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Post by ninworks on Dec 29, 2021 8:05:30 GMT -5
I haven't used any effects pedals in probably 30+ years. I sold off all my old MXR, Boss, and Morley pedals I bought in the 70's back in the early 2000's for a ridiculous amount of money because they had been in a box forever and they weren't being used. Most of them sounded like crap anyway. I used them religiously back in the day when I was gigging 5 or 6 nights a week because that's all there was. As soon as rack mounted multi-effects devices came of age I bailed out on pedals. Then came the modeling units. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.
I have since sold off all my old Digitech modelers that had footswitches and all I have left is my Eleven Rack that I use in the studio. It works fine in the studio because I never have to change settings on the fly. Now that I am retired I would like to start going to some jam sessions and as such am going to need some devices I can operate from the floor. I'm not going to pull the Eleven Rack out of my rack just to go jam somewhere. I don't have a floor controller for it anyway.
I still have a couple volume pedals, a Freaking Sick 30 Volt overdrive, a MXR Micro Amp clean boost, a couple A/B pedals, and an Arion stereo chorus pedal. I am probably going to need another milder overdrive and some kind of delay pedal. I'm thinking I'll get a TS9 for the other overdrive but have no idea what to get for a delay pedal. Then I either need to make or buy a pedalboard to mount them on.
I don't want to spend much money because the only time I'll probably use this setup is for when I go to jam sessions or just fiddling around the house. The Eleven Rack is perfect for playing here at home. I'll probably just build a pedalboard but will need some kind of 9V power supply. Any suggestions for a delay and power supply?
Pete Thorn review of the 30 Volt overdrive;
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Post by Pinetree on Dec 29, 2021 12:17:26 GMT -5
A Pedaltrain Nano is like $80 and comes with a case.
One+ makes a daisy-chain type power supply that would probably work for you.
And as much as I like Pete, just keep in mind that he makes everything sound better.
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Post by LeftyMeister on Dec 29, 2021 17:58:28 GMT -5
Ditto on Power Train. What we recommend depends on, "I don't want to spend much money..." For delays, I have a Carbon Copy Deluxe and Wampler Tape Echo on my board. I set one to short delays and the other to long. Cascading them sounds glorious. I'd recommend either of them. For a power supply, any unit with non-isolated outputs will be subject to noise. I learned the hard way and finally purchased a TruTone One-Spot CS7. It was money well-spent.
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Post by ninworks on Jan 12, 2022 11:01:01 GMT -5
I have started accumulating pedals. I bought a used TS9 for mild overdrive stuff and have the 30 Volt overdrive for next-level nastiness. I also ordered a Danelectro 6 band EQ, a Boss DD-8 delay, a Walrus Audio Aetos power supply with 8 isolated outputs, and a Behringer NR-300 noise gate. I already had a MXR Micro Amp pedal for a clean boost, an Arion Chorus, and a volume pedal. If I can squeeze one on there after getting all the others mounted I may buy a tuner pedal. I already have an old Sabine tuner I can use in a pinch. Might even go for a clip-on if I can't fit a pedal on the board. I ordered a Pedaltrain Classic Jr. pedalboard from Sweetwater and it should be here Saturday. The only other thing I may want to get is a compressor pedal but I'm going to try this setup out first. I may not need one.
The DD-8 is out of stock at Sweetwater and it will be a month or more before I get it. I have a momentary switch I may be able to use for the tap-tempo feature. I'll have to try it and see if it works with the DD-8. I can already see that it's going to be crowded on there. Luckily I'm not a fan of wah pedals so that's not something I'll need space for.
I've spent a considerably higher amount than I wanted to but this combination should be workable. I'm not going into the Wampler and Strymon direction unless I start making money gigging again.
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Post by reverendrob on Jan 12, 2022 12:46:18 GMT -5
Saw this late, my big thing would be to find things in the Eleven Rack you like in the FX department - if you go there, can recommend pedals that will get you in the ballpark (as I have both a 11R and a TON of pedals).
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Post by ninworks on Jan 12, 2022 14:02:30 GMT -5
Saw this late, my big thing would be to find things in the Eleven Rack you like in the FX department - if you go there, can recommend pedals that will get you in the ballpark (as I have both a 11R and a TON of pedals). Thanks. I've been at this stuff long enough to have pretty good idea what I need in the way of effects. I'm just not familiar with the current pedals. I have always been into effects. I bought a Maestro Phase Shifter in 1971 and my first floor pedals in the mid 70's. I had an Echoplex by the time I turned 17 that I bought with money I made during the summers working with my dad in his automotive garage and mowing lawns. I have been using modelers for so long it's going to take some tinkering to dial in some sounds using pedals and an amp again. The build quality and sound of pedals has improved drastically since I stopped using them back in the 80's. The big difference is that now I know what it needs to sound like. Back then it was a lot of luck and trial and error. I have gone over the hump with effects. I went from about half a dozen pedals to a huge rack full of outboard gear to using a single modeler and now to pedals again. It's going to be interesting to see how well they work for me. I'm looking forward to it. |
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Post by LeftyMeister on Jan 12, 2022 14:14:17 GMT -5
I have gone over the hump with effects. I went from about half a dozen pedals to a huge rack full of outboard gear to using a single modeler and now to pedals again. I did the same thing except minus the outboard gear. I played with modelers for a decade and have owned several. What brought me back to pedals was that no modeler did everything well. They had there strengths with...say...OD's but were lacking in time-based effects, or visa-versa. With pedals, I can dial in exactly the sound that I want without sacrificing quality in another area. |
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Post by ninworks on Jan 12, 2022 16:24:35 GMT -5
The thing I like about rack effects and modelers is the ability to have multiple different settings that can be saved as a preset and recalled instantly without having to bend over and putz with knobs. That is particularly useful for delays. One button changes everything. Back in the day I hated doing the pedal dance when performing because I was almost always singing and couldn't look down to hit buttons. That was particularly problematic when multiple settings needed changing at a specific point in a song. Standing on one foot, singing into a microphone, hitting the delay and drive buttons all at once was impossible. I could work around it when I wasn't singing but that was rare. I'm not sure I could do that anymore at my age.
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Post by LeftyMeister on Jan 12, 2022 16:59:30 GMT -5
Modelers are definitely useful in those settings.
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Post by Taildragger on Jan 12, 2022 19:57:41 GMT -5
I like Strymon power supplies. There make several, depending on how many pedals you want to run and their individual voltage needs.
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Post by ninworks on Jan 13, 2022 7:04:50 GMT -5
I received the Behringer Noise Gate pedal yesterday. I knew it was plastic construction but when it got here I could hardly turn the knobs. I tried pulling up on them in case they were dragging on the casing but that wasn't it. The pots are just very VERY stiff. I'm going to shoot my Sweetwater sales guy an email to find out if that's normal or just this unit. It was cheap and I don't expect high quality components but they need to be operable. I'm a big guy with very strong hands and could barely move them. Doesn't seem right to me.
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Post by zenland on Jan 13, 2022 18:42:04 GMT -5
"Doesn't seem right to me."
Yep! That's not right!
The 30 Volt vid by Thorn is Great!
Thanks
Coolio
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Post by ninworks on Jan 14, 2022 15:18:58 GMT -5
Sweetwater Customer Support does it again. I contacted them about the problem with the stiff pots in the Behringer Noise Gate pedal. They asked me to plug it in to see if it powers up and passes signal. It does. It all works as it should other than the pots are hard to turn.
They wanted me to try some alcohol on a cotton swab to see if that would loosen them up. There was no access to the internals. I took the screws out of the back plate and all that is was a metal plate. The unit was sealed. Apparently the two halves of the plastic box snap together and I wasn't going to damage it trying to get it apart. I removed the knobs from the pot shafts and there wasn't enough space between the edge of the hole where the pot shaft protrudes from and the plastic cover to fit a Q-tip in there and the pots were deep down in the hole mounted to a PC board.
I told them what I did and asked them for a return label to ship it back. They told me just to keep it and they would send me another new one free of charge.
I love those guys.
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Post by rdr on Jan 14, 2022 20:11:14 GMT -5
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Post by LeftyMeister on Jan 15, 2022 7:34:05 GMT -5
Sweetwater is the top of the heap.
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Post by snakeboy on Jan 15, 2022 9:53:32 GMT -5
I've recently put together a board that's been in progress for about a year or so after getting back into a band situation.
I was using a small Nano Pedaltrain with 4 pedals and a Volto battery power supply which was fine for open mics or just jamming, but I delved into pedal acquisition syndrome once again.
Plus....in certain places, I was dealing with a lot of extraneous noise - especially with single coils, which I use around 75% of the time.
Now I'm running 9 pedals on a Pedaltrain Classic 2, with a Strymon Zuma power supply plugged into a Furman power conditioner strip.
The difference in the hum/noise level is impressive. It's practically silent now.
And yeah......Sweetwater is pretty awesome.
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Post by samspade on Jan 15, 2022 11:53:40 GMT -5
nice board LeftyMeister, what is that expression/volume pedal?
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Post by ninworks on Jan 16, 2022 10:12:52 GMT -5
I cancelled my Sweetwater order for the Boss DD-8 delay and bought a used one off Reverb. Sweetwater says it could be another month or two before the pedal comes in so I decided to go a different route. It also saved me $40 going this way. Weather permitting, it should be here in a couple days. It's only about 30 miles from me.
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Post by LeftyMeister on Jan 17, 2022 8:50:19 GMT -5
nice board LeftyMeister, what is that expression/volume pedal? Thanks! It's a Tapestry Audio Bloomery Active Volume Pedal. |
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Post by markfromhawaii on Jan 17, 2022 13:27:47 GMT -5
The Arion chorus - now that’s freakin’ sick! I put my pre-order in at Sweetwater for the TC Electronic SCF reissue.
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Post by ninworks on Jan 19, 2022 4:34:59 GMT -5
The Arion chorus - now that’s freakin’ sick! I put my pre-order in at Sweetwater for the TC Electronic SCF reissue. I bought that pedal about 15 - 20 years ago on the recommendation of my guitar tech. It sounds very good. That was before they were in high demand. |
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Post by ninworks on Jan 23, 2022 12:02:33 GMT -5
I got all the pedals I ordered and got my pedal board put together and wired. My old crusty volume pedal looks like crap but it works so much better than my other one I decided to go ahead and use it. I had enough Mogami mic cable left to make all the interconnecting cables. I figured it would be a good idea to use as high of a quality cable as I can to help with capacitance problems. Everything works and isn't making any weird noises. All of the wiring is tidy and secure so nothing will get inadvertently snagged and messed up. The only issue is that I need to clean the speed rate adjustor pot on the old Arion chorus pedal. There are a couple spots in it's sweep that jump around drastically when moving it in as small of an increment as I can. Hopefully they are accessible and aren't sealed pots. If they are I'll just live with it. The pedal is useable as it is. It's going to take me a minute to figure out how to get a good sound out of pedals again after using modelers for so many years. I used to do it back in the day with far inferior pedals than these so it's just a matter of diddling with them for awhile. I'm hoping I can get by without a compressor pedal since I don't have room for one. I'm going to have to learn to do without. I'm so freakin spoiled! i.postimg.cc/6qSwtHY4/Pedalboard-Top.jpgi.postimg.cc/LsTpn4xp/Pedalboard-Botom.jpg |
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Post by ninworks on Jan 28, 2022 8:07:08 GMT -5
After playing the pedal board through my BFTRRI I am not happy with the sounds I'm getting from it. Rather than selling some pedals, buying some others, and chasing that whole lengthy-and-expensive route I am rethinking my options. I could sell all these pedals and buy a used Eleven Rack and foot controller for the same money, or less. I'm pretty sure I can get what I'm after with that combination. I know the Eleven Rack very very well. If I were able to play at a live gigging level with the amp then perhaps I could get what I want from the pedals but it's just not happening with the Twin at low volumes. Maybe if I used the AC15 it will be a different story. I haven't done that yet. It's still going to have to be loud even with the AC15. I think the amp needs to be driven in order for the pedals to speak and that's too loud for my environment.
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Post by ninworks on Jan 30, 2022 12:41:17 GMT -5
Well I went ahead and did it. I bought a used Eleven Rack and a foot controller off Reverb. I took my pedalboard all apart and listed most of the pedals on Ebay. I'm going to keep a few of them just in case they might come in handy when recording live amps. I'm keeping the Micro Amp, Arion Chorus, and Danelectro 6 band EQ for now. Oh, and the old volume pedal too. That thing is so old it could end up in the Smithsonian soon.
I really wish I had thought this project through a little more before I bought all the pedals and hardware. Oh well.......it may change again before I'm finished.
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Post by walshb 🦒 on Feb 6, 2022 12:20:52 GMT -5
I had an Arion Stereo Chorus pedal years ago. It's even better if you can use it into two amps, there's a slight delay between the two signals when using it that way, and it really fattens up the sound. Wish I still had it.
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Post by snakeboy on Feb 6, 2022 21:12:15 GMT -5
I had an Arion Stereo Chorus pedal years ago. It's even better if you can use it into two amps, there's a slight delay between the two signals when using it that way, and it really fattens up the sound. Wish I still had it. I recently realized after building my pedalboard and acquiring another amp that I had everything I needed to have a stereo rig. Holy Moly!! Playing a single/mono rig is just kinda "meh" now........very addicting. |
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Post by reverendrob on Feb 6, 2022 21:25:08 GMT -5
I had an Arion Stereo Chorus pedal years ago. It's even better if you can use it into two amps, there's a slight delay between the two signals when using it that way, and it really fattens up the sound. Wish I still had it. I recently realized after building my pedalboard and acquiring another amp that I had everything I needed to have a stereo rig. Holy Moly!! Playing a single/mono rig is just kinda "meh" now........very addicting. I need a flow chart to explain my rig now, since I run three amps. There's a master board and a sub-board for each amp! |
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Post by walshb 🦒 on Feb 9, 2022 16:27:53 GMT -5
And as much as I like Pete, just keep in mind that he makes everything sound better. True! But even when he hit a regular G chord, that pedal sounded amazing IMO. |
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