Members tshapiro Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 //Scroll down for pictures// First off, here are a couple of things to consider when checking out my rig: - I'm a tone/true bypass/effects loop junky - I gig weekly where I'm also the lead singer - I'm a stickler for simplicity and dependability - The only real overdrive/distortion comes from your amp - Having bought the Vetta II, Podxt Pro Rack, and Boss GT8, I can tell you that I will die an old man before modellers touch my signal path - I love midi, I use it to create hundreds of realistic sounding backing tracks. I'm experienced with midi event and rules processing. However, midi setups are way too complicated, expensive, and time consuming for typical live shows. Now, if I were on a national tour, that would be a different story. - It's insane to run your signal through multiple 15' cables just to turn an effect off/on - Selecting effects by 'Patch' number is terribly inefficient. With just 4 effects and clean/distortion there are 25 different combinations. Okay, on to a description of my effects setup. Well, obviously it's 5 Boss pedals: Phase, Delay, Delay, Chorus, and a Tuner. And, there's 2 remote control true bypass loopers as well as a Loooper and home made stereo to 2 mono's splitter. There's also 2 Mojo switch pedals that trigger amp channel switching and the 2 remote control true bypass loops. More on the configuration later. In my opinion the DD3's are the best delay available rack-mount or otherwise. If it was a Lexicon or TCElectronics delay that I wanted I would have gone with a rack setup but I just didn't like the way they sounded. I tried about 15 delay units and decided I could not live without my DD3's. For live playing, I also like the Boss CH1 Chorus and PH3 Phaser. It's definetly debatable whether they are the best sounding in all situations and I definetly would not record with them. But, for live, they are flexible and can cut which is necessary depending on the situation. I do miss having a wah but the phaser adds the go-go juice required to get funky. Plus the Boss PH3 is tap capable. In my setup, with the true bypass loops, the phaser is in the on position all the time. So, I can just go by and tap it with my hand to switch from a slow Van Halen like phase to a fast funky phase. If you're a gigging musician you need a good tuner. Short of a rack mount, the TU2 is the best thing on the floor that I've found and since I've obviously choosen not to go rack, the TU2 it is. THE CONFIGURATION well, I've got a couple of pet pieves I wanted to address in my setup: - I hate sending my precious signal back and forth across several 15' cables just so I can click an on/off switch. And then drape DC power across the same distance. I'm sorry but this just doesn't make sense. - I hate on stage failures due to faulty cable or power connections. - I hate wall worts and the associated spagetti cords on stage. - I hate having to take up precious floor space on tight stages with pedalboards and rack units. - I hate having anything in my signal that doesn't need to be there. So, I built this little remote controlled true-bypass effects 'head'. It has 2 true bypass loops: 1 before the preamp and 1 for the effects loop. It requires zero, none, not 1 instrument cable to come back from the amp to the front of stage to loop in an effect. And, it requires no power out front... just a single '1-Spot' to power the effects 'head'. Took me about 1 1/2 years to sample different effects units, amps, midi, switchers, etc. It took me about 20 hours to cut the wood, solder the Switchcraft ends to my custom cables, and generally assemble the thing. I used it last night at a 4 hour show and it worked flawlessly... as designed of course It doesn't really open, I just did this for the picture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CS Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 Nice, unusual but nice. You could have gone the Jazzmaster-ZVex route but respect for finding your own path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tshapiro Posted July 16, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 Originally posted by CS Nice, unusual but nice. You could have gone the Jazzmaster-ZVex route but respect for finding your own path. What's the Jazzmaster-ZVex? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members superpoo Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 im totally confused as to how this works. if i understand correctly, you keep the pedals on top of the amp and control the loops with the 2 button switch. how do you turn individual effects on and off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zachary vex Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 Originally posted by CS Nice, unusual but nice. You could have gone the Jazzmaster-ZVex route but respect for finding your own path. yeah, what's the Jazzmaster-ZVex route? i'm pretty damned curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wacopacco Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 Originally posted by superpoo im totally confused as to how this works. if i understand correctly, you keep the pedals on top of the amp and control the loops with the 2 button switch. how do you turn individual effects on and off? +1 very confusednot to rain on your parade but those pedals on the floor would only take up a few inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CS Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 There was a time where it seemed that everyone was using Jazzmasters and ZVex pedals. Or maybe it was Zhivago posting a lot. Anyhoo it was an attempt at humour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hunting_Sad_Bears Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 it's cool you have a setup you like so much. myself, i'll die an old woman before i allow a dd-3 to touch my setup. they sound really tacky and sterile to me. always have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lowroadrevival Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 So you have 5 boss pedals and a couple loopers? Congradulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tonemaster2 Posted July 16, 2005 Members Share Posted July 16, 2005 Originally posted by lowroadrevival So you have 5 boss pedals and a couple loopers? Congradulations. Lets not forget the Hotrod Deville!! HAR!!!T2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vrm Posted July 17, 2005 Members Share Posted July 17, 2005 explain the switching please! is it just pre and post preamp or what? I am curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tshapiro Posted July 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by wacopacco +1 very confusednot to rain on your parade but those pedals on the floor would only take up a few inches. Ok, if you want to use your amps preamp distortion, then you need to run your delays in the effects loop. This would normally require running a cable 15' out to the front of stage where the pedals are and 15' back. Then, you'd have to get power out front as well. If you want to true bypass your pedals you'd have to add the boxes to do that as well. If you're like most gigging guitarists with pedal boards, it's only a matter of time before your rig cuts out while you {censored} with the connections to see where the problem is. Now, with the setup I've built, the only thing out at the front of stage is the switcher pedal. This controls 2 true bypass loops: - one in front of the preamp- one inserted into the effects loop. The only pedals I turn off and on are the: -Phase (in line)-Delay & Chorus (In the loop) The tuner and one other delay are in the amps effects loop along with 1 of the true bypass loops. This allow me to have an 'ambient' type delay on in the loop all the time and switch in a very wet sound by adding delay/chorus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tshapiro Posted July 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by lowroadrevival So you have 5 boss pedals and a couple loopers? Congradulations. My explaination must have been totally inadequate to have gotten this response. Did you miss the whole thing about remote control, no running cords out front, and no power requirement out front or did that go unnoticed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JuanPabloJr. Posted July 18, 2005 Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 That is cool.I saw Our Lady Peace once, and their guitarist had all his pedals on top of his amp..but he was bending down and using his hand to switch them on and off Maybe he liked them too much to get them dirty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tshapiro Posted July 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by vrm explain the switching please! is it just pre and post preamp or what? I am curious. Okay, the effects and switchers sit on the amp. This way there's only 1' foot spans to loop in the effects versus 15' spans. Now, theres 1 true bypass loop in front of the amp meaning that the guitar cable runs to the switcher and then a small cable goes from the swither to the amp. The switcher adds in my phaser when on and true bypasses it when the switch is off. Turning the switch off/on happens with the black box clickers which from the front of the stage. The only wires that are required for the swiching are the power for the off/on circuit - not the audio signal. This is similar to the Marshall way of channel switching or using the 1 switch clicker to turn reverb off/on. I stole the idea to turn bypass loops on/off. The second bypass loop sits inside the amps affects loop like an effect in the effect loop would. This way, I can have some effects in the loop all the time and then switch in my delay/chorus only when I need them. Again, the loop is turned off on with the clickers. The way the Nobels true bypass loops are switched on/off is they have a 1/4" jack that expects a circuit which is either open or closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tshapiro Posted July 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by JuanPabloJr. That is cool. I saw Our Lady Peace once, and their guitarist had all his pedals on top of his amp.. but he was bending down and using his hand to switch them on and off Maybe he liked them too much to get them dirty I used to sit them on the amp and turn them off/on with my hand. Then, I starting saying, "There's got to be a better way." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tshapiro Posted July 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by Tonemaster2 Lets not forget the Hotrod Deville!! HAR!!! T2. The concept of this method of switching is obviously dealing with issues that you have not be exposed to yet. It's applicable to any amp... HAR!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dot-dot-dot Posted July 18, 2005 Members Share Posted July 18, 2005 I just had a look - those Nobels are expensive for what they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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