Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Paul Coleman. 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.
Pedal Line Friday – 1/26 – Paul Coleman of Haley Moley/Sinkcharmer
Saw all of the great boards that folks are posting and figured I’d submit mine for consideration. I’ve never been happier with my options on a board and in theory I’m “done” adding/swapping out pedals. There’s not much I can’t do with this board and for anything I can’t do, I probably shouldn’t.
The board itself: Two pieces of pegboard (for stiffness) screwed to a homemade pine wedge-shaped frame. Power strip and T-Rex Fuel Tank (not pictured) mounted below. The pegboard holes are useful for routing zip ties (I hate velcro). It’s ugly, but it works really well and I have no reason to upgrade anytime soon.
Pedals (in order of routing):
Nobody wants to buy a tuner, but this is a good one.
I’ve been enamored with the sound of the Mellotron ever since I latched on to Genesis as a teenager. When EHX started putting out their keyboard pedals, I was drooling. But when they got to the Mel9, it got me to the store. Most used patches on this for me are High Choir, Flutes and Cello. I tend to blend in guitar because I like the attack. As a result, I sometimes use this more as a very long sustain. I do have other songs like Blue Light (https://haleymoley.bandcamp.com/track/blue-light) or Brightest Minute in the Darkest Hour ( https://soundcloud.com/sinkcharmer/brightest-minute-in-the-darkest-hour ) in which I’m just another keyboard.
This was one of their budget series fuzzes and I picked it up when it was being cleared out. One of the sounds I’ve always chased is the distortion I could get running through my Tascam 4 track inputs. This one is pretty close.
This is my main overdrive. I have it set for “just enough grit” and it more or less stays on all the time.
Nothing like holding a drone underneath whatever you do next. This is a simple pedal with one good trick. I like pedals with one good trick.
I probably don’t need this pedal on the board, but it sure can be fun especially because it’s placement let’s me trigger it while I’m using the Freeze. In Haley Moley this is my looper. It sounds clean and works well. Given the size I found room for this recent (and stupidly cheap) addition.
This is a swiss army knife. I’ve used this to make my guitar sound like a bass. I’ve dialed in crazy modulation with it. I’ve even used it as a ring mod. This pedal takes up a lot of space on the board, but it will never go anywhere because no matter what band I’m in, I find new uses for this all the time. Realistically I could probably get an EHX Pitchfork to cover 90% of what I use it for.
Other things I’ve done with it: Electronic capo. Used it with expression pedal to emulate a whammy bar on a whammyless guitar. Faked a tremolo.
From subtle to seasick…this is just a beautiful sounding Chorus or Vibrato. These are pretty cheap on the used market. Worth it.
Where to start with this. This is my favorite pedal on the board. It’s also a bit of a swiss army knife and can be used for flanger/etc as well as the best modulated delay I have ever heard. Would replace if broken. I should note that I actually did have to send this in for repair, but the folks at Diamond were amazing and stand by their products 100%.
Earthquaker Devices – Dispatch Master
I use this primarily for the reverb which is just gorgeous and straightforward. When the Diamond was out of commission, I spent some more time with the delay. It’s legitimately great, but I want modulation. Main reverb…backup delay.
This is my most recent addition to the board. I needed a Looper that would do Midi sync. I had a DL-4 which was great, but I couldn’t keep it in time with my Novation Circuit after a few cycles of the loop. I’m just not that precise. This solves that by syncing to the midi clock of the Circuit and it’s just amazing. When I got it, I did wish that I could have gotten a smaller 1 loop unit with midi, but since I’ve played with it I found that I do use the 2nd loop. First track I wrote with this was Freezing ( https://sinkcharmer.bandcamp.com/track/freezing). The effects on it are a bit gimmicky, but I still use them. I’m probably a little too into tape stop. On the negative side…in the past week I applied the latest firmware after a temporary glitch out of the pedal and found that the the Ditto was slavishly following the Midi Stop/Starts of my Novation Circuit. This was terrible, as I built some of my songs to have loops continue after I hit stop on the Circuit. I downgraded the firmware (which in itself wasn’t easy). For now, this pedal is Sinkcharmer exclusive. I honestly don’t need it for Haley Moley at all.
Vocals –
TC Helicon – Perform V
This is my wife’s primary pedal for vocals in Haley Moley, but I borrow it for Sinkcharmer. I’d personally prefer a footswitch but she needs control from the mic stand. It’s versatile even if the patch management is a bit clunky. You get three presets, which is generally a plus in my book. Too many options = too much fiddling (says the guy with all of the above pedals).
Guitar-
Bluestar Banjoblaster –
It’s a Banjo modeled after a Tele. I love this thing. The long story is that banjo was my first instrument because way back in my college days I didn’t specify to my mom what kind of instrument I wanted. I threw a contact pickup on a thrift store banjo and joined/formed a shoegazer indie band called Psquelch ( https://sinkcharmer.bandcamp.com/album/squelch) in 1993. I got the banjoblaster long after I had moved to guitar and immediately remembered what I loved about banjo. It sounds nothing like a banjo, but I’m so much more at home with it. I don’t have the drone string on right now, but I always have the option. Tuned CGBD (Standard C Banjo tuning).
Thanks for looking.
Haley Moley:
https://haleymoley.bandcamp.com
https://facebook.com/haleymoley
Sinkcharmer:
https://sinkcharmer.bandcamp.com
https://facebook.com/sinkcharmer
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