Pedal Line Friday – 1/27 – A. Bovara

Today’s pedal line is from A. Bovara. 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.

This is my working board. I used it to record my latest solo album. You can hear it here:
No Place for the Dead

I only route my pedals one way, from beginning to the beginning to the end.

Bass (Shamray Custom or ESP Ltd. F-205) >
ISP Decimator G String >
Behringer BLE100 Bass Limiter Enhancer >
Boss GEB-7 Bass EQ >
EHX Octave Multiplexer >
Delta Fuzz (BYOC Ampeg Scrambler clone) >
EHX Metal Muff w/ Top Boost >
Dunlop Bass CryBaby >
Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive >
Morley PBA-2 Dual Bass Wah >
Boss BF-2 Flanger >
Line 6 Echo Park >
Boss LMB-3 Bass Limiter Enhancer >
ISP Decimator G String (again) >
Mark Bass CMD 102-P.

Sitting on an SKB-PS-45

ISP Decimator G String– Bass in. This is my favorite pedal. For all the sounds I get out of everything else, without this pedal all anything would sound like is cosmic microwave background radiation.

Behringer BLE100 Bass Limiter Enhancer– This is the first of my two limiter/enhancer pedals. The enhancer knob might as well be re-titled as, high pitch hiss mix. Other than having flimsy feeling controls it works just as good as the Boss Limiter later on in my line. This Hi-C carton helps keep things even when I switch from deep low end to clangier highs, since both my basses have pretty strong onboard EQ.

Boss GEB-7 Bass EQ– I bought this pedal before I knew what to do with it. I used to hate it. Now that I have learned that sliders, or knobs for that matter, don’t have to maxed out one way or the other, I really like the pedal. EQ is a powerful thing, just a dab’ll do ya.

EHX Octave Multiplexer– I made this as a deaf trade. I never heard it before in my life; I didn’t even check any YouTube demos. I find I am really happy with it. It’s nice for simple harmonies with myself and can thicken up bass very well. It’s part one of a happy accident.

Delta Fuzz (BYOC Ampeg Scrambler clone)– This is part two of the happy accident. I bought this from Build Your Own Clone because it was one of the cheaper kits they had. I wanted it so my wife could do some doodles on it and I would have something from her on my board. She is the one who named it “Delta Fuzz”. I was going to call it, “Octave Up Fuzz Pedal”. It is a fuzz with some subtle octave up change happening. She called it “Delta” because of that subtle change in harmonic pitch. Anyway, I discovered that putting the octave down EHX in front of this octave up fuzz created some of the most terrorizing signal distortion I’ve ever heard. The Multiplexer into the Delta Fuzz is unlike any distortion/pitch switch out there. I contemplated getting a WMD Geiger Counter, then this happened and I’m happy enough.

EHX Metal Muff w/ Top Boost– This is my go to distortion pedal. I usually like to run distortion EQ flat, but since this is high end focused, and I am a bass player, I had to bump up the lows and mids to compensate. When I do want the high end splatter it’s as easy as kicking in the Top Boost.

Dunlop Bass Cry Baby– My first wah pedal. I hate that it is a click to engage pedal, but I do really like its tone. It’s a much…thicker(?)… sound than the Morley. I need to get around to doing the step on to engage mod. It sounds really nice sitting between my two main distortion pedals, the Crybaby acts on the Metal Muff while the ODB-3 acts on the Crybaby. I can make it scream like Dax Riggs in 1994.

Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive– This is a love it or hate it bass player standard. It has a smooth overdrive, like a steady static but hearty. It’s nice to be able to blend the distortion with the dry signal here.

Morley PBA-2 Dual Bass Wah– I love that this is an instant engage pedal. It has a much smoother tone sweep than the Crybaby, but isn’t as thick. It does great as an effect filter. When I have the octave and two distortions engaged, my Morley can bring the entire line from dead wood to a raging fire of sonic eruption.

Boss BF-2 Flanger– I really like this flanger.

Line 6 Echo Park– The Echo Park is pretty versatile, but that’s mostly lost on me as I only use it for two different things. I use the normal delay, quarter note type, with tap delay timing. It’s cool to get a delay/echo just how you like it while playing, instead of tooling around with knobs while you should be plucking strings. This pedal does not work with the G-String on. I guess the G-string picks the echo up as noise and filters it out; so, I have to be careful to have the G-String off when I use this. Except, that is, when I use the “Swell” setting. The swell setting combined with the filtering of the G-string make an interesting volume rise sound, similar to what the Boss Slow Gear did (but better).

Boss LMB-3 Bass Limiter Enhancer– My second limiter in the series. With all my gain stages (EQ, Delta Fuzz, Metal Muff, ODB-3, Morley Wah) this guy helps me even everything out. It is especially important when I use the Delta Fuzz, as it doesn’t have a volume output control and bumps up the volume a little. The Delta Fuzz isn’t too bad when it’s on by itself, but when combined with either other dirt pedal the volume jumps can get pretty bad. This limiter takes care of these problems.

ISP Decimator G String– (again)- effects return.

This smaller board is my DOD board, Screem for Bleed (Feat. Gouge, Twist, Crank, and Harm)
This is my tribute to all the pedals I wanted, but couldn’t afford, when I started playing bass in the mid-90’s. It is my prize collection of the craziest, cult followingist, hard to find, unnecessarily expensive DOD pedals.

The route is:
Bass (Shamray Custom or ESP Ltd. F-205)>
DOD FX32 Meat Box
DOD FX13 Gonkulator Modulator
DOD FX76 Punkifier
DOD FX33 Buzz Box
Mark Bass CMD 102-P.

Tied with some twine to an old board I tore off an abandoned barn.

I also gave each pedal a name, to be in line with the crazy DOD knob names. I think the names are somewhat reflective of what the pedal does, to either your signal or your ears.

DOD FX32 Meat Box, aka Gouge- This pedal digs deep into the low end frequency range, almost sub-sonic, and boosts the 30 Hz and 60 Hz frequencies. The low end you can pump out of this slab will tear your flesh down through your bone.

DOD FX13 Gonkulator Modulator, aka Twist- Right up front, the Gonk is a simple toned ring modulator with a built in distortion circuit. However, if you play it just right, this pedal sounds like it can twist your pitches around. For instance when playing three notes close in pitch, the note that is highest in pitch on your neck will come out as the lowest pitch from the Gonk. Crazy.

DOD FX76 Punkifier, aka Crank- Some good ol’ screamin’ demon distortion. It’s pretty simple, this box can crank up your signal so that it sounds like you’ve been slapped in the ear with a pan of hot oil.

DOD FX33 Buzz Box, aka Harm- This pedal has no consideration for the feelings or emotions of any signal coming into it. It’ll break your sound down to something akin to a jar full of M-80’s and chainsaws. If you’ve ever wanted to turn you ax into a dirt bike simulator, this is your pedal. If you’ve ever wanted the sound of broken speakers without breaking your speakers, this is your box. If you’ve ever wanted to harm the hearing of those around you, this is a good place to start.

I play with this board every once in a while just to tool around. It’s pretty fun, although I sometime worry about my amp, speakers, and windows. Totally brootuhlz.

–
A. Bovara