Pedal Line Friday – 12/21 – Alexander Rollins

Today’s pedal line is from Alexander Rollins. 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.

Effects Bay!

My name is Alexander Rollins and I am the vocalist/rhythm guitarist and keyboardist for Minneapolis-based indie rock band Asker. I am also an effects pedal enthusiast and a regular to Effects Bay. We can be found at http://www.facebook.com/askerofficial or follow us on Twitter – @askerofficial

I proudly use a Diago Showman Pedalboard and a Diago Powerstation powers my setup.

I generally run a Fender ’72 Telecaster Deluxe into my board and out into a 4×10 Fender Hot Rod Deville (great cleans, lots of headroom).

My chain is as follows:

Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner: Probably the pedal with the coolest effect out there — making sure you’re in tune.

Ernie Ball Passive Volume Jr. : Passive volume pedal, works well and is pretty sturdy. I usually bypass my tuner right into this guy.

MXR DynaComp: Good compression, this thing is on all the time. I tried out different compression pedals, and basically it came down to price. It does the job a good compressor will do and for the price you can get these for (most around $70 bucks). Simple controls and it’s easy to dial in exactly what you want with just two knobs. Not a noisy pedal at all, either.

Paul Cochrane “Timmy”: Best overdrive I have ever played. I’ve tried overdrive upon overdrive and didn’t fall in love until I turned the Timmy on. The Timmy produces the most transparent, natural overdrive and works so well in context with my amp. Pure, creamy, amazing overdrive. Plus, Paul C is a rad guy.

Lotus Pedal Designs “Brown Fuzz”: Local Minnesota company, Sean makes some crazy cool pedals. Very simple designs but amazing tones. This is the best fuzz I’ve ever owned, plus he doesn’t make them anymore so I feel extra cool. If you haven’t gotten your hands on a Lotus, do so now! Wonderful pedal for in the studio or live, this thing creates some nasty tones. It can go from run of the mill fuzz to all out ripping mayhem in a simple twist of the dial. If I didn’t tell you to go and get your hands on one of his pedals as soon as you can, I would be doing you a disservice.

Boss TR-2 Tremolo: I use a fair amount of tremolo, and this does the job well.

HardWire DL-8 Digital Delay: I mostly use this for my own playing and fiddling around in the studio. Good, standard digital delay. I like the “lo-fi”, “analog”, and “tape” settings, and having a 20-second looper is a nice touch. If I’m playing with delay, this thing gets the job done.

Mooer ShimVerb: New brand, just heard about them and had to try one. Honestly, if it had a better-looking casing this would be my favorite pedal.  It’s small but creates a really spectacular digital reverb. Three settings (room, shimmer, spring) and a lot of area in between. I leave the room verb on to widen my rhythm parts.

Also on there is the two-channel footswitch for my Deville. I don’t use too often, mostly when I’m playing on my own.

I’ve also been using these pedal-setting-sticker things. I have to talk between songs often, so knowing exactly where my settings need to be is a life-saver!

Cheers,
Alexander Rollins