Pedal Line Friday – 8/16 – John Nicholls

Today’s pedal line is from John Nicholls. 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.

Hi!

I’m John the singer/guitar player from Near North (www.nearnorthband.com, www.facebook.cpm/NearNorthBand).  I love your blog and would be delighted if you’d feature my board!  Here goes:

The Board:  Isn’t finished.  I’m going to add an angle to it and someday build a lid, for now it’s just plywood and velcro.

Boss, TU-3:  I had an old TU-2 that was beautifully beat up.  It was stollen a few years ago along with several other pedals.  I toyed with the idea of getting a different tuner but the durability of the Boss units is just kind of undeniable.

Fairfield Circuitry, Barbershop Overdrive:  It sounds as unique as it looks and is extremely versatile.  It responds well to the guitar’s volume knob and the “sag” knob in the middle is extremely fun to play with.  I use it mostly for a mild rhythm crunch.

Wren and Cuff, Tall Font Russian:  This is a Big Muff clone that just screams.  Naturally it handles my high gain needs.  I opted for a more expensive boutique clone rather than a new muff for two reasons.  1.  in my experience the new muffs vary pretty widely in character and quality and 2. they are huge.  This is relatively compact and sounds amazing.  It’s well built and has all of the woof and growl you could want.

MXR, Phase 90:  Although somewhat pedestrian, I just love this pedal.  I keep it turned all the way down and it gives me that Waylon swirl on rhythm and spicy mayhem when combined with the fuzz.

Boss, TR-2 – With Keeley Mod:  I’ve always loved the character of the Boss tremolo , but I got bummed that there was a pretty significant gain loss as soon as you turned it on.  The Robert Keeley mod takes care of that AND gives you a volume control so you can actually use it as a boost.  Brilliant sounding, simple and sturdy.

Ibanez, AD9:  I got this analog delay when I realized the Ibanez was discontinuing them.  I have a thing for stuff that isn’t available anymore. I use it pretty minimally for a simple slap-back echo and it does the trick all while being PURPLE!

Danelectro “Spring King” Reverb:  For many this is a “love it or hate it” pedal but I’m somewhere in the middle.  It’s great at emulating a trashy Sears amp reverb and it’s much harder to get a subtle reverb that sounds like its coming form the amp.  The kick pad is cool, sometimes.  I got this when I switched over to an amp that did not have reverb built in and I was looking for something unique.  It will go when I go back to a Fender amp.

—
Cheers
John Nicholls