Mark Spencer's (Son Volt) pedal board - budget pedals

[telel6s]

A couple weeks ago I got to see Americana singer/songwriter Florence Dore perform in a small arts space with a "packed house" of about 40-45 people. She was really good but what was kind of cool is that her rhythm section is Will Rigby and Peter Holsapple of the dB's, and the guitarist is Mark Spencer who has played pedal steel with Son Volt since 2009.

I found it interesting to see Mark Spencer's pedal board for this we're-all-travelling-in-one-van type of tour. The only thing that might be called boutique is the Greer Lightspeed. Then there are the well regarded but mainstream Hall of Fame, mini Carbon Copy and mini Phase 90. And finally are the three budget Mooer, Mosky and VSN pedals (I'd never heard of VSN until looking it up for this post --- the Comp is currently $19.20 on Amazon).

It's not uncommon to see regular BOSS, Ibanez, EHX and other pedals on the boards of top-level players. But I was still surprised, and found it cool, that a lifelong professional musician who has literally travelled the world for his job (during the show Florence Dore mentioned his having played in New Zealand and Australia with Son Volt) would fill out his board with these inexpensive budget pedals. Yes, I've read good reviews here and elsewhere of the Trelicopter and Silver Horse. But I know local weekend warriors who would cringe at the thought of having one of these pedals at their feet.

And, yes, I just ordered a VSN comp pedal from Amazon.

 

[ShortintheSleeve]

I can see the benefit of touring, especially at a smaller scale, with inexpensive pedals. Even so, a pro like Spencer isn’t going to use them if he doesn’t like the sound.

 

[beyer160]

FYI that's Gene Holder on the bass, not Peter.

 

[Killing Floor]

Why not? There’s no best. He plays what works for him.

 

[Coffeemutt]

I have that same compressor pedal, so it's cool for me to see a pro actually using it! It's my very first compressor pedal, so I can't speak to how it compares to others, but it seems to work well and mine is very quiet.

 

[TokyoPortrait]

Hi.

I know local weekend warriors who would cringe at the thought of having one of these pedals at their feet.

I own a few ‘boutique’ pedals (well, def. one [KOT] and two other ‘boutique to craft’ pedals [both Keeley]). But I suspect any cringing will be by those listening…

the Trelicopter and Silver Horse.

I have the ‘other version’ clone of the Demeter Tremulator, the Donner Golden (apparently the same on the inside as the Trelicopter), and also the ‘other colour version’ of the Silver Horse, the Golden Horse. Both are great. I tend to prefer harmonic tremolo now, but the Golden Horse gets used a lot nowadays.

Pax/
Dean

 

[bgmacaw]

I've got versions of those pedals, same circuit, just different brands.

The Trelicopter is pretty good and I still use it.

I used the optical compressor a lot, especially for slide, until I replaced it with an Orange Kongpressor.

I had a couple of the early Golden Horse pedals that came with defective charge pumps that failed rather quickly. I've heard the newer ones don't have that issue. I replaced mine with a MXR Sugar Drive a few years ago.

I have a VSN Silicon Fuzz, essentially a Fuzz Face copy.

 

[Festofish]

Why? I get convenience but if he’s a pro as you all say, then why the cheap pedals? I have several that I love but sure wouldn’t tour with or rely on.

 

[telel6s]

FYI that's Gene Holder on the bass, not Peter.

Meh. If you've seen one bass player you've seen them all.

All the promo material for the show listed Peter Holsapple being in the band. I obviously wasn't paying too much attention when she introduced the bass player. She is married to Will Rigby so the drummer's identity was pretty obvious.

 

[jescoelvis]

I own a ****load of expensive and cheap pedals from all eras of pedal-dom, and swap them around regularly…the combination of my above-mentioned pedalboard makes for a great small footprint board with which I can get almost all the sounds I regularly want to work with, and none of the cheap Chinese pedals have given me any problem at all. Doesn’t mean next time you see me I won’t be sporting a pedalboard worth more than my car…you just never know.

 

[jescoelvis]

Meh. If you've seen one bass player you've seen them all.

All the promo material for the show listed Peter Holsapple being in the band. I obviously wasn't paying too much attention when she introduced the bass player. She is married to Will Rigby so the drummer's identity was pretty obvious.

Peter is on Flo’s album and has done some gigs with her and band. Gene is the bass player from Will and Peter’s band the dB’s, a killer musician and producer to boot. Super fun band to play and tour with, and an honor to play with so many members of one of my favorite bands of all time.

 

[jescoelvis]

A couple weeks ago I got to see Americana singer/songwriter Florence Dore perform in a small arts space with a "packed house" of about 40-45 people. She was really good but what was kind of cool is that her rhythm section is Will Rigby and Peter Holsapple of the dB's, and the guitarist is Mark Spencer who has played pedal steel with Son Volt since 2009.

I found it interesting to see Mark Spencer's pedal board for this we're-all-travelling-in-one-van type of tour. The only thing that might be called boutique is the Greer Lightspeed. Then there are the well regarded but mainstream Hall of Fame, mini Carbon Copy and mini Phase 90. And finally are the three budget Mooer, Mosky and VSN pedals (I'd never heard of VSN until looking it up for this post --- the Comp is currently $19.20 on Amazon).

It's not uncommon to see regular BOSS, Ibanez, EHX and other pedals on the boards of top-level players. But I was still surprised, and found it cool, that a lifelong professional musician who has literally travelled the world for his job (during the show Florence Dore mentioned his having played in New Zealand and Australia with Son Volt) would fill out his board with these inexpensive budget pedals. Yes, I've read good reviews here and elsewhere of the Trelicopter and Silver Horse. But I know local weekend warriors who would cringe at the thought of having one of these pedals at their feet.

And, yes, I just ordered a VSN comp pedal from Amazon.

View attachment 1065431


View attachment 1065439

Ha! My purple hard tail Strat makes the news!

 

[ClashCityTele]

I have 2 Mooer pedal boards of Mooer, Eno, Rowin & Tomsline pedals.
One fits in a flight case with everything I need to gig, apart from a cab, including 2 amps (Vox MV50 & Orange MT20).
I like to travel light.

 

[41144]

My experience, fwiw, if you get/find a 'clone' pedal that (1) isn't noisey and (2) generates the sound you want... Once installed on a pedal board... They're great value for money. The problems tend to arise if you're constantly plugging and unplugging them, again in my experience.
Of the ones shown I've only ever tried the Trelicopter which is, imo, excellent value for money.

 

[Blrfl]

Why? I get convenience but if he’s a pro as you all say, then why the cheap pedals? I have several that I love but sure wouldn’t tour with or rely on.

Not all pros are made of money and inexpensive doesn't necessarily mean low-quality.

The three pedals on there that are "cheap" are the Trelicopter ($50), Silver Horse ($30) and VSN compressor ($25-30). For those prices, keeping spares is affordable and backfilling after a failure doesn't chew up a night's earnings. Most cheap pedals are cheap because the circuits in them are well-known and there's not a lot of non-recurring engineering costs. The boards can be machine-assembled and QC'd in large quantities for very little money and labor to get to the finished product isn't expensive, either. The question to be asking is why the Greer Lightspeed next to the Mosky is $200.

At any rate, what went on tour is the stuff that worked; the pedals that didn't cut the mustard stayed home.

 

[telel6s]

Why? I get convenience but if he’s a pro as you all say, then why the cheap pedals? I have several that I love but sure wouldn’t tour with or rely on.

He's not a pro because "we all say". He's a pro because his work and resume says he's a pro. Which is why I found it interesting for his board to have these budget pedals on it. I think that speaks volumes about the sound and quality of these sub-$50 pedals, and also about how much or how little he cares about what others might think. I'm sure I'm not the first person to take a look at what gear he was using.

Does he use these budget pedals when playing with Son Volt? I can't tell you (although he plays pedal steel with Son Volt so may not have more than a volume pedal for all I know).

Here's a short video I found of him testing out a new guitar. When I saw him, his role was to support Florence so wasn't doing a whole lot of flashy playing. But the geek in me would have loved to seen him play even a third of the licks he does here:

Son Volt’s Mark Spencer on Sakura

During his visit to the Workshop Mark Spencer spent some time playing Sakura through his Milkman 40 1×12 combo. Here he explores some semi-clean tones.

guitardiaries.dantzig.com

 

[beyer160]

Why? I get convenience but if he’s a pro as you all say, then why the cheap pedals? I have several that I love but sure wouldn’t tour with or rely on.

I'm guessing you've never had your gear ripped off on the road.

 

[Marc Morfei]

I agree that’s interesting. Especially since there are plenty of bedroom players who think anything less than a Strymon is not good enough. I suppose the reasons might include:
- inexpensive pedals sometimes sound just fine.
- maybe it’s his “backup” board, for whatever reason.
- pro musicians (especially sidemen) sometimes make surprisingly little money, and maybe have to be thrifty.

 

[TokyoPortrait]

Hi again.

I'm guessing you've never had your gear ripped off on the road.

You know, living in Japan for twenty plus years, where people are by and large scrupulously honest, I forget about this. But, roughly off the top of my head, I'm down about four grand in stuff from when I lived elsewhere.

Pax/
Dean

 

[bowman]

I’ve got about a double handful of those cheap pedals, with several different brand names on them. I’m pretty sure all of them have pretty much the same origin, regardless of what brand is painted on it. But the real story is that they sound very good most of the time. I have no big complaints about any of them. They are better than expected nearly every time.