Pedal Line Friday – 3/15 – Jim Szymanski

Today’s pedal line is from Jim Szymanski. 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.

Hi Y’all;

My name is Jim. I’ve been following the blog for a couple months now. I play lead guitar with the Lifeway church praise band out of Salisbury, NC. We play along the lines of Jesus culture and Hillsong live. Everything from traditional praise and worship music to Lincoln Brewster. Our website is: www.yourlifeway.com. I just thought that I’d try to send in a pic to see what happens.

My rig is just large enough to be in the way and just small enough to transport easily. At least to me.

This is set up on a modded LYT pedal board with a riser. My cables are George L’s. The whole rig is powered by a single Voodoo labs pedal power plus 2 except for a couple of items that required 120v power or 12-18v dc.

Morley AccuTune: I was looking for an american made tuner when I found this. The website said all of our pedals are made in the US. I guess they forgot about this being made in China. Soon to be replaced with a Whirlwind tuner.

Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone compressor: They had good demo’s. It works well and fits my board.

JHS Foot Fuzz: Great gnarly Switchfoot style fuzz.

Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz: Good mild fuzz with multiple filters. The above devices are global and go straight into a custom “Road Rage” switcher.

Morley PWA: This one is from ’78 I think. My first was a PWF in ’83. I wish that I still had it. I love the extra range of these things and the size is not a drawback. I can do things with this that no other wah can accomplish. It is first in the switcher after the bypass.

DOD FX100 Integrated Tube overdrive: (under the riser and second in the switcher). I have this old US made pedal set for a Lo-Fi sound like an old victrola or radio.

Visual Sound Son of Hyde Distortion: (third in the switcher). Very effective for compressed medium to high gain leads. I love the built in noise gate.

JHS Sweet Tea: (fourth in the switcher). Classic TS-808 sounds on the right with medium to high gain distortion on the left. Very versatile pedal.

Sweet Sound Ultra Vibe II: (also forth in the switcher). I only use this with the 808 and it is awesome. Definitely worth the board real estate and the $$.

Option 5 Desstination Delay x2: (also in the forth spot in the switcher). Two delays in one. I can go from slapback to Gilmour style longer delays to more ambient settings just by switching and cascading the two different delays. And it’s all analog.- The previous three pedals are my most used next to the wah.

Than one spot in the switcher is my most versatile. Next, and last in the switcher are my:

Boss PS-6 Harmonist for detune(instead of a chorus) and a Boss BF-2 Flanger that has been heavily modded (I can’t remember the details).

TC Electronic Nova Delay ib modified: This unit is global. For longer delays and tap tempo.

Ernie Ball VP jr: For volume swells, volume control on some leads (under the radar stuff), and used as a kill switch when noise is a problem.

DOD FX-96 Analog Delay: About 300ms of sweet analog delay. Not overpowering. Used in lieu of reverb. Also from the last days of DOD made in the USA period. Some of there best stuff ever. This is also a global effect. I just added this back in to my rig recently.

I think I’m good until something new comes up. Nuts! I forgot it just did. I’d sure like to add one of those new JHS Superbolts. But where would it go?

Thanks.
Jim Szymanski