My Pedal Board

ianvomsaal

I've had a lot of requests for a PIC of my pedalboard.
This just before one of my recording sessions earlier this past month.
I actually built the flight case with the board inside it for the last tour.
It was a real pain in the ass to build, but I think it came out okay.

click here: MY PEDAL BOARD

click here: PB LABELED

Let me know if you have any questions.

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Pacomc79

Love the Blue Box and that loop station.

Looks like you are controlling the loop station functions with an external pedal on the far left?

I've been wanting to play with Octave down and Octave up fuzz stuff lately so the blue box is right up my alley.

That's a Mr. Crybaby you are using for Volume right?


nice looking pedalboard.

I'm also intrigued with the sonic stomp. Is it as good as their external racks?

ianvomsaal

Pacomc79 wrote:

Love the Blue Box and that loop station.
Looks like you are controlling the loop station functions with an external pedal on the far left?
I've been wanting to play with Octave down and Octave up fuzz stuff lately so the blue box is right up my alley.
That's a Mr. Crybaby you are using for Volume right?
nice looking pedalboard.
I'm also intrigued with the sonic stomp. Is it as good as their external racks?

Man I've had to do a lot of wiring and mods to get things working properly with this board.

- Yeah the Blue Box is an early 70's script letter - now considered vintage (it's worth enough $$$ that I don't want to modify it).
It doesn't have a LED, and it only takes batteries, so I had to wire up a battery clip converter to run it with my daisy chain.
I had to feed the cable out through a screw hole in the bottom.

- Same for the VOX Wah - it's old (I have two).
I wired up another battery clip converter so I could run it with my daisy chain.
I REALLY wish this had an LED - since I have two I'll probably end up getting a Fulltone 3PDT switch and re-wiring this one.

- The RC-2 Loop Station - What a PAIN IN THE ASS. I wired up that small control to stop and ERASE.
Without that external F/S it's a real PAIN IN THE ASS (meaning it's not easy to use without the external F/S).
I also had to give the RC-2 it's own power supply because it seemed to emanate a low volume high pitched ring that came
through all the amps (the microphones were picking it up). We couldn't get rid of the ring any other way except by giving
the RC-2 it's own AC power supply. As I said, what a pain in the ass.

- Yes it's a Mister Super Cry Baby Volume/Wah/Boost.
I haven't seen another one of these in years - it works fairly decent.

- The BBE Sonic Stop really does help remove the "blanket" from the amp.
I haven't compared it to the rack version yet, but it seems to work fairly well.

- The other little black box next to the Tonebone is actually an OD that was custom made for me in Los Angeles last year.
It was modeled after the Grey DOD-250, thus he put it in a DOD box.
Sound: tubey and round sounding highs, with a slightly loose growling low end.

I think you can pretty much figure out everything else on the board.
Hopefully the image gives you an idea of the size of this board - it's BIG.

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Novawind

My questions have been beaten again. Was just about to ask how you liked the Sonic Stomp, blue box, and the RC-2. Would you say that it would be worth it to just get a RC-20 for recording? I'm only a hobbyist, so anything I record would probably not be on the fly, ie I could pre-record some tracks and play them back later to solo over, or whatever.

Also, do you like the blue box for a fuzz type thing? I was thinking "Sunshine of Your Love" type tone.

keeponrockin

Awesome!

ianvomsaal

Novawind wrote:

My questions have been beaten again. Was just about to ask how you liked the Sonic Stomp, blue box, and the RC-2. Would you say that it would be worth it to just get a RC-20 for recording? I'm only a hobbyist, so anything I record would probably not be on the fly, ie I could pre-record some tracks and play them back later to solo over, or whatever.

Also, do you like the blue box for a fuzz type thing? I was thinking "Sunshine of Your Love" type tone.

To answer your question about the RC-20 - one word . . . YES.
I have the RC-2 on my board (space reasons), but I also have the RC-20 (mostly for live acoustic work).
I recommend the RC-20 much more than the RC-2 purely for sound quality and ease of use.
There is also a Digitech JamMan Looper, which has removable media cards (though I've never used one - I don't like Digitech).
Everything in the RC-20 is self contained, and it's a much easier unit to use than the RC-2.
You can also add a separate footswitch to the RC-20 that allows you to scroll through saved banks on the fly.
I'm much more of a record it on the fly live (play it one time) kind of player.
My track select rarely leaves the #1 track spot because it's kind of difficult to pre-record a track for live use.
Reason being, it's difficult to get your speed exactly the same. The pre-recorded timing might be slightly
different from what you're playing live. Without actually playing with the RC-20 from the beginning, your timing
usually ends up being slower or faster than the pre-recorded track (make sense). It can be done, but it's difficult.

As for the Blue Box - uhmm maybe the newer ones sound different.
For plain old fuzz, I'd recommend a Robert Keeley Fuzz Head, Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, Big Muff Fuzz, or even the new Boss FZ-5.
Though the Blue Box does add some fuzz, it's more of an octave pedal, and not really meant for chords since they just end up a mess.
Think about what happens when you play chords with an octave pedal - chords just don't really work out with this kind of pedal.
(remember, this pedal is from the early 70's - maybe newer pedals work better with chords - EBS OctaBass Triple Mode Octave Divider Pedal).
Although individual notes sound very cool because it adds an octave below the original played note.
Notes becomes more defined an clearer with the blend turned up (I like it set around 3-o'clock - you can see my setting on the PIC).
But it doesn't have much headroom - even turned all the way up I can't really get it's level even with the rest of my board (it's almost close).
It seems to be a bit of a lower output pedal, so it doesn't really cut through the mix all that well.
But a redeeming quality is that it sounds very cool by itself, or when playing a solo over a clean or slightly dirty rhythm.
I used it for a solo during my last session with an EPIC artist (which I think came out very well, very distinct sounding, very BLUE BOX).
Cheers . . .

- Ian