Pedal Line Friday – 4/16 – Joey Harley

Today’s pedal line is from Joey Harley. 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 pedalline@nulleffectsbay.com. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

This board was started in 1993 when I first started playing guitar in bands.  Originally, I had a GCB-95 wah, Ibanez Soundtanks (powerlead, thrash metal, phaser) and a DOD Grunge to start (i was in 9th grade..what did i know!)  Since then it’s grown and evolved to where you see it today.  The design is fully mine, built by me, and so far it’s survived 4 years and hundreds of thousands of miles in this incarnation.  If you’d like suggestions on building your own custom board, feel free to contact me and ask!  Shoot, if you’re in the Atlanta area I’ll even come help you with it!

Reason board was built why it was…

in most of what you could call “My” bands, i work as the lead singer and guitarist.  sometimes lead singer, guitarist, and synth player.  i’m also an electric cello player.  this gave me a need to have everything in front of me where i could get to it.  i’m also very right footed, and can’t work an expression controller to save my life with my left foot.  hence, the shelves.  this allowed me to run all my expressions on the right side, and placed the 2 controllers for my moogerfooger right above it for quick moves from the on switch to the controller.  later on i added the enf filter, fuzz, comp, and trem, so in order to keep everything in front i went up instead of out.  after about a week of getting used to it i was able to hit any switch without looking or losing a breath!  It sits in a custom made flight case when need be…but it takes 2 people to carry that way 8)

Guitars…

Custom made black walnut body from my dad.  he built me this when i graduated from college with my degree in guitar.  laminated black walnut body, walnut/maple/kevlar neck, with blue/gold/red lace sensors.  schaller hardware with a roller bridge and a fine tuner hardtail tailpiece

Custom made tele also from my dad.  i had a mexi tele that needed to have the nut replaced.  about 18 months later he finally gave it back to me and told me that the body was junk so he rebuilt it.  it’s now a black walnut body with a cherry top, the same active EMG’s that David Gilmour uses (can’t remember the name), and also has a schaller fine tuner hardtail bridge/tailpiece

1972 Epiphone archtop rebuilt by my dad.  this one was in pieces when i saw it, and an art school buddy was going to use it for a project.  instead he let me have it.  pops put it back together, lined the neck up properly, put a Seymour Duncan JH1 and JH2 in it, and a handmade tailpiece out of walnut with a kevlar underside for strength.

Squier Strat…with the sickest neck I’ve ever played.  it came with american pickups in it already, and so far i’ve put schaller locking tuners, an american standard tremelo, and roller guides for the headstock.  eventually, it’s also getting a Fender LSR nut, satin chrome trem. and the David Gilmour EMG pickguard/pickup combo.

Cello- not sure the brand or model.  it’s an “advanced student” model that my dad added an under the bridge feet pickup to.  It has a Fishman acoustic guitar preamp installed on the side, and the output jack is on the bottom by the endpin.  My bows are handmade from Pernambuco (hardest wood known to man), with sterling silver wraps.  My concert instrument is a custom made Jim Cox that he was initially building for Yo Yo Ma.

I’m currently using DR .011’s-.052’s on the guitars, D’addario Heliocores on the electric cello, and a Prim A/D with a Jargar G/C (sterling silver wrap) for the Jim Cox.

Picks I use Dunlop Gator Grip 2.0mm.  I find that a good heavy pick (once you learn to control it) gives you a much better sound, and farrrr better dynamic control than one that can snap back under pressure.

Pedals (in order of signal chain)…

DOD FX/25 Envelope Filter-  this thing sounds as good as any other filter i’ve tried (qtrons, qtron+’s, pigtronix EP1 and 2, Mutron III) with much simpler controls.  i placed it first so that it gets the most possible sensitivity on my attack without the signal getting polluted

Dallas/Arbiter FuzzFace– not pictured ’cause it’s getting rehoused into a smaller box by this1smyne effects (rather than a giant red mic stand base!).  I only use this with my wah, combining the 2 to get a really nasty synth square wave sounding tone.  the secret to this is putting the fuzz in front of the wah, gives it a completely differentl charecter than if you run after.

Dunlop JH-4S Rotovibe-  best chorus/rotary sim i’ve ever had (and i’ve had it for 13 years now!).  i can’t say enough about all the reasons i love this unit.  the newer JD-4S’s don’t quite sound the same, so im hoping nothing happens to my JH!!!

Dunlop JH-1 Wah– the “hendrix” wah from the late 90’s.  i absolutely love this wah.  all others that i’ve played get way too harsh on the top end, and hurt my ears.  this one sits in a slightly lower frequency range, so it doesn’t get quite as trebly on the top.  I’m going to be switching to a Teese RMC5 Wizard Wah, but only because the Wizard has a larger sweep range to it, they’re voiced almost identically.

Ibanez TS9DX– my first gain stage.  i run it in + mode with very little gain.  just enough to thicken the sound up and give it a little edge.

Ibanez TS9– stage 2.  i run it with more gain, and just a hair on the boost side of the tone knob.  and of course, i stack ’em to get my full on.  i absolutely love the sound of my TS’s, but soon their going to be getting Analogman’s Silver Mod to both.  No changes in the gain or tone, but it should give the notes a little more clarity and definition.

MXR MicroAmp– my just in case i need a little more volume pedal.  Jim Dunlop gave this to me a couple years ago with a 6 band eq when i met him and we ended up talking shop.  i needed something to add just a little oomph sometimes, but didn’t want anything to change the color or tone of my sound.  he told me to try them and have a great day!  i ended up settling with the Micro because it absolutely does not color the tone in any way.  and it’s one knob makes it so easy to use.  recently i added the compressor at the end, and i’ve found that i can crank the micro even farther and the sound is amazingly full without getting any louder.  of all the boosts i’ve tried, this one’s my favorite

Dunlop High Gain Volume– is the greatest volume pedal made.  it’s in a crybaby housing, so it’ll survive a nuclear bomb.  it absolutely does not color the tone in any way, and i find that the raised housing is so much easier to use than one’s like that ernie ball that require you to drop the pedal all the way to the floor to get to 0.  that hurts my ankles pretty bad, and I know alot of people that have had issues with the string in the EB pedals.

Moog Moogerfooger Ring Modulator– is the reason people call my board “Mission Control”.  mated with the 2 expression controllers above it (one for rate, one for frequency) this thing allows me to make some of the craziest synthed out tones i’ve ever heard.  i love it!  i do alot of psychedelic music, and improv “jazz” (for a lack of a better term), and nothing shocks people back to attention like kicking this thing on.  every time i use it, i get at least one person coming up to the stage and yelling “what’s that?!!?”

Akai E2 Headrush– another pedal I absolutely love.  The tape echo sim on it is PERFECT.   and it’s got an onboard tap.  add to it the loop recorder (14 seconds w/unlimited overdubbing, 28 w/ none @44.1kHz, or you can record at 22kHz and get more time) and it’s become irreplaceable.  i almost always have it on, tapped out to a half note (except where that causes the rythyms to contradict each other) and it makes my sound sooo thick.  i originally had an E1, but for the E2 they added the ability to hit both buttons simultaneously to change modes.  oh yea, you can also output all 4 tape heads seperately.  whenever i have a soundman that’s down, i run all 4 tape heads on seperate tracks and then pan ’em all over the place.

Boss PS-2 Delay/Pitch Shifter– this is one that I’ve had on the shelf for about 10 years, until I started getting into Dub Step (think reggae mixed with drum and bass) and needed a good Dub style delay.  it sounds great, and is crystal clear, but the spillover is not quite where i need it to be…the effect cuts off really quick when you turn it off rather than die out normally.  so sometime in the near future it’s getting replaced with the new Strymon Brigadier delay, which sounds just as amazing and has full spill.  i may also move the delay to post compressor so that I can go stereo from the delay to the trem, although I like the way the compressor helps keep the volume of the delays down.

Boss CS-3 Compressor– added this very recently after talking with Jon Wood of Feinwood/The Psyko Killers (Baltimore, MD).  He had a Barber Tone Press on his rig, and when I asked him about it he explained that he used it very sparingly, just to even out his rythyms when skanking.  Once I got home, I hooked this up (it’s also been on a shelf for 10 years…), started experimenting, and fell in love.  It evens out my skank, it keeps the ts’s and microamp under control, and even let’s me use my Epi Archtop without gobs and gobs of feedback.  It’s a little noisy (though not like i’ve heard other people say), and gives a little bit of pop, so when I’ve got a couple weeks I’m gonna get it modded.  If that doesn’t do it, I’m gonna switch to the Barber TonePress.

Boss TU-2 Tuner– great tuner, and this one has been with me for 11 years now.  I put it at the end so that it silences the whole board if need be.  Despite what I’ve heard, the buffer in it is NOT that bad, and it really doesn’t color the tone at all.

Dunlop TS-1 Stereo Tremelo– this is the most recent addition, and I love this pedal.  It runs anywhere from a triangle wave to a full on square wave, and in my stereo spread it sounds amazing.  It does suffer from a volume drop (going from 2 amps to 1 at a time), but I’m currently researching ways around this.  I’m either going to have the pedal modded to increase signal, or run it in a stereo bypass loop with another microamp, or switch to a rackmount stereo compressor (once my soundguy comes over and shows me how to set it…).  I’m also going to be getting this pedal modded (by this1smyne effects) so that the Speed control is expression pedal controllable.  I may do the same with the wave shape, that’s still being considered.

For now, the cabling is done with a couple different brands of generic patch cables.  I’m not sure if “high end” cables are really that much better, or just a myth.  I will be recabling it with something in custom lengths, just to clean up the mess.  Instrument cord is a Planet Waves with a cutoff switch, both amp cables are Monster “Rock” cables.  Power is supplied by a 001 and a 003 JuiceBox from www.pedalgear.net.  They may be one of the most expensive out there, but this is the best power supply I’ve ever had.  One has more than enough available juice to run the board, but I found with the effects I use that I needed to keep the Moog, Headrush, Tuner, and Trem on seperate, isolated circuits.  I would also have had to daisy chain with one supply, and that just added noise.  Which, by the way, is why I settled on the JB.  One Spots, the Dunlop DC Brick, all the VL Pedal Powers, and a couple custom power supplies I tried all had an unacceptable amount of noise with them in my setup.  The JBs got rid of it all once I wired it up.

Amps…

My amps are in “stereo”, but due to the way I set them up it’s more of a simulated surround sound.  I keep the DRRI and 412 in the center, and run 2 212’s off the Bassman that are spread about 6-10′ on either side.  This makes all my stereo f/x run from the center to outsides, and has really made peoples heads spin at some of my more experimental gigs where I can step out like that.  Both amps are run with the channels bridged (i think that’s the right term…i run a cable from input 1 of the channel I’m not using to input 2 of the one I am.  This allows you to use both preamps and really get some great tone out of already great sounding amps)

1991 Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue- It’s running with Groove Tube 6L6’s, and is the loudest amp I’ve ever been around.  It sits on top of the Bassman head and 412, and powers the 412 cab.

1970 Fender 100w Bassman Head- Also running Groove Tube 6L6’s, and has been modded to blackface specs.  It’s a 4 ohm head going to 16ohms worth of speakers, so it only puts out 40-60 watts and I can really push it.  The chassis is (according to the serial # stamped on it) from a ’63 or ’64 blackface bassman head.

All the speakers for both cabs are Celestions.

I also have a Mesa Boogie Revolver (12″ rotating speaker cabinet with fast/slow/stop), but I’m still looking for an amp to power it that I like.

Future plans…

I’m currently touring with 3052 Dub Collective as a organist and synth player, so my guitar/cello rig has had to take a backseat for a little bit until I’m back.  I’m going to be adding a custom bypass box from this1smyne effects.  It will have a cutoff switch for the board, a tuner output (and the tuners coming out of the signal path, tuner out will be an always on), and a set of stereo outs and a seperate mono out with a switch to go between them.  the output selector will be so that i can switch from the stereo rig to the revolver, or for gigs where i can only run one amp.  I may or may not have a buffer installed in it…so far I exerience no signal loss or tone coloration from my board, but if I start to I’m having a buffer installed in the bypass box.

I am also considering a CAE Bradshaw custom switching system for the future.  While mostly I don’t like programmable things (i like to turn things on when i want to without having to preprogram), I’m considering it mostly for the OD’s/Boost so that I can have each combination in a single button press.  If there’s a switch they make that has enough buttons to do that, plus leave one button dedicated to each other effect (without having to switch “banks”), then I’m sold.  But, gotta finish this stint as a keyboard player first!

I guess that’s it.  Hope y’all enjoyed, and if you’ve got any questions feel free to hit me up!

thanks, and have a great day!!

JoeyHarley

JoeyHarley- multi instrumentalist living in the Atlanta, GA area.  Plays for 3052 Dub Collective, The Funky Fiasco, Justin Hylton, The Gary Coleman Stunt Doubles, TimetoBurn, and many more.

www.reverbnation.com/joeyharley
www.myspace.com/timetoburntheband
www.facebook.com/joeyharley
twitter is joeyharleymusic
www.lowensteinllc.com

contact my management at kevin@nulllowensteinllc.com
booking contact booking@nulllowensteinllc.com
or me, phattyj@nulllive.com