Pedal Line Friday – 12/20 – Chad Smith

Today’s pedal line is from Chad Smith. 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.

I hope you are well.  Below is my content for a Pedal Line Friday, thanks.

Signal Path:
Axe > TC Electronic Polytune Mini,  Cry Baby 535Q, Wampler Dual Fusion Overdrive, Electro Harmonix Small Stone, 3Leaf Audio Wonderlove Envelope Filter, EarthQuaker Devices Bit Commander, Diamond Tremolo, Boss Super Shifter PS-5, Sitori Sonics Reel Repeat Delay, Pigtronix Infinity Looper > Amp.

Description: As far as signal paths go, I say do whatever works for you. For me I like to first go into the tuner (upper right) for tuning and bypass reasons. Then strait into the Wah, so I can have total signal control when I crank the wah pedal on. Next I go into the Distortion/Overdrive. I use this as my dirty channel, and for lead, so I want that drive and tone in front of all the rest of the effects. From here I go to my main modulation, the Phase Shifter. Then into the envelope filter, guitar synthesizer, and tremolo.  Before I take all these into the Delay I run them through the Super Shifter. Then Delay is my last effect so that it’s applied to all other sounds before it.  The final signal is taken to the loop pedal (bottom right) to be tampered with at will, then out to the amp.

Board Basics:
This pedal board is designed to be low profile and hide cables under the upper deck.  The PolyTune Mini has a wedge lift behind it to prop up the led screen. I have the board set up to use my left foot for the Wah, and my right foot for looping.  I also have the Super Shifter set in an easy-access spot (blue pedal  by wah) because of how I use it. I mostly have it set on the T.ARM mode and can keep my foot on it to grab and bend my sound at will.

OKnobs/GloKnobs:
Dual Fusion – use a Boutique on the Overdrive knob. I keep it low for a dirty channel, increase it for a little more volume and dirt, then crank it for sustain.
Small Stone – use a Classic on the Rate.  Allows me to go from a subtle phase to a drastic modulation while playing.  When the wings are at 12 & 6 you can use your foot to switch the Color mode.
Wonderlove – use a Boutique on the Attack knob. This gives me control over whether the envelope is a thin saturated snap, or a thick thromp sound.  This comes in handy for dialing in a room at different decibels, and allows you to enjoy more envelope varieties while soloing.
Bit Commander – use a Boutique on the Sub Octave knob.  So I can add or take away the third octave sub as desired for lead expression.
Diamond – use a Boutique on the Depth knob. I can increase or decrease the Depth on the fly to determine how prominent the tremolo effect is. This is great for fine-tuning, but also produces dramatic sweeps and rhythm dynamics in different Wave modes.
Super Shifter – use a Classic on the Pitch knob. In T.ARM mode it allows me to adjust the pitch details of the bend on the fly. In Pitch Shifter mode it allows me to scroll between the pitches in real time.
Reel Repeat – use a Boutique on the Speed knob.  I can easily pick different delay speeds for different songs. During a lead I can go from the shortest/quickest delay sound, to a long stretched out delay melody.
Infinity – use a Boutique on the Channel 1 volume knob.  This allows me to fade in or out the loop from Channel 1 while playing in front or behind it etc…