Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Jean-Thomas Bablet. 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 – 10/2 – analogMensch

Hello from Trier, Germany, on a warm Sunday in September

Here’s my pedalboard, not really changed for the last years! All pedals except of the volume pedal are self build.

Signal Chain:

Rocktron HEX Volume Pedal (right)
Never left me alone for all the years, just a great and good working volume pedal. I removed the expression TRS jack and mount a minimum volume pot instead.

PLAN B buffer/booster/channel switch (bottom center)
Simple opamp buffer behind the volume pedal, just for keeping the guitar signal in good condition. Switchable, but I left it on all the time.
The booster is a clone of the LPB-1, just to kick in a bit more. The pot of the booster is switchable between full range (silence to max) or only boost (input level to max).
The channel switch controls a relay in the patch box (more on this later).

THE BAD ONE overdrive/distortion (bottom left)
The overdrive is a classic TS9 on 18 volts (like the whole board) with a slight modification for a bit more low end.
The distortion is a self engineered thing with a BC547B and a BC327 transistor. It’s really rough and fuzzy, I love it this way for more hard and broken sounds.

A/B/insert/switch pedal (top left)
This is a really special pedal! It’s a signal chain controller or switching controller, depending on the mode it’s on.
Fully controlled by a ATmega chip and a bunch of relays and optocouplers.
– Mode 1: A/B switch (or mute with no cable in the left jack), switch between the board output trough the patch box or the other output on the left jack
– Mode 2: Switchable effect loop on the left jack (TRS for send and return)
– Mode 3: Foot switch (TRS tip to sleeve)
– Mode 4: Foot switch (TRS ring to sleeve)
– Mode 5: Foot switch (TRS tip and ring to sleeve)
– Mode 6: Momentary foot switch (TRS tip to sleeve). In this mode one of the status LEDs reacts to grounded or ungrounded ring on the TRS, so an optical feedback is possible.

You can change the mode by pressing and holding down the foot switch for ten seconds. The unit changes to program mode, so you can toggle through the modes. The LEDs blink in the number of the mode. Press and hold down the switch for three seconds will save the mode and change back to switching mode.

Most time I use this pedal as a A/B switch for switching to a second amp or the DI box of the sound guy/girl. It’s also made for switching different effects I don’t have on my board. To have the choice between an effect loop and a remote switch option in one box was the best idea for me. Three months ago I build a remote control able A/B box with a DI output in output B, so this will be an option in the future.

patch box (top center)
This is the box all my cable from the amp and the power supply are plugged into.
The left plug is a basic 3 pin XLR for feeding my board with 24 volts, it’s converted to 18 volts in the patch box.
The TRS plug in the middle is my channel control from my amp. A relay in the patch box is switching this thing, it’s controlled by the PLAN B.

The right plug is the guitar output to the amp.

I used basic cables you can find on any stage. So if one of my cables decide to break down one day, I can use whatever the sound guy/girl will give me.

And yeah, it’s just loudness, loudness and more loudness. Cause it’s punk rock, so no big, special sounds! Just a dirty guitar.

Cables are all self made to custom length and plugs. A lot of work, but this board survived everything! The LEDs on the pedals are always on, just change the color from blue to red.

My guitar is a Hagstrom Viking Deluxe. Played once, falling in love and never changed since!

My amp is the Peavey Valve King 50 watts 1×12 combo.

I haven’t played in a band for the last years, just hanging around and making music with friends. We have still written down some things and licks, but never formed a band.

So on…maybe I can inspire some people out there to build more great effect pedals and boards.

See you…
analogMensch

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