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 Aaron Pugh. 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.
Hello! My name is Aaron Pugh. I’m a guitarist in an Indie rock band from Denton, Texas, called Sol Tax. We go for sounds that range from full on rock to country, blues, and even a few hip-hop vibes. I use effects subtly but try to have a plethora of sounds available, if I want them. I mostly play Fender guitars, a ’97 USA standard Telecaster, an ’08 USA Standard Strat with some mods, an ’02 Japan Jaguar, and a ’66 Gretsch Corvette with a bigsby. I also play Fender amps, a ’65 deluxe reissue and a modded ’65 twin reverb. Loud and clean! Currently I am running a tiered board from a company in California called Fix Pedalboards. They are the same people who make the fulltone enclosures and it is top notch quality. The second tier makes those back row pedals so much easier to use! The signal path on my board ends up being a little weird because I like my fuzz pedal before everything and the board has a far right place for the wah and expression. The path goes Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face, Fulltone Clyde Standard wah, Boss Tu-3 (I hate the buffer in the tuner before the fuzz), Earthquaker Devices Monarch, MXR Carbon Copy, MXR phase 90, Fulltone Supa-Trem, EHX POG classic, and a Pigtronix Echolution. The green wah type pedal is an expression for the modulation side of the Echolution, controlling the delay time.
Dunlop Fuzz Face– This is a really spitting Silicon fuzz that works well with the fuzz up higher and using your volume knob to control the grit. I use it for leads and “wall of sound” type things.
Fulltone Clyde Standard– I like this wah because of the feel of the pedal more than the sound, although it does have a fantastic fat wah sound. Overall a great pedal.
Boss tuner– Tried and true. Running it after my fuzz because of the wah it affects the volume roll-off. Try it, you’ll be surprised!
Earthquaker Devices Monarch– This is a great do-it-all type drive with an Orange amp type sound to the break up. I chose this drive because the EQ only adds and doesn’t cut frequencies. It seems to be pretty true to the clean tone with added grit. With the drive up and bass up it can get into muff territory and with some treble fuzz face-ish. Reacts well to volume knob roll-off.
MXR Carbon Copy– Another pedal that just sounds great every time it gets switched on. I run it here in the chain because I affect the crazy oscillation sounds with the pedals that come after. ‘Nuff said.
MXR phase 90– oooooooo….. Swirly…
Fulltone Supa-Trem– An excellent amp styled trem. Very useful live and has a killer boost sound if set correctly.
EHX POG classic– I dig the classic because of the layout. No presets. Easy to use LPF. There is a TON of hiss when on, but hey, all the good pedals have their compromises, right? Love the synthy feel it adds to fuzz tones as well.
Pigtronix Echolution– So. Many. Switches. Really great delay that is surprisingly easy to use live. I use the expression pedal to get those crazy sweeping delay time sounds. Sometimes will get the tap tempo going, but it’s rare. The delay has a memory man feel to it because of the chorus/tremolo and LFO speed. Great stuff!!
Mission Engineering Expression pedal– Controls two effects at one. A polarity switch allows the effects to go opposite directions of each other or they can go the same way. Slow trem and slow delay or slow trem and fast delay or vice versa. Built like a tank.
Check out my band Sol Tax at www.soltaxmusic.com, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sol-Tax/169605839761498, or reverbnation.com/soltax.
