Pedal Line Friday – 7/2 – Olberg Sanz

Today’s pedal line is from Olberg Sanz @NICTOFOBIA. 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.

Nictofobia Bass Pedalboard Setting
Olberg Sanz – Bass & Lead Vocals.

It’s hard to find your own sound when you’re playing fusion music on a powertrio band, like Nictofobia wich plays Ska-Punk-Hardcore songs since 2003, from Caracas, Venezuela.I was looking for a perfect marriage between bass drum punch and the bass guitar tone, so I started to test different stompboxes.

First I needed three basic settings: a fat powerfull tone for ska, reggae and rocksteady, a metallic brighty sound for punk hardcore and hard rock, and clear overdrive sound to make chords while the guitar makes the solos on the songs.

I founded the first setting cutting the high frecuencies on the bass EQ, using an standard compression on Boss CS-3 and the Electro-Harmonix KnockOut like *booster*. In the Peavey amp, I turned to 4 the bass knob. In the bass playing, just fingering sound. Result? Awesome dimension to play long notes with a rich sustain.

The second one is similar, but I opened to 75% the treble knob on the Stingray, using an standard compression on Boss CS-3 and the Electro-Harmonix KnockOut like *booster*, but in the Peavey amp, I turned to 2 the bass knob. In the bass playing, I used pick to find that metallic sound. Wow, that’s my tone to play faster hardcore including palm-muting techinque also.

The last setting, is very important in many songs to avoid the base of the guitar in a solo. In this bars, I transform the bass in to guitar distortion using *powerchords.* Here, I turned on the Boss ODB-3, leveling the clean bass sound with the Dist sound, and opening the treble knob on the MusicMan. This option is very interesting when the guitar makes its jamming and you need the distortion bass of a riff and you don’t have a rythm guitar.

Additional effects:
On Nictofobia’s new album, I needed weird effects for interludes, intros and outros. So, added to my pedalboard the Boss SYB-5 to generate saw and square waves synth like. For pyschodelic ambience, the stereo gate flanger of is a cool option mixed with overdrive of Boss BF-3Boss ODB-3 too.

Equipment:
– MusicMan Stingray 4 Strings Active Hambucker.
– Dunlop Scotty Pick Holder.
– Dunlop Strap Lock.
– Planet Waves Strap.
– Peavey TNT-115 Bass Amplifier.
– Planet Waves 1/4 plug cables.
– Planet Waves Bass Picks.

Last setting on pedalboard:
– Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner.
– Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer
– Electro-Harmonix KnockOut Attack Equalizer
– Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
– Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer
– Boss BF-3 Flanger

More about Nictofobia:
WEB: www.nictofobia.com
MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/nictofobia
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/nictofobia
BLOG: www.nictofobia.blogspot.com