pedalboards...again

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

effect pedalboards for psg and guitar or for just psg.

who uses one? (post pics if you got em)

is your volume pedal on your pedalboard?

if you play psg and guitar at the same gig, how do you handle your pedalboard? one pedal board for both or separate?

thanks

Jason Hull · Posted 10 Feb 2010 3:50 am

A/B box to switch between PSG and guitar, then into pedalboard. PSG volume pedal at PSG before A/B box.

Thomas Ludwig · From: Augsburg, Germany

same setup as Jason's
A/B box to switch between PSG and ac.guitar, then into Boss GT-10. PSG volume pedal at PSG before A/B box.

On the GT-10 I have presets for PSG and ac.guitar.
Everytime I change instruments I have to push two pedals, A/B box and other program on GT-10. Wish the GT-10 has 2 Inputs...

Thomas

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

I am hurtin.

I guess the main thing I need to know or see pics of is how many of you have a pedalboard with individual (not multi) effects where you have your VP attached to the pedalboard? If you have your VP and pedalboard separate, could you post a picture of that setup or explain how you setup and teardown quickly with that setup?

Im having alot of issues.
1. Teardown time...I need to get faster more compact, more effecient.
2. Having thr VP on my pedalboard is creating some problems both ergonimics and acccesability. It raise the VP just enought to shorten the throws on my right knees and having it under the steel is a pain, but taking the VP off the board wpould screw up setup and teardown an cause other complications (cables, packing etc)

Scott Appleton · From: Ashland, Oregon

Ben, I have 3 units on a piece of pine about 8 by 10 " .. I set it next to
the Vol pedal .. I don't think there is a way to help the plug in and set up
time for any rig you may see. I have to set up the steel .. plug in the VP to a power strip .. clip on my Freeloader .. patch the steel to the freeloader .. patch the freeloader to the Vol .. patch the VP to the pedal board .. plug the pedal board into the amp .. 1st channel ..plug the 2nd output of the Vp into the tuner
Then I am set for a show .. I can do It all in 12 minutes when I am feelin good
That is the best set up I can come up with .. all those things need to happen and there is no automatic set up that will get around it.
Good luck

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Lehle builds some very versatile switch boxes.
With the help of one of their boxes, you can come up with just about any combination you are looking for.
I use the "Little Lehle" to kick an effects loop in and out.

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

This is the mess I am dealing with.

The white and green pedal with what looks like hamburgers on it (they are actually mushroonms) is my homemade delay pedal. I can loose the phase 90 and the overdrive (the green pedal lower right)is alreay gone, replaced by "The Benbro" dobro sim (boss GE7). I need distortion before VP and delay after VP and thats how this is routed.

What I want is to be able to detach ALL chords from the board including the power, and to get that VP flat on the ground.

So what Im gonna do is:
Chop off the end of the board under the VP and screw a thin spatula end (or maybe just two thin braces)sticking out there instead for the VP to sit velcroed on in between its little pads.
That should get it near flat to the ground and still allow it to be attached to the board. mybae braces that the VPs feets would juts screw right onto...yeah thats the ticket, no velcro.

For the power and chord situation. Since its a two tiered board, I think I will make that second tier hollow and bury the wall warts under there. Then rewire a peice of extension chord so that the two wall warts connect to a male plug end sticking out from the top of that second teir. That way I could attached and remove the cheap white extension chord that goes to house power.

For the three cables, pedalboard to amp, guitar to pedlaboard and steel to pedlaboard, I am going to make an A/B/Y box that also contains a patch bay of sorts. This will put all three chord inputs/outputs on the outside edge of the board in one spot and allow me to ditch that oversized and battery powered Morley box. Currently the pedalboard to amp chord is buried coming out of that boss tuner and i cant renmove it. This costs me teardown time, as I have to sit there and carefully coil that chord onto the board. I think I can fit the aby box and patch bay I am building all into the same size enclosure as the phase 90. I will give the aby two leds and dc power. The morley annoyingly requires you to unplug the middle jack to save the battery for the leds and has no dc power jack...lame.

Minus the Morley and with the wallwarts buried, I should be able to fit something nice up there on that second teir...hopefully the pog2.

I'll post some pics if i get it done, but it will be a while. got some gigs I wanna do before I change anything radically.

I still welcome all your thoughts and suggestions.
what do you think of my plan?

Bill A. Moore · From: Silver City, New Mexico, USA

As a life long drummer, I have to laugh at you guys complaining about set up, and tear down time.
Back when we were playing out, I would need a good 10-15 min. to set up a 5-7 piece set, and run my mics and electronics into my mixing board that fed the mains.

Jonathan Mitguard · From: San Rafael, California, USA

Well Here is what I have come up with. It is kind of crazy but the sound is good. I had to make a special case to carry this thing around. The Black box takes a lot of real estate but there is that tone thing. The Damage control Glass nexus is a fabulous unit and provides reverb, delay, chorusing and various other modulation type effects plus tremolo and rotary spkr. I got the stand from a drum shop bone yard. I unplug the VP, place the Glass nexus on the black box take apart the stand assembly and it all fits in the case with the VP. every thing can be wired back together and put in place for fairly quick set up.
The sequence, Steel-blackbox-tuner-twin tube-VP-Glass nexus-amp.

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Mullen and Williams SU12, Owens Square neck dobro. Amps evolving Princeton II reverb w/ eminence Double T 12"

Steve Norman · From: Seattle Washington, USA

Ben have the volume ped detach from the pedal board and have a longer patch chord. Just open the board and move the VP under the steel. When packing up just move it back into its space on the board.
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GFI D10, Fender Steel King, Hilton Vpedal,BoBro, National D dobro, Marrs RGS

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Jonathan Mitguard · From: San Rafael, California, USA

Actually it is not too bad. Just put it in place plug in the VP and it works. I could even leave the VP plugged in if I had right angle jacks but it aint no big deal. The biggest problem with this set up is that each pedal has it's own proprietary wall wart so I can't use one of those nice compact power supply boxes. I may have to rethink it all some time but this set up sure sounds good.
Here it is in the case.

_________________
Mullen and Williams SU12, Owens Square neck dobro. Amps evolving Princeton II reverb w/ eminence Double T 12"

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

yes those proprietary wall warts are a pain. Im going to try and design something to contain, hide and deal with em.

Marc Jenkins · From: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Ben, have you considered a Pedaltrain board? You could hide everything you wanted underneath easily, and just move the VP under the steel as mentioned above.

Clete Ritta · From: San Antonio, Texas

I use my SBK PS-25 pedalboard thru the NV1000 Post EQ send/return loop.

The Hilton goes under the steel by itself and connects the steel directly to the High Gain input. The electric guitars (or mandolin) go directly into the Low Gain input on the amp. I use the XLR line out to the house PA, which sound guys generally like. One less mic and stand to setup. That signal is coming before the Main Volume, so I can adjust my stage volume without disturbing the house level. One thing I like to do during soundcheck is turn my amp volume off and listen to the monitor and house levels alone from the XLR feed. Once the whole group is checking together, I add my stage volume as needed. I generally am the guitar guy who has to be told to turn up on stage! I dont mind at all, as long as I can hear myself with the rest Im ok. My amp goes on top of the road case top (minus the dolly wheels so it doesnt roll away while playing. At that height, its right at ear level when seated *another reason my volume is low. Standing with guitar, its at the perfect height for speaker/pickup feedback sustain.

By using all effects thru the loop, they actually sound better on everything.
The tuner mutes the signal for everything this way too. This is convenient for unplugging guitars when changing instruments and also for tuning silently.

I use the OCD on a minimal drive setting for a little warmth for the guitars and sometimes on steel for a little edge. The MXR Distortion+ is great for lead guitar fuzz tones. Its so old, I had to add a DC connector myself (you may be able to hot rod your Morley as well). I use the reverb from the amp only slightly, and sometimes add more on steel for ballads. I use the GE-7 in a comb filter type setting to emulate resonator (usually on slide guitar) or combined with the MXR Distortion+ and CryBaby in half pedaled position for that Hendrix-like octave lead tone. The chorus and delay need the mix level a bit higher in the Post EQ loop than if used between guitar and amp normally. I have 2 OneSpots, one for the board and one for the CryBaby, which sits to the right of the board. The SBK powers six pedals, I use eight). The Hilton is the third adaptor I use. Theres an extra DC out of the tuner I could use to eliminate one wallwart.

I thought about a smaller board that would fit under the steel, but I never use the pedals while playing (Im too busy with the other pedals). I usually set the pedals to the left of the steel, so I can reach them by hand when seated, and can also operate them by foot when standing with guitar. My mic stand is a boom that I lower over the steel when seated, or raise over the pedalboard when standing.

Tor Arve Baroy · From: Norway

This setup works pretty well for me:

Goodrich - Double muff - Boss fbm1 - Boss RV5 - behringer ultraG

No amp usually, when I use an amp I just go from the VP and into the amp

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

before:

after:

handswitching a/b box and patch bay under tier:

burying the wallwarts, and the detachable power chord:

chas smith R.I.P. · From: Encino, CA, USA

I play in a "prog metal" band using a D12 non-pedal guitar and was using this set up, but I got a VHT amp and now use a small rack.

Jonathan Mitguard · From: San Rafael, California, USA

Looks good Ben. Did you make that AB box? My guess is that you use the second twin tube channel and some of the other pedals for guitar mostly as it doesn't look to easy to get too reach from the steel seat. Or maybe you have an extra joint in your leg. Also, IMHO all that green tape detracts from your fine work at cleaning up your pedal board. I understand why you did it though.
_________________
Mullen and Williams SU12, Owens Square neck dobro. Amps evolving Princeton II reverb w/ eminence Double T 12"

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

you guessed it, the right half is for guitar. I can still hit the on off on the twin tube if i need distorted steel (which I occasionally do). delay I either have on or offf and dont need to sto0mp it midsong same with the BenBro and the tuner. The pog is a new addition so I havent used it much yet. The trem too.

yeah that green tape...does look pretty bad. The knobs on that pedal are so sensitive tho, slightest movement =huge volume or gain jump so i had to bolt em down somehow.

a/b box I built yes. the fulltone website has an excellent plan and they are easy to make. I modified mine to be flat toppped hand switching to free up some pedalboard space , and I added effects send and return so I could get all my cables coming off my pedalboard to be in one spot and easily removeable on the exterior edge of the board.

havent gigged it yet so dont know how it will function in reality but so far so good.

Thom Ferman · From: Las Vegas, NV, USA

In the interest of fast setup and less is more:

Brad Sarno made me a custom 2 input Freeloader used to switch between steel input and guitar input. Out of Freeloader to wah that is toe activated for boowah effects; I just slide my foot up on the VP to hit it. Then to small pedal board with OD, Phase and Delay. This is all mounted on thin fibre board with pigtails for 9V power, input and output. Finally to VP with tuner connected to a non-adjusted output (orange tuner cable has 1 Mohm resistor in series to mimimize loading). Only external cable connections are a VP output/9v power umbillical cord, 6 string guitar cable (not shown) and the blue cable between the Freeloader and the wah. This easily sets up in under 10 minutes and has a very small foot print. The wah and tuner are generally optional. I'm looking at the Fender vol/tone pedal to replace current VP and wah.

With this setup I run the OD on with 6 string guitar usually off with steel. I have phase, delay and VP available for both. It's nice having the Freeloader available as an "icepick" control.
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Thom Ferman
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Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

I like it Thom!

beautiful 400 there too.

With my new board its less than a minute from suitcase to under the steel and fully connected.
One of the main goals was speed of setup (or more importantly speed of tear down)

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Heck Ben I'm not sure what all you're asking.

I use a Podxt.

THe ONLY drawback is the location in the chain of the VP.

As far as simplicity, I had a pedal type bank switch where I can hide the pod, use the up down channel switcher to choose between preset defaults on four different channels to handle everything I use. I get around the VP chain location by setting the volume for the room with the right amount of compression for guitar, and distortion.

AN optimum rig WOULD be an XTLive with the VP on the left, but it ain't available. Also I guess a midi tupe "expression pedal", but my favorite tool is my Hilton.

TO switch between steel and guitar I just unplug and switch at the axe, and hit the guitar presets.

I'm just a Pod guy and just look for ways to make it work.one shot, all fits in the small briefcase.

I suppose in a pinch or important gig I could use my blue comp and turbo OD in a chain with my guitar and that would solve the Vp chain location.

I tried a Morley AB but it sucked signal and so it sucked.

Everything else works fine with my Steel as I don't use distortion on it or compression, just reverb delay and tremolo / stereo mod.

Just a few thoughts..

Smile

EJL

Paddy Long · From: Christchurch, New Zealand

Now I remember why I really love using my rack systems !!!! Laughing

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14'Zumsteel Hybrid D10 9+9
08'Zumsteel Hybrid D10 9+9
94' Franklin Stereo D10 9+8
Telonics, Peterson, Steelers Choice, Benado, Lexicon, Red Dirt Cases.

Cliff Kane · From: the late great golden state

Hi Ben,
here is my current pedalboard. The pedals are on a Pedal Train pedalboard and are powered with a One Spot power supply, all done up with George L cable. The pedals are on a true bypass loop strip, and I insert the volume pedal via one of the loops after the filter and distortion pedals and before the modulation and delay pedals. The loop for the volume pedal can be used for inserting other things too. This seems like the most versatile way to use the board. If I want to keep things simple and not use the pedalboard I don't have to deal with taking the volume pedal off of the board. I carry the volume pedal in my pack-a-seat and the pedalboard has its own case. I really like using individual pedals over a multi-effects processor. My current signal chain is: Guitar--FreeLoader--filter--distortion--volume pedal/external effects--chorus--phase--delay--preamp pedal--amp.
Cheers!

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