Pedal Line Friday – 5/30 – Nathan Brown

Today’s pedal line is from Nathan Brown. 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.

She’s almost there, just a few more tweaks and I think things will be just right.  Recently, I was able to sell a few of my older pedals to pick up the Pedaltrain PT-2 w/ Voodoo Labs power supply and just about break even.  Way cool setup and worth every penny.  Sitting on top is:

1) Boss TU-2 – I think you know this one.

2) BYOC Classic Compressor – My first compressor and my first attempt at a DIY kit.  Its a Dynacomp/Ross clone. If you’re looking for a new hobby, this was quite fun!  They sell clones of all the famous pedals…Big Muff, Rat, OD808, etc.

3) This1smyne Mini Volume Boost – I bought this used, but as far as I know this is a clone of a Zvex Super Hard On (SHO) for a fraction of the price.  This has become an “always on” pedal (perhaps almost always on is more accurate)  with the knob turned to roughly 1:00.  It doesn’t radically change the tone, just gives it a little extra depth and clarity and a wee bit of dirt.  Just a wee bit, though.  Check out T1M’s other stuff…all kinds of cool things and very reasonably priced.  I’ve been drooling over The Pearl overdrive but I don’t foresee getting wife approval any time soon!

4) Fulltone Full Drive 2 – Non MOSFET version.  Everybody’s got to have a TS style pedal and this one does the job as good as any.  I keep the gain low and volume high, so its used primarily as a boost in front of my amp’s dirty channel.  Occasionally, I’ll use it for a light overdrive with the Tele.  The downside is the size and for me, the boost feature doesn’t add any value so I’ve been contemplating swapping this out with a Maxon OD808.

5) Joyo Ultimate Drive – Supposedly a cheap OCD clone.  Well, its definitely cheap but I’ve never had an OCD so I can’t comment there.  You can pick them up for something ridiculous like $30, so its worth a try for anyone.  I do like the tone, it has a very different character that I can’t get from the dirty channel from either my Marshall or Mesa/Boogie, but I haven’t found a real use for it.  Just last night, I swapped this out with an EHX Soul Food and I *think* this might come off the board for now.

6) Wampler Pinnacle II Reissue – This is, I think, the same thing as the current Pinnacle Deluxe production model.  If you’re after a smooth lead tone like Satch or Vai, this thing really shines.  Not a big fan of the rhythm tones though, but that’s OK because I don’t need it for that.

After that, I’m running these two through the FX Loop:

7) Line 6 DL4 – I’ve had it almost since they first came out.  I really enjoy it, very versatile and good sounds.  The stock switches are absolute garbage though!  Dan Rasp sells a DIY kit on eBay that I picked up with new LEDs and really nice switches.  Problem solved and no more complaints from me.

8) TC Electronics Arena Reverb – More or less the same thing as the Hall of Fame, just an “exclusive” Musicians Friend / Guitar Center version as I recall.  The reverb on my Marshall TSL100 really sucked so I bought this thing, and then bought a Mesa Rectoverb a week later so it might be a bit redundant now, but hey, options are good.

All of these are hooked up with Evidence Audio Monorail cable and pancake plugs that I soldered myself…another fun DIY project I highly recommend.  Custom cable lengths keep everything nice and tidy.  I’m strictly a bedroom player these days and its all going in to the new Mesa Rectoverb 25 head, then into an Avatar 4×12 w/ their Hellatone 30 speakers (Celestion G12H30).  One or both channels can be switched down to 10W mode which may just keep me from being evicted!  I’m seriously diggin’ my rig these days.

I’m constantly switching between an SX Tele, Gibson Les Paul, Agile 7 string and an LTD MH400, so that’s the reason I have so many forms of boost / overdrive / distortion.  Each of those guitars has such a different tone and character to them.  I prefer the “set it and forget it” approach, so rather than tweak knobs around every time I switch guitars I’ve gotten used to which pedals sound best with certain guitars.  Compressor>T1M>FD2 on sounds incredible with the Tele and sounds like a butthole on the Agile.  You get the idea!