Pedal Line Friday – 6/7 – Chris Shepperson

Today’s pedal line is from Chris Shepperson. 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.

Hey dudes, I thought it was about time to send this in to you! I get loads of questions about my set up via my site www.sheponbass.co.uk, and the set up has changed a little since the huge board shown on my effects section. For the last few months I have been rocking a ‘reduced’ set up in a pair of Diago Showman pedalboards. I know you guys like signal chain routing so here is a rather detailed rundown…

Bass (Roscoe LG V Signature) via StageClix Wireless to board >
> Input of SFX Loops Mixer (Custom built mixer) >
> Loop A Send >
Aguilar Octamizer >
> Loop A Return >
> Loop B Send >
TC Electronic PolyTune Mini >
> Input of GigRig QuarterMaster6 > (Each loop contains one pedal as follows)
Boss OC-2 Octave >
COG Effects Meat Grinder Fuzz >
Fuzzrocious Broke Dick Peanut Gallery >
WMD Geiger Counter >
Subdecay Prometheus >
Boss PN-2 Tremolo/Pan >
> Output of GigRig QuarterMaster6 >
Eventide PitchFactor (With EB Expression Pedal) >
COG Effects Zohar’s Phase Shift (Custom built phaser) >
> Loop B Return >
> Output of SFX Loops Mixer > (Connect to board 2) >
> Input of GigRig QuarterMaster4 > (Each loop contains one pedal as follows)
Moog MF-108M Cluster Flux >
Moog MF-101 Low Pass Filter (With Moog MP-201 controlling Cut-Off & Mix) >
TC Electronics Nova Delay iB Modified >
Digitech Jamman Stereo >
> Output of GigRig QuarterMaster4 > Amp (EBS Fafner into Barefaced Big Twin T)

Entire set up powered by a GigRig Generator/Modular Power System (other than the Jamman & MP-201 which require AC). All cabled with Lava Mini Solderless Plugs (around 70 plugs in all). The signal chain is totally silent thanks to the great bypass loops and minimum cabling involved.

As for a little about the pedals (in the order they appear in the chain)…

SFX Loops Mixer – This custom order from Max @ SFX basically fulfils 2 roles of the Boss LS-2 at the same time (but with much better buffers). It allows me to switch between loop A and Loop B with one footswitch and engage both in parallel with the other. While both are engaged I can still hop between the selector on the other footswitch so I can pick which loop will be active when I I turn off the parallel mode. Note this does not have a bypass – There is always one loop active. I use this to have my core sounds going an ‘drop in’ and Octave down sub under my sound.

Aguilar Octamizer – Love this for big sub sounds. I use the filter rolled back and the dry sound off for huge smooth lows and it acts as the ‘Sub’ in my parallel loops. This pedal replaced my DOD Meatbox. While It’s less ‘in your face’ it’s much more musical and usable while still being MASSIVE!

TC Polytune Mini – Great tuner. Tiny. Tracks perfect. What more do you need?

GigRig QuarterMaster – Great bypass strips using relay switching. Totally transparent with soft-press footswitches. Tiny and weighs nothing. Totally awesome units. Dan @ GigRig is a totally awesome dude to so go buy his stuff!

Boss OC-2 Octave – Not sure I need to say much about this. Very distinct synthy octave tone. No other octave sounds quite like it. Built like a tank. Loved by millions. Gigged to hell.

COG Effects Meat Grinder Fuzz – This was a custom order from COG to fill my need for a fuzz pedal that has some extreme gated synthy tones, as well a huge wall of fuzz dirt. There are others on the market that get close, but I wanted some specific tonal tweaks made so had this produced. Excellent little box.

Fuzzrocious Broke Dick Peanut Gallery – Awesome Overdrive, tone-shaper and bass booster. I’ve always struggled with bass Overdrive due to having lots of low end in my signal. I’ve tried just about everything out there and I always get bored quick. This has been on my board for 6 months now which makes it the longest serving OD I’ve ever had.

WMD Geiger Counter – Simply the greatest dirt & noise pedal ever made. Utterly stunning. Nothing sounds like it. It’s been the core of my dirt and synth sounds for the last 18 months. A few bass players have had this modded for increased low end response, but it turn that seemed to cap the top end a little. I use a bright amp into a very bright tweeter-ed cab and the super high harmonics this thing puts out on the bit-crushing is amazing, well worth sticking with the ‘regular’ version for it. I would NEVER be without this pedal!!!

Subdecay Prometheus – Another sticking point is filters. I’ve tried and owned a few others that I prefer on a clean bass to the Subdecay but NOTHING plays as well with a fuzz pedal for synth sounds as the Prometheus. So good that it just nudged the WMD Super FatMan off my top spot!

Boss PN-2 Tremolo/Pan – Rare but excellent tremolo. Chops about as hard as any trem with no noticeable low end loss. Perfect stutter pedal. Another Boss-classic that got replaced with an inferior pedal.

Eventide Pitchfactor – Er…. WOW. What doesn’t it do? Yes it costs a bomb, but it does so much that I could play a gig with nothing else. So much more than just a harmonizer. It’s the best whammy-like effect I’ve ever used too.

COG Effects Zohar’s Phase Shift – This is an custom order for me from Tom @ COG Effects in the UK. Amazing hand built and etched pedals. I needed a pedal that sounded close to the Moog 12-Stage Phaser as this smaller set up didn’t have the space for my Moog. Took him 3 weeks. Nailed it. This baby is HUGE sounding.

Moog MF-108M Cluster Flux – Lush analogue chorus & flanger sounds plus so much more. Square-Wave Chorus!? Who’d have thought. This does everything from subtle to huge whale sex calls… yes, really. Utter madness and really needs to be tried to be believed.

Moog MF-101 Low Pass Filter – Most used part of my setup. Used for LFO/Wobble/Trem/Stutter/Tone Shaping/Synth Swells. It has a pretty rubbish noise floor, but is still the best at what it does.

Moog MP-201 Multi Controller – Discontinued CV Controller which I use to generate LFO’s, expression, envelope and gate via CV to control different parts of my Moogerfoogers. If you own anything that accepts CV and can get your hands on one of these it’ll change your life!

TC Electronic Nova Delay iB Modified – I’m a huge delay fan and at the last count had over 20 delay pedals (You can thank Justin Chancellor for that obsession) but this one tops them all. The iB Modified buffer rules for bass response (even though they don’t advertise it as such) and it’s the most convincing digital modelled analogue delay sound I’ve tried. 9 presets that are tempo and delay type specific, nice subtle modulation, clock division and tap tempo too. Fantastic.

Digitech JamMan Stereo – New addition to the set up, used for a mixture of triggering live samples and looping ambient sections between songs. Seems to be a great unit with some excellent functionality and very clean sound. The software to load samples up however is utterly pants!

Anyone interested in more of my set up and music can check me out on www.sheponbass.co.uk for check in on facebook – www.facebook.com/sheponbassofficial – when I constantly spam all the bands and music I’m involved in (currently about a dozen or so projects).

Big shout out to Effects Bay for being so damn awesome and supporting the effect-loving community!

Shep