Pedal Line Friday – 2/28 – Kern Ramsdell

Today’s pedal line is from Kern Ramsdell. 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 Kern Ramsdell. After learning to play the guitar, I joined my friends and played in a small town cover band. After hurting my back, I learned about recording and mixing. Now, I write songs and spend my days recording and mixing them. I am a guitar player that has learned to get by on keys, drums, and bass. Here is my guitar pedal board…

This is my version of what a pedal board should be. The actual pedal board is a “Holey Board” by Chemistry Design Werks. I love the speed and ease of use that comes from the use of zip ties. So much better then using Velcro to hold down the pedals. I plug my 1980’s era Fender Lead2 into these pedals, and then into a VHT Special 6 Ultra combo amp, and on the “Clean” input. My pedals supply all of the dirt.

A MXR DC Brick supplies power to all of the pedals. It is hidden under the upper deck of the HoleyBoard.

The pedals on the lower deck are in series, or are “before the amp”. They are:

Behringer Chromatic Tuner TU100. A simple cheap tuner. Works as an “on and off switch too”.

MXR Phase 90. What more can I say about this pedal? I love EVH and Trey Anastasio (Phish) types tones, and they both use these great sounding pedals. A real no brainer!

Lightning Boy Audio, An honest, hand wired, made one at a time (and with a real tube) overdrive pedal. This pedal gives me a real chime that I adore. It will give some growl, too, but I use it (mostly) as a simple boost in tone and volume.

Boss DS-1 distortion. This is the most bang for the buck distortion pedal there is. This one is un-modded because it just sounds so good as it is. I use this for distortion duties, along with the Lightning Boy Audio pedal. Sounds like butter with them both in use.

Parallel FX loop, from the amp, and on the “upper deck” of the HoleyBoard.

VHT MeloVerb. I really like this pedal a lot. The Tremolo side is the real attention grabber here, but the reverb is nice too. This is a great “two for one” pedal, and I like how it has two independent switches for each effect. It is a well made, great sounding trem/verb unit.

MXR Carbon Copy. I love messing with the knobs on this pedal. I like a dark delay, and this lets me get real dark sounding. These delay pedals are famous for a reason. Built like a tank too!

DOD Flanger. This pedal was too much of a “score” for me to pass up. I only paid 15 dollars for this little gem, and it still puts a smile on my face each time I use it. I had some DOD pedals when I first was learning how to play, and one just like this one was in that small collection I had.

TC Electronic Ditto Looper. I just purchased this pedal. I like to use short to medium loops to help “flush out” ideas and to write whole parts of songs. I have been using the Jam Up Pro app, on my iPhone, for these duties but I will now be using The Ditto Looper pedal. I like how small it is and how powerful of a concept it is. Besides, it is so easy to learn how to use. Plus, if you play out live, it could come in very handy. You could supply a backing loop to solo over as your band mate changes a broken string.

Thanks so much, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my effects pedal chain!

— UPDATE —

Some time ago, I sent you my modest “recording” pedalboard. I have attached an image of the new, completed line up. I have since “completed my dream board” with a vintage pedal that I never thought I could find for under 500 dollars. The Ross compressor pedal! I grabbed one from EBay for 120.00! A steal if you ask me, because these are awesome compressor/sustainers. Trey Anastasio of Phish uses them, hence the hefty price tag on these
oldies. Thanks for the great website, and all the hard work that you do!

Kern Ramsdell,
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