Let's see your PEDAL BOARD!

[mcatano]

The Ghost Echo is great! It's just a simple "spring-y" reverb. It's a belton brick, which is a module designed to essentially emulate a spring tank in a small box (uses some stacked PT2399 chips I believe). Ghost echo also has quite a lot of variation available for pre-delay which is nice. So I'd compare it to any similar small Belton-based reverb pedals.

It's a pretty simple reverb, no fancy tricks. When I had one I just found that it... sounded really good?

i was asking because it seems like it would work well as a no nonsense end of the chain verb for bowed instruments as well. not sure how it would work in reality though

i used to use a preamp with an effects loop as the front end to my computer, before the convertors, and I would keep the ghost echo on in the loop 99% of the time as kind of the fake room tone for doing shitty demos and such. I think it would work really well as an end-of-chain thing to add a bit of wobble/depth/etc.

[coldbrightsunlight]

The Ghost Echo is great! It's just a simple "spring-y" reverb. It's a belton brick, which is a module designed to essentially emulate a spring tank in a small box (uses some stacked PT2399 chips I believe). Ghost echo also has quite a lot of variation available for pre-delay which is nice. So I'd compare it to any similar small Belton-based reverb pedals.

It's a pretty simple reverb, no fancy tricks. When I had one I just found that it... sounded really good?

i was asking because it seems like it would work well as a no nonsense end of the chain verb for bowed instruments as well. not sure how it would work in reality though

I think it would work really well for this! It certainly has its own character and you can't like, turn it into a clean hall reverb. But if you like the sound of the Ghost Echo, I think you will like it a lot, used like that on bowed instruments.

[dubkitty]

the Ghost Echo has been my end-of-chain pedal ever since they came out. it literally landed about 3 or 4 weeks after introduction and has never left my board since. i said the other day that i use it to delineate and define the sonic space...it's the canvas everything else is painted on. well, everything on the pedalboard(s). when i get the rackmount Wall Of Reverbs happening the vortex of Lexicon, MidiVerb II, Ibanez, and Yamaha reverb/delay is gonna swallow everything, potentially including items of clothing or empty Coke cans left around carelessly.

interesting that it's a Belton brick, because it doesn't sound the least bit springy to me. i think of it as more like a rustic plate reverb, one they might use at a livestock exhibition with a rock 'n' roll trio. seriously, it sounds rural to me. i fell in love the minute i heard it.

[dubkitty]

in other pedalboard news, i have the front-end board pretty much sorted. the Acoustic Simulator is very fussy about position and can give off that nasty digital buzz/whistle/hum thing at about 3000 Hz if its porridge isn't juuuuust right, so i put my Solidgold FX buffer at the front to give it a nice stable signal. the Octave Multiplexer had to go next, but when it's set for faux bass there's hella volume drop, so i put the Hi Five in front of it so i can kick them in together so the bass parts on the loops are as loud as the untreated guitar. after that is the Attack Decay, which i'm starting to figure out, and then into the Flashback. so in that sequence of pedals i have the acoustic and bass sims followed by the Attack Decay with its built-in fuzz (which is to a Big Muff as a concrete block is to a stiletto) and then delay that i can also loop on. i would prefer an analog delay that would self-oscillate, but i have different fish to fry as far as pedal stuff goes. i did some research and found out that the tuner out on the Ernie Ball passive volume pedal only sucks tone if the guitar goes straight into it; allegedly if you have a buffered pedal in front of it it's fine. the problem is that the tuner out isn't isolated from the main output, so it bleeds signal from the guitar. a buffer isolates it, or so they say. i wired it up over the last couple of days, but haven't tested the tuner out. so i left space on the left side of the front-end board for the volume pedal and squeezed the tuner into the remaining space. as different to the main board, this one is wired all over the place because the AC and OM had to be at the front, the AC and delay have to be at the front of the board where i can reach the knobs, and the signal chain always starts at the lower right so the guitar cord doesn't snag on the pedals. i'll take a picture tomorrow after i've tested it out.

i also twiddled the internal trim pot on the LAL 46 to make it wackier. i discovered that running it into the PM7 with the phaser's FEEDBACK knob all the way out at either end of its travel makes them emit some hellacious clouds of racket as they feed back off each other and decided the 46 needed more oscillation. now if i set the gain in the last 15% or so of its travel it does this thing where you hold a long note and the oscillation gradually bleeds into the note as it decays. i also somehow miraculously revived my Goodbye 24, which i thought was deader than Lenin's corpse. it's still as primitive, noisy, fiddly, and arbitrary as ever, but that's not a problem. once i get it figured out again it will live on board #4, the "stunt board." board #3 will be the new looping setup, but that's a whole other can of worms.

[Thylacine Dream]

i miraculously revived my Goodbye 24 that i thought was deader than Lenin's corpse. it's still as primitive, noisy, fiddly, and arbitrary as ever, but that's not a problem. once i get it figured out again it will live on board #4, the "stunt board." board #3 will be the new looping setup, but that's a whole other can of worms.

I miss my Goodbye24 so much a finicky beast to be sure but there's nothing else like her

[dubkitty]

i discovered that if you lower the gain all the way on the Goodbye 24 by turning the trim pot fully counterclockwise it reduces noise by about 70% and also gives you more granular control over the wet/dry blend. now it just needs an expression pedal. i'm going to wind up with a board array the size of a church organ's bass pedal module...by the time everything's set up i'll need at least 3 expression pedals in addition to the main volume and wah and the EB stereo volume/pan pedal that crossfades between the two loopers at the output. fortunately they'll each go with a different board, so it shouldn't be too confusing.

i've determined exactly how to rig the front-end board...as in the previous plot, the chain starts with buffer->Acoustic Simulator->Hi 5 as level boost for bass->Octave Multiplexer->Attack Decay. i checked the manual, and you can set up its effects loop to be active even when the AD is bypassed. so i'm going to run SEND to a JPTR FX ROYGBIV modulator, a Muza FD900 reverb/delay, and the Flashback delay which also loops. all that stuff will go into the AC's RETURN, and when the envelope functions are active the FX in the loop will fade in/out with the attack and decay settings on the AC, and i'll be able to obliterate them with the AC's built-in fuzz. i'd put a Instant Lo-Fi Junky on, but there's no room because the Moog expression pedal needs to sit next to the AD to make simulating backwards guitar easier by controlling the attack. the board is 12.5×17", and i can't really afford to buy a new one just to make room for a couple of added pedals. all the front-end stuff that i don't have on hand (Muza, ROYGBIV, expression pedal) will be here by the middle of next week.

once that's done the looper board is next. the simple version will fit on a 12×5" Pedaltrain Nano: a Boss LM-2 limiter to control loop volume creep, an active buffered splitter to supply two loop inputs which will mount under the deck to save space, and the two Ditto X2 loopers whose outputs run to an EB stereo volume/pan pedal used to crossfade loops. it also requires no $300 boutique pedals, as different to the planned Board #4 which will be all up in Pladask Electrisk. getting that together will take awhile because the minimum spec for #4 at retail (4 boxes) is about $1100 plus the board and power supply, and more like $1500 if i also go for the T120 delay. so don't expect a layout until maybe late summer or early fall, especially given that Pladask and Demedash both do limited drops. this will go on one of the long Nano boards so i can set it directly in front of the main board for ease of use. i'm really working hard on the ergonomics because with all the boards done i'll have at least 27 stomp boxes and two or three expression pedals not counting the loop board, and arranging things so they aren't confusing is essential so i'm not sitting there wondering "just where did i place that delay, and how am i going to adjust it when it's in the fourth tier back?"

[retinal orbita]

Current bass board is really in a "development phase" where I'm trying to get everything to play nice together - I realize this is not very different than my last post here but I'm on vacation and just doing a ton of board organizing. Chain ATM is DOD440 > Meatbox > Bit Commander > Lost Ark PLL > HMD-1 > Randy's Revenge Ring Mod > FM4 Filter > Boss Bass EQ > DMM. Going for mostly synth like effects here and so I have left a ton of distortion off at the moment.....

I really like the Lost Ark but it's volume is so unpredictable. I feel crank the sub octave knobs and it's earth shatteringly loud in the chain, even with the volume at zero. And then sometimes it's totally manageable with a twist of the filter. I love it though, it's simple and uncomplicated. I had to kick the Moogerfooger off because it doesn't play nice with the envelope filter and I can't get it on the board any other way.

I also really love the Meatbox but feel like it doesn't have much use at bedroom levels but I keep hoping I will have a chance to really cut loose with it some day. I think that spot and the Randy will be switchable for other effects like a Death Metal or some other stuff.

Anyway, this will change within a day or two so see you next week.....

[Eivind August]

Always love your boards, but this one in particular is perfect!

(Lacking a Death Metal, though...)

[MaxMaps]

Current bass board is really in a "development phase" where I'm trying to get everything to play nice together - I realize this is not very different than my last post here but I'm on vacation and just doing a ton of board organizing. Chain ATM is DOD440 > Meatbox > Bit Commander > Lost Ark PLL > HMD-1 > Randy's Revenge Ring Mod > FM4 Filter > Boss Bass EQ > DMM. Going for mostly synth like effects here and so I have left a ton of distortion off at the moment.....

I really like the Lost Ark but it's volume is so unpredictable. I feel crank the sub octave knobs and it's earth shatteringly loud in the chain, even with the volume at zero. And then sometimes it's totally manageable with a twist of the filter. I love it though, it's simple and uncomplicated. I had to kick the Moogerfooger off because it doesn't play nice with the envelope filter and I can't get it on the board any other way.

I also really love the Meatbox but feel like it doesn't have much use at bedroom levels but I keep hoping I will have a chance to really cut loose with it some day. I think that spot and the Randy will be switchable for other effects like a Death Metal or some other stuff.

Anyway, this will change within a day or two so see you next week.....

yessssssss

Volume wise I feel the same way about my MBD2 - but the sound is so good I dont want to ever take it off.

[MaxMaps]

Minus my troll toe here is the update -

I am still messing with the signal chain but so far it’s - bass - tu3- Seymour Duncan Bass Comp - MBD2 - EQ Disaster Transport - Bitquest - RC1 - Darkglass Element

I will be exploring other options for delay and compression however I really like this signal chain and don’t need to rush any changes . I also updated the firmware on my darkglass element and it made a huge difference. Now I can use it directly into a DAW via usb cable so I am going to download reaper at some point. I really want to put some tracks down but my time to play is still limited.

Not critical but a Stomping Stones Virus is going to be the next purchase - that in combo with the MBD2 means I can set the bitquest for non fuzz wacky shit.

Super happy with this board.

[goroth]

Sick.

[Dowi]

Minus my troll toe here is the update -

I am still messing with the signal chain but so far it’s - bass - tu3- Seymour Duncan Bass Comp - MBD2 - EQ Disaster Transport - Bitquest - RC1 - Darkglass Element

I will be exploring other options for delay and compression however I really like this signal chain and don’t need to rush any changes . I also updated the firmware on my darkglass element and it made a huge difference. Now I can use it directly into a DAW via usb cable so I am going to download reaper at some point. I really want to put some tracks down but my time to play is still limited.

Not critical but a Stomping Stones Virus is going to be the next purchase - that in combo with the MBD2 means I can set the bitquest for non fuzz wacky shit.

Super happy with this board.

I like how your board is evolving! Curious to see future improvements. I don't know anything about the darkglass, but i 100% approve how the signal chain is laid out, and the Virus as next purchase (got one coming myself too).

Also I like that red arrow knob on the Bitquest,and the overall orange/black Hm2 style, think it's goroth's fault?

[MaxMaps]

Minus my troll toe here is the update -

I am still messing with the signal chain but so far it’s - bass - tu3- Seymour Duncan Bass Comp - MBD2 - EQ Disaster Transport - Bitquest - RC1 - Darkglass Element

I will be exploring other options for delay and compression however I really like this signal chain and don’t need to rush any changes . I also updated the firmware on my darkglass element and it made a huge difference. Now I can use it directly into a DAW via usb cable so I am going to download reaper at some point. I really want to put some tracks down but my time to play is still limited.

Not critical but a Stomping Stones Virus is going to be the next purchase - that in combo with the MBD2 means I can set the bitquest for non fuzz wacky shit.

Super happy with this board.

I like how your board is evolving! Curious to see future improvements. I don't know anything about the darkglass, but i 100% approve how the signal chain is laid out, and the Virus as next purchase (got one coming myself too).

Also I like that red arrow knob on the Bitquest,and the overall orange/black Hm2 style, think it's goroth's fault?

I call the bit quest either a raptor quest or a Swiss quest . It makes it sound more brutal

Darkglass in my opinion is a pedal platform that is largely shaped by Adam Getgood - all of the pedals Darkglass makes are shaped around his bass sound and a lot of bass players out fan girl all over it. I like the element because it fits my needs and allows me to be ampless / cabless and still portable where I can take my board anywhere in the house. I have grown to really like what the element is and I don’t hesitate recommending it to anyone in search of a decent headphone option.

[ck3]

Haven't been able to run a signal through this yet, but guessing the results may prove to be inspiring:

[alexsga]

hows the Eddy? does it sound like clone theory/polychorus?
zoom ultra fuzz?
what's the one beside the zoom?
i hated my zvex machine! how you like yours?