Pedal Line Friday – 7/15 – James Takacs

Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from James Takacs. 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.

Also, here is a reminder to enter the Darkglass Electronics Vintage Microtubes give away. You can enter here.

Hi. My name is Jimmy Takacs and I am a personal banker sending this from my work email as it’s easier than typing it all on my phone. I have spent years revamping my board, acquiring what I can through trades as there’s not always money to splurge on new pedals, having a family and a mortgage. Though my board has gone through many stages, I can say that I am quite content with my current chain as it fits my needs quite well. I will do my best to detail the chain without getting too long-winded, though I think there are some boxes here that deserve a little spotlight. Before I get into that, though, the board itself is by NYC Pedalboards covered in blonde tolex and of very high quality.

My signal enters at a prototype Morley ABC (not pictured) that I obtained from someone who knew someone who had worked at Morley. The box appears like an ABY and functions to select only one input at a time to run to the single output or vice versa. I use it to switch between guitars and it is great in the fact that you can never accidentally turn on two guitars at the same time, though it was not a model they ever released for production. From there, it heads to the board and first hits my

95Q Crybaby – best Crybaby out there in my opinion due to the spring-loaded footpad and adjustable Q and gain controls with the boost switch >

Boss TU-2 > MXR Dyna Comp > Boss NS-2 {send (all of my drive pedals, what I call my gain chain, sit within the loop of the gate) > locally built handwired Rangemaster Clone for light overdrive > Boss DS-1 modded by Tone Factor with Blacklight Mod (brings up presence, volume and gain so generally wakes up the whole pedal) > Ibanez 60’s Fuzz Soundtank (capable of that nasty Tonebender fuzz sound) > stock NYC Big Muff > NS-2 return >

Snarling Dogs Erogenous Moan – dual function volume pedal marketed as a “Reverse Tape Simulator” who the secondary function swells up on each sweep with a click and complete volume cut at the end of the sweep to actually sound like a reverse tape effect >

Boss DD-5 w/Boss FS-5U for tap set to low volume quick decay delay for ambiance as opposed to a reverb > wet/dry split

Dry side – Ditto Looper > dry amp: Ampeg Reverberocket r212 circa ’96-’97 w/stock Eminence’s.

Wet Side – Dano Cool Cat Chorus > Dano Danecho set for present tape delay sound with quick decay > Ibanez Delay Champ set for darker long lasting delay sound > wet amp: Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve with original Jensen’s utilizing Boss FS-5L to engage onboard tremolo.

With this setup, I am able to achieve the range of sounds that I have spent my playing years looking for and the split amp setup gives me the tone that I have had in my head for years, with the Silvertone providing the punchy mid-range and shimmering highs and the Ampeg handling the full low-mids and bottom end. With one amp off, something is most definitely missing but with both on, it’s like an aural blanket.