Late last year 2021, I was at Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI and it was there that I acquired my first Collings acoustic, a 0002H. Since I perform monthly live at an Open Mic Night that I host with a friend, and because I like to play through an acoustic amp when I play at home, I requested that the shop install a pick up in the guitar before I headed back home to Iowa.
K&K Pure Mini Pickup
The gentleman who manages the acoustic guitar department was emphatic that the best pickup for a Collings acoustic guitar was the K&K Pure Mini because it was generally transparent sounding, way less prone to feedback, and relatively easy to install.
L.R. Baggs Venue DI with tone controls and tuner
A challenge with a passive pickup like the K&K Pure Mini is the absence of a preamp/equalizer to control guitar tonality, such as bass, mids and treble, as well as to boost the signal. My previous acoustic guitars were Taylors which had a preamp/equalizer and pickup installed as part of the guitar itself, so I was at a bit of a loss, until my Dave’s guy suggested that I should also purchase a DI/Preamp with built in equalizer to manage the pickup, and he recommended the L.R. Baggs Venue for the job. When I suggested that I already owned a rather extensive pedalboard that I used with my electric guitars which might accomplish the same thing, he visibly shuddered and said he would never, ever run a Collings acoustic guitar through those electronics. It would be a major compromise to the guitar’s tone, which is what Collings guitars were all about!
At a gig with the Venue DI & 0002H
So, I ordered an L.R. Baggs Venue and put it to good use when I played a gig at one of our local coffee shops. The 0002H was cabled into the Venue which was then cabled into a Bose T4s Mixer and then on into a Bose L1 Pro PA and it worked well enough.
Still, I was unsure whether or not I had the best possible tool kit at my disposal for projecting the best possible tone from my Collings. Consequently, I started digging around the internet and discovered that the L.R. Baggs Company in the past few years has developed a line of pedals that were specifically attuned to the unique complexities and frequencies of acoustic guitars. They’re referred to as the Align series of acoustic pedals, and include a compressor, a DI, an equalizer, a reverb, a delay, and a chorus.
L.R. Baggs Session Compressor Pedal
In my judgement an essential pedal for all amplified guitars is a compressor, because to me it makes the guitar sound better. Most importantly the compressor levels the dynamics of different strings, which can be very helpful in making the guitarist sound more pleasant, especially when playing fingerstyle. As you can see on the right, the L.R. Baggs compressor has a simple layout with volume and gain controls at the top. I use just enough gain to keep the signal flowing through the chain as I don’t want gain fattening up the signal beyond what I perceive to be a natural acoustic tone. The various pedals in the signal chain all have some form of volume control, some of which alter the guitar’s overall dry signal and other control the loudness of the effect the pedal was designed for. I tend to keep the loudness/volume controls set close to mid-point and do final volume control at the Venue DI or the Amp/PA. The effects volume is set to keep the effect subtle and not to overwhelm the guitar’s dry signal.
The Compressor’s saturate knob can “enrich” the tone, but with a Collings I don’t find that a necessity, so I keep it tuned down so as not to affect the natural brilliance built into the guitar. Where the “rubber meets the road” is the comp eq knob and here is where the guitar tonal dynamics are controlled. What I do is adjust the knob, and then back and forth mute or activate the combined Session compressor and Venue DI so that I eventually get the natural sound of the guitar unplugged but simply louder when the signal chain is engaged, and “By-Jiminy” it works!
In truth, the combination of the Venue DI and Session Compressor would be enough if all you wanted during a performance was the natural sound of the guitar amplified. During the time that I possessed just those two pedals I ran them in series with the guitar into the compressor, then feeding directly into the Venue. When I used the chromatic tuner that is built into the Venue, I would turn the compressor off before hand so that a clean signal reached the tuner.
L.R. Baggs Reverb
The fact is, sometimes I like to use tone modulation pedals in very light doses to add mood or flavor to the guitar’s basic tone. Consequently, I anticipated eventually adding the L.R. Baggs Reverb and Delay pedals to the signal chain. I sold some old pedals I was not using and purchased the Reverb first.
Again, as with the Compressor, the control knobs for the Reverb are fairly simple. No choices of multiple types of Reverb are available as typical on pedals such as those manufactured by Boss or Neunaber. L.R. Baggs engineered a Reverb signal they thought best complemented an acoustic guitar, and I like it. In the case of this Reverb pedal, the volume and tone controls just alter the reverb effect and not the guitar’s dry signal. Also onboard are knobs to adjust the amount of reverb and the decay, which is the duration of the effect. As I said before, with an acoustic guitar like a Collings, if I engage reverb, I like to do it with subtlety.
FX Loop Input/Output in rear of Venue DI
After studying the L.R. Baggs Venue literature, I decided to reroute my pedals from a straight line configuration, meaning they connect to each other train car style, one after the other, until they reach the Venue as last entry point. Instead, I chose to use the Venue’s EFX loop with input and output jacks located in the back of the device. Basically the Compressor and Reverb pedals are lassoed together and run via a cabled loop into and out of the Venue’s rear. As I understand it, the native signal from a guitar’s passive pickup, such as my K&K Pure Mini, is not particularly strong. Consequently, it is prudent to use effects pedals after the guitar’s signal is strengthened by the Venue’s Preamp. Theoretically, this results in a cleaner signal for the pedals to manipulate, giving precise and more audibly pleasing control over the effects. Effects such as Reverb and Delay would clearly benefit from flowing through the EFX loop. Whether or not the Compressor belongs in the EFX loop or is instead located before the preamp can be debated; however, I have it located in the loop and it sounds just fine to me.
L.R. Baggs Delay
I completed the signal modulation section of my acoustic pedalboard with the acquisition of the L.R. Baggs Align Delay pedal. This pedal too is tied into the EFX loop and I tend to set it to give a subtle slapback effect, which, when used adds some further depth to the guitar’s tonality. To maintain subtlety, I limit the delay time with the delay knob, limit the number of repeats per unit time and keep the time of the delay relatively brief. The tone knob controls the brightness or darkness of the delay effect and I tend to keep that setting relatively neutral.
It is apparent via this discussion that I tend to use modulation and compression pedals in this configuration in a “set it and forget it” mode. I don’t like fiddling about with the pedals especially when performing. On the other hand, I do have separate Venue DI equalizer settings depending on which guitar I am using. I keep a photograph of the settings for the 0002H and the C10-35 on my iPad, and can easily adjust if I switch guitars when playing.
The last pedal on my board, which is a Korg tuner, really should not have been a necessity because the Venue DI has a built-in, onboard chromatic tuner. Sadly, it is not as responsive as other tuners I’ve used, and I lost confidence in its accuracy because of its oddball circular LED interface. Consequently, I added the KORG pedal and it works just fine! The raw guitar signal feeds directly into the Korg, which then cables into the Venue DI.
A handmade George L patch chord
It is worth noting that I use George L patch chords on both of my pedalboards. They are infinitely variable lengthwise because you build them yourself and have discretion as to how long the patch chord wire is. At my local shop, you purchase the plugs individually and the wire is paid for by the length. I keep a small coil of wire at home. The plugs are all nickel colored and the wire comes in multiple colors including black, blue, white and red. You build the patch chord by cutting the wire and then removing the cap to the plug. This is followed by inserting the wire into the opened plug and finally screwing the plug’s cap back down, which cuts the insulation on the wire and creates a proper circuit. I also use the optional rubber stress relief caps that keep the plug cap from unscrewing, which can happen over time. The George L’s are pricey. You can make 6 patch chords for roughly $100. My guitar shop guys consider them the best in the marketplace, but opinions around the web vary.
Genzler Acoustic Array Pro Amp
It goes without saying that an essential element in the signal chain is the amplifier itself. I currently use the Genzler Acoustic Array Pro amp and am very pleased with it. It offers a lovely transparent amplification of the guitar’s signal, which is a necessity when so much has been invested in the tonality of a Collings guitar. I would not want my guitars signal colored by the amp. The Genzler offers two channels, as well as chorus and reverb effects. I keep the effects turned off because I choose to use my pedals instead.
At home, I use one channel of the Genzler for the guitar and the other to practice singing my tunes. I own a very nice Sennheiser e965 condenser mic, which requires phantom power. Sadly, the Genzler’s phantom power is too wimpy to work with the e965, so I had to purchase a rechargeable phantom power booster that I stick between the mic and the amp and that works out adequately. I have not taken the Genzler out for a gig because I use a Bose L1 Pro PA; however, the Genzler is ready to go if I decide to use it. There is a socket built into the bottom of the amp so that it can be mounted on a stand at ear level for the audience.
The complete Acoustic Pedalboard
Above you can see the completed pedalboard. While there’s room for another pedal like the L.R. Baggs Align Chorus, I think this signal chain offers more than enough tone altering capability, without being excessive. You will note the pedals are velcro mounted on a Pedaltrain Classic JR chassis. Bolted below is a Pedaltrain Spark power block that offers 5 isolated power channels. Sadly, the Spark is no longer manufactured, but there are other power blocks in the marketplace. On my electric guitar pedalboard I use the excellent Walrus Audio Phoenix.
Below I offer some tone samples using various pedal combinations for both my Collings C10-35 and then my 0002H. I recorded the clips with an iPhone 11, equipped with a Shure MV88 mic plugged into its jack, and did final processing in Apple’s iMovie. The recordings are probably best appreciated with decent headphones.
The sound samples from the C10-35 are drawn from the music that accompanies Blaze Foley’s Clay Pigeons:
The sound samples from the 0002H are drawn from the music that accompanies Steve Earle’s Fort Worth Blues:
In my previous posting I wrote extensively about my experience building several generations of guitar pedalboards, and ended my discussion by suggesting that one last action I might take would be to replace the board’s power supply. I was using a Pedaltrain Spark, which fit flush to the underside of the board and offered 5 independent power channels ranging from 100mA’s to 500mA’s. Since I had 11 pedals on the board, it required daisy chaining some of them to shared power channels, which depending on how they were arranged could create unwanted amp noises.
To the left, you can see one of the great advantages of the Spark. It was designed to mount neatly and efficiently under a Pedaltrain board. My guess is that because of the limited number of isolated channels, the device may not have sold many units; consequently, the Pedaltrain company ceased production. After detaching the Spark from my main board, I will use it as an external power source for my smaller detachable board which currently only holds two pedals.
When building the 3rd generation board, I became a bit of a Walrus fanboy, so when I tumbled onto the fact that they manufacture a power supply that offers 15 isolated channels, I decided to acquire one to replace the Spark. Here’s a short promo for the device Walrus… it’s “homemade” affect is amusing and endearing:
To the right, you can see the underside of the board with the Spark removed and the Walrus Phoenix poised for installation. Eventhough the Phoenix was designed to fit neatly beneath a Pedaltrain board, there was no readily apparent way to mount it. Sadly the existing Spark mounting hardware would not work and Walrus discontinued their mounting kit, which did not look that effective to begin with. There are examples on YouTube of people drilling holes into their boards to mount a Phoenix, but I am reluctant to do so. Any wrong move with the drill and a big mess could be made!
You’ll note also in the above image that I had to pull several of the pedals off the board to get enough access to remove the Spark and subsequently mount the Phoenix. This was not a problem as I intended to rewire the whole board with fresh George L cable to ensure that my patch cords were as good as I could make them!
Instead, I opted to go with Scotch fastener strips. They’re like velcro fasteners, but on steroids. Three strips fit across the width of the Phoenix and I pressed it down onto an underside cross-member of the board. There is a bit of wobble because only about half of the Phoenix’s width is held to the board, so this is not an ideal, apocalypse-resistant mounting, but sometimes “good enough” can be “good enough.”
The Phoenix arrives from Walrus packaged with a generous supply of longish power cords to connect pedals to the power supply. The channels are either 100mA or 300mA which covers a wide range of pedal power needs. Some of the 100mA channels can be switched between 9 volts or 12 volts and one even goes to 18 volts. Sadly the 18 volt channel is only powered at 100mA because my Origin Effects Cali76 Stacked Compressor would benefit from the added head-room the 18 volts would give it, but it requires 108mA at that voltage which exceeds the 100mA of my 18 volt channel. I contacted Origin Effects to see if I could get by on 100mA but they never responded. The Walrus people think I should give the 18 volt set up a try. Perhaps I will in time.
To the right, you can see the finished installation of the Walrus Phoenix onto the Pedaltrain board. The eleven power cords that I deployed bundled up very cleanly with zip ties.
The results of my rewiring the George L signal chain patch cords are also partially visible under the board. The pedal to pedal patches were made with red wire. The noise suppressor loop was made with blue and black wires. The blue wires identify the loop feeding into the Boss suppressor and the black wires feed back into the unsuppressed portion of the signal chain.
Below is the finished job as seen from above:
Even with the rewiring and addition of a pro quality power supply, there is a modest hum that can be heard from the amp until the Boss Noise suppressor is activated. The Boss NS-2 cleans up that last bit of hum! Winning…
Or, my zig zag journey through the guitar signal chain,,,
Taylor 914ce
Introduction
When I returned to serious guitar playing about 5 years ago, I was almost exclusively devoted to acoustic guitar playing, so when I sauntered through my local guitar shop and observed the glass cases full of smallish, multi-colored, knobbed-up, rectangular metal boxes (i.e. pedals), I was simultaneously curious and intimidated.
Though I’d played guitar, on and off for many years, it was straight up, non-amplified acoustic music. It was only after I returned to serious playing that I decided to purchase an amplifier for the first time by acquiring a nice new Fishman Loudbox Artist. Even then the onboard “effects” such as reverb and chorus were a mystery to me, so I did not deploy them.
Fishman Loudbox Artist
It was not until I decided that I wanted to experience playing an electric guitar, that I first considered acquiring an effects pedal. Without giving the initial guitar purchase the deeper thought and consideration it deserved, (a common theme for me), I acquired a Gretsch Silver Falcon, which was a very showy guitar that was way outside my capabilities, but I eventually adjusted to playing it. I never could shake the fact that I felt a poseur owning it and never could get the instrument to not sound thin and reedy to my ears. It was not the amp, because I played it through a Fender Princeton Black Face reissue.
Gretsch Falcon and Fender Princeton
After consultation with my guitar teacher, I followed his recommendation and purchased my first pedal to “fatten-up” the Falcon’s sound. Consequently, the first pedal I owned was an Electro-Harmonix Soul Food overdrive, which was, as explained to me, a clone (copy) of one of the most famous overdrives ever made called the Klon Centaur. People pay big bucks to acquire an original Klon, but a clone was fine with me as it was relatively inexpensive. The purchase of this pedal is a good example of me failing to do my own due diligence and research the Soul Food pedal before acquiring it. My reliance on others to recommend pedals because of their mysterious nature has led me to frequently buy, trade and replace them, which is not the low cost means of building a pedal board! On the other hand, my experience with pedals is that you really must live with one in your signal chain for an extended period before concluding their true value and worth to your music.
Soul Food pedal in the background
I used the Soul Food lightly and judiciously, meaning that I did not crank the key drive effect up as the sound it produced from the guitar was pretty distorted and did not suit my sensibilities. At heart I am a “clean” player being influenced largely by my years of playing acoustic guitar, straight up, with no sound effects. A metal, head banger I am not nor will I ever be. So, for quite a while I was satisfied with owning a single overdrive pedal and using it in the most subtle fashion..
Perfomer using a largish pedal board to great effect at Open Mic night..
Then, one Friday night at an Open Mic Night at our local coffee shop (Cup of Joe), I listened to one of the performers who’d been sitting with me at my table and was fascinated by the sound modulation of his guitar, which I subsequently figured out was tremolo. When he sat down after performing, I asked him what in the world he’d done to get that sound. He said he’d used a pedal! I’d heard tremolo on records before like the bridge section (see below) of the Rollings Stones’, Exile on Main Street tune, Rocks Off, or Tommy James’s Crimson and Clover, but I was unaware you could do the same thing in the Coffee Shop (naive me)…
Jumpin’ In With Both Feet
My first pedal board, second iteration
As a result of attending the aforementioned Open Mic session, it finally occurred to me that pedals can offer an interesting opportunity to alter the tonalities of a guitar. Being so new to electric guitar playing, I was totally unaware of these possibilities! Consequently, at my next lesson, I spent a session with my guitar teacher specking out a pedal board.
To begin with, a physical platform to mount the pedals is not entirely necessary, as one can simply link the pedals together on the floor to create a signal train from the guitar output cable through the pedals and finally into the amp. A board, typically metal, to mount the pedals is much more elegant, stable, and portable solution.
I learned quickly that to create a series of connected pedals frequently referred to as signal chain, you must have the following:
A line out from the guitar that connects to the first pedal in series (there are more complicated arrays that can include “effects loops” with single and multiple amps or noise suppressors, but I like keep it pretty simple, which enhances portability and field set-up).
Connectors lines between pedals referred to as patch cables. There are many types of patch cables to choose from ranging in appearance, connective quality and price. In my judgment, quality signal transfer is paramount, given the investment in guitar, amp and pedals themselves… the wrong place to economize is with patch cables. The guys in my local shop swear by the George L patch cable system, so that’s what I went with. They’re pricey but very flexible particularly in terms of desired patch cable length between pedals..
A board to mount the pedals. Boards can be homemade or store bought. They’re made flat or inclined and in varying sizes, depending on how many pedals you wish to mount. In my case, I bought a Pedaltrain board constructed of welded steel (I think), mostly because that’s what my shop sold at the time. The board was big enough to hold 4 vertically arrayed single purpose “standard sized” pedals. Buying such a small board was a huge mistake… I did not think “big” enough at the time and soon found myself wanting to add to the board and having no room, so I had to reorient two pedals to the horizontal position to squeeze another on. I’ve seen pedals mounted using zip ties, but I prefer the velcro approach that Pedaltrain recommends. In that case, you put pressure sensitive adhering strips of the fuzzy stuff on the board and the grippy hooked stuff on the bottom of the pedal. It helps to remove any rubber “feet” from the bottom of the pedal before applying the grippy velcro.. The pedals hold like glue onto the board! It can be a pain to move pedals around because the velcro works so well.
Pedals require a power source. In most cases, but not always, pedals can be powered by a 9v battery. Sadly, batteries die at the most inopportune time and they sometimes leak making a mess where they’re installed. For that reason, I like to use an external power source. For a small board, like my first one, it was easy to power it with a daisy chain apparatus that powers all the pedals with a single wire and wall plug in. My guitar shop offers the Trutone One Spot.
Finally, a line from the pedal board to the amp, usually a guitar cable.
With my teacher’s advice I added the following pedals to complement my Soul Food overdrive:
A Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, which splits your dry (original) guitar signal into multiple slightly moderated pitched signals and feeds them back into the output with the dry signal, creating an effect similar to voices in a chorus. This is often considered a basic must-have if you’re interested in signal modulation. Listen to Boston’s famously chorused guitars:
An Electro-Harmonix Memory Toy, which is a delay pedal. As defined by Reverb, “Delay is a time-based effect that copies your incoming signal and plays it back one or multiple times after a period of time.” To me, a delay is an essential almost always on effect that creates depth and expansiveness to your guitar tone. Listen carefully (best with headphones) to the “slap-back” effect in opening guitar riffs which is created by delay!
I myself specified a Looper pedal because I thought it might enhance my practices by allowing me to prerecord a rhythm pattern and play along with it. In retrospect, it’s nice to have but not essential.
Shortly, after my initial build I added a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner, which is a heavily used and essential pedal to have on any board. I cannot tune by ear, and clip-on tuners can be a real trial to use sometimes because they’ll refuse to recognize the guitar string. It was the purchase of this pedal that led me to realize that my board was too small and subsequently had to rearrange the board in an unorthodox method so that all would fit.
Waiting for my 15 minute Open Mic gig…
Note: the original pedal purchases were all acquired at my local shop, so their inventory and the store owner’s and my teacher’s predilections had huge impact on my purchasing decisions. Over time, I dumped the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food, the Memory Toy Delay and the Boss Chorus because I found pedals that perform the same function in a more satisfactory way to my taste.
In sum, I really enjoyed using my first pedal board. I was particularly delighted with the delay effects combined with the chorus. I used them to great effect at Open Mic nights at our local Coffee Shop. Further, the small board packed into a nice fabric enclosure and was so portable and easy to deal with when moving gear around. As you can see on the left, I was not embarrassed to show up for my 15 minute gig with two axes, a guitar stand and the pedal board. Having a smallish board made life that much easier.
I Finally Think Big (Sort of)
Pedal array at Bob’s Guitars in Cedar Falls, IA
It wasn’t too long after I completed building my first pedalboard that I became more and more curious about the array of tonal variations that you could create with additional pedals. I began spending a lot of time staring down into the pedal display class case at my local shop and asking questions about what the various devices do. As a result, I wanted to add more pedals to “complete” a new list of “must haves” that I now had in mind.
A new more expansive pedal board…
First off, I wanted to add a compressor, which is often recommended to “smooth-out” the sound of a finger-style player by altering the dynamics of a musical performance, making the quiet parts louder and the loud parts quieter. The guys in my shop all loved the JangleBox, which was relatively pricey acquisition, but nothing wrong with trying to get the best (sadly, it was not, and it eventually joined a long line of pedals I off loaded). Secondly, I purchased an ABY pedal so I could easily switch my guitar between an acoustic and tube driven amp. My shop had a nice Orange brand.
With new pedals acquired, I needed more space on my pedal board. You can see in the image above I purchased a larger Pedaltrain platform. As a result of my own timidity, I had one of the guitar shop guys make the transfer from the small board to the larger, and add the two new pedals into the array. That was the last time I would pay anyone to set-up my board, because I finally realized it can be done relatively easily, and it’s fun. Further, the shop guy cajoled me into trading the small board in as partial payment for the set-up job labor. I was stupid to agree because I was given a pittance for a practically new (used) board, and I actually could have used that small board later on. I am still irritated about that and I won’t get fooled again.
Second generation expanded large board with auxiliary smaller expansion board
In very short order, I went on a tear and filled the new larger board with new “must-have” pedals and replaced two of my original acquisitions. Here’s a brief summary of what I did:
Added a Boss TR-2 Tremolo because that’s the tone effect that sent me down the pedal board rabbit hole in the first place.
Added a Boss VB-2w Waza Craft Vibrato. Vibrato and tremolo work and sound differently but both create a warbling, variable tone affect. I thought I should have one, but am still not sure I really did. Below is a Beatles tune that makes use of guitar vibrato effect.
Added a Boss RV-6 Reverb, which is an essential pedal to create expansiveness and depth in your guitar tone. The RV-6 can simulate varying room sizes and varying reverb technologies. Well designed reverb pedals offer so many variables, it can be a bit overwhelming to select one. Below is a great example of Pink Floyd applying heavy reverb in a recording:
Added a Boss Super Octave OC-3 because I like the way it can thicken the tone by adding additional octaves created off the dry signal. The pedal can also create a abruptness in the tone which is interesting. This pedal is fun but should be used judiciously. Jeff Beck’s Come Dancing below is a great example of Octave tonality on a guitar. Bass players frequently use this effect too.
Added a Boss GE-7 Equalizer because I thought I was supposed to have one… in retrospect, I did not really need one… many of my other pedals had onboard tone controls, which are easier to use so I hardly deployed its capabilities. Further, this box created a great deal of signal noise at the high end if it was used to adjust those particular frequencies. I’ve seen a JHS video discussing how equalizers are important and can be used, in addition to sound frequency tone control to create distortion, but in the end, this pedal lasted for only a while on my board before I pulled it and sold it on consignment at my local shop. I am embedding the JHS video below because it did influence my purchase.
In fact, you may notice on my second generation board pictured earlier above, that it is dominated by Boss pedals. This is largely because my local shop had a huge inventory of them, they are reasonably priced, are built to withstand an apocalyptic event, equipped with relatively easy control features, and are solid middle of the road performers. In fact, if you take the time to review the following JHS video, you’ll note how important Boss was in terms of originating pedal technology and circuits. This video had great influence on my purchase choices when I built my second generation board:
In addition to the new Boss Pedals, I also replaced:
My original Electro Harmonix Memory Toy Delay with a Dunlop Echoplex Delay. I decided after a time that the Memory Toy was just a muddy-sounding delay, so in a panicky mood the afternoon before I planned to perform at Open Mic Night, I ran to my guitar shop and auditioned several other delay pedals and landed on the Echoplex, which electronically simulates one of the original tape-based delays used decades ago. I loved its crystalline clarity, ease of control and the ability to simulate worn tape sounds, if I wished. I traded the Memory Toy and never looked back. The Echoplex is still on my board today.
My original Electro Harmonix Soul Food with a Mesa Tone Burst, I finally decided that I do not need an overdrive like the Soul Food. Instead, the Tone Burst is a much more subtle minimalist application of overdrive, with excellent tone controls and a nice clean boost to the signal if needed. This substitution made sense to me as I am not an advocate of distortion created by strong overdrive.
Second generation board with lower auxiliary mini-board.
You can see in the image to the left of my second generation board that I added so many pedals it became necessary to install an additional smaller board to the signal chain. What’s nice about this arrangement is that the main board can be easily detached and taken to performances. The pedals on the auxiliary mini-board never have to leave my house!
Opening a Can of Worms
When you move from a small pedal board to a larger one, there are consequences, which in my case were largely unanticipated:
Pedal Order In the Signal Chain There are does and don’ts regarding how various types of pedals are ordered in the signal chain. There are many resources available that will suggest conventional wisdom for proper order. For example, it is good form to start a signal chain with a tuner pedal and to follow it immediately with a compressor. The tuner is a “neutral” pedal; however, the compressor cleans the guitar’s signal early before entering other effect transformations. Nevertheless, most resources suggest that pedal order is not written in stone, and leave the final decision up to the musician’s predelictions. In some rare cases there are no location recommendations for pedals like a synthesizer, so you’re left to your own devices. I try to follow best practices and will discuss this issue later when I speak to my third generation pedal board.
Amp Noiseand Independent Power Sourcing: This one really caught me off guard. I had no idea that when I started stacking pedals onto my board that I would be creating the possibilities for annoying hisses, hums, squeals, and tea kettle-like whistling! At the time that I built my second generation board I played my electric guitar(s) through a relatively new Fender Princeton Reverb (Black Face) reissue. A wonderful tuneful amp, but it simply did not play well with a full board of pedals. Worse, the noises that emanated were variable and came and went, particularly a tea kettle-like whistle. To tackle the noise, I took the recommended route of reducing the number of pedals that were daisy chained together. To do this I added an independent power source to limit the number pedals daisy chained together.
Underside of pedalboard showing multi-channel independent power supply
To the right, you can see the underside of my board where I (very neatly) attached a Pedaltrain Spark, which offered 5 independent power channels varying from 100 to 500 mV’s. In addition, I lassoed together the noisiest pedals, including the compressor, the octave, and any drive pedals into a separate circuit that passed through a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor.
Despite the aforementioned heroic actions, I still experienced occasional and random noise issues with the Princeton. Finally, fed up with the Princeton, I traded it in for a Mesa Boogie Filmore 50 which, beside being a superior and more powerful amp almost eliminated, but not completely, my pedal related noise issues.
Second generation board with Boss Noise Suppressor shoe-horned into the upper right section in horizontal configuration adjacent to Boss Chorus
I lived with this second generation board for quite a while, though I did make some minor changes here and there. For example, I exchanged the Boss Equalizer for a Mesa Flux Drivebecause I thought I needed more overdrive… I never really liked it, nor used it very much.
On the left you can see my basic second generation pedal board. It worked well enough, though I often wondered if I was too invested in Boss pedals. The Boss pedals are solid performers, but I came to the conclusion after months of working with them that they are like blunt instruments, beset with older generation electronics, and lacking in precision, subtlety with the tones they produced. And frankly, they are clunky and ugly too. The guys at the shop occasionally spoke of new circuitry being developed by the smaller boutique manufacturers that produce new soundscape magic. I ruminated about Boss versus boutique pedals for several months and then like a dam breaking, I just started replacing pedals wholesale to create a third generation board!
A Third Generation Pedal Board Materializes
Boss Synth which replaced the Mesa Flux Drive
Now this may seem contradictory. As I just previously discussed, I was feeling over-represented by Boss products on my board. Further, I was getting bored with the pedal array I had and was looking for some new tone possibilities. Consequently, one Saturday afternoon, I went to my local shop with two of my guitars (the Collings I-35 and the National Resolectric) plugged into a Mesa Boogie amp like I have at home and auditioned a Boss SY-1 Synthesizer Pedal. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. Using the synth to alter some of the tunes I regularly play blew away some of the guys in the shop because they viewed the synth pedal as a novelty and not particularly useful one. But as they listened to me play they realized that the synth could be very interesting sounding indeed. The Synth pedal is challenging in that it offers a broad array of possibilities, many useful and many not so useable. I traded the Mesa Boogie Flux Drive for the Synth and took it home. I still have yet to pull the potential from that pedal, but am committed to it longterm. Grabbing the Synth and replacing a pedal that I did not like was like pulling a finger from the dike. A slow trickle would become a flood of change.
What truly broke the dike open was when my friend Grant started preening about a Keeley compressor that he’d recently acquired on the cheap from Reverb. It was at that point I really tumbled onto the fact that I wasted a pile of money on the Jangle Box compressor, which in my experienced judgement had far too limited control features with almost no documentation for how it should work, didn’t sound all that interesting either and it was noisy. I decided it should be replaced and went out into the marketplace looking for a seriously good compressor. This time I would do the necessary research before completing a purchase.
There is an incredible amount of information about pedals on the internet, particularly YouTube where reviewers of all sorts abound. In addition, there is printed literature, such as the huge coffee table book shown to the left. If you take the time, you can triangulate in a what to expect from a particular pedal. Since there is always someone, somewhere who will like any pedal, you should be thorough and consider multiple opinions.
I like to start with online rankings. For example, I start with a search engine phrase like, “rank the best guitar compressor pedals.” Several lists typically pop up and I will scroll through looking at the various choices they’ve selected. I will not necessarily choose the number one listed pedal, rather I will look over the pedal landscape and then dig into the individual choices that look most interesting to me. Companies with heavy marketing campaigns like Boss and Strymon will always show up on these lists, but its the ones I’ve never heard of that I’m looking for. Further, I am interested in standard sized pedal box enclosures. I don’t like mini pedals because they look under-engineered and have limited controls. On the other hand, I don’t like the larger, space intensive, over-complicated or multi-purpose pedals either. Size matters as it affects how much you can pack onto your board.
Following are the latest changes I’ve made, which now comprise my 3rd generation pedalboard:
Cali76 Stacked Edition Compressor
Compression: After due diligence, I decided to replace the Jangle Box with an Origin Effects Cali 76 Stacked Edition. Inside the Origin Effects stacked edition are two side-by-side paired compressors similar to what recording studios often use. Each compressor is individually controllable, and as seen on the left there is a golden knob to control the feed of the first compressor into the second. Further, the final output mix of dry signal and compressed signal is also adjustable, which was a feature sadly missing on the Jangle Box. Origin Effects offers several recommended fundamental set-ups and I’ve chosen to use the “always on” arrangement. The pedal enriches the sound of any guitar plugged into the signal chain. It’s quite lovely. In addition, like British textile manufacturing equipment I worked with in another lifetime before, the Cali76 is one of the most solidly built pedals I’ve ever owned! It’s a keeper.
Phaser: For starters, I never really connected with my Boss Waza Craft Vibrato. A little bit of it went a very long way, and if overdone, it was disorienting to the listener… in fact, it could make you a bit seasick… seriously. Consequently, I used it ratcheted way down so it was barely sonically evident out of the amp. In sum, I disliked the effect and was underwhelmed with the new feature set included with the expensive Waza Craft version. To replace vibrato, I considered other modulation effects like a Univibe or Flanger, but finally settled on a Phaser. Phasing is an eerie SciFi-like but pleasant sound and is better explained here then I can do it. Here’s two great examples of phasing at work:
Walrus Audio Lillian Phaser
Searching for “the best” phaser led me down the Walrus rabbit hole. A fascinating pedal manufacturer that eventually sold me three different modulation pedals. The first one I purchased was the Lillian Phaser. In addition to functioning well, the pedal has great graphics. It’s named for one of the actual rare World War II woman aircraft pilots.
I am very pleased with the phaser effect. I’ve used it at Open Mic night and it adds a fat, eeriness to a tune that catches the attention of listeners, but it should probably be used judiciously.
Though I am not interested in doing so, it is possible to push the Lillian into vibrato if necessary.
Walrus Audio Julia Chorus
Chorus: The Boss Chorus pedal always sounded shrill to me on any of the guitars I played through it. I was about to give up on chorus effect until I discovered the Walrus Julia.To me, it is a richer, more subtle, and more refined Chorus when compared to the Boss version (including their latest Waza Craft edition). Again, great graphics on the box and perfectly intuitive control feature come with the pedal. As a bonus, my guitar teacher has ongoing fantasies about Julia when he sees the pedal. Finally, like the Lillian Phaser, this pedal can be pushed into vibrato mode.
Here’s another notable tune known for its use of chorus guitar effects:
Walrus Audio Monument Tremolo
Tremolo: Well, after the acquisition of the Julia Chorus, I had the Walrus fever and decided after studying its specs and reviews that I would dump the prosaic Boss Tremolo for the Walrus Monument, which is a more sophisticated device, including, for example, tempo control and harmonic output.
I am very fond of tremolo and will use it whenever I think it’s appropriate. Tempo, rate and depth all have a major impact on the tonality produced.
Below I am including one of the more famous uses of tremolo effect by electric guitar pioneer Dick Dale:
Neunaber Reverb
Reverb: After replacing the Tremolo pedal, I continued on my mission of dumping whatever Boss pedals I could. To that end, I’d reached the point where I thought that the three Walrus pedals, as good as they are, were enough of that brand for my board. In addition, I did not find a Walrus reverb that persuaded me to acquire it. So I went back out to review the lists of best pedals and eventually found the Neunaber company, named for it’s owner and chief creator.
My research suggested that the Neunaber Immerse Reverberator was cutting edge technology. Similar to the Boss RV-6, the Immerse offered a wide array of reverb selections, but their proprietary W3T (Wet v3) algorithm separated the pedal from the crowd. I just simply sounds great.
Unless there’s compelling reason not to, the Reverberator is an always on pedal because of the depth and expansiveness that the pedal brings to the guitar’s tonality.
Me on the left at Open Mic Night. Note the 3rd Generation Pedalboard below my knee.
Under scrutiny by the shop guys
After I acquired the Neunaber Reverberator, I thought I was done with my 3rd generation pedalboard renovations. As you can see above I used the board to support my playing during the June 2021 Open Mic Night at Cup of Joe. Further, I was delighted to have two of my young friends who work at my local guitar shop attend the activities and when I closed the night with some work on my National M1 Tricone they scrutinized me like Talmudic scholars.
When I was done, they were kind and congratulated me for my bottleneck slide playing and then they closely examined my pedalboard renovations. They knew I’d been up to something because I sold my old pedals on consignment at their store and occasionally asked their opinion on different pedals. In sum, they were impressed with the board except they thought I needed a more serious gain pedal. “You need more grit” was their consensus.
Well… I gave their critique (or encouragement) some thought and after a while I went out into the marketplace looking for some grit in the form of a gain pedal.
Neunaber Intelligent Gain
Gain: There are so many gain/overdrive/distortion pedals in the marketplace it can be overwhelming trying to sort them out. I already bought and later disposed two of them (Soul Food & Flux Drive) so I was dubious about finding one I could like or use successfully. What I wanted was the ability to apply a subtle and gentle amount of grit depending on which of several guitars I own
In the end, I went back to Neunaber and after studying the pedal extensively, purchased the somewhat idiosyncratic Neuron Gain Intelligence pedal because of its deep control features it offered and the ability to save settings for various guitars, as well as the ability to use a tilt control to universally shift the pedal settings when moving from, for example an amp to a PA system.
Thus far, I am reasonably pleased with this pedal and am committed to sticking with it.
Summary
3rd Generation Pedalboard
Shown above is the finished and completed renovation of my pedalboard. As I explained earlier, the lower mini-board is detachable so that I can transport the main board to playing engagements. As with the 2nd generation board, the Compressor, Octave, Tone Burst, and Neuron Gain boxes are electronically lassoed together to pass through the Boss Noise Suppressor located on the upper right. The ordered arrangement of the pedals in the signal chain reflects basic conventional wisdom. What’s missing in this final set-up is the Boss Synth SY-1 pedal, which may eventually replace the Tone Burst in the near future. Because of occasional pedal based noise issues, I am also giving some thought to replacing the Pedaltrain Spark power supply with a Walrus Phoenix power supply because it would completely eliminate any pedal daisy chaining.
The final addition to the board was the installation of 26 red George L. Stress Relief Jackets to the patch cable jacks to keep their screw-in connectors locked in place. They also look way cool.
If this posting was of interest to you, please see my follow-up post here.
A few weeks ago, my friend Jacob Lampman made a house call to help me set-up a my Taylor T3c from a tone perspective. It was a great visit and an education for me and is well-documented in a prior posting.
In short Jacob, who is an accomplished guitarist, guitar instructor, and all purpose floor guy at my local shop, Bob’s Guitars agreed to work with me at my home with my three electric guitar’s tones as barter for a very nice, barely used hand-tooled El Dorado guitar strap.
Left Taylor SBc Walnut; Right Taylor T5z Pro, Ltd
The guitars remaining for Jacob to work with were a 2007 Taylor SBc Walnut (SB stands for solid-body) and a 2019 Taylor T5z Pro, Ltd (Molasses Burst).
The SBc is an interesting guitar. Taylor manufactured solid body guitars for only a brief time. They had developed a set of “innovative” pickups when they designed the hollow-bodied acoustic/electric hybrid T5 and sometime thereafter introduced their solid bodies to the marketplace so they could deploy the pickups in other guitars. They produced multiple designs with varying specs and the one I purchased last summer off of Reverb was one of the nicest ones that they made. My SBc had a Walnut top laid into a routed out Sapele body, and equipped with mini-humbuckers. The unusual appearing aluminum bridge was also a Taylor invention that allows multi-directional setting of the guitar string.
Taylor’s solid bodies reviewed well among the guitarati; however they did not sell enough of the product to justify continuance of manufacturing and phased them out. As a caution to anyone else inspired to buy one of these on the used market, they can be found at reasonable prices; however, make sure to carefully check the Sapele neck for twisting/warping as I have heard of several units, including the one I purchased, that suffered from the aforementioned malady. I was exceptionally fortunate in that Taylor replaced my neck, but I have heard again from multiple other sources that they no longer will do replacements.
The other guitar for Jacob’s review was a 2019 T5z Pro, Ltd. The Pro version is made with a flamed maple top inlaid into a routed out Sapele body. You can spend more and get a Koa top if you wish, which would be a T5z Custom. Other than gold-plated works and the top wood, the guitars are spec’d the same. The T5z is sold as an acoustic/electric hybrid with a 5 way switch to vary the choices of which of three different pickups (2 humbuckers of varying design and location and an acoustic body sensor under the bridge) with combinations thereof that can be selected. Unlike the recently introduced Fender Acoustasonics, there is zero modeling or sound alteration internally taking place with the T5z other than the preamp tone controls. The T5z is a lovely, small hollow bodied guitar with three nicely designed pickups.
In the rear left a Fishman Artist Acoustic Amp and on the right a reissued Fender Princeton Reverb. In the foreground my pedal boards.
The purpose of Jacob’s visit was to help me sort out how best to used the above described guitars as they interact with my amps and pedals, which can be seen on the right.
For a more detailed discussion of my various pedals please refer to here.
During his previous visit Jacob and I worked exclusively on my Taylor T3c, which is a semi-hollow bodied electric guitar with two full-sized “vintage” alnico pickups. and the goal of that set-up with to keep a relatively clean sound with enhanced mid-tones to suit the electrified country blues that I like to play.
Jacob working on the Solid Body (SBc)…
We opened our discussion of the Solid Body by speaking to the differences between my full size vintage humbuckers on the T3 and the mini humbuckers on the SBc. The minis have a more focused tone and a clearer, brighter sound because they sense less string vibration with their smaller size. Further, mini humbuckers will create more “grind” when pushing the amp with extra gain, which increases the power of the signal from the guitar to the amplifier.
Jacob quickly disabused me of the notion that the Solid body was designed to play clean as “country water” like the T3. As suggested above, to sound its best, a solid body with mini humbuckers requires some extra “grind” or “grit” to take best advantage of the instrument, which means sending increased gain to the amplifier. The implements for that process would be my two Mesa Boost/Overdrive pedals. In sum, Jacob said we should seek to achieve a “hairier,” more intense driving sound from the mini-humbuckers.
Why Mesa gain pedals? Well, the marketplace is awash with pedals of this type and choosing proper ones can be overwhelming. I had owned an Electro-Harmonix Soul Food and an MXR Boost, but decided to dump them because I thought they added unwanted noise to my pedal signal chain. Rummaging around one Saturday at my local shop I noticed the Mesa pedals. They were originally very expensive but were marked down and the guys in the shop demonstrated them for me. I grabbed the Tone Burst that day and the Flux Drive a month or two later. The Mesa pedals were produced by a company (Mesa/Boogie) that makes high-end guitar amplifiers so they know what they’re doing, the pedals were well reviewed, they are beautiful, well built objects and I got an excellent price for them. Bob’s your uncle…
Mesa does not make a plethora of pedals and they focus primarily on the gain/drive/boost sort. The Tone Burst is mostly a gentle boost and tone modifier, while the Flux Drive acts more like a pre-amplifier with the purpose of adding enough gain into the signal chain to overdrive the amplifier and create break-up or distortion.
Mesa Overdrive Pedals… Tone-Burst on the Left and Flux-Drive on the right… note Jacob’s recommended settings for the Taylor SBc when played through the Fender Princeton…
Despite almost a year of fiddling with guitar pedals I am still a relative neophyte, particularly with the application of gain and overdrive to the signal chain. As a general rule and personal preference, I do not like playing with a lot of distortion. I agree with the late great Charlie Christian who preferred his guitar to sound electrified but not electronic! Because gain pedals are so omnipresent, I put a couple of them on my board because I thought I needed them, but because I am loath to add distortion, I used the Tone-Burst to lightly thicken my sound and actually rarely utilized the Flux-Drive.
Jacob was adamant that it was time to deploy both Mesa pedals to get the SBc properly sounding. In fact, he had me rearrange the order of the two pedals, flipping the Flux-Drive from behind to in front of the Tone Burst in the sound chain. With this arrangement, the Flux-Drive would determine “how thick the bread slice would be.” In other words, the Flux-Drive would be used to fatten the sound, and then the signal would be “sculpted” afterwards by the Tone Burst to bring out appropriate “highs” and “mid-tones” as determined by Jacob. The goal was to be within the scope of sound quality that I am comfortable with, and that works well with the electrified country blues that I play.
Taylor T5z five-way selector switch set to 4th position to use both humbuckers in parallel
We left the modulation control settings on my pedal board, including Reverb, Delay, Vibrato, Tremolo, and Chorus the same as used with the T3, which can be found here. Jacob is not a big fan of pitch shifting, so we left use of my Octave pedal to my discretion. I like to the way it punches out the lower tones. And that was the end of our work with the Solid Body.
Jacob and I spent less time with the T5z mostly because it is a very acoustic-sounding electric guitar and though it can handle gain and distortion, it is not how I would ever play it. Plus it was getting late and we were getting tired. We did decide that for my purposes, using the 5 way selector switch in the 4th position to deploy both the “hidden” neck and stacked “lip-stick” humbuckers simultaneously and in parallel would be a good setting for my purposes.
Onboard preamp settings at neutral detent locations.
We dabbled with the onboard bass and treble controls provided with the guitar’s preamp but were inconclusive as to how to best set them, leaving them to my discretion. I tend to drop the treble and to increase the bass signal a bit to suit my ear. The preamp controls are actually very sensitive and a light touch best serves proper sculpting of tone.
Jacob’s settings to complement the T5z.
Finally, Jacob and I considered the broad array of pedals I have at my disposal for use with the T5z. We turned off the Flux Drive, which has true bypass, and left the remainder of the pedals set similarly to how I had them for the T3; however, Jacob saw fit to fine tune and adjust my chorus pedal to complement the T5z. I am actually not a big fan of chorus effects but Jacob was insistent that for the acoustic nature of the T5z, chorus is an important effect to use to sweeten the sound. As described by Reverb, “Chorus effects thicken your signal by copying it multiple times, coloring the copied signals, and playing them back slightly delayed.” Jacob readjusted every setting on the pedal while I played the guitar to best suit the T5z! I suppose I will use the chorus effect for a while to see if it suits me… As of this writing I actually prefer a bit of delay with my MXR Echoplex over the Boss Chorus…
Jacob and me at the end of our session…
So in the end, it was a great learning experience for me having Jacob make his house calls and was well worth the barter of the El Dorado guitar strap.
My primary, perhaps even exclusive focus in guitar music is to learn and play old country blues, including tunes by such luminaries as the Rev. Gary Davis, the Rev. Robert Wilkins, Elizabeth Cotton and Etta Baker. These tunes were mostly played on acoustic guitar; however, there are enough images out there to indicate that the country blues players were not immune to the charms of the electric guitar… Nor am I, and I play the blues tunes I’ve learned interchangeably on a combination of five different guitars.
Pedaltrain Board replete with a variety of pedals, each serving a distinct function…
I think one of the most fun elements of playing electric guitar is the great range of possibilities when it comes to sculpting a sound, as compared to an acoustic flat top.
Besides the guitar itself, which offers some tone control, electric guitars also have available tone sculpting capabilities with the amplifier itself; however, as depicted above, the marketplace offers a wide variety of pedals to enhance and sculpt the tone emanating from the guitar/amp combination.
To date, I’ve mostly restricted myself to adding tone modulation to my country blues tune such as tremolo, reverb, or delay, along with some compression beforehand, but I’ve been loath to experiment with or add in overdrive or distortion tone modification, which is currently so popular in rock and roll music, especially heavy metal. Those aforementioned tone modifications can have a huge impact on the listeners response to the music and can easily destroy the aesthetic of a country blues tune.
Mesa Boogie Flex Drive…
Well… I am still totally uninterested it big time distortion and wild horses could not get me to sit down and listen to a metal band, but I am going to stick my toes in the “distortion” waters a bit.
I decided to throw my infrequently used Boss Equalizer under the bus and remove it from my pedal board (it is sitting safely in its original box waiting for a rainy day). In place, I am going to put in a pedal that can add some tasteful crunch to the guitar’s signal. I do already possess a Mesa Boogie Tone Burst which can add some slight tone fattening but has limited impact, which is what it was designed to do; however a different pedal is required to get a more noticeable crunch.
The pedal choices for tone modification include overdrive, distortion or fuzz devices. The changes wrought by distortion and/or fuzz devices are so over-dramatic they offend my sensibilities, so I decided to acquire an overdrive, which I think will be more manageable and not destroy the aesthetic of a country blues tune. There are so many of these things on the marketplace that a decision can be overwhelmingly impossible to make from the perspective of my somewhat shallow knowledge base. So I decided to jump into the deep end and trust Mesa Boogie again by grabbing a pedal that was designed to add more crunch to the signal than the Tone Burst mentioned earlier.
Fortunately for me I had the great good fortune of getting a nice discount from Bob of Bob’s Guitars and acquired a Mesa Boogie Flux Drive. Bob has a history of taking good care of his constant customers, which I am. It did not hurt that this particular pedal had been languishing on Bob’s pedal shelf for years and he probably viewed my testing the pedal out as a decisive moment to finally unload it!
Well… my initial experience is very positive with the Flux Drive… the device works by pushing the valves in my Fender Princeton into modestly aggressive overdrive and adds a nice sonic crunch that does not obscure the essential elements of the tune I am playing… Check me out at open mic night because I will probably use it for at least one tune!
