"Pedal Board Friendly" pedals kinda suck

  • Thread starter Thread starter VonBonfire
  • Start date Start date
VonBonfire said:
I'm trying to contain my excitement for this right now. I wonder if whtie RCA's would be easier to see on the stage? Maybe so. Also, that cursive script you used on the black Mansfield box was beautiful.

I'm not anti pedal board, I just like straightforward stuff. I used to have wah, fuzz, TS, octafuzz, univibe plus the foot control, that was five or six pedals right there. The more gigs I did the more I paired it down to the bare essentials for what I needed not wanted. I prefer to get a couple nice tones and forego the extras since it's all blues. I've thought about maybe adding a delay one day but even so everything is gonna remain straightforward for my gigging convenience. Ease of use, adjustability, and tone are basically my qualifiers.
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just finished the schematic ... laying the board out now .... I'll be working on the graphics at some point tonight ... I'll post anything I might come up with ... this is a bit out of my norm ... so I have to create basically a brand new template for everything ...

and I can use that Font if you liked it ...
 
VonBonfire said:
the tone on that Fillmore east version of hot crossed buns was "to die for" as they say at TGP tho.
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It sounded like loose flabby shit because he was in drop c and I only know how to do metal in that type of tuning Plus he wanted to hear his fuzz pedals with the amp

Cue me trying to play scuttle buttin in drop c then giving up and playing helmet or some shit
 
Smash said:
I think another thing. You talk about gigging guitarists needing big pedals you can see and adjust. And the bedroom guitarists wanting small ones. That makes me laugh my ass off.

When people post their pedalboards sometimes, i think they must hate their amp.

I go between 0 and four pedals mostly. It is usually closer to zero
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Funnily enough, though my board has quite a few pedals on it now.... I tend to play with 1 or 2 on at max at a time. Most of the time, I don't use any pedals whatsoever. The 1 or 2 generally will consist of an overdrive possibly and a delay. I tend not to use delay and reverb even at the same time so.... yeah, funny how that works.
 
griff10672 said:
just finished the schematic ... laying the board out now .... I'll be working on the graphics at some point tonight ... I'll post anything I might come up with ... this is a bit out of my norm ... so I have to create basically a brand new template for everything ...

and I can use that Font if you liked it ...
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The hustler! Heck maybe you should call the pedal that. Can't believe how fast you moved on this. It would def be cool if all the internal trims and switches were on the outside of the box. Maybe even consider white RCA's if they are available. Might be better for a dark stage but I'm cool with any RCA's! I'm not above paying extra for gold mini switches with the flat sided toggle and I ain't above having your usual LED backlit on/off switches in addition to the jewel lights. Just throwing some ideas out there! Just a heads up that all the purple jewel lights I've come across glow more like a red one so the blue might be a better choice unless red is what you got...

I gotta gig tonight so I head about 5pm. I'll check out anything you message or post after that when I get back. Standing by until then. Can't wait to watch you knock this one out of the park. Definitely looking forward to this Wayne, thanks bro!!!
 
DanTravis62 said:
It sounded like loose flabby shit because he was in drop c and I only know how to do metal in that type of tuning Plus he wanted to hear his fuzz pedals with the amp

Cue me trying to play scuttle buttin in drop c then giving up and playing helmet or some shit
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Hot crossed buns in drop C? I'm surprised you didn't throw him out of your house head first Dan. :LOL:
 
VonBonfire said:
It's code for tiny enclosure with lettering you can't see on a dark stage and tiny knobs that are fiddly and too small for easy, quick live adjustments between songs. It's like they keep making stuff smaller and smaller. Rockett, for example, has a smaller newer case than the old pro series. They knock out the 9v battery option, save money on the build and probably the enclosure itself, and then charge more for the newer units. Seems like a rip off. I refuse to consider those small pedals anymore. I guess every home guitarist needs to wedge two dozen pedals on their board now but I never see guys actually gigging that much stuff very often. Some of the boxes out there now have so much junk shoved into such a small box the switch is close enough to the knobs that they will all get stomped down by my big ol' boot.

Is there anyone else here who likes a larger pedal layout?
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I have a little Ratsbane pedal. I bought it more as a souvenir but that is another story.

Anyway, the thing never sounded that great and eventually went out on me, though it was supposedly new from the shop. I let my kids play with it. It is so small that it basically isn't even usable as a toy! The knobs are too close together to comfortably turn and the toggle switches are nigh on impossible to flip.

That's with it off the board, and in your hand. On the board, those switches are absolute nightmare to try to change. My wife asked how it was even possible to flip between the modes. I showed her how I basically have to use the end of my nail to use it/toggle it from the positions that are close to the knobs.

I also notice that it seems like the smaller variants of pedals that hae a bigger brother sound different, and normally not for the better.
 
GuitarGuy08 said:
I also notice that it seems like the smaller variants of pedals that hae a bigger brother sound different, and normally not for the better.
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I have noticed that as well. I never understood that stuff until I was in a recording session and one of the engineer-techs there taught me about inductance. Take a coil of copper wire and place it on top of your amp and the sound will change slightly and can be altered by altering the shape and spiral of the coil or moving it's placement on the top of the amp. A bare, unconnected wire has inductance. I'm just not qualified to explain why.

Dude had these weird thick power cables for amps that changed the sound by inductance and demonstrated it to us. "Do you want to go to my shop and see more?" he said. "No I'll go crazy if I do that" was my response, lol.

The only mini pedal I thought sounded a touch better than the big box was the MXR sugar drive.
 
VonBonfire said:
The hustler! Heck maybe you should call the pedal that. Can't believe how fast you moved on this. It would def be cool if all the internal trims and switches were on the outside of the box. Maybe even consider white RCA's if they are available. Might be better for a dark stage but I'm cool with any RCA's! I'm not above paying extra for gold mini switches with the flat sided toggle and I ain't above having your usual LED backlit on/off switches in addition to the jewel lights. Just throwing some ideas out there! Just a heads up that all the purple jewel lights I've come across glow more like a red one so the blue might be a better choice unless red is what you got...

I gotta gig tonight so I head about 5pm. I'll check out anything you message or post after that when I get back. Standing by until then. Can't wait to watch you knock this one out of the park. Definitely looking forward to this Wayne, thanks bro!!!
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I'm assuming you mean these knobs ..... if so I can't get them in white from my usual two sources for knobs ...

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I was thinking some really nice classy looking aluminum ones ...
 
griff10672 said:
I'm assuming you mean these knobs ..... if so I can't get them in white from my usual two sources for knobs ...

View attachment 381353I was thinking some really nice classy looking aluminum ones ...
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Black is good! I thought about some dumble style knobs also if those are the sort of aluminum ones you meant. They look great. I have found RCA's are the best knobs for making fine adjustments quickly because they are large and have indents which make them tactile. I have a UA solo 610 that has them and I put them on an old Gibson amp I have for that reason also. Your call tho Wayne, I'll be happy either way!
 
VonBonfire said:
It's not about getting rich, it's about making the money that greases the wheels to continue doing what you love. Plenty of guys get by here gigging bands, doing solo, session, and sub work plus teaching lessons or working a part time job on the side. A lot of them do sound reinforcement on the side. A $200 per man gig is one more day I don't need to slave at a shitty day job. Plus all my gear purchases become a tax write off since it's a business. Win-win.
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Respect my man ?
 
thegame said:
I’m bumping this thread just to say that I DO NOT understand or relate with pedal board “culture” at all. Just hearing the phrase, “workin’ on my board” makes me hyperventilate. In conclusion, DEI pedalboards suck.
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That's cause choosing a pedal based on "pedalboard friendly size" isn't really weighing the pedal on it's merits. True merit should be focused on audio quality and ease of use. If "ease of use" means you can jam it onto a board with a bunch of other pedals that get clicked once or twice a night, or enough pedals that junk up your tone, it's self defeating.

I went to a jam last week and one dude was rocking a princeton (POS kiddie amp) with a 3 1/2 foot by 2 foot pedalboard. The other guitarist "only" had six pedals. I plugged into the small rig and asked the guy "how do I use this?" and he started talking about his timeline. Man I just need a little drive. I think he had a King of Tone or clone on there but the pedal next to it was blocking my boot from getting in there to hit the left channel so I was stepping on two pedals to turn on one switch. That's how stuff gets damaged. This is why I asked Wayne for a bigger build. Ease of engagement, easy to see lettering, larger knobs that are faster access. Bigger switches.
 
A Pigtronix Space Rip is the only nano size effects pedal I ever bought, and I didn't buy because of its size. I bought it because I love gnarly floor rattling synth lines, and it sounds absolutely sick af doing them.

Tbt if they offered it in a larger size I would have got the big one instead. Four knobs and a button on that nano box are cramped af, but it's mostly a set it and forget it pedal for me.

Besides that I have a Peterson Mini-Strobe tuner, and mini Crybaby but not for regular wah. The wah goes into the FX loop on my Flanger With No Name clone which is a huge pedal.
 
VonBonfire said:
That's cause choosing a pedal based on "pedalboard friendly size" isn't really weighing the pedal on it's merits. True merit should be focused on audio quality and ease of use. If "ease of use" means you can jam it onto a board with a bunch of other pedals that get clicked once or twice a night, or enough pedals that junk up your tone, it's self defeating.

I went to a jam last week and one dude was rocking a princeton (POS kiddie amp) with a 3 1/2 foot by 2 foot pedalboard. The other guitarist "only" had six pedals. I plugged into the small rig and asked the guy "how do I use this?" and he started talking about his timeline. Man I just need a little drive. I think he had a King of Tone or clone on there but the pedal next to it was blocking my boot from getting in there to hit the left channel so I was stepping on two pedals to turn on one switch. That's how stuff gets damaged. This is why I asked Wayne for a bigger build. Ease of engagement, easy to see lettering, larger knobs that are faster access. Bigger switches.
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I swear some of the pedalboard elite must look at their 3/4 filled boards and lose sleep while pondering which useless bleep bloop pedals to get to fill the empty slots, instead of basing such decisions on creative or even utilitarian needs.
 
I have spaces in between pedals so that i am not double engaging fuckers or hitting wrong one. But people talk about how empty it is. I gave my smaller board and a t rex jr to a friend so that he could have a place for his. Honestly, i should have just given him this big one.

The switch on top just changes between practice volume and real volume. The wireless receiver doubles as a tuner. The real secret here is the volume 90. It has a min control that i set at a point to where the volume is rolled back far enough for my amp to be "clean"
The boosted "clean" is a game changer. The volume pedal being after the boost and the gate means that the gate is still receiving the full signal from my guitar, so isn't cutting out my cleans.
pedalboard 3.jpg
 
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