Pedal Line Friday – 8/14 – Ryan Begley

Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Ryan Begley. 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.

My name is Ryan Begley and I have an all original rock band in upstate NY called Echohead.  You can check us out @ facebook.com/Echoheadmusic or reverbnation.com/Echoheadmusic

1) Pettyjohn Pre-drive.  This is certainly a subtle box but I’ve found it to be indispensable.  It’s supposed to be an always on pedal which is how I run it.

2) Boss TU-3.  I run the tuner-out from the Pettyjohn to the tuner.

3) O.C.T. from Dwarfcraft Devices.  I go back and forth between loving this pedal and hating it.  You can get a wide range of tones and I like that there’s a separate ‘boost’ switch but I find that it seems to be too thin or too thick for the style music we play.

4) Xotic SL Drive–  I Love this pedal.  This is always on as my core tone.  The only time I turn it off is when I’m using the OCT.  Xotic make amazing sounding pedals in tiny enclosures.  I leave the dip switch in the Super Lead position.  Haven’t gotten around to trying the Super Bass.

5) Xotic EP Booster–  maybe my best purchase ever.  Again this is an always on pedal that intensifies your signal and makes everything clearer.  I tried using it as a ‘boost’ but liked it infinitely more always on.

6) Dunlop crybaby– standard issue wah. Gone back and forth putting it before dirt but always end up putting it after.

7) Ernie Ball VP JR. Passive Volume Pedal– again I’ve experimented with putting this before and after several pedals.  I like it after dirt but before modulation.

8) Moog MF108M Cluster Flux– basically the most tweakable chorus/flanger on the market.  Sometimes I do some extreme stuff with this and get weird but most of the time I have it set very subtle and leave it always on.  Much like the EP Booster it tightens up the overall sound.  The drive knob is amazing and I’ll play with it during shows to get more/less punch when desired.

9) MXR Phase 90 Script– the best sounding phaser ever made in my opinion.  If you don’t want to tweak every single parameter ( i.e. chasebliss warped vinyl) this is what you want.  I had mine modded with an LED & take a standard 9v power adapter.

10) Strymon El Capistan– what can I say about this that hasn’t already been said?  Simply amazing delay, ultra versatile with tap tempo. You can’t go wrong.

11) Roland EV-5– I use this as an expression out of the El Capistan for huge swells of delay.

12) Electro Harmonix #1 Echo–  this one’s funny, I was trying to sell it for almost 2 years and then put it back on my board just for fun.  I had forgotten how versatile it is and it’s completely different than the El Capistan and deluxe memory man.  I keep it set on the verge of self oscillation so when it’s turned off you get a dramatic effect.

13) Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man– the only pedal that’s always remained on my board.  Lush sonic landscapes for days at a time.

14) TC Electronics Trinity Reverb– a solid reverb with a fair amount of presets.  If I had a critique, it’s that it isn’t very inspiring when playing through it.

I play a Frankenstein’d Epiphone Les Paul into a Fender twin reverb reissue.  Since there’s no effect sends all the pedals are in front of the amp.  Thanks for checking out my board.