Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Gavin Thorpe. 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.
Gavin Thorpe, Guitarist for RICH LIST, formerly of Minnaars. Love turning my guitars into synths, and trying to find as many weird sounds as I can. Play a 1962 Fender Jaguar and a heavily modded J Mascis Jazzmaster, into a Blackstar Artisan 30.
New single / video “All The Love” coming soon. Plug plug etc etc.
Signal path as follows:
Boss TU-2 – solid, dependable and accurate.
Ibanez LF7 – thing these are really underrated. Great for those clicky, percussive spidery Palm muted parts.
MXR Micro Amp – really useful; great for driving muted parts, and doesn’t colour your tone too much.
Fairfield Circuitry Accountant – full of character this. Definitely not transparent, but such a great tone. Perfect for tapping and muted parts.
Crowther Hotcake – had this years. Probably my first boutique pedal, and I doubt it’ll ever come off my board. Struggle to say anything about it that hasn’t already been said.
Fairfield Circuitry Four Eyes – not long had this and still getting my head round it; complete control over your fuzz tone, and like no other fuzz I’ve heard. Really great for big crunching power chords.
Fairfield Circuitry Unpleasant Surprise – first time I plugged this in, my jaw hit the floor. So angry. So aggressive. Sonic Youth in a box.
Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander – so much fun. I’d say this nearly constitutes a fuzz pedal…. But voiced like a square wave synth bass. Sounds HUGE.
Fairfield Circuitry Randy’s Revenge – another new one that I’m still learning. Pretty much the only ring mod that’s ever grabbed me. Goes from stunning warm tremolo to clashing metallics.
Electro Harmonix Pitchfork – mainly use the 1 up/1 down setting. Clean is tubular bells, and after fuzz or drive it’s a massive synth lead. Seems to play with other effects really well.
Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter – all about Mode 7 for me, this. Hard to find these days; no idea why Boss didn’t put mode 7 on any of the subsequent pitch shifters.
Mr. Black Eterna – love this pedal. LOVE it. Heavenly shimmer. Untouchable at what it does; jack Deville knows his stuff.
Earthquaker Devices Hummingbird – brilliant trem; not subtle, and that’s why I like it. Really really choppy, so it’s great for electronic voicing.
Electro Harmonix Freeze – watching Bill Frissell videos on YouTube got me hooked on this. Brilliant for ambient drones running underneath lead lines. I also use it to feed the Arpanoid for OK Computery nonsense.
Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid – mental pedal. The biggest challenge is using it subtly. Brilliant for adding fax machine noises to a mix.
Digitech Whammy V – couldn’t be without a Whammy. Recently went from a IV to this V, and whilst I marginally preferred the tone of the IV, this one is infinitely board friendly. Smaller footprint, quiet, and far easier to power. One of my very favourites.
Zvex Instant Lo Fi Junky – wanted this for a long time; I’m a big fan of the weird for guitar tones, so this is perfect. Sounds like a dusty old warped record. Absolutely love it.
Line 6 Echo Park – I use this for its swell setting. Great volume pedal sound, and the tap tempo is really useful. Can almost get side-chain compression sounding delay, and love the trails on it. Despite my love for boutique, this one is an ever present, and I can’t see it ever leaving my board. Think I got it for about £50 second hand. Best £50 you could spend.
Empress SuperDelay – incredible. Each and every setting sounds stunning. They’re not cheap, but utterly worth it. 8 programmable presets too, so really useful for live, and spectacular clarity of tone means it’s perfect on record. All that before even mention the reverse delay mode! Setting C sounds like a swarm of robot locusts covered in glitter.
Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude – not for everyone, but personally I couldn’t love it more. The pedal that started my Fairfield Circuitry love affair; Guillaume is a genius. Beautiful analogue delay, and the modulation is worth the entry fee alone. Another unique one from the mad scientist French-Canadians. Let’s be honest, they look amazing too!
(+ Dunlop DVP3) – use this as an expression for the Maude. Really smooth. Leagues better than other expression pedals I’ve used.
Mr. Black Supermoon – again, I’m a sucker for weird modulation, so this really was the only reverb for me. Love at first hear. Gigantic, dark and eerie.
Boss NS-2 – essential on my board due to the size of it. Gradually switching all my patch cables to Lava tightropes, and a combination of those, the Cioks / Eventide Powerfactor 2 and this pedal keep my board nice and quiet.
TC Electronic Ditto – idiot proof looper. Tiny, which is great when real estate is at a premium, and there’s no tone suck at all. Plays back what you put into it. Everyone should have one.
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9 years ago
Holy GD what a board. I particularly like the unabashed ‘I’m into pedals that sound unique/slightly weird’. I always seem to have a hard time incorporating the oddities into what I do and end up trading them away. Yet, I still like them. Excellent pedal line Friday submission!
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