for what you're aiming for. 250mA per outlet is more than enough for most (although not all) digital pedals.

    FWIW, don't run 9v pedals from 18v unless you're sure they're safe.

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • skinfreakskinfreak Frets: 200
    That Gator board is too damned big! Keep the PSU or send the whole lot back? Hmmm....
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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    If it's not ridonkulous it might be worth holding on to- it's nice to know you can expand your pedalboard a bit without cramming stuff on or having to buy a new board. 

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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