Effects Bay

Today’s pedal line is from Robby Marshall. If you have a pedal line (doesn’t have to be in a board) for your rig, please email me a photo, bio, description of pedals and routing to pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include iany links to your band or music page.

I play in a couple of bands. Facebook.com/TheSleer. and www.Ghulheim.com. This is my board. It could use some cleaning up but I probably wont do it.

1. Dunlop Origional Cry Baby

2. Boss Ph-1r

3. T-rex Tap Tone Delay (This and the phaser are put before gain section because they make too much noise or are too prominent on the other side)

4. Boss St-2 (I use this with little volume and no gain and I leave on all gain pedals after it so that it brings everything down to a sort of fender-ish overdrive.)

5. Bogner Ecstasy Red (Awesome)

6. C.M.S. Facemelter Fuzz (Chuck Made Shit… cool fuzz my buddy made. Facebook.com/CMSGuitars)

7. BBE Tremor

8. Hardwire Supernatural (Set at Shimmer)

9. Boss NS-2

10. Cheap Behringer tuner thats falling apart and needs replacing… Donations?!?!?!

- Rob

I first want to start things off by thanking Ásgeir Helgi Þrastarson of Pedal Projects. I love what he does. His products are top shelf all the way, and he’s been absolutely great to deal with. I would highly recommend that all of you readers check out Pedal Projects and see what he’s up to!

The Pedal Projects Owly Booster is a booster with style, simple and elegant, but packs a punch. Live I’ve mentioned over the years, I’ve been a huge fan of boosters and tube amps, really hard to beat the sound of crushed preamp. The Owly does a fantastic job with a small footprint, he knows your pedalboard real estate is important.

Based on the number of entries for this pedal… it’s clear.. people were interested in the Owly. But as they say.. there can only be one. The winner of the Pedal Projects Owly Booster is Bill A. of Chicago, IL. Bill.. .that bad boy ships out today! Please let us know what you think when you get it!

I’ll be announcing another give away in a week or so.. should be tasty!

Man.. I’ve been reading more and more buzz about the Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ Machine pedal. It’s time for me to take a closer look. I think it’s great that Electro-Harmonix exploring replicating sounds of interesting instruments and apply that for guitar for creating whole new musical options, that go beyond just replicating the instrument. EHX’s  Ravish Sitar is a perfect example. Sure you could use this pedal for that sitar part, but you could also use it for crazy guitar leads that is completely unique.

So, the EHX B9 Organ Machine was designed to recreate some of the most classic organ sounds. You can select from 9 classic organ tones – Fat & Full, Jazz, Gospel, Classic Rock, Bottom End, Octaves, Cathedral, Continental and Bell Organ. Controls include ‘dry’ and ‘organ’ levels. Basically how you mix the guitar with the organ (via Organ and Dry outputs). ‘Mod’ will add modulation to the signal. ‘Click’ is an actual click to replicate the click percussion from B3 and C3 organs.

Here is the official product video by EHX:

Here is the official brief description of the EHX B9 Organ Machine:

With 9 presets that were finely tuned to emulate the most legendary organs from the ’60s and beyond, the B9 Organ Machine will transform your guitar or keyboard. Control the instrument’s signature percussive click and sweet modulation. Blend your dry signal to create lush layers. Enough tone wheel and combo organ inspiration to light your fire and cook up some green onions!

The Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ Machine is currently available for $220.30 at Amazon.com. If you’re looking to add organs to a recording, or use this for a totally unique application, this could be a great solution! This pedal also comes with free shipping!

If you own a B9 Organ Machine, please lets us know what you think about it by commenting below!

This morning I came across a nice bundle deal on the Electro-Harmonix Switchblade Plus pedal. The Switchblade Plus is a A/B/Y pedal that is compact and with multi-color LED when switching from A/B which is nice. I personally use something similar to this (custom build) for Matchless HC-30 head. That particular head has 2 dedicated input channels, and I needed a way to switch between the two, as well as combine them. My controller, has single color LEDs so it can be confusing on dark stages, so the different LEDs is a big deal for me! I might have to jump on this.

Here is a quick demo by Sean Kerns:

So let’s talk about this bundle deal! I personally like the bundle deal. Nice way to pick up some extra pieces for free.. or really cheap, and some of these things are nice to have in the guitar case or in the studio for when you need it. The Electro-Harmonix Switchblade Plus is currently available for $43.95 via Amazon and includes FREE shipping.. but also comes with a free instrument cable.. free patch cable.. and free polishing cloth (also comes with free picks..but didn’t want to mention that.. who cares on the picks). But the rest is nice!

If you have personal experience with the Electro-Harmonix Switchblade Plus, please let us know what you think by commenting below! Love to hear what you think!

Today’s pedal line is from Scott Reynolds. If you have a pedal line (doesn’t have to be in a board) for your rig, please email me a photo, bio, description of pedals and routing to pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

I play in a worship band with a silent stage.  For a couple of years I’ve used various multi effects pedals with amplifier simulations.  While the amps usually sound good, the effects can be limiting.  So I set up a pedal board with the analog effects I used along with a Tech21 Sansamp pedal to do amp/speaker simulation.  This allowed me to use good quality pedals for the effects I use and get the tone I want.  The board is an old SKB that works well except the power connections aren’t isolated.  I use a combination of George L patch cables and some generic ones that will eventually get replaced with more George Ls.  Signal order is as follows.

Line6 G30 Wireless receiver (inexpensive wireless freedom)
Morley Volume Pedal  (it’s a volume pedal, optical so no noise)
Fulltone ’69 Fuzz Mk II (fuzz/crunch/distortion, very smooth distortion, Germanium pnp)
TC Electronic Polytune
Morley Mini Wah (doesn’t take up much room but it’s very sensitive)
Fulltone OCD  (lead tones, sounds like what an overdrive should sound like)
Tech21 Sansamp Blonde  (gives me the Fender Deluxe tone I prefer)
TC Electronic Flashback x4 Delay (I got it for the ability to use presets)
Marshall Reflector Reverb (lots of options and used ones are cheap)
TC Electronic Ditto Loop (for when I have to solo over chords and I don’t have another guitarist)

The order is a little unusual due to some of the pedal requirements.  The Fulltone Fuzz is recommended to be installed before anything with a buffer including tuners.  If you put the ’69 after the tuner, it loses the smooth distortion they are known for.  Time based effects like delay and reverb are placed after the sansamp per Tech21 recommendation.  The sansamp is set up to emulate a fender Deluxe and sounds very close to all the other emulations I have used for that amp.  By using a simple amp simulator rather than an “all in one” I can effectively use the fulltones and the flashback delay.  The tones and options from these three pedals is just fantastic.  I don’t use reverb much so the Marshall has all the options of the better reverbs for less cash.

Premier Guitar just put out a very interesting Rig Rundown of Brian May. I’ve always been slightly fascinated with this guy. Primarily with his very distinct tone bread from an early DIY ethic. I love the fact that he built his guitar with his father, and that guitar today is still his #1 go to axe, even though he has other versions created by others.

Here is the video by Premier Guitar:

After watching the video, there were a few interesting points I was surprised with.

Frets – I was super surprised that his number one guitar (Red Special) has NEVER been refretted. I thought that was insanely odd, for the amount of play time that would have had, that the frets have held up. I know he plays .009s and use to play .008s, but still, you think 40+ years of bends would wear the frets down.

Coins – I do remember hearing he played with coins vs. picks, but again, I think this is odd. But again, if that’s what you’re use to, I could understand, but was surprised he’s not using metal picks. I would think the blunt edge would be difficult to work with, but that’s part of his tone-puzzle.

Treble Booster – I was surprised that he runs the treble booster in front of the wireless pack, and on his strap. Very cool. I can see with volume control and the Vox AC30s, how he can get the sweet variety of tone by using the treble booster to increase his signal. I would figure this would be the same post-wireless, so that was interesting.

What did you guys think? Comment below!

This morning I came across the Digitech JamMan Express XT looper. First off, I wanted to discuss some of the issues with loopers in general that I’ve experienced with, to help explain why I think this pedal is very interesting.

When dealing with loopers, you’re usually left with ‘stacking’. This means, that new loops are on top of old loops, and if you want to shut off the 2nd loop out of 5 loops.. you’re SOL. Some loopers (ie: Boomerang) does allow for dedicated loop ‘channels’ that is very nice. Another thing that I’ve experimented with is using 2 loopers. I used a RC-3 and a Line 6 DL4, and one thing that happens is that they slowly go out of sync. Milliseconds add up and the loops will drift, simply because they’re not sync’d.

Now, let’s talk about the XT Looper. At first glance, it seems very similar to the TC Electronic Ditto Looper. Level control and single footswitch for play, record and overdub with a double click to shut the looper off. BUT.. where things get very cool, is the ability to ‘sync’ units. This sort of blows my mind. So you could connect one or more XT Loopers together and make a multi channel looper with the first looper as the master (allowing one footswitch to stop all the others). Sync’ing is done with 1/8″ plug/cable. Each unit can have unlimited overdubs with undo/redo handling.

Currently, on Amazon.com you can pick up the Digitech JamMan XT Looper for $94.98. For example, if you purchased 3 units, you would have 3 dedicated loop channels with stacking.. for much less than other ‘big’ loopers. Very interesting.

Digitech’s official video does not demonstrate this well, but I found this, which is much better:

If you own a JamMan Express XT Looper, I would love to hear what you think about it! I’m especially interested in the linking/syncing. Please let us what you think by commenting below!

Today, I wanted to put out a reminder post for the Pedal Projects Owly Booster Give Away. If you’re running a tube amp, this is going to be a great addition to your board. Boosting your signal to overdrive those pre-amp tubes is a great thing. But, the pedal could also be used to drive pedals as well (so I don’t want to say that tube amp is required for goodness). I’m a huge fan of driving the preamp!

First, let’s talk about Pedal Projects. They’re a great company out of Iceland making some awesome sounding/looking pedals. Attention to detail is high. Ásgeir is a pleasure to deal with. Among the Owly, he also makes the Growly, Klone, Marbleverb, Litli Fuzz, Bufferlo and also performs modification. One mod that is gaining popularity is a EM+Drive Mod. Definitely check out Pedal Projects for more information. I also did an an interview with Ásgeir a while back as well!

One of my favorite demo guys is Curtis Kent (I would highly recommend that you subscribe to his YouTube Channel. He does an excellent job showing what pedals are capable of, goes through the functionality, and the recording quality is high. I also love that he uses a Matchless amp (I too use Matchless.. love those amps!!). Here is Curtis’ demo of the Pedal Projects Owly Booster:

Okay.. now back to the give away! You have until July 28th to get your entry in… and you can do that here. Also, if you could, please share, tweet, email anyone that might be interested! Spreading the word would greatly be appreciated!

Today’s pedal line is from Florent Paris. If you have a pedal line (doesn’t have to be in a board) for your rig, please email me a photo, bio, description of pedals and routing to pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

Hi effects bay !

Here’s a new french contribution for your friday’s pedal line !

So basically the first board is for both my guitars (Fender Jazzmaster & Harley Benton Open tunned), going to a Fender BluesJunior. The second board is for both my accoustic guitars. I play mainly for my solo ambient/post-rock instrumental project called Hors Sujet, and you can find all the latest news here: www.facebook.com/horssujetmusic

Now about the gear itself

First Board :

SHO clone : A Super Hard On Clone made by a french compagny called Crust Pedals. A great way for me to boost the incoming signal into the pedalboard. Plus the Crust pedal’s guys are really kind and did a custom paint just for me ! You can trust the Crust!

Buzz Electronics ABY box : Allows me to change between my Jazzmaster and the Harley Benton (Open tunned).

Earnie Ball Jr: The attack is faster than the Boss FV, which is good!

TC Electronics Polytune mini: Recent purchase, I thought it couldn’t do open tuning (I had read that somewhere, long time ago), but this little baby can’t be more precise for both my guitars!

Zvex Instant Lofi I love the immediate and typical vintage compressed sound it can delivers, and although it doesn’t fit everywhere you can get a subtil and delightful sound with it. It works VERY VERY well when the EHX Freeze is freezing a note.

Digitech Whammy  Lot of use of this one. Mainly for its one-octave-down bass layers, I also loop a lot of glitchy sounds and play with them. Since I play solo, it’s perfect to have some strong bass layers!

Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop My main sound. It gives me its lovely crunch. I’ll never get rid of it. 95% on, it goes from great boost to really warm overdrive.

Fulltone OCD My big overdrive. It’s sharp, very versatile and nice overdrive.

EHX Big Muff Really awesome fuzz ! Big wall of sound, infinite sustain, and when I use it with the whammy, boom, fat bass !

Devi Ever Aenima : Depending on the mood, I use this fuzz or the HFOA (see below). The Aenima is really a textural fuzz. Dirty, yet very distinct. So much gain from this cute thing.

Holy Fuzz of Antioche (the yellow one on the far left of the unused) Here’s the story: I was a member of a forum, but few months ago they decided to put an end to that forum. So a nice guy decided to make a “present” to some people, and built a pedal as a “farewell forum” thing. This is a heavy fuzz, really massive.

EHX#1 Echo Clean delays. I do a lot of slapback echoes with it, the blend knob can be strange at the first attempts, but once you get it, you’ll love it.

Sib! Mr Echo My favorite so far.For his warm decay and the craziness of the self-oscillation (if you press the Slam switch, you’ll never forget it). I’m still amazed by the harsh noise it can produce. This one was hard to get (I had to get it on american ebay, and ask for the man to send it to France…that wasn’t easy believe me). Back in these days I had got it for 80$.

Boss RV3 Perfect pedal. It has the 100% wet, the reverb+delay, and the delay itself.

Boss TR2 The first tremolo I had, I’m not that much of a modulation guy, but I like this one. This is the best example of “I bought it when I built the board, it’s hard to imagine it without this pedal, haha)

Looper Reverser This is the kind of thing that change the pedal’s order.This one allows me to change the order of the RC2 and the Kaoss Pad III, to avoid double overdubs. When there’s some sample played on the RC2, the Kaoss Pad has to be first to avoid re-recording RC2′s samples, and vice-versa.

Boss RC-3 + DIY footswitch Small, incredibly useful, it’s the second most used pedal of my righ. Everything goes in, a looooot of things are sampled there, and since I’m playing solo it’s a great tool to play live with. Coupled with the Kaoss Pad = more fun. 99 banks, perfect for live !

Kaoss Pad III : Such a powerful and incredible tool for musical creativity, a lot of different effects and since it’s a tactil unit it’s a great way to experiment unusual settings. I really like the stutter effects of its looper and the sampler’s effects. I often record small and little layers, like swells or bowed strings for exemple.

EHX Freeze This little pedal is amazing, you can go from simple layers to really weird things (by playing on the guitar’s head for ex., or with the reverb trails)

EHX SuperEgo Before the loopers on the rig, it’s a perfect way to have some unbelievable torturated layers or to merge different notes with the glissando effect. Love it.

T1M Buffer : End buffer, just to enhance the tone & gain loss before the amp. And when I say “enhance”, I’m talking about a REALLY NICE enhancement with this one !

Second Board :

Boss FV500: I’ve got this one for ages (since the beginning of my project), nothing to say about it since it does its job perfectly.

Boss LS2 : What do you want more, I can choose between 2 instruments and an additionnal third one (piezzo mic for Mandoline, my casio SK1, sometimes my Hurdy Gurdy…), it’s a perfect tool !

Korg Pitchblack : Super tuner, I often play in small places without lights, but the lights can spread through in any dark places!

Modified Boss CS3 Nice for accoustics, clean the tone and compress slightly.

Mooer Pitch box : Same use as the first board. Mostly for “others” instruments than accoustic guitars, this little guy does its job perfectly.

TC Electronics Hall Of Fame mini : How nice. The reverb aren’t too cold, you can change them via the Tone Print Editor, it adds a little bit of reverb on the accoustic set.

Line 6 Echo Park : My old friend. Very versatile, can goes from warm analog-sound delays to digital clean repeats. The reverse is really fun to play with !

Boss RC20xl : Same job as the first board, but with the reverse and the fade out options !

Needless to say that I’m always considering a lot of new gear to try, the more important thing is the sound itself and how to improve what’s in your head and how to draw it with music. If you wanna listen what I do with all that, feel free to go on my facebook / bandcamp or even to browse my videos. Here it is, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want some details, I’d be more than glad to talk about that !

Florent Paris | Hors Sujet
Toulouse, France

This is not an ‘effect’, but I’m a big fan of routing tools. They can be quite handy and can make life much easier. Today I wanted to talk about the Morley George Lynch Tripler Multi-Amp switch. Note, this is an amp switcher for the ‘front end’ of the amp. Do NOT plug speaker cable outs into this unit. This switcher basically routes output signal to 1-3 amp inputs. With this device, you would run your pedals into the input of the switcher, and the signal is then split into 3 signals which could be delivered individually to amps, or set to send signal to all 3 amps at the same time.

This can be quite cool for rhythm vs. lead tones handled by amps vs. pedals. The downside of this, is you would need to lug around multiple amps, but the upside, some serious tone and control!

Beyond the 3 footswitches, there are also is a Boost knob providing 20dB of clean boost to all 3 outputs.  LEDs indicate what amp is receiving signal.

If found this YouTube demo of the Morley George Lynch Tripler by Andrew Gardiner:

I also wanted to bring this up, because I found a sale price on this unit. The Morley George Lynch Tripler lists for $206, and is usually available for $103, but is currently on sale at Amazon for only $79.13 and ships for FREE. Not bad.

If you have experience with the Tripler, please let us know what you think by commenting below!