Effects Bay

I like Lee Ranaldo. He’s absolutely great.  It’s sad that Sonic Youth is done (at this time), and I’m super glad he continues on with his solo project. It’s good stuff.. real good. I’ve done pedalboard break downs for Lee in the past, which is fun, because he’s always changing things up. Some pedals remain throughout, and new ones seem to pop up.

Today, I came across a really cool video that was recently posted, where Lee is putting on a great guitar clinic. I like that he goes into his philosophy of gear and creativity. Definitely worth a watch!

From this video, I was able to get two shots of his pedal board. Here is the break down of those pedals. As always, let me know if anything is incorrect or if I missed a pedal.

Shot #1

Shot #2

TC Electronic Polytune
Ibanez AD80 Analog Delay
Sarno Earth Drive
JAM Pedals WaterFall Chorus & Vibrato
Voodoo Lab SD Sparkle Drive
Moog MF-102 MoogerFooger Ring Modulator
Dunlop GCB95 Wah <= I could be wrong here (maybe Real McCoy?)
Digitech PDS 1002 two second Digital Delay

I don’t know if you noticed the JAM Pedals WaterFall Chorus & Vibrato, but those look like my Pedal Labels! Boom!

This morning while sucking on my cup-o-joe I came across this delay. I remember hearing about this, but didn’t take a close look until now. This is the Way Huge Echo-Puss Analog Delay. I’ve looked closely at the Aqua-Puss and the Supa-Puss, but not the Echo-Puss. This delay gives you up to 600ms of delay, but also has tweakable LFO modulation circuits for  some cool warble. I like the interface alot, very simple and easy to understand.

Here is the official description of the Way Huge Echo-Puss Delay:

The Way Huge Echo-Puss was designed by delay expert Jeorge Tripps for players who want an organic analog delay pedal that allows them to fine-tune their delay sound with a simple user interface. It serves up 600ms of delay with a pair of gravelly-voiced bucket-brigade chips. Additionally, a fully tweakable LFO modulation circuit allows you to add a liquid texture to the sound of the repeats. This edition is graced with custom artwork from rock n’ roll artist Alan Forbes and is limited to 500 pieces.

Also, here is the official video

The pedal mentioned here is the ‘limited edition’ version which has art work from Alan Forbes and only 500 pieces were created.

I’ve talked about this pedal in the past. Right now, my favorite guitar to play is my trusty Fender ’62 AVRI Jazzmaster. I absolutely love this thing! But, sometimes it hates certain rooms, or more specifically what’s in those rooms. For the most part, the Jazzmaster handles the majority of venues it’s in, but in some rare instances the guitar will buzz something fierce. We’re talking 60 cycle hum from the single coils. Generally, if there are fluorescent lights (specifically if the ballast is over my head for example) the guitar can get noisy. A simple test if that’s the problem for you, change the pickup selection to the middle position, pulling in both pickups. If the buzz goes away, it’s most likely the single coil hum.

At one practice space I was in and if there was a particular pedal in line (doesn’t have to be on) it was horrible – to the point you could hear it while playing. Brutal. I thought I would pick up a Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger, and it cleared things up incredibly well without altering my tone to drastically, and definitely was a massive improvement to the situation prior. Now, I still pack the Hum Debugger around on tour, just in case I run into a venue that gives me trouble. Now, this is NOT a noise gate, don’t get confused about this. The pedal just targets the hum – must be magic. I highly recommend this pedal if you’re running single coils and have experienced hum like this.

It’s important to note, the Jazzmaster is properly grounded and shielded, and this is related to horrible rooms. 99% of the time, the JM sounds perfect in any environment.

This morning, I came across this bundle deal. I love bundle deals. So if you were thinking of buying this pedal to address this problem, might as well jump on this deal since you get some free stuff! So on Amazon, you can pick up the Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger for $115.28 (same price from other dealers), but you get 2 Free 6″ patch cables AND 2 Free 18.6′ instrument cables! Not bad!

If you’re still confused the Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger, check out this video:

If you use this pedal for yourself, please comment below. Love to hear what you think about it!

Today, I was stoked to get a message from Brian letting me know about a couple of videos where Peter Hayes (guitarist of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) talks about his gear.  Peter has very full and powerful guitar sound that he brings to the band, and clearly, the complexity of the sound is reflected in the complexity of the gear.

Part 1 talks about guitars

Part 2 talks about effects and general routing

I had to watch Part 2 a few times, and some of it still unclear. Looks like he’s running 4 amps. 2 of which is his main sound with delays, etc. Center amp (#3 is a JCM 800 and 4×12 with a single distortion pedal) to focus the sound. Finally, there is a single amp (in the video it was a Fender Twin, but normally is a Fender Pro Reverb) pointing the heavens with distortion and reverb.

He uses a combination of pedals in a rack and pedals on the floor. There were no photos of the pedals in the rack, but Peter did mention them. I listed them, even though I was unable to get specific model information. If you can help provide this info (I’m looking at your Peter or Peter’s guitar tech), please let me know.

Rack
Radial JD-7 (splitter) -> Amp 3
Sansamp <- unsure about the Sansamp mentioned
TC Electronic G-Major 2
TC Electronic G-Major 2
Boss DD-7 Delay
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail <- assumption
Klon Centaur
Vintage Effects Distortion <- unknown

Floor
Akai E2 Headrush
Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter
Dunlop GCB-95 Wah
G Lab
Ernie Ball Volume
Ernie Ball Volume
Roland EV-5 Expression Pedal
Roland EV-5 Expression Pedal
Electro-Harmonix Freeze
Boss TU-2 Tuner

-> Amp 1 Bandmaster (left)
-> Amp 2 Bandmaster (right)
-> Amp 3 Marshall JCM 800 (Audio Crowther Hot Cake)
-> Amp 4 Fender Twin or Fender Pro Reverb

For those of you not familiar with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, check out this great video performance on KEXP:

Let me know if you can help fill in the blanks above. Also, would love to hear what you think about Black Rebel Motorcycle Club by commenting below!

Last week or so, I did a break down of Minus the Bear guitarist – Dave Knudson. That guy is a monster on guitar, but still, I was very surprised by all the action and questions related to that post. I thought it would be fitting to also feature Jake Snider as well. He’s the guitarist and lead vocalist and has an impressive board as well. For this post, I will again post the Rig Rundown video by Premier Guitar:

Here is the break down of pedals for Jake Snider:

BBE Green Screamer
Custom Clean Boost
Line 6 DL4 Delay
Line 6 DL4 Delay
Mu-tron Phasor
Peterson Strobe Stomp 2 Tuner
Vox DelayLab Delay
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal

For an additional of taste of Minus the Bear, check out this older video:

Let me know if you see anything missing or incorrect by commenting below. Also, let me know what you think of Minus the Bear as well!

Ok, here’s another deal you’ll be interested in. I posted this not too long ago, and I see it’s back again. If you’ve been looking for a delay, this might be the time to pull the trigger. Today’s deal is on the Way Huge Aqua Puss delay! The Aqua Puss will give you 20ms to 300ms of delay time. Feedback adjusts  delay duration, but can also be used for self-oscillating awesomeness! Additionally there is a ‘blend’ knob which adjusts the mix of effects to output signal.

The Way Huge Aqua Puss lists for $254.61 and is usually available for $150, but is currently on sale for a great low price of $116.00 at Amazon.com! That’s $34 off the going rate for this guy. The pedal also ships for free!

Here is the official video by jimdunlopusa:

Again, the Way Huge Aqua Puss is on sale for a great low price of $116 at Amazon. At the time of this post, there were 19 units in stock. Often when the unit count drops, the price may jump up, so take advantage of this price if you can!

I’ve been seeing a few demos of the Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes Nano Overdrive, and have been interested in this guy as well. The original Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes was quite large (the bigger classic enclosures from back in the day – see pic), and it’s time to bring it back, but give it a smaller footprint – ala nano! I have to say, the original was pretty damn big!

The Hot Tubes is a CMOS overdrive and is built to the same original specifications as the original (I’m assuming components are generally the same). Hot Tubes has Volume and Overdrive controls as well as a tone circuit control. There is a toggle that will allow you to bypass the tone circuit all together, which is kind of nice dependent on your situation or needs.

Here is a great demo by GAK

If you’re interested in the EHX Hot Tubes Nano Overdrive, it’s currently available for only $58.04 on Amazon.com and is available with free shipping!

Here is another deal you guys might be into. This time it’s for the Way Huge Green Rhino. A couple of pedalboard break downs had this on their board - Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam are both using the Way Huge Green Rhino! The Green Rhino MKII is a classic overdrive – standard controls – Volume, Tone and Drive, but you get additional tone shaping controls. You have the ability to tweak the EQ with a 100Hz knob to cut/boost the low end by 12dB. There is also a ‘curve’ control to dial in the ‘corner’ frequencies.

The Way Huge Green Rhino lists for $195, and is usually available for $130, but is currently on sale for only $109 at Amazon.com! This pedal also ships for free. So we’re talking $21 off the standard price!

For those of you interested in how this pedal sounds, check out the official product video by jimdunlopusa:

Again, the Way Huge Green Rhino is on sale for only $109 at Amazon.com!

Today’s pedal line is from Adrian Furby. 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 there – having finally gotten my pedalboard into the kind of order I’ve wanted for a while now, I thought I’d share it with you. I play in a surf rock band (not that 60′s twangy stuff – modern guitar music) and we use texture a lot to get different feels and sounds, so there’s a bit of variation on my board.

I thought hard about placement as well, as I frequently change from one pedal to the other during a song, so I need the right amount of space on the board. Pedals that are ‘always on’ go on the top row, pedals that get a bit of action during a song are on the bottom row.

I’ve used a Pedaltrain 2 as the board, with a T-Rex Classic power supply mounted underneath.

1. Xotic Effects SP Compressor – this is a ‘usually on’ pedal and really adds a nice dimension to my overall sound. The Blend knob in particular is a nice touch on this pedal.
2. AMT Japanese Girl Wah – small form factor, rugged, three different sweep ranges, a light that goes on when the pedal is on. I love this wah – it’s the best wah I’ve ever used, and plays really nicely with my dirt pedals.
3. Lastgasp Art Labs Angelring Boost – I tend to leave this on all the time, as it adds a nice amount of dirt into my sound, but cleans up nicely as well.
4. Lastgasp Art Labs Type 88 Super-oscillo Fuzz – this is my standard dirt pedal. I prefer fuzz to distortion as it’s a little more unruly and interesting. In the past I’ve added an expression pedal to this, for crazy sounds.
5. Guyatone VT-2 Vintage Tremolo – I’ve had this for years, it just works, and I can’t see any reason to change it. I use it a lot in this band.
6. Strymon El Capistan – you need a great delay, and this is the best delay I have ever used. Such a great range of sounds, the tap tempo is great, and paired with a Roland EV5 expression pedal it is fantastic.
7. SolidgoldFX Surfrider Reverb – another ‘always on’ pedal – this reverb is really versatile. You have to try one out.
8. TC Electronic Polytune Mini – Being able to strum and see the state of every string and then just tune the ones that are actually out is a great time saver during gigs. Drop-D option is good too.

And yes that’s my Gretsch DuoJet and Fender DuoSonic II behind the board.

Check out my band “Goofyfooter” on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GoofyfooterMusic or at http://www.goofyfootermusic.com.au

Well.. it’s definitely the season for savings. I like to post these every year when they appear. I love the holidays (sorry, this is sorta selfish) to pick up gear for myself. If you can control your GAS and wait for the holidays, this is the perfect time to get some great savings on a new amp or guitar or pedal, etc. This time of year, there usually a series of savings from Musician’s Friend, Guitar Center and Music 123 to name a few. Obviously, this is handy to buy a gift for a band mate or friend too.. doesn’t have to be completely selfish right?

So, here we go:

Musician’s Friend
15% OFF Orders $199+
10% OFF Orders $99+Click here for details

Guitar Center
15% OFF a single non-sale item $99 or more
Click here for details