New Pedalboard for the Stage

The Live Board is Better Than Ever

A much simpler, easier-maintenece setup is ready for service and it’s possibly the best board I’ve built so far. A video will follow, but for now here a quick look at my new pedalboard build for live use.

The Quilter Superblock is Still the Hub of my Tone Chain

After finding a used (albeit unused) Quilter Superblock UK for a decent price I decided to buy it and bring about an ideal scenario regarding all my tonal options from studio to stage.

Some time back I installed both my Superblock UK and US amps in my recording space, semi-permanently with a few essential tone-shaping pedals. Both amps are always ready to go, in stereo or separately for any recording I need to do.

The drawback was that if I ever needed to use one of the amps live I would need to remove it from its position in the studio, add some pedals and then put everything back together again after a gig or practice. A first-world problem I understand, but just not convenient in my workflow.

Duplication is the Solution in my World!

Now I have a dedicated rig with everything on one board for live use without disrupting my dual-amp studio install. A rig that is similar in performance and tone to what I use in the studio all the time and therefore always compliant when I need to just get my sound dialled in quickly and without fuss.

As luck would have it I came into possession of a few nice pedals too from one of my best friends. He basically gave me a box of stuff that he had no use for. A box that contained some really cool pedals from Boss, Mooer and Tone City. With my plan for a live rig still requiring a few acquisitions to make it complete, this pedal windfall delivered exactly what I needed and more!

Now I have a complete setup for the stage, which came together more quickly and more perfectly than I could have imagined.

One extra thing I did buy was an IR Box by M-Vave. M-Vave is becoming one of my very favourite gear brands and I’ll wax lyrical about M-Vave more as time goes on. The IR Box is a great device. It was super-cheap (less than $30US) and it can store up to 32 cab IRs. The software works flawlessly to load your own IRs, balance the levels between presets and apply EQ to each one too. It also has high and low pass filter controls on the box, so you can tidy up the low and high frequencies in your cab-sim DI signal. I love it!

Signal chain:

Guitar > Wireless > Tuner (added after photo) > Noise gate detection path > Compressor (always on) > Solo Distortion/Boost > Dual Overdrive > Chorus > Amplifier Input > Amp FX Send > Noise reduction path > Delay/Reverb > Amp FX Return > Amp Reverb > DI: IR Box and Speaker out to a guitar cab.

All powered by a powerbank (amp runs at 1watt) or pedals powered via powerbank and the amp powered by 24v supply (on the board), which makes the amp 25watts.