Kudos to everyone here, but I have a soft spot for folks with pedals that are askew, wires everywhere, as though the whole setup could change in the blink of an eye.

twelvepoint wrote: Sun May 26, 2024 7:46 am Kudos to everyone here, but I have a soft spot for folks with pedals that are askew, wires everywhere, as though the whole setup could change in the blink of an eye.

That’s usually how it is. I am envious of tidy, less problematic setups, and I’ll get my stuff organized but then sure enough I’ll rip it apart soon after. Younger days I just remember these metalcore bands with pristine organized setups, making terrible music I figured the opposite must be correct

TylerDeadPine wrote: Sun May 26, 2024 3:52 pm

twelvepoint wrote: Sun May 26, 2024 7:46 am Kudos to everyone here, but I have a soft spot for folks with pedals that are askew, wires everywhere, as though the whole setup could change in the blink of an eye.

That’s usually how it is. I am envious of tidy, less problematic setups, and I’ll get my stuff organized but then sure enough I’ll rip it apart soon after. Younger days I just remember these metalcore bands with pristine organized setups, making terrible music I figured the opposite must be correct

Loose pedals are fine for home studios and unshared rehearsal spaces, but if you gig then you have to have some sort of board or case for your junk. People who take forever to set up and start their set because they have patch to a bunch of pedals together with janky wires should be blacklisted.





I should record a demo of this board because I'm really proud of what it does, from twee jangles to riff rockin' to gut busting metallicisms. It's evolved over the past 10 years since I started playing guitar with Escape Rope, but always at the core has been a version of the Wilson Lotus Drive (Dumble style), from a single to the Dual with one output to the Dual with two ins and outs, and other variations including a custom build. All forms are great, with lots of low end, transparency, very low noise floor, clipping diode options, and excellent stackability. It's also always been in an effects loop pedal that is blendable with the expression pedal, so I can fade in and out from my clean signal. Once you go fade you'll never go back to click.

Reverbs and delays have come and gone, though I'm very happy with the Boss units I have now, and though I have dabbled with tremolo pedals and used to have a pitch shifter with an excellent Detune feature, but those kind of effects were used on one or two songs tops, and I have a personal rule that if it doesn't get used that often then it doesn't need to live on my board.

The Saturnworks dual footswitch with the Barefoot Buttons controls the delay's tap tempo and "runaway" feature, and the other single Saturnworks pedal is a killswitch from the second out of the tuner to the bass effects (we use a crossover and pitch shifter as our bassist). The wah is a bass wah because I prefer its range, adjustability, and spring action to that of regular guitar wahs. The American Loopers fx loop switcher gives me the Lotus channels 1, 2, or both stacked.

I scoffed at the Waza Craft tuner when it came out, but I tried it and I'm a convert. And finally, yes that is a Hotone "Djent" pedal tucked in the midst of it all. It's so small! It has a really fat bottom and the tone controls do interesting things, so it's a good alternative to my main stacked overdrive sound and when stacked with them it takes things over the top when I need a totally chungused lead sound.

I didn’t mean loose and askew like, just throwing five pedals on the floor. But more like, ok, I’m slapping these on my board like this for now, but it might change tomorrow, with the wind!

This would be like in contrast with those who have everything perfectly laid out, run the patch cables under the board with guides at perfect right angles, coil up the slack with twist ties etc. who are these people who make commitments like that?

FM Chad Fusk’s board is well thought out without getting ocd, I feel.

I found a picture from when my last band recorded an EP in 2018 and I basically use the same stuff. This is the most organized it has ever been and the last time it even came close to looking like an Excel sheet. I would go without a board completely but I need a power supply for some of them.

This is for a possible band. The LYRA-8 has some onboard effects and the DFAM is also routed through it. Life pedal, Ottomachines Bam (reverb) and Boum (distortion/compression/warmth). It sounds loud.

I experiment with all kinds of pedals and junk on my IG page which is in my sig down there too.

ChudFusk wrote: Sun May 26, 2024 7:20 pm

TylerDeadPine wrote: Sun May 26, 2024 3:52 pm

twelvepoint wrote: Sun May 26, 2024 7:46 am Kudos to everyone here, but I have a soft spot for folks with pedals that are askew, wires everywhere, as though the whole setup could change in the blink of an eye.

That’s usually how it is. I am envious of tidy, less problematic setups, and I’ll get my stuff organized but then sure enough I’ll rip it apart soon after. Younger days I just remember these metalcore bands with pristine organized setups, making terrible music I figured the opposite must be correct

Loose pedals are fine for home studios and unshared rehearsal spaces, but if you gig then you have to have some sort of board or case for your junk. People who take forever to set up and start their set because they have patch to a bunch of pedals together with janky wires should be blacklisted.

This probably does not need emphasizing since it's been clarified above but I'm going to do it anyway because I've seen so many guitar players completely derail a show schedule just by applying hard brakes during sound check for some crap patch cable not plugged all the way in or bringing a pedal they KNOW is dodgy. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard a guitar player say "yeah that thing always acts up." C'mon dude. And we've all seen and/or experienced some pedal getting unplugged or just not suddenly not working during a show and a befuddled, possibly a degree of high or tipsy guitar player not having any sort of competency diagnosing the issue.

Feels like creating a troubleshooting flow chart for pedals is in order here or worthy of a separate thread. First thing I always suggest is plug straight into the amp. Eliminate or confirm the pedal board first. Works plugged in? Great. Guitar, amp, and cable can be assumed good before moving to the pedal board. Next, check power, then check all connections in sequence, both audio and power. Possibly unplug/replug everything as you go. This is where a pedalboard might have a disadvantage - the more permanent the setup, the harder it might be to find, remove, and replace a dodgy power lead or patch cable and these things can take a lot of banging about in transport, which makes a good use case for a padded bag/case.

The board is currently set up for acoustic set background washes (the Quilter is the "amp"). Other stuff occasionally comes out of storage.

penningtron wrote: Mon May 27, 2024 10:28 am

The board is currently set up for acoustic set background washes (the Quilter is the "amp"). Other stuff occasionally comes out of storage.

TWO Bit Commanders!

"Two-bit Commander" sounds like a Shellac song.