Guest Post: Time for a New Effects Board by Dave Tamkin

The following is a guest post by Dave Tamkin. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Time for a New Effect Board

I’ve been using a pedal board for over 15 years. I love to loop and experiment with sounds through my acoustic guitar on stage. I find that adding a few effects always makes my stage show more interesting.  But keeping things interesting has become an expensive hobby over the years as I continue to collect a wide range of effect pedals from all makes and models. The other problem I’ve come across is not having the effects I need on hand and needing to swap out pedals for different legs of the tour.

Current Pedals for my Acoustic Set Up:

BOSS RC-20 : Loop Station
SANSAMP GT2 Tech 21 NYC
BOSS DD – 3 Digital Delay
MORLEY – Steve Vai Bad Horsie Wah
BOSS GEB – 7 Equalizer
BOSS PH – 3 Phase Shifter
BOSS Noise Suppressor NS-2

The iPad changed a lot of that for me, as it has given me the freedom to pick up more pedals virtually and at a much lower cost. Though the lack in variety of apps was a problem at first, I’ve found JamUp (http://www.positivegrid.com/) to continually increase their selections of over 40 different pedals/amps at my fingertips.

Initially, the downfall of these apps was that I was unable to control effects from stage without taking my hands off of my guitar to fiddle with icons on the iPad screen.  For a while, it became a last resort on recordings and small projects that I didn’t need to control on the fly.

Airturn and JamUp

Over the last 6 months, I’ve been experimenting with AirTurn’s (www.airturn.com) Wireless BT-105 4-pedal board at some intimate shows and open mics around Boulder, CO. It connects wirelessly to my iPad and allows me to control JamUp with all its effect pedal glory hands-free, just like my old physical pedal setup, but without all the extra wires and bulk! I’m not sure how many musicians out there have used AirTurn before, but I’m all in for hearing more about it. I’m looking forward to touring nationally with AirTurn’s pedal board and using it in a full band setting in the upcoming weeks. I will report back on its durability and performance. Thus far, the ease of use between AirTurn and my iPad has been a breeze.

Sample List of JAMUP Effect PEDALS and AMP simulators

Full List Here : http://www.positivegrid.com/jamup/

Mesa Boggie 20/20
Roland RE 201 Space Echo
Reverse Delay
Echo Delay
BBE Mind Bender
Leslied 145 Rotary Speaker
Boss AW-2
Room Reverb Simulator
Teletronix LA-2A Compressor
Noise Filter
1992 Marshall JCM-900
Orange AD30
Boss MT-2 Metal Zone
ProCORat
Roland JC-120
Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer
VOX AC 30
Custon 4 – band EQ
Custom FLanger
Dunlop Cry Baby
Boss OC -2 Octave

Dave Tamkin
www.davetamkin.com
www.reverbnation.com/davetamkin
www.davetamkin.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/davetamkinmusic