More Tweaks to the Pedalboard Rig
Each gig that I play brings forth new ideas for improving the function and/or tone of the compact, all-in-one guitar rig. After a gig in November, which saw the setup perform very well, there were a couple of things I felt could be tweaked.
UPDATE Dec 9th: I already tweaked the rig again, I made room for another pedal so I could keep the tremolo/volume boost in the chain at all times whilst keeping noise gate 2 as well.
I also happened on another bonus feature, which adds yet more versatility to the system and I found a way to reconfigure the setup for what I loosely term “Vintage config” and “Modern config”.
Here is a breakdown of the journey that each and every note and noise makes from guitar to speaker.
Input Section
- Unbuffer & Lead/Rhythm controller: Both passive – together they optimize the interactivity of my guitar and my Fuzz pedal when using a wireless with the added bonus of reducing noise.
Gain Section One
- Fuzz Face Clone: In vintage mode, the fuzz stays on all the time, set at full volume and almost full fuzz. The lead/rhythm controller sets the volume going into the fuzz just like the volume control on the guitar. In modern mode it’s left off and not required.
- Compressor: The cheapest compressor I could find. In vintage mode it’s set to minimum sustain and maximum level as a boost to make the fuzz roar through everything when playing big leads. It’s also a nice, alternative lead setting. In modern mode the sustain is increased to 3 o’clock and left always-on. The lead/rhythm control drives it.
- Noise Gate: This cuts out the noise created by the fuzz and compressor. I have carefully dialled in the compressor and fuzz, so that the noise gate is closed when they are both on and I’m not playing, without cutting notes off too short when playing quieter passages. The key here was pedal selection pre noise gate 1 through trial and error!
Gain Section Two
- Chorus: Not a gain pedal I know, but I prefer it pre-overdrive rather than post and I really don’t like chorus in the FX loop.
- Overdrive 1 – Mosky D250X: DOD 250 Preamp clone. A recent addition and worked great at the last gig. Gain is set to minimum and the level about 3 o’clock, so it’s acting as a dirty boost into my Marshall-voiced amp. I treat this pedal as part of my overall preamp, so it goes on when I want my amp to sound like the gain’s been turned up.
- Overdrive 2 – Mosky MM Silver: Supposedly a Timmy clone. Same approach as the D250X, gain all the way down and level up high (normally max). This one normally goes on in addition to the D250X, so together it’s like the amp’s gain has been turned up even more.
- The SAG: A DIY EP Booster clone. The lack of headroom this pedal has helps my solid state amp to feel a bit more like a tube amp. It naturally compresses the signal as more goes in and is very warm-sounding and spongy feeling. It’s always on and tucked away in the back corner behind/below the amp.
Amplifier section
- Marshall/Vox Style Pedalboard Amp – Hotone BritWind: For live it’s pretty much permanently on the Marshall-voiced channel with gain set to minimum (sometimes a tiny bit more). It never gets pristinely clean, but it’s the kind of “not-really clean” clean tone that I like to use. It’s surprisingly close to a typical vintage Marshall “plexi” clean tone. It also has a gain boost, which I have set very low and mostly on all the time as it adds a bit more body to the tone.
FX Loop
- Wild Card – The pedal in this spot gets swapped out depending on the requirements of the gig.
- Tremolo: Suits most gigs, I keep the speed set in one place (pretty fast) and adjust the intensity from zero to halfway. At halfway it’s a basic tremolo, not too extreme. At zero, there is no effect, but because the pedal provides a volume boost when engaged, the result is that this tremolo becomes a straight, clean boost for increasing the volume of the whole rig, post all distortion.
- Pitch-Shifter: On occasion I need to drop the pitch of my guitar down by 2 semitones for one or two songs with one specific band generally. That’s when I use a cheap harmonizer pedal with the dry signal dialled out. It doesn’t sound that great, but it does track well enough to get by and the songs I normally need it for are full of distortion and FX, so it works out. It saves me retuning my guitar or bringing an extra one in a different tuning for just one or two songs.
- Volume Swell – Mooer Slow Engine: Sometimes it’s handy to be able to make my guitar sound more like a synth. Combining the chorus with the Slow Engine, set to just cut off the attack of the notes and quickly fade in does a fairly convincing job of it.
- Tuner: I have the tuner here mainly because there’s nowhere else left to put it really. It works fine here in the loop. I’ve always highly rated the performance of Korg tuners.
- Noise Gate 2: This isn’t totally necessary I suppose, but I do love it when I’m playing with loads of distortion and no hiss present when I stop playing – at least very little hiss. The overdrives, chorus, Hotone preamp and the tremolo volume boost all add some hiss, which comes through even when the noise from the compressor and fuzz is shut off by gate 1. I suppose if I really needed another essential pedal on that top row then I could take it off to make the space.
- Delay: What rig is complete without a delay? I love the flashback Mini. I have it programmed, so all my delay time, feedback and mix settings are set at specific points on the “Delay” knob, so I can dial in my settings with a quick twist. I also have the feedback knob programmed to control the modulation, so with a couple of quick twists of a knob I can turn the delay pedal into a Vibratone/Leslie kind of effect.
- Limiter: This is last in the loop and I set it for no limiting. It actually starts kicking in gently when I have the delay cranked to it’s loudest, but it’s mainly there as a master volume. When I play DI only without a cab, it works best when I set the limiter to work harder as it smooths out the (average-sounding) analog cab-sim DI’d tone. It sits behind/below the amp.
- Reverb: This is built into the amp and comes after the FX loop. I have it set to be an obvious effect and switch it on when I want the reverb to be obvious!
I don’t think I could have utilised the space on this board any more efficiently than I have, but maybe I’ll find a way of squeezing one or two more devices on there. I have an idea, but it could prove to be a disaster if I tried it.
This rig is slowly getting better and better all the time. It’s improved in small increments over the last couple of years based on how I felt it performed at the last gig at the time. I can only really get an idea of what works properly when playing at stage volume. It always behaves differently at stage level, so it’s a slow process. But it’s all part of the fun when you’re such a tone tweaking nut like me!
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