The Rig in Action
The day of my most recent gig (29th February) I decided to make a last-minute change to the signal chain in the FX loop – regarding the volume lift feature. This rig is getting close to being the ultimate… read on!
There was something nagging me about the Boost Killer after using on some recordings and I think it was possibly making things sound a bit harsh, which could either have ended up working well at stage volume or sounding terrible.
I didn’t want to risk it, so I tried something out quickly that I had previously forgotten about (I have a 2nd limiter pedal) and it seemed like it would work.
So with two identical limiters (they look slightly different, but are the same pedal inside) I had one set as I have been using it for a while (always on) and the other one in front of it to provide a volume boost into the always-on limiter. I went with that order again to play it safe and not to risk getting too loud in the heat of the moment due to the nature of the gig I was playing.
Addressing Issues
It worked pretty well, but I have since swapped them around, which only required changing the settings on each due to them being the same pedal and I just repositioned them to make the one that requires me to step on it easier to access.
The reason I swapped is because there was still one thing I thought could be improved across the spectrum of tones I need to get out of this rig. That one thing is the clean tone.
My clean tone works great for percussive, funky-type stuff, but when I need to play anything that is clean and sustained it seems to run out of breath. With a lower threshold on the limiter I can squeeze more compression out of the clean tone, but with a volume boost before that limiter, it gets too much and sounds squashed. With my always on limiter first I am trying it out with more limiting; basically as much as I can get away with that both keeps my clean tone compressed nicely and doesn’t strangle my boost/overdrive tones with the 2nd limiter being the volume lift after that. I can still set the volume lift with some limiting on it too if I want, or if I feel it’s a bit harsh without.
In testing I think this will be the best setup and what’s great about that is that I didn’t need to buy a new pedal to find the solution… I hope this is the solution. It’s never proven until I get it to a gig!
Further Tweaks
One addition I haven’t mentioned before is my idea for the “Switch Blockers”. I glued a nut that fits a pedal switch to a cut-down cap from a felt pen/ Magic marker to shield the foot switch from being accidentally activated and put it on the tuner. If the tuner gets switched on by mistake my entire sound gets muted. The need for this arose after having done this at a gig already!
The other switch blocker just fits snugly over the footswitch on the always-on limiter with no need to be screwed on. If that were to get accidentally switched off then my volume would either drop or go sky high depending on how I have the output level set at the time.
The reason the switch blocker on the tuner is open is so that I can still activate it with my finger for tuning, but it won’t get stepped on my mistake. It’s more convenient than having to take off a cap every time I need to tune.
This “hack” is a lifesaver and works perfectly. I’m very pleased with it. It’s another small tweak that makes the world of difference to my performance on stage.
The Cab
Another thing I hadn’t mentioned before is the tweaks made to my DIY 1×10 cab. Using parts of an old, unused stand for a tablet/ipad I rigged up a way to insert a tilt-back stand, so the cab can be positioned for me to hear it easily, like a monitor and the Amp Clamp mic attachment is a great addition to the cab, making it really easy to setup. The tilt-back stand is removable for easy storage and transportation.
I have done the same thing to my 1×12 Kustom cab as well as made a DIY bracket for the ampclamp to fit on that too.
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