Pedal Line Friday (on Wednesday) – 10/16 – Bruce

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 Bruce. 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.

Hi all,

I love to see what others have done with their effects and what they like or dislike about them. This is a great site and I have been wanting to submit my 2 boards for review and let people know what I use and like. I’ve been playing for over 40 years, and my influences include David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, and recently a lot of Christian guitarists like Paul Wilbur and Jeff Kunde.  Anyhow, I like some of the older sounds with the new, and set up my equipment accordingly. I have a main board (The SKB), and a outdoor or practice board (mini Pedaltrain) for other venues.  I use only Bullet Cable slug connector cords and fittings except for the 2 that feed my effects loop. They are Monster Cables. (I have discovered through trial and error and great expense that if you buy quality cables, you never regret it. But purchase quality effects and cheap cables, and it’s like putting cheap tries on a Ferrari. Yeah, it works, but you’ll never get the true sound and performance out of your pedals.) First board is my main one I use for my Church Worship Team. I run it through a Palomino V32 Amp and a V-Boutique Cab loaded with a late 70’s Altec 417-8H Speaker. Think Santana and you’d be close to the sound:

1.  SKB Stage Five Board:  Only use the power supply and to route Effects Loop. Fairly good board, but the connectors are cheap and tend to be noisy.

2. T1M A/B Switch with buffer and dual led’s:  Great little pedal with 2 distinct colored Led’s (you get to choose what colors you want), and I run 2 separate guitars into this. (An American Highway One Strat and Les Paul Traditional Pro with Wolftones). Buffer feeds a strong signal to the next effects. Check out :  this1smyne.com

3. Sonic Research ST-200 Tuner: Does a fantastic job and is extremely precise and quick to pickup the tone.

4. Original 1982 Ibanez CP-835 Compressor:  This is a very subtle delay that I love. I don’t want a sharp country picking sound, but need some sustain and mild compression at times. Works better than many newer compression pedals I’ve tried. I leave this on all the time.

5. Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Overdrive:  I definitely like this drive, especially due to the ability to alter many of the parameters of the overdrive with the clean and drive knob. I think it has a great sound and I will be buying another eventually to replace the SD-1 on my alternate board.

6. Original 1988 Rat 2:  What can I say, you either love or hate them. This is my go to distortion for the Les Paul and for leads on the Strat. I think it’s the best and I would kill the thief if it was stolen!

7. Rockett Pedals Josh Smith Dual Tremolo:  This is a very nice tremolo that I use sparingly. Fattens softer sounds and works with some leads. Don’t like putting it right after the Distortions, but there is a good reason it is not in the effects loop. The pedal has a boost so you don’t lose volume when the pedal is on (Many trems do soften). While a great and necessary addition, it causes a loud Popping sound in the amps effects loop when turning it on and off. Putting it in the chain here stops that pop and it still sounds great. Contacted the folks at Rockett and they suggested moving it here. (Really nice people by the way!)

8. ISP Noise Decimator: Used very rarely now. Once I went to Bullet Cables, it really wasn’t needed. If both OD and Distortion on and I’m playing softly, I use it to get rid of the soft hiss. Otherwise it stays off. I’m thinking of getting the TC Electronic Ditto Looper to put here.

9. Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Modified by T1M: This is an older pedal that I have always liked but was never crazy about. Sent it to Tim at this1smyne.com, and he put a new Pot, Buffer, and switch to turn Buffer on/off, and some cool looking blue led’s in it. For about $75.00, this completely change the sound and look of this pedal and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t put my Volume Pedal at the beginning of the chain because you change your tone as you advance or decrease your pedal. Some may like this, but I want all my sound coming through and just the volume changed, not the tone. The Buffer boosts the signal to the amp and Effects Loop.

Effects Loop:

10. Visual Sound Dual Tap Delay:  Other than the large footprint, I like this pedal. This is a very simple and great sounding delay with dual switches you can combine or run separately. I use dotted eights on the modulation side and triplets on the other. Mostly use the dotted eights, but like what the triplets do especially to my leads and combined. Tap Tempo or manual for both sides is another great feature. Wish it had blinking Led’s to tell me what the Tempo is.

11. Strymon Blue Sky Reverb: Another wonderful addition to my board about a year ago. Pricy, but it does sound fantastic. I like a plate reverb sound and this nails it.  I also use the Shimmer mode on the second switch when the keyboard player is out for the softer songs. Really sounds great.

Alternate Board for Outdoor/Practice Venues: Powered by One-Spot and run through Egnater Rebel-30 amp.

1. Pedaltrain Mini Board:  Good board with nice padded carrying bag to protect your pedals and store your cables.

2. Boss TU-2 Tuner:  I don’t know how long I have had this pedal, but it still works and has a buffer to shoot the signal through all my bypass pedals so I think I’ll keep it. Lights tend to wash out in sunlight which is a bummer sometimes.

3. BBE Bench Press Compressor: After my Ibanez CP-835, I would say this is one of the best analog compressors I’ve used. Still keeps your tone without a sharp attack that is abrasive. Very nice pedal for the money.

4. Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive: Another very old pedal that does a fair job at Overdrive, but tends to be thin sounding. Will replace with another Sparkle Drive when the finances allow.

5. Digitech Hardwire DL-8 Delay/Looper:  Very nice sounding pedal and pretty long looper (20 Seconds). I use it on Analog delay or Tape delay depending on the guitar. I think the humbuckers sound best on Analog, and the Single Coils on Tape Delay. Looper is tricky and you have to get it just right or it will sound terrible. I don’t really like the looper. Not real user-friendly.

6. Behringer RV-600 Reverb: My bargain basement pedal that I make work for the venues. I wouldn’t recommend this except for beginners or those on a strict budget. It works, just not great. Save up for a Blue Sky, you’ll keep that one forever!

7. BBE Boosta Grande: Very Transparent pedal to boost leads or rhythm without changing tone. I would recommend this for the money!

8. Boss FV-500L:  Placed at the end of the chain again to affect only the volume and not tone. Works good, very large footprint.

Use the Pedal Label system advertised on this site for my main board. They are really handy and I would recommend highly. Things can get bumped with my big feet and can ruin a good lead if I’m not careful. Thanks for your time. Hope this helped!

Bruce