Pedal Line Friday – 9/17 – Shawn Palmer

Today’s pedal line is from Shawn Palmer. 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.

I have two boards. The first is the big board that I use with my cover band, Second Slice (check us out on Facebook or www.second-slice.com).  The second, smaller board is what I use to play at church every Sunday.

Guitar

2004 50th Anniversary Deluxe Ash Stratocaster.  I swapped out the pickguard to make it a Fat Strat.  I loaded it with Dimarzio Area 58’s in the neck and middle and a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge for some beef. I also added a volume pot treble bleed mod so it doesn’t mud up when I turn it down.
Main board (Pedaltrain; powered by Voodoo Lab PP2):

T.C. Electronics Polytune – Great tuner.  Really fast and accurate, plus its true bypass.

Ibanez TS-9 Turbo Tube Screamer – Great as just a boost into the OCD for a heavier rhythm tone. I use it in the standard TS mode.

Fulltone OCD – Fantastic overdrive that cleans up really well.  It has great transparency that works well as a tone palette to build on.

MXR Custom Comp – Basically the same as the ’74 reissue without the hand assembly or price tag.  Uses the same IC and has true bypass. Sounds great and has internal thumb dials for attack and trim.  I like it after overdrive so I can keep it on all the time for evening out levels.  It also works well like this for cleaning up the OCD without losing volume.  Also, it keeps the noise down.

Zendrive Clone – A friend built this for me.  It sounds amazing.  It has a really smooth, round tone.  I use this as a lower gain rhythm tone or a lead boost.  It’s after the compressor so I can really boost the volume for leads. It’s also great going from clean to leads without tap dancing.

Keeley modded Blues Driver – I use this as just an overall volume boost for whatever reason I may need.  I’ve actually been using it for brief rhythm lines that really need to stand out.

Loopmaster True Bypass box – Just a standard TB box.  It houses the Hardwire RT-7 Tremolo/Rotary in loop A and the Hardwire DL-8 in loop B.

Hardwire TR-7 Tremolo/Rotary – This is their new tremolo/rotary/vibe pedal.  I only really use the vibe setting but will occasionally use the tremolo setting.  It works well enough for both.  It takes a lot of tweaking to find useable tones, but they are good when you do.  Lots of fun. I keep this in tap tempo mode and use the looper as the master on/off switch.

Hardwire DL-8 – Multi-tone delays.  I like the modulation setting for the added chorusing on the delays.  I don’t really like chorus pedals but I like a little bit of atmosphere.  This pedal works great for that.  I keep this in tap tempo mode and use the looper as the master on/off switch.

Small board (Gator Pedal Tote; powered by Gator G-Bus):

Keeley True Bypass box – This houses the Boss TU-2 tuner.  I found that the buffer in the tuner affects how well the OCD cleans up with the guitar’s volume knob, so I take it out of the equation.

MXR Script Phase 90 Reissue – This is just for some subtle swoosh for extra flavor.  I like it before overdrive because it takes care of the volume drop issue.

Fulltone OCD – Once again…great palette for rock tones and cleans up really well.  This stays on all the time and I just use my guitar’s volume knob for cleans tones.

Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer – Great for solos.  It adds volume to push leads out in front.  It also adds some compression that is lacking in the OCD for single note lines.

Boss DD-3 Delay – Standard delay.  Stays at around 310 – 320 milliseconds. Stays on all the time.

All of this runs into a Dr. Z Maz 18 non-reverb set basically clean.

Thanks, Shawn Palmer – Ocala, FL