Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Matthew Swasta. 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.
Hahaha…well, as I was looking at the Effects Bay website for the email to send a quick update on my board, I saw the most recent post…hey, that name looks familiar…oh jeez, you already posted my board…
Pedal Line Friday – 5/15 – Matthew Swasta (UPDATED)
Hello again, it’s been about five years since my last pedal line submission. My board has gone through a complete overhaul, with only a couple pedals retaining there place in the line up. I’ve alway built boards from scratch, but this is the first wedge shape, which facilitates mounting my new Strymon Zuma power supply under the board. It has a great look and I wish I had space to place it on top of the board, but ultimately, it is simply a utility. I am still using the same guitars, an Aria Pro II, Carvin CS3, Fender Jaguar HH Classic Player, and an older Carvin DC-127 Koa running in to a Bogner Ecstasy 101b. Everything is wired using Lava Cable Ultramafic.
After moving from Little Rock to the D.C. area for work, I am currently not in a band in this location, yet, but still playing, writing, and recording under the moniker 3000 lumens and I still keep up with my former band mates in Strange As Fiction
https://3000lumens.bandcamp.com
https://strangeasfiction.bandcamp.com
Main board signal path
TC Electronic Polytune Noir – nice tuner, small footprint with a large display
Ernie Ball VP Jr. – easy to work and smooth attenuation.
Dunlop 535Q Wah – very versatile wah with a wide array of frequency ranges. I love using an Ebow through the wah for a really cool expression and the narrower settings helps keep the sounds from getting to loud or harsh
MXR Microamp – great little boost I place in front of fuzz and distortion for tone stacking and pushing/squashing the pedals following it.
Walrus Audio Jupiter Fuzz – just got this pedal, still learning it, but love what I’ve gotten so far.
Outlaw Effects Deputy Marshal – holy jeez this one rocking little pedal. When pushed a little by the MXR I really like it’s compressed, fluid tone. I get my favorite tones when engaging the bright switch and turning the gain just past twelve. It does have a bit of physical noise if knocked around, but worth it for the tones.
Walrus Audio Iron Horse distortion – again, another new pedal I’m still learning. Very nice tones.
Strymon Ola – beautiful sounding pedal, particularly like the vibrato sounds. Being able to color the effect with its own tone control is brilliant.
Digitech Whammy IV (I think) – this is the only pedal not powered by the Zuma. I primarily use it with the Ebow to get some crazy other worldly sounds.
Boss DD-20 – I have used up to three of these at a time for looping in different configurations for many years. Rugged, hard working, abused pedals that just keep going. Love em!
Strymon El Capistan – wonderful tape delay emulation. I love being able to go from clean analog sounding delays to the sound of a warped worn out tape machine.
Strymon blueSky – beautiful, transparent reverb. The pre-delay is extremely useful in keeping the original signal present when the rest of the settings are turned up pretty high.
(Digitech Hardwire RV-7 Reverb – nice solid reverb pedal running in my amps effect loop. Not pictured)
Along with the effects pedals, I recently purchased a new Bogner foot controller for the Ecstasy, which could be considered an effects pedal as well. These new controllers are much more rugged and have a removable cable.
Second pedalboard is used solely for looping. Buffered Line out from Bogner
Boss Line selector – used to select one of three lines out.
Akai Headrush E2– used solely for looping running to a slaved Mesa Boogie Electradyne loaded with a Cannibus Rex.
Two more Boss DD-20 pedals for looping with each signal going into a Ernie Ball VP Jr. to fade loops in and out.
Boss RC-50 Loop Station mainly used with pre recorded tracks
Thank you Effects Bay for this site. I have found and learned many things here.
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