Pedal Line Friday (on Wednesday) – 9/11 – Spencer Stenger

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 Spencer Stenger. 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.

My name is Spencer and I recently had a few pedals modded by Johnny Balmer from Alchemy-Audio.com. He mentioned effectsbay.com showcases pedal boards and I thought what a great idea so I composed the following. I built the board from scratch and had a friend paint it. I could write a book about these pedals but I tried to keep it brief.

Pedals are routed as follows…

1- Boss TU-3 – I actually run this tuner through the MKiii+ tuner/mute option but if I had it in the chain, it’d be first. Like most Boss pedals, it’s built solid and easy to use.

2- Diamond CPR-1 – This is the first pedal I route the guitar into. I love this compressor because it’s simple to operate. It also has an EQ knob which is nice.

3- Dunlop Volume (X) – I use the volume pedal mainly for swells so I’ve placed it towards the beginning. It has very smooth action and a solid build. It also has dual capabilities as an expression pedal.

4- Musicomlab EFX MKiii+ – I wanted control over multiple pedals, MIDI control, lots of presets and a small housing. This thing has it all and more. 60 banks, each with 4 presets gives a total of 240 customizable presets. I love it. Lots of options I won’t go into but I can’t play without it. Being able to trigger multiple pedals takes (some of) the dancing out of playing. It also allows me to true-bypass any pedals not actively being used which reduces the signal chain length and prevents tone loss/humming.

I control 10 pedals via the MKiii+…

5- TC Electronic Spark – Great boost with slight overdrive capabilities. Has fat, clean and mid settings. I use it mainly as a clean boost with some added treble for solos.

6- EHX POG2 – This octave pedal’s like no other. It can sometimes be a bit digital sounding but absolutely mind blowing. Great tracking and so many features. You can make your guitar sound like a cello, violin, organ or various synth instruments.

7- JAM Wahcko+ – I don’t use a wah very often but when I do, I’m glad to have the wahcko+. Has an adjustment knob with 6 different wah/tone settings. JAM makes some quality pedals and this one’s no exception.

8- Red Witch Medusa – This thing has a huge range of chorus sounds. It also has a chorus/tremolo effect which you can’t find (to my knowledge) in any other chorus pedal. It works for my playing style and I like the adjustable features.

9- Ross Flanger – Johnny modded this pedal. Mods include: true bypass, an LED light and a 9V power jack replacing a permanent power cord. This pedal, IMO, has one of the best sounding flange effects I’ve ever heard. The fact that it’s vintage from the 70’s makes it that much cooler.

10- JAM Retrovibe – JAM compares it to the original Uni-Vibe and I imagine it comes close. I like cranking up the depth and decreasing the speed for a nice vintage vibe. There are few, if any, better sounding vibes out there.

11- EHX Big Muff π – Johnny modded this pedal. He installed the Monte Allums Tri-Gain mod. The mod offers three different fuzz effects via a 3-way switch. 3 fuzz pedals in one? What more could I ask for. He also installed a “dying 9 volt battery simulator” which is very cool.

12- Boss BD-2 – Johnny also installed a Monte Allums mod on this pedal. It has the ability to go from a mild boost to a gritty overdrive. The tone knob allows for additional adjustments but I usually leave it at noon with a high gain setting.

13- Way Huge Aqua Puss – I debated between this analog delay and the MXR carbon copy for a while. The only downside to this delay is that it tops out at 300ms but I use a digital delay for anything more than that. Very clean and fluid delay.

14- Strymon Timeline – This is possibly the greatest digital delay pedal made to date (although some would argue differently). I can’t even scratch the surface of what this thing can do but I would definitely recommend it. It has 12 different delay machines, 200 presets and near unlimited tweakability. I control this pedal via MIDI through the MKiii+.

15- Strymon Flint – I debated between Strymon’s Flint and Bluesky reverbs for quite a while. The infinite reverb on the Flint is impressive. I still think about getting a Bluesky (or a Neunaber WET) but I absolutely love this reverb. It has tremolo built into half the pedal which is a nice addition. I also have a favorite switch connected to this pedal, very handy.

16- Boomerang III – The last pedal is the looper. The only cons of this looper are no SD card slot for saving or transferring loops and loops erase when powered down. Everything else is amazing. Can have up to 4 separate loops with lots of bonus features. Octave, reverse loop, reverse solo, stack, fade and several other options make this thing limitless for song creation and live performances.

All pedals are powered by a Voodoo Lab Mondo. The tuner and wah are battery operated. All pedals are connected via solderless Lava cables. The isolated power sources, quality cables and true-bypass via the MKiii+ gives a nice clean and silent signal with zero hum. I also run the stock DRRI pedal to control the amp’s reverb and tremolo settings.

I want to give a shout out to Johnny Balmer at Alchemy-Audio.com for modding my pedals and enlightening me about Effects Bay. Also big thanks to Liz London for painting my pedal board!

Thank you for letting me share. I have a real passion for music and it’s nice to see other’s share that same enthusiasm.

Keep on rocking EFFECTS BAY!!!

-Spencer