Everyone has a pedal board these days, and the market is absolutely glutted with choices. Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, there might be 10 different pedals at a music store, and BOSS made the “expensive” pedals and DOD made the cheap ones. There were no good distortion pedals invented yet. The closest thing was a Rockman or a Rockman Soloist, which is what I had. Imagine the worst Line 6 POD distortion sound, and get rid of the bass frequencies. That was the Soloist…
I’m sensing a disturbance in the Guitar Force… people screaming that the MXR Distortion Plus was available back then. So was the Big Muff. Yes… and they both sounded nothing like the classic Marshall stack crunch sound of early Aerosmith and early Rush that I was after.
Then the Line 6 POD and POD II came along and ended up on tons of hit records, and guitarists bought them up like crazy. I still have a Line 6 Floor Pod Plus. I don’t use it because it doesn’t sound as good as my amp, but I used it exclusively on my first 2 albums and I think it can sound pretty good in a mix.
So this is my current pedal board. I use it for recording and jamming. I don’t gig these days, but if I did, it’d be a great gig board. Here’s a walkthrough, along with my thinking for each choice. The signal flow starts bottom right to bottom left, then up to top right through top left.
Board: The board is a PedalTrain Classic Jr. It can fit ten pedals – I currently have 9.
Keeley 4 Knob Compressor: This is a great compressor – a real BOSS upgrade. The issue with cheaper compressors is that they kill your low end. The Keeley keeps most of your low end in one piece, and sounds great, and can act as a buffer that just even things out. Or you can crank the knobs for an over the top compression.
Dunlop Cry Baby Mini-Wah: Takes up not much space, works and sounds great. I don’t use it much, but it’s a great wah.
DigiTech FreqOut: Use it to simulate a note at the end of a phrase feeding back, or to sustain a single note. Works great! I’m still playing around with other uses for it.
Wampler Plexi-Drive: I use this as a boost pedal. The original Plexi in a box, there are better ones out there now, but this pedal is quiet and is great for a solo boost, or for a small amount of gain boost.
Wampler Pinnacle: This is one of those better ones out there. The Pinnacle can do crunch through brown sound. Again, Wampler was one of the first to market to nail the brown sound. A very versatile dirt pedal, one of the best.
MXR MicroAmp: Can be used as a clean boost, but I sort of use it as another buffer. Sometimes I’ll put it at the very end of the board – right now it’s just in the flow.
TC Electronic Corona: A digital chorus that I think is decent. Truthfully, I need to use the software and tweak it more. This is maybe a weak link on my board – it’s alright, but I think I might prefer an analog chorus.
TC Electronic Flashback: This is a super versatile digital delay pedal that can do every delay plus looping. Fun!
TC Electronic Hall of Fame: A digital reverb that does everything well, except the spring sound – the spring sound isn’t all that great. Maybe another opportunity to upgrade, at some point.
For power, I have a OneSpot powering 8 (!) of the pedals, and a second OneSpot powering the FreqOut. If you daisy chain power for pedals, some pedals will introduce a ton of hum – the FreqOut is one of those. So I have a separate power supply for the FreqOut. If I were doing gigs, I’d upgrade to a much better power supply system. But the truth is that when I’m recording, I’ll sometimes bypass the entire top row. And even when I don’t, my studio power is pretty clean, and there’s not much noise.
I was not a pedal guy. And honestly, I’m still not. The plugins in Logic can give me better sounding reverb, chorus, and delay than my pedals. But it’s not always about the best sound – sometimes I’ll record with pedals on because I like how it sounds. And of course I love gear, and it can help get a sound that’s in my head onto my speakers.
So there you go. That’s my pedal board as of July 2019. I don’t have any crazy Big Sky type stuff (though the Hall of Fame can do some of that.) I don’t even have an EQ pedal (yet.) Nor do I have a Fuzz pedal. But it’s fun to never be done with something – there’s always something else to think about. And pedals are cheaper than good guitars. Does that mean I wouldn’t buy a $100 guitar if I loved it? Nah – I’d still buy the guitar. But right now, I can get almost any sound in my head, and that’s just how I like it.
Up next? Probably replace the Corona with an analog chorus. Any suggestions? Email me at richard@richardmac.com and let me know! I’d love to hear from you.
