Today’s pedal line is from Tyler Rogers. 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.
Ahoy, my name is Tyler Rogers and I play guitar and bass in a math/rock band called Arms That Work based out of Los Angeles. I’ve been working on this board since the start of this project three years ago and I think it’s just getting to a place that I feel comfortable with (until I have money and can build myself a true bypass looper)
Our newest really can be downloaded for free right about here: http://armsthatwork.bandcamp.com/
from guitar [’95 USA Fender Strat Standard] to board:
1. BOSS Dynamic Wah – have yet to find use for this in any songs but I love envelope filters and once I talk my drummer into it, this thing will be on for much of our set. I’ll eventually go analog but this thing has too much options.
2. BOSS Line Selector – this guy is the most important pedal on the board because it turns on the Keeley BD-2 and the Digitech Whammy, the combination being the pivotal sound of this band. I have yet to find a better sounding overdrive than the Keeley BD-2 and it pairs perfectly with the Whammy since it has a perfect combo of clarity and distortion to make the sub-octaves shine through. The LS-2 is also powering half the pedals on my board.
3. JHS Charlie Brown/Morning Glory – Just had this guy built for me and I’m still figuring it out since it has a strange compressed quality that I’m not used to. Left channel is a perfect Marshall tone and the right is very tasteful boost to add to the BD-2
4. BOSS Giga Delay – I found this used at a GC and bought it because the delay decays when you turn it off rather than just chopping off the trails.
Since I’m the only guitarist in the band, it adds that extra texture that fills out the sound. As our set grows more stable, I’m finding its nice to have the four presets to scrolls through.
5. Electro Harmonix Pulsar – There isn’t much to say about tremolo pedals. I use this one for a helicopter chop and initially bought it because I had too many BOSS pedals but quickly found that it stands out amongst other trems. The rate knob is extremely responsive which I tend to ride while the pedal is engaged.
6. BOSS DD-3 – Perfect digital delay. It does exactly what you’d like it to do. An old drummer gave me this and it has been in use in every project I’ve had since. I use it mostly for an over the top slapback now.
7. BOSS TU-2 – I know this is a weird place for a tuner but this is what powers the other half of my board so that function kinda took precedence.
8. Electro Harmonix Cathedral Reverb – Seriously the best reverb (outside of having an actual spring or tank) available. Had a T.Rex Tonebug for a while but I needed more options and less volume drop. This thing is the best. I keep the blend at about half however, so it sits a bit more subtly to not become the foreground of the tone.
9. BOSS Loop Station – This little guy just took over for my DL4 because I was finding that I only used it for samples. I can have everything pre-recorded so there is no awkward looping before a song. The FS-5U I don’t like however. It only gets used to stop a loop if it’s the wrong one or is too loud but I don’t like the way the switch feels so I’m gonna build one as soon as I find a cool enough enclosure.
10. Tap Tempo – the little yellow guy on the bottom right is a tempo controller for the Giga Delay. Seriously folks, do not buy one, just build it and save yourself 30 bucks. Even if soldering is daunting to you, you can twist paper clips and have a perfectly functioning tap tempo.
All of this goes straight into a 2×10 Dr. Z Maz-18 combo, kept clean with boosted mids. No reverb, just to the point of breakup. Perfect amp for a single guitar band with single coils for that extra bottom end.
