(* Not related to [sub]NOVA from Sheffield England or the electronic musician Subnova from Minneapolis)

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Pedalboard Update

 


Ok, going around the horn...

SYSTECH PHASE SHIFTER. Our oldest pedal, someone picked this thing up probably around 1983 and I ended up with it. Not really appropriate for the beginning of a signal chain, but I do enjoy plugging in right there at the top and the sounds coming through have not disappointed.

BOSS OCTAVE OC-5. The last pedal I added to the board. Was looking for some occasional deep synth-bass, also can get an organ-like tone.

DO THE WEASEL STOMP. (Newer version) A clone of the Systech Harmonic Energizer popularized by Frank Zappa. A filter/harmonic expander type pedal used as a treble or bass boost, which I basically leave the expression pedal at max bass unless I want to go in and out of the treble for this weird wah effect.

AMT Electronics EX-50. A mini expression pedal. I really wanted all metal pedals and this was the best of the minis I could find. Ordered direct from Russia.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX DELUXE BIG MUFF PI. Saw this pitched by none other than Tony Levin. The Big Muff is the first pedal I bought just for bass. Super versatile from growly fuzz to tight overdrive.

TC ELECTRONIC POLYTUNE 3 MINI. I lost my $10 Snark clip-on tuner and thought it would be cool to get a good tuner on the board. Being toward the end of the chain also works as a kill switch when tuning is activated. Incredibly accurate and visible but cost a butt ton of dough for a tuner.

MORLEY 20/20 VOLUME PLUS. The cool thing about this volume pedal is that a footswitch activates an adjustable minimum volume setting, so you can't accidently step on the pedal too hard and die off.

SINGULAR SOUND BEAT BUDDY AND FOOT SWITCH. Our drummer keeps exploding! (Ha, my fault. Sorry Dean.) This isn't technically in the chain, anyhow drummers are always a pain in the ass to round up and keep. So I went on a search for what would be the best drum machine when you can't get a live drummer and the Beat Buddy showed up.

SL Waber EPC-100 ESD TOUCH PLATE POWER CENTER SWITCH HUB 5-PORT SURGE PROTECTOR. Found it lying around left over from Owl Man's LAN party days. Powers everything either directly or through my AZOR Pedal Power Supply Adapter with 5 Way Daisy Chain Cables fit for 9V DC 1A (1000mA) Negative Tip Guitar Effect Pedal. (Hmmms, Does it really make sense to power $1,000 worth of pedals through a $12 daisy chain?)