Pedal Line Friday – 10/30 – Mitch Moser

Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Mitch Moser. 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.

Hey,

I’ve been building my rig consistently for the last five years. Over that time, a lot of stuff has come and gone. This current setup has been pretty much the same for almost a year besides some minor swaps. I can cover a lot of ground with this rig which comes in handy since I play at a church and in a band (thenativeroar.com <http://thenativeroar.com/>).

I run half of my rig through the front of my Morgan 30/800 – which is a great, ‘beefed-up’ AC30 circuit – and the other half through the effects loop. My amp has a circuit based off of a JCM800 and an AC30 that’s a little grittier and I love it. But to get the best out of that amp, I run it a little dirty. So I put my delays and reverbs in the loop to keep them from breaking up in the amp.

Here’s how my signal chain flows:

1) Visual Sound (Truetone) Pure Tone Buffer – This is mounted under the POG2 beneath the board. I’m primarily using it as a patchbay and to push my signal through the true bypass looper that I built. It sounds great.

2) True Bypass Looper – Built by yours truly, this looper has 6 loops that I run everything from the front of my amp into. I’ve had it  for years and it’s a champ.

3) Tribute Audio Dirty Bastard [loop 1] – This is kind of like a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Boost. There’s some kind of magic that happens with a British amp and a treble boost. I don’t know exactly what it is. But this one really brings the neck pickup to life. Makes everything a little more 3-D. And on the bridge, it just cuts through dense mixes. The tone knob is interesting. It’s not really linear and it changes the voicing in a unique way.

4) Ross Compressor [loop 2] – I built this as a BYOC kit and had my neighbor pinstripe it. It’s a solid compressor and I’ve used it for years. Now that the Diamond Comp Jr just hit the streets, I might have to change things up.

5) POG2 [loop 3] – I love it! It does a ton. I’ve got several presets that I use all the time. One of my favorites that I use sparingly is a shimmer that comes in a few seconds after the dry signal. The shimmer on my blueSky can be overwhelming. This one kind of ducks behind my playing but can really come to the forefront when I hold a chord or swell.

6) JHS Firefly Fuzz [loop 4] – I couldn’t find any cool demos of this online. But I went to try it out in person and was blown away by its versatility. It is crazy useable. It has a bias knob that can starve the germanium transistors and change the breakup to be a little more loose. It’s awesome.

7) Super Duper 2 in 1 clone [loop 5] – This one has a long story behind it. But to get to the details, it’s a ZVex 2 in 1 voiced with more mids. A local artist painted the enclosure. We named it ‘Death By Lemonade’. I use one side as overdrive, and both sides as a fuzz. It’s rad.

8) JHS Superbolt [loop 6] – My favorite overdrive. This thing is great. It stacks well and is great by itself. mmmmmmm I love it!

9) Tapestry Audio Bloomery – I had a Dunlop DVP1 for a long time but I got tired of how big it was. So I recently downsized to this Bloomery. It’s great! I use the tuner out for my Polytune Mini. The taper is really interesting and it has an interesting sweep. The toe-down position is actually more forward than any other pedal I’ve played. All the way down on the volume pedal puts your foot parallel to the ground, which on a tilted pedalboard can feel a little weird from what I was used to with other volume and wah pedals. But I prefer it now.

Ok, from there I go into the front of my amp. Then from the send of my fx loop, we go back to the board.

10) Malekko Trem – This thing is great. I thought if I ever got a trem I’d go tap tempo. But I love the ‘looseness’ that comes from how simple this one is. The led flashes with the rate knob when the pedal is on. So I can get close to the tempo if I want to. But often times, I just set it once for a set and never change it.

11) Strymon El Cap – The first of what I call The Great Wall Of Strymon. Probably my favorite pedal on the board. I love this thing. The Favorite switch is for a dotted eighth delay and I normally have it set to a dual sixteenth and dotted eighth delay set really quick to make an interesting slap echo sound.

12) Strymon DIG – I love this thing! It sounds amazing. The clarity of the repeats actually makes for an amazing washy sound. I wouldn’t have guessed that before playing it. I use the Favorite switch for a washy setting using the Golden Ratio subdivision. That’s awesome. Normally, I have it set to a quarter note and dotted eighth setting.

13) Strymon blueSky – This was my first ’boutique’ pedal. I use the Favorite switch for a huge modulated plate setting. Normally I have it on a spring reverb.

14) TC Electronic Ditto – I love this looper. It’s fun and makes a great practice tool. Great for writing and just messing around. The reverse and half-time modes can make some inspiring sounds.

Everything is on a Pedaltrain 3 and I’m powering it with two Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2‘s.

You can connect with me here:
https://twitter.com/_mitchmoser
https://instagram.com/mitchmoser/
https://www.facebook.com/mitch.moser.7

And check out my music here:
thenativeroar.com
https://instagram.com/thenativeroar/
https://twitter.com/TheNativeRoar
https://www.facebook.com/thenativeroar