Pedal Line Friday (on Wednesday) – 9/11 – Casey Scott

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 Casey Scott. 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.

Hey Effects Bay!  I’ve done some major updates to my board and wanted to share.  A while back, I remember reading something about the Effects Bay crowd liking to see (major) updates, to track how a pedal board evolves. Well, this is a pretty major leap forward for me, and I thought you all would like to see it.

Here’s my updated pedal board, now with a Loop-master from Loop-Master Pedals. Here’s the rundown: From the guitar, the signal hits the LS Effects Tone Messiah Line Buffer (for my money, the best buffer on the market). Then, it goes into the Loop-Master.

Loop 1 is the volume/EQ/Filter loop.  It starts at the Morley Stereo Volume Pedal (discontinued), Boss Harmonist Pitch Shifter (w/ Pedal Label!), Source Audio Soundblox Pro Poly Mod Filter (auto wah, EQ, LFO effects, funk-in-a-box!), then a Tech 21 Killer Wail Wah (discontinued – best sounding “full range” wah I’ve ever head!).

Loop 2 is my “drive” loop, which is all Way Huge stuff – The Pork Loin (light OD/boost), the Green Rhino (Medium OD), the Swollen Pickle (Fuzz), and the Fat Sandwich (Distortion). I can do this because the Swollen Pickle isn’t finicky – sounds great way back in the chain.  As you can see, I love Way Huge stuff, mainly because it’s so flexible.  I can pull TONS of different tones out of each pedal.  I love them all, but the Green Rhino sounds its best when the amp is turned up.  When the amp is turned down, I tend to use the Fat Sandwich and my volume knob for heavier OD / distorted sounds.

In between the Master Bypass switch and Loop 1, you see the “Reverse” switch. That inverts Loops 1 and 2. This lets me do fuzz into wah or wah into fuzz, as well as a host of other cool effects (like running distortion into a filter effect).

Loop 3 is my modulation loop, which is all Digitech Hardwire stuff. This loop is Chorus, Phaser, Tremolo/Rotary/Vibe.  The Hardwire pedals sound great and have quite a few variations on each “tribe” of effects in them (plus, they’re built like tanks).  BTW, the “Vibe” setting on the TR-7 is the best Univibe copy I’ve ever played. Trems on that pedal are great too. Loop 4 is my delay/reverb loop. This one is a Way Huge Supa Puss analog delay, a Digitech Timebender Digital Delay, and a TC Electronics Hall of Fame Reverb.  The pedal you see in the far upper left of the board is a re-housed Digitech FS3X. I put it in a much smaller enclosure (project box from Radio Shack). I just use it to switch memory patches on the Timebender. After Loop 4, the Loop-Master goes to the amp. Brian at Loop-Master was good enough to include an “always on” output to the GFS Tuner (which is hard to see in this picture, but it’s the pedal just to the left of the Loop-Master).  Also, the Loop-Master has a Master Bypass, for when I want to kill everything and run straight to the amp.  I’m thinking about adding an overdrive/boost to the front end (in between the buffer and the Loop-master) to go for a straight assault on the front end of my amp w/out a lot of signal behind it.  I may bring one from home and see how it sounds.

The board itself is 3 layers of 1/2″ plywood with aluminum angle and is handmade. The “layers” are accomplished by using bolts as support columns with nuts and washers as supports for the three “decks.”  It’s rock solid (and quite heavy). There are rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from moving around on either carpet or tile.  The whole thing is powered by 2 Voodoo Labs Iso5‘s, and one Visual Sound One Spot (for the Harmonist – don’t ask why 🙁 ), plus the factory adapter for the Timebender.

So far, I’m really digging this configuration.  I’m not in love with the Boss Harmonist, but it does the trick (for now).  It will probably get replaced by the Eventide H9 when it comes out.  That’s all for now.  Thanks for letting me share.

Casey