Pedal Line Friday – 8/12 – Nate Wong

Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Nate Wong. 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 goal is to write music for people to fall asleep to. I occasionally play worship music, and I make loops on Instagram (@hallowedhalls).

Below are the tools I’ve chosen to use.

TC Electronic Polytune 2 Mini >

Xotic Effects SP Compressor – a recent addition for me, mainly used sparingly for extra sustain when playing with a slide. >

Bondi Effects Del Mar – my first stage drive. I’m not sure how other people use it, but I use it as a light overdrive with the toggle switch set to the down position, with the level, gain, and treble controls rolled back. >

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer – my second stage drive. I really like the darker tonality, and it stacks well with the Del Mar. >

Chase Bliss Audio Gravitas Analog Tremolo – the most gorgeous, wondrous little box. Between the dipswitches, presets, and ModuShape features, this thing is packed full of interesting and unpredictable sounds. I mostly play on live mode, but I have one preset configured to generate a quick warble, and another that ramps between the rate’s set position and upper parameter. I’m absolutely in love with this thing. >

Empress Effects Vintage Modified Superdelay – I wanted this pedal for five years and purchased it almost entirely for the reverse octave up setting (reverse delay in sub mode C). I use this primarily for 2-3 applications: first, as a building block of a drone/pad setting, with high repeats and a low mix in the tape machine; I also use several variants of the reverse octave-up to create a choral-type effect, and also as an octave-generator of sorts, with the repeats rolled all the way back. >

DigiTech RV-7 Stereo Reverb – I’m fully cognizant that this isn’t a boutique pedal that isn’t popular or widely-used. I played in a metal band 6-7 years ago and this is a pedal, along with the Tube Screamer, that I’ve kept from that time in my life. I use it on a hall setting to stack with a drone/pad sound. There’s also a reverse reverb machine that I occasionally used to create some horrifying sounds. >

Strymon Big Sky, controlled by an Analog Endeavors AUX 3S – there are no words. This is the single most amazing pedal I’ve ever used. I have presets of most, if not all of the machines. A lot of people probably use these, the reputation precedes its greatness. The AE aux switch is a lifesaver. >

Strymon Timeline, controlled by an Analog Endeavors AUX 2 – probably pretty self-explanatory as well, as I suspect everyone and their mother has seen one of these guys. Phenomenal. >

TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper – I make a lot of loops, so this thing is an essential for me. Simple to use, and I love the reverse feature. I use this live to set up pads.

Some people would probably question my signal path, as conventionally, reverbs would be placed after delays. My target is generally an enormous wash of sound, so I found that this was the best setup for what I wanted to create.

There’s also probably the question as to why I have a volume pedal on my board without being wired up – the Ernie Ball VP Jr. is another pedal I’ve had back from my days playing metal. It wasn’t until I started playing more clean music that I noticed how drastically it affected my tone. Right now, it’s serving as a placeholder till I can upgrade to a Bloomery.

Let me know if you have any questions!