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playing barefoot? at a gig?


arcadesonfire

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alright, i suppose i'll keep the shoes on... it's just that my rat has such a sensitive gain knob...

 

 

If thats the problem, I'd suggest just modifying the rat pedal

 

The Gain control is set up as a variable resistor (as opposed to a voltage divider) - IIRC it's 100K or 150K ohm log taper

 

so there's a couple of things you can do

 

-A multi-turn pot...I think this would be overkill esp as a lot of em are 10 or 20 turn that's probably TOO fine of a control...eh, it's an option, but probably not the best one

 

-a linear, as opposed to log pot (It will change the response curve across the control range. For some players, it might not be to their liking, but it sounds like you may be camping out right on an inflection point in the log curve, so the current curve doesn't sound like it's to your liking)

 

-you could move to a lower value pot and put a resistor in series with it (a trimmer would probabl be advisable) so that the gain pot's control range is mapped only to a portion of the current gain adjustment range - so you have less change-per-degree of pot motion

 

the above solutions aren't mutually exclusive

 

It sounds like you are using it in a set-and-forget type mode (where the gain control is to trim to conditions as opposed to expressively modulated in performance time) -- yes? no?

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i always play barefoot. bit risky on some stages but hey the worst ive ever got is a splinter. actually once i got a tack in the ball of my foot, that was pretty painful!

 

but i need to twiddle the mix knob on my dl4 mid song a lot, the gain and volume knobs on by bd-2 and the speed and depth knobs on my trem. the big toe is a life-saver!

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what you could do is purchase an MXR knob cover and a matching MXR knob from the likes of small bear electronics, and swap out the original knob. now you'll have a raised knob that you can manipulate with the sole of your shoe (that's covering your bare/socked foot)... i used to do with with the 'speed' knob of my phaser, and was going to with the 'mix' knob of my chorus. then i got lazy.

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If thats the problem, I'd suggest just modifying the rat pedal


...


the above solutions aren't mutually exclusive


It sounds like you are using it in a set-and-forget type mode (where the gain control is to trim to conditions as opposed to expressively modulated in performance time) -- yes? no?

 

 

Yes, thanks! that's probably the best solution for that pedal. I asked about how i should go about fixing that pot a while back in the DIY forum, but got no responses and i guess i ran out of steem and never made a change, but i'll give your ideas a thought or two and make a trip to radioshack.

 

It's nice to see there are some folks who play barefoot, but judging by the overall reaction, i think i'll keep my shoes on. Though they are size 13 and i have to aim carefully to hit the right button without bumping other knobs on the board... but i'll be getting a new, larger pedal board soon, so hopefully i'll be able to spread things out a little more.

 

I wish i could just play in a 'set it and forget it mode,' but with different guitar parts, different songs, and different gain/volume response from different areas on the neck, i feel like i need to be in control of my gain and volume, and often times the volume knob on the guitar doesn't cut it, especially with the rat.

 

Though again, wouldn't it be great if our toes were as functional as our fingers and that it weren't socially awkward to do things barefoot? That's the world i want to live in.

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I've been playing barefoot for so long... It feels weird not to anymore. In fact, the whole band that I played in gigged barefoot.... If you are worrying about injuring yourself... bring a throw rug... not that you couldn't hurt yourself... but of the tons and tons of barefoot gigs I've played, I've never had an issue.

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I wish i could just play in a 'set it and forget it mode,' but with different guitar parts, different songs, and different gain/volume response from different areas on the neck, i feel like i need to be in control of my gain and volume, and often times the volume knob on the guitar doesn't cut it, especially with the rat.

 

 

Ah, OK I wasn't sure if you just needed to trim out for the environment (the venue, the volume the guitar, etc)

 

if the case where you are moving it as a performance expression, you may want to onsider modifying it for expression (treadle) pedal control

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I had a bass player do that for a while. It was {censored}ing disgusting, he would walk around the bar or club barefoot. He got some weird green rot on his big toe about a week after he smashed it on an amp during a set.

 

I would never step foot in a club barefoot, not even with flip flops...

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