Effects Bay

I’m very lucky to live here in Missoula, Montana. When I talk to friends out of state, they usually ask “what do you do there”. Montana is quite beautiful so the easy answer is to go out and experience nature, but I also know they often ask that question, in the sense of nightlife entertainment. Missoula is a great college town, but it also is en route to Seattle from the East. If you’re on a band tour and traveling from Fargo, ND or Minneapolis, MN and wanting to connect the West Coast to Seattle, etc., there isn’t a lot between there, except for Missoula and Bozeman. What this translates to.. great shows in small intimate locations. Missoula, currently has a very healthy local music scene, and it was awesome for the band I’m in (Magpies) to have an opportunity to play with Bleeding Rainbow from Philadelphia, PA on their US tour.

Prior to the show, I was not familiar with the band, so I took a little YouTube journey, and was blown away. I was instantly hooked by the guitars and vocals. Complex guitar textures and nice inner play. Vocals are hard and soft and hooky yet aggressive. I can hear a lot of familiar influences – but they were good and consolidating and providing a focused “sound” that was truly theirs.

Check this out…

and this…

Talking with them at the bar prior to the show, they mentioned they were fans of EffectsBay, so I thought it would be fun to do a pedalboard break down. Please check out their Tour page to see if they’re playing in a town near you. They’re definitely worth checking out!!!

So let’s start with Al Creedon. He was playing through a Fender Twin (not 100% sure about that) and has perfected the sonic punch to the face with shimmery melodies. A great guitarist.

Eventide Space Reverb
Boss RC-3 Loop Station
Death by Audio Soundwave Breakdown
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (w/Tone Wicker)
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Boss TU-3 Tuner
Ernie Ball 6181 Jr. Volume Pedal (expression for Space Reverb)
Tap Tempo (for Space Reverb)

Next we have Sarah Everton on bass. She is also one of the vocalists in Bleeding Rainbow.

Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI
Boss TU-3 Tuner
Wren and Cuff The Pickle Pie “B” – Fuzztortion

Finally we have Rob Garcia. I absolutely loved his Fender Jazzmaster and tone. He swapped out the bridge with a humbucker, and I believe the neck was a Novak. His amp was a Sovtek Mig 60. I haven’t seen Sovteks in a while, and I was blown away by that head. Rob also provides vocals.

Boss TU-2 Tuner
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (rehoused with tone stack bypass switch)
Boss CE-2 Chorus
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay

I feel weird that I’m not mentioning Ashley Arnwine, who is the drummer of Bleeding Rainbows. Obviously, no pedalboard, but I was blown away with her drumming. Hard hitting. Wow. This band has it all. Again, check out Bleeding Rainbow!!!

All photos for this post were taken by Amy Donovan Photography!

Today’s pedal line is from Brandon Highfill. 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 pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

Hello!
This is my third pedal line Friday and the board has changed! (big surprise right?)  you can hear this rig in action at meltfacerecords.bandcamp.com/album/fragments-of-god

http://vimeo.com/83188290
Soundcloud.com/brandonblane

Here’s the chain :
Guitar into -> Dunlop high gain volume pedal -> boss cs2 (Japan) -> xotic AC booster -> Devi Ever Shoegazer -> way huge swollen pickle -> MXR blue box script with c11 mod -> boss ge7 -> ibanez de7 -> eventide pitchfactor -> eventide modfactor -> eventide timefactor -> eventide space -> Digitech jamman

Starting at the pitchfactor, every pedal is run in stereo and stereo out of the jamman into :
Roland JC 120
Hiwatt Hi-gain 50

Also pictured:
Effect selector for Roland JC 120
Expression pedals for eventide boxes
Aux switch for time factor

Guitars :
Rickenbacker 330
Fender blacktop Jazzmaster
AXL jazzmaster

I posted Troy Van Leeuwen’s board back in August. This guitarist is great, and I’ve become quite a fan. Been staring at photos of his signature Jazzmaster at NAMM14 this year too.  Very nice. This morning, I was please to receive an email letting me know that Moog posted an updated photo of his board via Twitter. Talk about changing things up!

When Moog posted videos of the MiniFoogers, they had Troy do some demos. From that.. I’m assuming he picked up a pretty sweet endorsement since his board is very moog-centric now.  Moog is top shelf all the way, and his sound from various recent live performances has been really stellar. Like this performance in early January 14 on Austin City Limits!

Here is the photo of Troy Van Leeuwen‘s board:

Moog EP-3 Expression Pedal
Dunlop DVP3 Volume Pedal
Moog MP-201 Multi-Pedal
MiniFooger MF Boost
MiniFooger MF Drive
MiniFooger MF Ring
MoogerFooget MF-104M Analog Delay (white)
Boss TU-3 Tuner
Eventide H9
Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine
MiniFooger MF Delay

Please let me know if I missed anything.. or if anything is correct. Also please let me know what you think about Troy Van Leeuwen and Queens of the Stone Age by commenting below!

Reverb is a funny thing. I remember a few years ago, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a reverb pedal in my line, now I have two on my board currently. Now you see and hear various levels of reverb on many guitarists boards. Because of that demand, there are a ton to pick from now-a-days. So what’s the best? What’s the most popular. If you’re interested in getting a reverb, this might be a good resource to pull from. So we need your help! Please vote what you think is the best reverb out there. If you see a pedal missing from the poll, let me know by commenting below. For now, I just pulled 30 units out there.

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I know today is not Friday, but due to the large queue of Pedal Line Friday, I thought I do a few on Wednesdays! Today’s pedal line is from Tass. 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 pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

Hey there Effects Bay readers,

I’m Tass and I play guitar with The Never End. We’re an alternative rock band based out of New Haven CT. Here’s our website and Facebook page:
http://theneverend.com
https://www.facebook.com/theneverendband

We’re basically a two guitar band with one guitar player. If you check out our music you’ll probably recognize some layering for fullness of sound and texture as well as parts that should really be played by two guitars. This became quite a challenge to recreate live and a lot of thought and work went into getting the right rig together with the pedalboard at the heart of the whole setup.

The Board Requirements
Breaking down what I needed to get from the the board was pretty straight forward: various stages of overdrive, wah, modulation effects and delays along with tuner and volume control. Sounds pretty simple right? Well, if you consider that modulation means chorus, flange, tremolo, phaser etc. and the delay times were multiple and complex, it got really crowded very quickly and switching between sounds would become more of a dance act than guitar playing – and I’m not about to venture into that territory. In addition even though the rig is not cheap I’m still working within a limited budget so I need to utilize what pedals I already have as much as possible. Finally to throw in an extra twist, I play through two amps so I need a stereo stereo signal coming out of the board.

The Solution

Pedaltrain Pro frame
Solid and the frame itself is pretty light weight. Needed to do some drilling and custom mounting for a power strip and power supplies underneath.

Planet Waves Tru-Strobe pedal tuner
I plug in the guitar here. It’s wicked accurate and Planet Waves was good enough to replace it at no additional cost when the first one I had became moody and developed a mind of its own after abusing it for about a year or so.

Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedal
Basic, does the job and absolutely necessary because once too often during a show there simply is no time for me to take my hand away from the strings and adjust the volume on the guitar. Also allows me to do volume swells, crescendos and fade outs nicely.

Fulltone Clyde Delux wah
There are some that say the wah being a filter, logically belongs after the overdrive stage in the signal path but this never worked for me. It just doesn’t sound good in my ears in that position. I use it fairly often in and out at different parts and mostly for leads. Very flexible and has three settings for wah range as well as volume control.

Electro-harmonix Micro POG
What can one say about the POG. Ya gotta have one. I use it sparingly and set the low and high octaves to less than 50% of the dry signal which gives a kind of 12string effect. Great for some clean rhythm, picking and arpeggios but also adds great texture to a lead sound. The trick is not to over do it with the POG.

Moen GEC9 switcher/looper
I searched long and hard for a switcher and really wish it made sense for me to go all out and spend a couple of thousand bucks on one. Not in my budget. I also couldn’t find one that supports a stereo signal out of the box – what’s up with that anyway, am I the only guitar player that plays stereo? So I came across this baby that supports 9 loops, presets, one touch setup and at $300, cheap enough to experiment with. Works like a charm after I figured out how to get a stereo signal out if it. (BTW shoot me an email if you want the details). The touch switches needed a bit getting used to and wiring it ended up being a full couple of days work. The signal from the POG enters here and two individual (left, right) feeds go out to the amps. I program each of the 5 presets for each bank using a consistent pattern: clean, dry overdriven, wet (includes mod and/or  delays and may or may not be overdriven), variable, and lead for solos. This way I don’t have to memorize each individual bank preset.

GFS Greenie classic
I always prefer to use multiple overdrives rather than distortion pedals or fuzz for that matter. I feel they maintain the fullness of the amp signal much better without loosing body. This one is a copy of the tube screamer circuit with a few of the mods built in that you can switch in or out. Works great and is only $50! I got it after I already had the full drive (~$150) and they sound pretty much the same to me. Hmm, kinda makes you think huh?

Fulltone FULL-DRIVE 2
I’ve had this for about three years or so and has been my go to OD. I now use it as my second overdrive stage. Great sound but see my comments above. I had to send it in a few months ago because the volume pot stopped working. It took emailing them a few times before they responded and cost $50 to get it fixed if you include the shipping\u2026 I think I’m done with Fulltone.

Fulltone OCD
Yep, I was a Fulltone fan\u2026 Great pedal, good texture and very flexible. I kick it in as a second overdrive stage mostly for leads. I rarely, if ever, use it as a third stage but it’s there if I feel like going nuts. I’ve also found myself once in a blue moon using it stand alone for that more saturated but thiner metal distortion type sound – did I just say metal distortion!?!?!

iSP Decimator
After all this overdriving ya gotta have a noise gate! Nuf said.

Eventide MODFactor
One stop shop for modulation effects. Period. Well, unless you want flange AND tremolo\u2026and\u2026  Luckily I haven’t so far on this project but keep a few individual mod pedals handy to plug in if the need arises. Works really well and there are more params to change than worth messing with – famous last words. It has one of, if not my all-time favorite, stereo chorus sounds that comes as a preset and I use it A LOT both clean and driven. Together with two OD stages it starts approaching Dean DeLeo territory. Nice. I also like and use the tremolo a lot and the pedal comes in real handy in the studio as well.

Eventide TIMEFactor
I love this one. Two individually controlled delay pedals in one unit. A lot of flexibility and the vintage presets (echo etc.) sound great. I get really nice stereo panned delays with different time signatures and coming out of two individually mic’ed amps, the guitar sound fills a room nicely.

Well, there it is! Thanks Effects Bay for giving us the chance to share our passion for great guitar sound and get ideas from each other on how to put it all together. Keep posting and we’ll keep reading.

Rock on!
T_.

The cool thing about the inter-webs is learning about new things, new people, etc. It’s fun learning about new musicians. Some are super obscure (that no one knows about) or something that is new to me. I’m often late to the party, but I don’t mind, I still have fun. I feel like I’m late on this one – St. Vincent (or specifically Annie Clark). I’ve heard about St. Vincent during conversations, but I knew nothing about this band/musician. Never heard of a tune, etc. But this morning, I came across my new favorite video segment – Guitar Moves where Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) talks shop.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was her style of playing. There is something very intriguing. I like the jerky, tension filled style she has. She has some interesting tones/noise, that I’m always a sucker for. Unique came to mind. Artistic. I like a musician that leaves an impression, immediately I wanted to rip off a lick or something. Here is the video..

I wanted to see what she was more about. The video mentions that she was playing with David Byrne, so I had to explore and see what this was about. Again, interesting.

Finally, I wanted to see what straight up St. Vincent was about. Here she is playing with a backing band. I’m still not 100% sure if St. Vincent is just Annie Clark or if it’s a collaborative effort. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.

Okay, now I’ve exposed you to three videos and then I thought it would be cool to break down her pedal board. I was seeing glimpses in the Byrne video as well as the video above, and it looks pretty sweet.. so I wanted to dig. I discovered the Nice Rack Canada built this board for her. Nice Rack Canada is awesome by the way!

Here is the breakdown of pedals:

Moog EP-2 Expression PedalTap Tempo (Nice Rack Canada)
Tuner Bypass Loop (Nice Rack Canada)
Korg Pitchblack Tuner
RJM Music MasterMind
Death By Audio Instersteller Deluxe Overdrive
ZVex Mastotron
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter
Eventide Pitch Factor
Eventide Space
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+

Thoughts? Please comment below!

Today’s pedal line is from Piotr Zarek. 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 pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

Hi Guys,

I’ve just polished my pedalboard, so I decided to send a photo to you and brag about it a bit.

My goal is to combine tone of the vintage gear (stompboxes, tube amp) & electronic experiments (VST plugins, guitar synths, guitar signal to MIDI etc).

Here’s the overall routing:

Strat -> Analogman Sun Face NKT 275 -> WOBO Custom Mixer (splitting signal):

a) Morley Mini Volume/Wah -> ZVex Super Hard On -> EHX Deluxe Electric Mistress -> Rockett Pedals Josh Smith Dual Trem -> Eventide Time Factor -> MG Custom Amp (12AX7WA, EL84)

b) BYOC Large Beaver -> RME Babyface (laptop interface, VST plugins etc.) -> EHX Hog -> RME Babyface -> (stereo signal to console -> speakers)

c) T.C.Electronic Poly Tune

Sun Face fuzz is first in line, cause it doesn’t work well anywhere else. Next goes a custom mixer used to split the signal.

The a) section goes into the guitar amp and provides “standard” electric guitar sound with classic fuzz (Sun Face), wah wah, some modulation for warmth (flanger, tremolo) & delay for rhythm variation. It goes into the VOX-like amp. ZVEX Super Hard On sounds great combined with the “british” warmth.

The b) section is here for a bit of synth, stereo, ambient & overall madness Sound goes through muff (Large Beaver) to create long sustained notes. No VST is able to reproduce the muff sound IMO. Then it enters audio interface (Babyface) connected to a laptop. I’m here able to release my imagination and do any kind of crazy stuff with the sound (turn audio into MIDI and trigger synths, make loops, apply additional stereo effects etc). There’s a HOG2 in the interface’s “effects loop” and I often use it to make synth-like octave bendings, add harmonics, sustain a note or glide. The sound goes through an amp simulator (I like Softube Vintage Amp Room most) and goes into the console & stereo speakers.

The c) section can be turned on with a switch. This section consists of a tuner only.

The ambient section (b) is controlled by the SoftStep controller & an expression pedal.

Best,
guitatronik
http://guitatronik.com/

The other day I received an email from Mike Vegas of Nice Rack Canada letting me know about a recent board they just put together for the guitarist of Metric – Jimmy Shaw. I’m a fan of the Canadian band Metric.

We recently built this system for Guitarist Jimmy Shaw of Metric. I’ve been a fan of the album Live it Out for years. I have to admit that I don’t know too much about Jimmy Shaw, so this is great to see his board, and man… it’s pretty awesome.

Below is the what Mike wrote about Jimmy’s rig:

The controller board is at Jimmy’s home position onstage and the effects offstage. Due to the size of aircraft often involved in the bands logistics, a pedalboard format was preferred over a rack system without compromising the functionality of a MIDI switching rig which could interface with Ableton.

The signal flow is 2x Parallel Series Wired MIDI Controlled True Bypass.

Path 1 is Boss OD3 – DOD FX55 – Throne Room Revelator – Electro Harmonix POG2 – Nice Rack Canada Gain Adjust Insert – Red Witch Titan Delay – Eventide Space - Boss PN2 Tremolo – Amp.

Path 2 is Boss OD3 – Fulltone FullDrive 2 – Electro Harmonix Big Muff Tone Wicker – Nice Rack Canada Clean Boost – Nice Rack Canada Gain Adjust Insert – Strymon Timeline – Dr Scientist Red Reverberator

Pedal Power 2+ & Pedal Power Digital System Power Supplies by Voodoo Lab.

RJM Music Y Not to control feeds into both audio paths & 4x Mini Effects Gizmo to switch audio devices in & out of the signal path.

Fractal Audio MFC101 MIDI Controller.

MFC101 Labels by PedalboardLabels.com

MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru & Thru.

System Design, Custom Interface Boxes, Wiring & Clean Boost Pedal by Nice Rack Canada.

Today’s pedal line is from Sam Cooper. 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 pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

SIGNAL CHAIN:

Guitar >

{Little Board}
TC Electronics Polytune Mini > Z.Vex Vexter Fuzz Factory > Z.Vex Vexter Mastotron > Eventide PitchFactor >

{Big Board}
ModTone Mini-Mod Fuzzer > Prescription Electronics Overdriver > Crowther Audio Prunes & Custard > Visual Sound Route 66 Overdrive/Compression > Nick Greer Sonic Boom Boost > Bigfoot FX Magnavibe > Moog Moogerfooger MF-104M Analog Delay > Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine >

Ernie Ball Jr. passive volume pedal (floating between boards) >

{Back to Little Board}
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb > Strymon Lex > Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler > Lehle Little Dual switcher >

Amps:
Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue (with reverb and tremolo controlled by Nobels FS-2L on Big Board)
Vox AC-15 CC1

SOME MORE WORDS:

1.  TC Electronics Polytune Mini
It’s a tuner. It gets the job done.

2. Z.Vex Vexter Fuzz Factory
I need my fuzzes versatile and as loud as possible. This fits the bill nicely. I don’t really mind the unpredictability/sensitivity of the circuit; a quick sound check will get it where it needs to be. Although I set mine to be relatively gated, I can usually coax some nearly endless sustain out of this beautiful germanium baby.

3. Z.Vex Vexter Mastotron
I’m a big St. Vincent fan, and love her fuzz sound, which comes from a Mastrotron. I have mine set up to spew nasty, squeezed, squelchy, silicon trash fuzz. Mmmmm. One and only complaint: could be louder. Oh well.

4. Eventide PitchFactor
Oh man… so versatile. The straight-up pitch shifting is magical and musical—with a sound dinstinct from a Whammy or POG—and can make my guitar sound like a drawbar organ or portamento synth. But where this unit really shines as a creative tool is in its pitch sequencing and delay offerings. Whole songs can be written around these sounds (and have been).

5. Nobels FS-2L Latching footswitch
I use my Fender ’65 DRRI’s onboard reverb and tremolo a lot, and used to use the supplied footswitch to operate them. But I wanted something with LEDs so that I could, at a glance, with my volume killed, see what was on. This was the solution.

6. ModTone Mini-Mod Fuzzer
I bought this on a whim for 40 bucks in an online sale, not thinking I’d use it much. It is now a cornerstone of my sound. It is loud as hell, and has an unbelievable tonal range. It’s marketed as being able to reproduce John Lennon’s straight-into-the-mixing-board distortion from “Revolution” (which it definitely can), but I turn down the fuzz and the tone control all the way for a honky, slightly muffled, QOTSA-like mid-range-boost sound that’s almost more like an overdrive than a fuzz.

7. Prescription Electronics Overdriver
My two biggest guitar heroes are Neil Young and Jeff Tweedy. Both are known to traffic in skronky, super-compressed, molten-iron lead tones. This pedal does that. And oh yeah, IT’S LOUD. (I had an LED indicator added to this, and put that giant knob on the top.)

8. Crowther Audio Prunes & Custard
This is another one purchased as a result of Jeff-Tweedy-worship. I don’t have a whole lot of interest in what a lot of guitarists seem to be looking for in tone: smooth, creamy, sweet, whatever. So I love this pedal. For those who don’t know, it’s essentially a high-gain overdrive with a second-stage filter that makes synth-like overtones and weird harmonic modulation between notes.

9. Visual Sound Route 66 Overdrive/Compression
This is, in my opinion, a shamefully under-used pedal in the music world at large. It’s essentially a slightly modded TS808 and a Dyna/Ross compressor squashed together. The overdrive side in particular is essential to my playing. It’s just a great, classic, aggressive, high-gain workhorse.

10. Nick Greer Sonic Boom Boost
I’m not sure this is a totally clean boost, as it’s advertised; I hear a slight mids-boost when the pedal’s set to unity gain. It’s got one knob, something like +20dB of gain. I use it to push my amps into distortion, which it does fantastically.

11. Bigfoot FX Magnavibe
I record a lot with my two vintage amps: a Supro Super 1606 and a Magnatone 213-A Troubadour, both dated 1960. The Magnatone features the famous “golden voice”—true pitch-shifting electronic vibrato—and this pedal comes very close to replicating it. Since I never play out with my vintage amps, this pedal is a must for recreating those wiggly Magnatone sounds live.

12. Moog Moogerfooger MF-104M Analog Delay
(12a. Ernie Ball Jr. as expression pedal)
This is the newest and coolest addition to my rig. I’ve wanted one for about 10 years. When the new version came out a few months ago, I couldn’t afford it. But some savvy eBay scouring and the sales of some other gear made my dreams come true. It’s the Rolls Royce of analog delays. And it looks like a spaceship.

13. Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine
I hate chorus. I really do. And I don’t have much use for flangers or phasers either. So when I got this, I thought I’d use it the most for the weird video game noises and fairy-dust effects. But I’ve ended up using it for a sickening, detuned chorus effect. Go figure. I guess it’s just messed up enough for me to love it.

14. Ernie Ball Jr. volume pedal
It makes things louder or quieter. A lot of people bitch about these things being unreliable. And yeah, I’ve broken the string mechanism a few times in a couple units. But I think their feel and action is unbeatable.

15. Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb
Since I use my Fender amp’s onboard reverb for more subtle, groovy spring-reverb textures, I set the Holy Grail to the “hall” setting and turn the knob up high. It makes my guitar sound melted.

16. Strymon Lex
This is an incredibly realistic Leslie speaker emulator, with controls over such detailed parameters as the “mic” “distance” from the “cabinet.” I bought this thinking it would be a cool occasional texture, but I’ve ended up using it constantly.  Remember when I said I hate chorus, flangers, and phasers? Well this thing is a classy way to get some more non-standard modulation into my rig. Because I play through two amps in stereo, I can split the signal from the Lex for some seriously psychedelic swirliness.

17. Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
I use this for really long delays, slapback tape echoes, stereo delays, and looping. It’s a great pedal and is so ubiquitous for a reason.

18. Lehle Little Dual switcher
This little German gizmo keeps my amps electrically isolated. It’s got a handy phase-switching button, and the brightest LEDs I’ve ever seen.

19. TC Helicon VoiceCreate
This is my vocal effects unit.

Other notes:

• The little board is powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power II Plus. The big board is powered by the MKS Power Pad II.
• Why make my signal travel back and forth between two boards twice? Because I’ve optimized the little board to be, with one or two swaps, suitable as a standalone electric or acoustic rig.
• The assorted religious, children’s, and doctor’s office stickers are the secret to my tone.

Sam Cooper is a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who leads the band Sam Cooper & The Sleepwalkers. Find out more about them here: www.samcoopersleepwalkers.com

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 pedallineeffectsbaycom. 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