Pedalboard thoughts

Reshuffle and the Hypothalamus unit!

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:39:48 +0100

In the blog from April I removed all my drive pedals, and basically produced a “modulation” pedalboard. Having used it now for a few months certain things became apparent.

1. the “treadle” style pedals for the Univibe, Volume and Wah were too close together - when I altered volume I also turned on the Univibe.
2. the Wah “theremin” was occasionally being affected by the main signal lead that went into the TU3 tuner.
3. Sometimes I wanted to add other pedals eg loopers for rehearsal, and drive (yeah I know I removed them last time!!)
4. Sometimes the amp I’m using doesn’t have an effects loop, so I can use a patch cable and jump all the effects into one long chain!
5. For some reason the BBE Maximiser (Doom switch) and the Moonphaser were AFTER the delay - so if I was using the loop on the DL4 they were redundant.

As a consequence of this I developed the “Hypothalamus” patchbay (see previous), and redesigned the circuit.
The new signal chain is....

1. Hypothalamus SOCKET 4
2. Boss TU3 Tuner
3. Z Vex Wah Probe
4. Keeley 2 knob compressor
5. Jacques Meistersinger - Chorus
6. Jim Dunlop UV1 Univibe and foot control
7. Z Vex Super Hard On
8. Hypothalamus SOCKET 1 - to amp....
9. Hypothalamus SOCKET 2 - from effects SEND of amp.
10. Red Witch MoonPhaser
11. BBE Sonic Maximiser - (THE DOOM SWITCH)
12. Line 6 DL4
13. Ernie Ball Volume Pedal VPJR
14. Hypothalamus SOCKET 3 - to effects RETURN on amp.

Happy......

....... for now.

Birth of the Hypothalamus

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:10:12 +0100

Years ago I had a pedalboard that was bought as a unit (I’m not going to give the name because I don’t want suing!) - it was a great design, but absolute rubbish in quality! The best thing about it was that there was a row of sockets at the top of the board to allow effects loop, amp send and guitar input all to be connected with ease!
This handy little item is my attempt at getting the same functionality on the SLP.

1. Decide how many connections you want.
2. Buy the bits and pieces (Maplin sell some great “Hobby box” units to use - this one has a powder coating.)

1. Mark out the box for drilling - remember to leave enough space INSIDE the box for the jack sockets (I only just left enough!!)

1. Measure the diameter of the jack socket to drill the right sized holes. These sockets are 8mm, so I’ll need a 9mm drill for the holes.

1. I fixed my box in a vice to hold it steady whilst drilling. I used a thin twist drill to drill pilot holes through the box.

1. Pilot holes done, drill out the correct sized holes. Remember to file off any sharp edges!

1. Check that the jacks fit.

1. Start wiring the jacks together - I used some plastic coated wire I had around - red for the tip, blue for the sleeve connectors. I used about 3” of wire for each connector. REMEMBER to let your soldering iron warm up enough first. ALWAYS tin (coat) the ends of the wires and the connector surfaces.

1. Having joined all the jack sockets together I elected to twist the wires - it just keeps things neater in the box. REMEMBER to clip the excess wire protruding through the jack connectors - we don’t want any shorting out of the signal!

1. Build up the box....

1. Label the box up how you want, I used a hobby engraving tool -

1. Test the connections - I used a Behringer cable tester. As the box I have is metal the sleeve connectors actually all connect to each other through the box, but it works fine!

1. Job done. Now get it on your pedalboard and connect away!

The Evolution continues....

Sun, 3 Apr 2011 16:42:49 +0100

This weekend I decided to rebuild the pedalboard due to the demise of my Vox AC3oHW2, and the realisation that my amp now has a better distortion than my pedal (Thanks to Nic Vocaturo at Voc Rock!! - his advice on valves was spot on for my Gibson Goldtone GA60RV!)
Plus I now have a proper Univibe and foot controller!.
As my amp has both a distortion and a boost channel, this has kind of negated the point of the ZVex Super Super 2 in 1, and the ZVex Distortron pedals.
The board above is much streamlined from the previous excesses, and principally is a series of chained modulation effects!

Signal chain is as follows:
1. Boss TU3 Tuner (NEW) - same as the TU2 - just prettier!
2. Z Vex Wah Probe - still great
3. Keeley 2 knob compressor - great
4. Jacques Meistersinger - Chorus - still my favourite.
5. Jim Dunlop UV1 Univibe and foot control (NEW) - One of my all time favourite phaser style effects. The foot control turns the UV1 on and off, so theres no need to have this on that precious “Front row”
6. Z Vex Super Hard On (NEW) - I don;t need the “boost channel of the Super Duper 2 in 1 anymore - plus this pedal makes me giggle when I look at it! OUTPUT TO THE AMP INPUT
7. RECEIVES SIGNAL FROM THE EFFECTS SEND CHANNEL, into the the Line 6 DL4 - not my favourite sounding delay, but it is the easiest and most fun live.
8. Red Witch MoonPhaser - this is really redundant now, but I can’t bring myself to part with it yet, and there was a spare lead from the PSU.....
9. BBE Sonic Maximiser - (THE DOOM SWITCH) - just for those moments where excessive low is just not enough....
10. Ernie Ball Volume Pedal VPJR - Invaluable live.... Contols the signal going INTO THE EFFECTS RETURN LOOP!

Relocated Super Duper 2 in 1

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 16:36:04 +0100

Just a picture of the ‘board in the revision as detailed in the last Blog.

Also NOTE the addition of a Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb (top left).
This is NOT in the signal chain, but was used to link the effects loop section when using a Vox AC30HW2 amp, so that all the effects were piled direct into the front end of that amp. Curiously the fabulous amp that that it was, it neither had an effects loop or a reverb....!
P.

Just to prove a point

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 16:51:17 +0100

Just to reiterate what I said in the first blog - there’s no right or wrong.... just what sounds best to you.
I’ve recently noticed that my Super Duper 2 in 1 wasn’t hitting the preamp as hard as I’d liked and thereby wasting one of the main reasons for having it!!
My suspicion was that one of the pedals had some form of signal buffer in it, so I’ve moved it to the last pedal in the signal chain before the preamp, i.e. after the chorus and phaser - Brilliant!
Now my twin SHO kicks the preamp into overload again!
Bring it on!!!!

E Bow 2

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:34:51 +0100

Great fun.

This induces a field around your guitar string (please note the singular) that makes it drone.
It gets louder as you get nearer the pickup.

Great for sustained underpinning of slow songs.
Great for whale noises.
Great for pretending to be a violin.

Even better is that there’s a setting for “feedback” which induces not the pitch that you’re fretting, but the feedback pitch. It scares the dickens out of the sound engineer, and is worth having just for that reason!

Fast Fret

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:32:30 +0100

Described by a mate of mine as “the Ronseal of guitar products”

It doesn’t change your sound.
It doesn’t make you play better.

It just makes the guitar feel easier to play.

Don’t leave home without it!

Shubb Capo

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:30:49 +0100

Sits in my pedal box, it works!
Quick to put on, and reliable.

Don’t ever buy one of those nasty elastic capos!

Z Vex Box of Rock

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:29:03 +0100

Brilliant - “Classic Rock” sounds, and a “boost” for solos - I’ve only just removed it!

Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:26:11 +0100

You’ve got to supply power to all these babies.
This PSU was not cheap, but has been very reliable, and has not coloured the sound at all.

PLUS - it powers both my 9v pedals and the Line 6 pedals.

You can even make the 9v pedals sound like they’re running on a “low battery” if your pedals respond to that!