Gigging and the move from Multi Effects to Pedalboard - extended musings!!

hubobulous

A fork in the road and a lightning strike of pure impish brilliance

The next steps are ones requiring a little more thought. I've come to a fork in the road, (not quite a crossroads for selling my soul), concerning which area to concentrate on first - my setup at home or my live rig.

We have no other gigs lined up at the moment, and whilst we are going to try to get a couple in before Christmas, nothing is likely to happen before mid-October. However, I do have the London Gearfest Extravaganza on Sept 13th with some good guys from this here forum, so I've decided to concentrate on the live rig, since that will be a good chance to both try the kit out at good volume, and also get some input/opinion.

So, first things first. I need a Pedalboard and power supply. The size/number of pedals that I'm eventually going to have on the board means that its going to be a PedalTrain 2 with Voodoo Labs PedalPower 2+. I want to look into some of the other power supplies that have been mentioned on this forum over the last couple of weeks, but I like the simplicity of mounting the VLPP2+ and that counts for a lot. I checked out the PT2 when I purchased the Mini and Nano, and took along a bunch of my pedals to test for size at the time. So that's sorted in my mind. A bit of a weird thing here given that I am trying to reduce the footprint on the stage. The PT2 is bigger than the Utopia, but I'm just going to suck it up like the man I am.

Of the pedals that I currently own, I know I'm going to use the Chi Wah Wah, Rufus Fuzz, Koko Boost and MIDI hold pedal. So, what does that leave?

I'm looking for effects, a volume pedal, an expression pedal and maybe the SL/EP Booster combination. The latter two won't arrive from the US for a while, (my eBay selling proceeds bought the Mini and Nano and the next stuff to go will hopefully raise enough for the PT2 and VLPP2+), so its those first three that I'm currently concentrating on. Dunno about a compressor, so that's not in the mix for a while.

Bear with me on this next bit. It just so happens to be my wedding anniversary today, and my birthday next month. Its our third anniversary and depending on whether you're a traditionalist or modern thinker, that means leather or crystal. Since I already have the gimp mask, chaps, whips and blindfolds, I thought I'd see if there was something crystal that Helen could buy me. Well, I'm partial to whisky and we spent some browsing time seeing if there were any crystal glasses that could be put to good use with my Bruichladdich. Nothing really jumped out at us, and its really about the weight in the hand as well as cosmetics etc, so I gave up on that. And then readers, a moment of pure genius hit me as the two of us were out for a walk......

I will precursor this by saying that I'm really quite happy with myself :-) Its not often a really tenuous link gets fired right between your eyes by the Gods of GAS coupled with the timing of such a strike being perfect. Its normally just a tenuous link at a time when no money or opportunity is on the cards. But this event merely cemented in my mind just how bad we guitarists can be when it comes to justification of ideas.

I currently own the Eventide Pitchfactor and really like it. Takes a while to get used to, but the sounds that can be generated from it are awesome. Its one's imagination that is the only limiting factor when using this.....perhaps I should create a pedal one day to align itself with the Eventide range called the Hubobulous LimitingFactor?? Anyway, the only issue for me with the Pitchfactor is that its only a certain set of effect types, which is what the 'Factor' range is designed to be. However, as I mentioned quite a few posts back, I've been eyeing up the H9. It seems to address everything I'm looking for in terms of effects quality, tweakability, ease of use and size. And you know what??? One of the preset algorithms that comes with it, taken from the Pitchfactor, is called CRYSTALS. That's right folks, its almost so perfect as to resemble Scarlett Johansson, (or Helen Hubobulous...today anyway!!).

....and after much scowling, scolding, wry smiling and the agreement that it could also be doubled up as my birthday present too, its a go-er. :-) I shit you not, it will be a while until I come up with something so ridiculous again, even if try!!

The algorithms in the standard, (as opposed to algorithmically stripped CORE), version sit well with me and I've found a demo unit for a very good price. So that's on its way to Hubobulous Towers. I won't have had much time to tweak it before the Gearfest on 13th Sept, but I'm really satisfied with how this has all panned out, (marital persuasion hard left and right with birthday goodness right down the middle!!).

Next up is the expression pedal for the effects and the volume pedal.......oh and did I mention a Patchbay? ;-)

hubobulous

New idea added to the equation

Patchbays were a concept I had in my head, but didn't know existed and didn't really know what the industry/players would call them. But 'The Fretboard' came to my assistance out of the blue with a recent thread on the topic. I perused this without really knowing what it was about - the beauty of a forum being that its a place you can learn about things you didn't know existed - and the idea made complete sense to me.

Using one, my signal path will be:

(Guitar - Switchblade)
- Tuner -
(Tripler - Patchbay Guitar IN)
- Patchbay Guitar OUT - PT2 pedals - Patchbay Pedals IN -
(Patchbay AMP SEND - front of amp) - (amp fx loop send - Patchbay AMP FX IN)
- Patchbay FX SEND - Eventide H9 on PT2 - Patchbay fx RETURN -
(Patchbay AMP fx RETURN - amp fx loop return)

The purple coloured pairings are the ones I'd have to manually add leads in/out of when setting up. The red ones are those where the cabling is permanently in place on a board or within the amp. So that's 5 leads that I need to cable up when gigging using a 4x4 patchbay.

I'd need a Patchbay to sit under the PT2 to keep it out of the way and not use topside real estate. Therefore now the plan begins to understand where I think I need the jack sockets to be located on the Patchbay in order for them to be accessible when mounted on the underside and then see what's out there that fits the bill.

If anyone out there has experience of mounting one beneath a PT style board, please let me know. I don't mind using cable ties, but it would be cool to mount using a bracket in the same manner as the VLPP2+.

[EDIT] - I wonder if the mounting bracket thing is essential. Would Velcro work just as well? I need to check out the underside of the PT2 to see if it allows for a secure fixing

hubobulous

Take your position on the pedalboard Mr Tufnell...

Its a given that I'll need to go up to 11, but having laid my pedals out on the floor in a PT2 sized area the other night, and knowing that an expression pedal is on the cards, the volume pedal side of life has been proving difficult to solve in terms of footprint.

I use a volume swell on one song at the moment, (a breakdown in between Go Your Own Way which we morph into the Alchemy version of the Sultans of Swing outro solo given that they both use essentially the same chord progression), and it proves tricky since I'm needing to swell with my pinky on the volume knob which is a skill I find quite hard whilst changing to a solo sound on the Utopia. I'd find this a lot easier with pedals, and I'd like to introduce volume swells more into my playing and composition anyway.

I'd remembered from my investigations into mini-wah pedals that AMT were thinking about doing a mini-volume pedal. The EB VP-Jr gets great reviews, but would still be a little too large for my needs, so anything smaller would be great. I researched and found the AMT Little Loudmouth II:




This fits the bill in terms of size, and reviews are positive. So that's the one I'm going for. It has boost options too, so can be used for a bunch of different requirements, but for me, I need it to go from silent to normal volume with nothing added on top. Perhaps I'm only going to 10 after all?

hubobulous

So before I get onto the Expression Pedal, I'll add a little here regarding the Gearfest that we had in London on 13/09/14. First up, I've got to say that it was great meeting the other forum members. It adds another dimension to the online banter/discussion/information.

A great thanks to @kebabkid for arranging it. His funk playing is great, the effects from his Zoom Multistomp box were excellent, and just a good guy to chat to. Lovely tones from the Tubemeister 18 clean channel with drive pedals.

@Dindude's playing is sweet - fast, slow, but always really tasteful. His pedalboards look ace, he knows his pedals and was getting some great tones from the amp. The lovely P90 fuelled Midtown Standard was beautiful.

@Antique_Guitars is just the personification of 'wrong', but to such an extreme that its just very 'right'..!! Stunning Aluminium guitar, quirky but cool pedalboard and fantastic approach to reviewing his gear. Lovely fingerpicking + hammer-on style playing that really caught my ear.

@Bucket is a little too good at playing for one so young. His alien fingers give him an unfair advantage, and his love of fuzz is going to be an interesting journey for him. A very pretty green Tokai to boot.

@Crunchman has a stunning collection of guitars, pedals and amps. The White Falcon was amazing, as was the Lazy J even with a dodgy valve. Les Paul, Strymon and Tele were all presented in a manner far too humble for such great kit. Nicely done.

@samzadgan - The Thing!! What an amp. We've already used the superlatives, so enjoy that amp and bust some hymen :-) Thanks too for helping me out with some tweaking of kit.

@StevePage - quietly spoken, awesome shredding. Brilliant, simple setup with the pedal and amp, but my God, some killer playing. I was reminded of the concept as to how dogs are said to resemble their owners when taking the Charvel into account. Understated, but hugely effective - just like its owner.

@jeztone2 - The Kotzen tele was a beast. Lovely neck and tone, and the pedalboard was really well thought through with the unusual but fantastic 7th Heaven pedal. A thoroughly nice bloke too.

@Octatoffic - really cool to meet him, and his knowledge of all things Suhr and general gear was super impressive. Nice to chew the fat over the smaller details of stuff. All best wishes heading in his direction from someone who's been there :-)

Now, the reason I've outlined my summary of the Gearfest here rather than in the dedicated thread was that I selfishly went there with the pure intention of testing my gear. I really want to go to another where I try out the gadgets/amps/guitars that everyone else brings, but this opportunity was too well timed with my pedalboard concoction to not use it to figure some shit out. So apologies for not adding these comments to the main thread, but I didn't want to discuss my agenda in a thread which was much more group based. Suffice to say, I'd be a little more engaged with other gear in the future :-)

So what did I learn? The Pinnacle probably won't work for me since I have some grit on my amp setting. The Pinnacle likes a clean channel, so this pedal could be on its way out. Same for the Riot that came with the 80s Shred Modern. Lovely pedal, but I don't think I'll use it live - its going nowhere though!!

The Shiba also won't go onto the board. I'll use it at home into a clean amp for more bluesy tones, but it doesn't add anything more than the Koko does with my amp settings.

The Rufus Fuzz is a mad pedal, but again, probably likes a clean channel most. The two mode design through holding down the switch is ingenious and the modes are stunningly different. Farty fuzz vs distortion without the need to bend down and change anything - just use your foot.....!! I'll hang onto this for home usage through the Corso, since it will be fun to muck around with and record some stuff, but again, not for the pedalboard.

The Koko is never going to leave. It just works so well with the Badger 30, and offers so many options. I adore this pedal.

The Chi Wah Wah is brilliant, as is the AMT Volume pedal. They do their job whilst taking up minimal space. Very happy with them.

I've yet to receive the H9, but used the Ana Echo in the loop at the Gearfest. For a cheaper delay, its great. I'll incorporate this somehow for home/ambient usage I'd have thought, but again, not going onto the board.

Since the Gearfest, I've received my Velvet Fuzz and its definitely going on the board. I A/B compared it with the Rufus and I prefer the Velvet's distortion setting, (I preferred the Rufus' Fuzz setting), and I realise that for live use, its the distortion style of gain that I like the most. It really adds to the amp rather than drastically altering it, and am very happy with how it stacks with the Koko. There's a hint of Fuzz when the Koko is engaged with the Velvet, but not so much that any bass issues kick in, or articulation of chords is lost. The Velvet is just a great pedal for me.

So there we are. I've now got to wait for the H9, and also have the SL Drive, Ditto and EP Booster en-route, so can try them too. I might see if I can hire somewhere again for loud volume testing of these pedals. This won't necessarily get me the right settings for working with the rest of the band, but it will allow me to familiarise myself with how the pedals and amp interact, so I can make changes at gigs depending on the environment.

A great day, very useful and helped answer a lot of questions for me whilst meeting a bunch of really cool, friendly guys.

Kebabkid

It never ends D and cheers for the nice GF write-up.
You know that Pinnacle can be re- homed. Loved it !!
Edit: My H&K Tubemeister is the 36 not the 18

hubobulous

We've barely scratched the surface of this journey. There will be some demos sometime soon I'd have thought, which might make the whole thread a little more interesting!!

monquixote

hubobulous said:

Since the Gearfest, I've received my Velvet Fuzz and its definitely going on the board. I A/B compared it with the Rufus and I prefer the Velvet's distortion setting, (I preferred the Rufus' Fuzz setting), and I realise that for live use, its the distortion style of gain that I like the most. It really adds to the amp rather than drastically altering it, and am very happy with how it stacks with the Koko. There's a hint of Fuzz when the Koko is engaged with the Velvet, but not so much that any bass issues kick in, or articulation of chords is lost. The Velvet is just a great pedal for me.

I told you the Velvet was good!

Interesting to hear the comparison with the Rufus. I'd still like to try one.

hubobulous

Yeah, the Velvet rocks, but I'm ignoring the Fuzz element. I love it's Distortion mode.

I'll do a demo of the comparison between it and the Rufus when I buy a new laptop. The current one has died along with my recording setup. :-(