From almost nothing to a full 'board.

Well, maybe a slight exaggeration, but I've not tended to really use pedals much in the past: I'd maybe stick some kind of distortion pedal in front of a clean amp, but other than a few pedals I bought back in the 1980s I tend to just dig one out once in a while.

I recently got involved with a covers band, playing lead guitar. To be fair I could probably do most of the songs with my Marshall Mini Jubilee set to either a slight crunch, or switch to the dirty channel, but I thought that I'd put what pedals I had onto a used Nano+ 'board I found. Of course I justified getting a few more as I went along and by complete accident found that stacking a couple of them gives a decent ZZ Top sound (for 'Tush').

I've got the overdrive and compression pedals on the input of the amp, then the delay, reverb and clean boost goes in the loop: There is enough headroom to use the clean boost for lifting solos up (unless we start playing stadiums, then I'll get the soundman to mic me up ).

State of play so far:


I'm trying an MXR Timmy out over the weekend, so the Soul Food might get replaced by that: I find the SF a bit 'boxy' sounding, like I've swapped the speaker for a smaller one.

The SL drive might seem a bit redundant into a Marshall, but the Mini Jubilee isn't really a 2 channel amp; they share the same gain control, so it goes from pretty clean to a very saturated sound using the footswitch. You can balance the volume so that the clean and dirty channels match (or not if you prefer), but shared eq and the main gain control mean it takes a bit of setting up to be able to use it for gigs, with just a footswitch.

The SL drive allows me to dial in that more crunchy classic rock sound (it's not too far off what my SV20H 'Plexi' amp sounds like to be fair, so it does a good job). The idea was to have a low distortion pedal, then a Plexi type pedal and a fuzz pedal on top of the base clean(ish), with the dirty channel for full on saturated sounds.

I'm still experimenting with the 'toneprint' settings for the HOF and the Flashback TC pedals. So far the standard Plate reverb seems to work well and analogue echo on a slapback setting covers the cleaner songs. I don't think changing settings during a gig would be a great idea, so unless I need to use chorus instead of slapback I'd need to decide beforehand which one to load.

Not too sure about the RAT clone (Mooer Black Secret) yet. We will be adding a couple of 70's punk songs later, so I bought it for those sounds. I don't think it's too critical about where it goes in the chain (not like a Fuzz face for example), though I might move it nearer the front of the chain.

Funny thing is: Tonight I played through our set list using just the Marshall clean or dirty and my Esquire (which I've fitted an Eric Clapton mid boost and a tapped pickup)...maybe I don't need the pedal board after all?

 

Talking about phasers: I've got a 1980s Ibanez Phase Tone, that I've had from new:



For me it's a bit of a one trick pony though and not something I'd use on even one song from our list, so not really an essential on my 'board. Was one of my first 'decent' brand pedals and it was 30+ years before I bought the 'matching' Tubescreamer (which I also don't really use).

I'll give it a try, but the only issue is that there is only room for one or the other, so it'll have to be a sound I really can't get close to with a combination of the other pedals. Then it creates the headache of how to fit it on the board as I want to stick with the number I have now to avoid going down a rabbit hole of buying a bigger board and filling that up.

I actually had a Pedaltrain Classic a few years ago and sold it to a friend as I just wasn't using it: I'd end up taking pedals off it, just to take to jams or some gigs where I only needed one pedal.

 

I forgot to post the rig that this 'board goes into. I use the smaller 1x12 for rehearsals. It came with a 'V-type' speaker that I thought I'd change, but so far I'm impressed with it at the first rehearsal I took it to. I have a spare UK made Vintage 30 (or an older Greenback in a more 'Plexi' style 1x12 cab, but the MJ seems to sound better with a Vintage 30).



I've also got the matching 2x12 cab with (UK) Vintage 30s in it, but it's really heavy, so I'll save that for gigs that need the extra level, to save my back.

 

Great feedback everyone; thanks.

Hadn't thought of the tuner being at the front or end of the amp chain; to be fair it seems to work fine where it is, even if some of the pedals in front are on. I've done the usual velcro set up so I can move things around to experiment, though so far I seem to only use the SF and the SL drive together for one song. If I'm honest, just using the amp dirty channel alone works well enough for that song though. Will definitely have a try of different orders though, hopefully over the weekend.

Will have a look into those settings for the Flashback too, thanks @nedorama

@naveed211 I very nearly ordered the Tumnus after watching loads of comparison videos: I like that it's a bit more bass heavy than the other Klones. My friend has a KTR that I might be able to borrow at some point: I actually used it one gig ages ago because I'd forgotten my SL drive and he lent me it. Can't remember much about it as it was my wedding party and we just played an opening short set before the main band came on (since I had a captive audience ).

I did look into doing something similar to you @mkdaws32 by using a Mooer Pre Amp Live that I have. However, I spent an evening getting four basic sounds and their respective boosts set up, only to realise that they sounded horrible, with a weird sort of 'crackling' as the distortion fades back to clean. I wasn't using any IRs, just straight into my amp. Better put that one in my 'for sale' pile I think.

A friend has a Helix, he speaks highly off, but I'm a bit more old school I'm afraid: I like that if the pedals go wrong, I can bypass them and at least get a usable clean or dirty sound from the amp. I even have a back up amp, in the form of a Vox MV50AC...it would just about get me through our set, with some manual adjustment if it really came to it.

I've got an old Boss CE2 as well, but I took it apart to respray it back in the late 1980s (I used to hate anything that looked scratched or beat up ). It's got some odd knobs on it now, plus 'Letra set' decals, under a (now) lightly crazed clear coat of nitro (since that's all I had back then). Looks pretty cool, but I think I messed with the internal pots thinking I'd make it 'sound better'. Must have another try at tweaking them whilst playing to see if I can reverse my 'mod'.

 

I did try SF>'RAT' as it stands, but it didn't remind me of any particular song, so I don't know that I'd use that combo. I'll have to try the other way round though.

I tend to go through the pedals to find something in the ballpark for each song, a bit like Nedorama does.

Also, I've been meaning to ask: What's with the '.' above and below every post you make? I always know it's you on the various forums without looking at the name when I see it.

I've got a full size 1960s JEM Crybaby wah pedal, but like the Phaser it's not something I really use. We don't really do any songs where it's a prominent sound, plus I'm not very good at using one to be honest, so there is that too.

 

Well...I like the MXR Timmy, so it's going to be in place of the Soul Food. You can probably see the settings in the photo below, so not using a lot of gain (though my Esquire and Strat both have Eric Clapton mid boost which can push it a little more). I think I prefer the middle switch setting. It works perfectly for the songs where I just need a little bit of grit (with the Marshall gain, just on the edge of clean/crunch).

I found that by putting the SP compressor in front of it I get a similar sound to that when the switch is to the left, plus I can just have the SP on a clean guitar sound as well. I like the Timmy into the SL drive, though maybe not a sound I need at the moment, it's good to have another option. The Black secret seems to work better (for me) in Turbo mode, which makes helps to differentiate it more from the SL drive. I don't think I'll use the BS with the other pedals into it as it just starts to sound 'messy' to my ears.



I also tested the Polytune with all the pedals on in front of it and it works fine, so I've left it there for now as the way the various patch cables/Z-links work it all just about fits despite the Timmy being smaller than the Soul Food.

Apart from more practising this weekend I'm going to look at the Tone print options for the Flashback and HOF as suggested previously.