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Pedals (in order of signal path):

  • Shure TGD Wireless system.  Got this a few years back and have had really good luck with it.  I think it's their entry level system, but it's worked great for me.  The transmitter has been dropped more times than I care to admit, but it's still ticking.......

  • Dunlop Rotovibe:  I bought this to replace the Univibe that I had that I didn't like.  I liked this pedal a lot.  The sound was pretty good, but the functionality of the design is great.  Two different sounds with speed and depth controls foot accessible, plus the small switch between to two on the side. 

  • Vox V847 Wah - Modified for true bypass and to run on 9V DC supply (other than battery)

  • Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, 1982 - Bought this dude on eBay for a very reasonable price.  Had to replace the switch on it for reliability, but other than that it's stock as far as I know.  I use this for "regular" or rhythm distortion.

  • Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, 2002.  Bought on eBay from a dude who buys them and does the 808 mod to the chip and "the brown mod".  This gets kicked on for leads.

  • Boss TR-2 Tremolo.  See Boss' page here.  Got this because I'm now mainly playing through my Marshall JTM45 clone and it doesn't have tremolo or reverb.  I got used to Tremolo from playing through my Fender Vibrolux and wanted to carry it over.  It's pretty cheap and small, but I really like the sound of it.

  • Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere.  This is, in my opinion, the be-all-end-all rotary simulator pedal.  The sound is just incredible.  My model is the older unit, not the more modern MKII one that's currently on the market.  The controls are simple and it's very easy to get a great sound out.  There are two down sides to this, though: the size and the price. 

  • Boss RV-5 Reverb.  See Boss' page here.  I got this to go with the JTM45, same as above.  Is it as good as a good reverb tank from a good Fender tube amp?  No, but it's small and cheap and it doesn't really sound too bad.  Most folks probably wouldn't be able pass the Pepsi challenge on this one.

  • Fender PT-100 tuner.  What can I say about this?  It's a tuner......

  • Boss EQ-20.  I use this programmable EQ pedal as a sort of a level balancer.  It's a 10-band EQ that's programmable to 9 preset banks and then the manual mode.  I use this from one guitar to the next to balance the levels between them.  Most of the EQ bands are flat with only the level adjusted, but there are some small adjustments made here and there depending on the guitar.

  • A/B box, sort of.  I was using a home built A/B box for a few years.  Once I built my JTM45 clone, I thought it would be cool too add "Y" capability to it, but I didn't have enough room in the box I used for another switch.  Anyway, rather than have one switch be A/B and one be Y, I just wanted to have each be an On/Off switch for each amp.  So I designed this myself.  I intentionally put the two switches relatively close together so that I could switch amps with a single stomp to both switches.  Works like a charm, no noise, no click switching over.

  • The case itself is Pedaltrain Pro.  Very sturdy, nice handle and hardware.  Don't have any complaints there.

  • The power supplies are One-Spot.  There's one that has to power the Voodoo Lab pedal separately since it has to be isolated.  Then the other two have daisy chains hooked to them and power all the rest of the pedals.

 

Pedals I've Used in the Past:

  • ElectroHarmonix Wiggler:  Got this to hopefully fill the shoes of the tremolo and maybe even some of the rotary sounds on the Boss RT-20.  It was fine, just not great.  I had it for a while and returned it.  It was too expensive to keep a pedal that I considered to be "fine".

  • ElectroHarmonix Holy Grail Reverb:  I got this before the Boss RV-5.  I found the sweep of the knobs to be pretty much useless.  As in the level of reverb went from none to much in about one third of the knob's travel.  Plus I found it to be noisy.  Just did not dig it, so I returned it.

  • Dunlop Univibe: I bought one of these used and it was ok.  I just found that it colored the tone a bit I thought.  I ended up with a Rotovibe instead, which I also bought used for real cheap and used for a couple years.  Sold it.

  • Voodoo Lab Proctavia: This is a pedal that's sort of an octavey fuzzy type thing that's based on the Roger Mayer Octavia.  Wasn't a bad pedal, I just found that I wasn't really using it that much, so I sold it.  I think I had it fixed once by the manufacturer and I seem to remember pretty good service.  Sold it.

  • Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive.  I used this as a clean boost, mainly when I'm playing a Strat.  I've usually got my levels and stuff setup for my Les Paul or something and the Strat obviously has a lower output, so I used this to bring it up to the same volume level.  Eventually ended up taking this off for room's sake.  Didn't really use it much.  Sounds pretty good, but doesn't have a whole lot of "dirtiness" in it.  Still have it, will probably use it again someday.

  • Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble.  See Boss' page here.  This is a pretty cool pedal really.  It's got four different rotary "modes", each with a fast and slow speed.  Modes I and IV are the coolest, which are modeled after a standard Leslie sound and then a Univibe.  I had a real Univibe for a while and didn't like it.  I took this pedal off my board recently after getting a Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere.  Needed the room since they're both pretty big pedals.  This pedal is pretty good, but doesn't touch the Rotosphere.  Still have it, will probably use it again someday.


 

 

     

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This page was last updated 02/15/10