The pandemic has brought guitarists lots more time to tinker with tone toys. Here’s what players all over the world have been putting together in their bunkers.
Eric B Thomas: The Rack Treatment
Thank you so much for offering your readers an opportunity to share their love for pedalboards. I’d love to share my pedalboard with your readers. It’s got wheels!As both an engineer and songwriter, I’m infatuated with collecting pedals, but also despise the clutter and time spent rearranging and rewiring handfuls of stompboxes and patch cables. My appreciation for the pedal-building art and my stubbornness to move entirely into the digital realm led me to Paul Vnuk Jr.’s “Pedals in the Mix” video, where he showcases his home studio pedal rig in the studio rack format. I spent hours studying his set up, recognized what I could do for myself, experienced debilitating G.A.S, then got to work allocating everything I needed to assemble my own pedalboard rack.
At the core of my setup is a Behringer PX3000 Ultrapatch Pro patchbay. The pedals’ inputs and outputs are all patchable from the front end. This allows for the signal routing to happen as quickly as inspiration may strike. Chorus before or after distortion? But what about the reverb into the fuzz?! No more wasted time playing pedal Tetris and more time making fun noise!
- Channel 1 is a Samson MD1 Passive Direct Box. The balanced output is sent to Pro Tools to be used later for reamping. The thru output returns to the patchbay to use with other pedals.
- Channel 2 runs through a Boss GE-7 equalizer for any necessary tone tweaking.
- Channel 3 holds the EarthQuaker Devices Palisades overdrive. If you’re not familiar with this pedal, just imagine having a whole bunch of differently modified Tube Screamers in one box. I think the value in this pedal’s tweakability is severely underrated!
- Channel 4 is a Pepers’ Pedals Dirty Tree boost. I wasn’t quite ready to shell out $400 to a local seller for a TC preamp, but this box absolutely crushes!
- Channel 5 accesses the EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold. Even if you could afford a Sunn Model T, wouldn’t you just dime it, too? This gets me in the ballpark without interrupting my fiancé’s virtual teaching.
- Channel 6 is home to a pedal that was at the bottom of a “box of junk” that was included with a guitar I purchased off Craigslist: a 1978 Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi. A quick battery swap took this from “yeah, it just don’t work so you can have it with all that junk” to “holy crap!”
- Channel 7 features the Keeley 4 Knob Compressor, which I love just cranking to get that nearly infinite sustain.
- Channel 8 holds another EarthQuaker Devices pedal. The Sea Machine Super Chorus caught my attention with its six knobs of tweakability, and I honestly haven’t used the same settings twice when writing.
- Channel 9 connects to what I’d say was my first real “boutique” pedal, the Midnight30Music Starry Night Delay Deluxe. Based on a PT2399 chip, this box creates such musical feedback when cranked, and rides the edge of self-oscillation without spinning out of control.
- Channel 10 fires up Hungry Robot’s The Wash delay and reverb pedal. If you’re in need of ambience, this pedal has it in spades.
Skip down to Channels 21-24 to meet the Boss RV-500 and DD-500. I actually use these pedals as effects sends from my mixer. Instead of sending delay and reverb through the amps and speaker cabinets, I just blend in delay or reverb from these units as needed.
On the top of the cabinet lies an example of the “mess” I so desperately wish to forget, but, alas, there shall always be some form of it. The bass signal chain is composed of the Boss TU-3, DOD Meatbox Subsynth, Darkglass Microtubes B7K Analog Bass Preamp, and a Samson MD1 DI.
The final box is the Disaster Area Designs SMARTClock Gen3 Tap Tempo controller. This unit receives MIDI for tempo from a Pro Tools session, passing MIDI down to both Boss 500 units, along with four additional 1/4” outputs to which The Wash and the Starry Night Deluxe will both be connected.
All pedals in the rack are powered by a Truetone 1 Spot Pro CS12 and wired using Redco brand cables with Amphenol 1/4” connectors.
Thanks again for the opportunity to share this pedalboard and I hope others will find my project inspiring or fun!
It’s that time of year, when Premier Guitar readers get the chance to show their pedalboards, and how they use them to create worlds of sound. There’s no wrong way to signal a stomp—the options are virtually endless. Read on to see what players have been cooking up in their COVID guitar bunkers. A few highlights include a completely white-washed mystery pedalboard, a retirement bucket list project from a 62-year-old beginner, an elaborate rackmounted setup made with a goal to streamline pedal-Tetris, and much more. Enjoy!
All three new pedals offer a small footprint, simple knob layouts, and an analog dry signal.
Orange, CA (September 10, 2020) -- Neunaber Audio has announced the introduction of its new Elements series pedals, designed to deliver studio-quality effects in a compact and easy-to-use package. Among the notable features of the new pedal line are:
- Simple 3-knob layouts that make it easy to quickly dial in the perfect settings.
- Analog dry signal delivers low noise and zero latency.
- Small footprint with top jacks is pedalboard-friendly.
- Selectable trails offers you a choice of naturally trailing or cutting off abruptly after the effect is bypassed.
- Mono input and output allows for quick and simple setup.
- Powered from a standard 9V pedal power supply, you just plug and go. It’s that easy.
The Elements series consists initially of three pedals:
The new Wet Reverb v5 is an update to the fan-favorite reverb pedal. This new version has everything you loved about its predecessor, plus a little more:
- With two effects in one pedal, you can instantly choose the classic Wet reverb from the previous-version pedals or the new, magical W3T reverb from the Immerse Mk II and plug-in.
- A full Mix knob adjustment from 0% to 100% wet lets you dial in the perfect amount of reverb.
With the new Seraphim Shimmer v2, imagine being able to add a little atmospheric sparkle or a full synth-pad effect. Now, imagine switching on-the-fly between this and the Wet Reverb for which Neunaber is famous. Features include:
- Add or remove the shimmer layer from the reverb. A long press of the footswitch seamlessly transitions between shimmer and reverb only. Two reverbs and two shimmers in one pedal. Choose the original shimmer algorithm or the new, magical shimmer based on the W3T reverb from the Immerse Mk II. No more worrying if you picked the right pedal because you’ll have the best of both!
- Full Mix knob adjustment from 0% to 100% wet allows you to create everything from subtle pitch-shifted layers to synthetic, droning pads.
The new Echelon Echo v2 is a warm, studio-quality echo that is simple and easy to adjust on the fly with features like: Two effects in 1 pedal:
- Hi-Fi Tape Echo (from the Echelon v1) simulates the high-frequency saturation of a magnetic tape and is gently modulated for added richness and color.
- New Lo-Fi Delay simulates the reduced bit depth of a vintage digital delay.
- Switch to tap tempo mode with a long press of the footswitch. Then simply tap the desired tempo using that same footswitch. In tap tempo mode, the time knob functions as a tap divide to choose one of four rhythmic subdivisions.
- Cross-fading time change lets you seamlessly change time/tempo on the fly. No more zipper noise or echo drop out.
- Adjustable delay time from 50 to 1000ms offers a quick slapback, cavernous echo, or anything in between.
- Full Mix knob adjustment from 0% to 100% wet lets you add subtle tails to your playing or crank the mix to replace your signal with cascading layers of repeated sounds.
The new Elements series pedals are available at an introductory price of just $149 for a limited time with an ultimate MSPR of $199. Initially, these pedals are only available direct from Neunaber Audio.
For more information:
Neunaber Audio
A guitar preamp with speaker simulator, compressor, noise gate, presets, and MIDI.
Orange, CA (January 17, 2019) -- Neunaber Audio has announced the upcoming release of its new pedal, Neuron. Designed for players looking to achieve epic guitar tones with a minimum of gear, Neuron is a versatile guitar preamp with speaker simulator, compressor, noise gate, presets and MIDI in a small pedal format.
Neuron achieves a seamless array of incredible amp tones in a compact pedal — from sparkling clean to heavy distortion and everything in between. A multistage, dynamic gain architecture yields unparalleled control over the desired amount of distortion — effortlessly producing harmonic structures that range from subtle to dense and complex. One of its most salient features is its feel, which is almost hyper-realistic when compared to an amplifier.
Features:
- Integrated compressor constrains the drive level for smooth, consistent tone.
- Adjustable studio-quality noise gate keeps your signal quiet.
- Tilt EQ adapts your tone to various setups without changing presets.
- Defeatable speaker simulator for running direct.
- Three-band EQ with tightness and presence enables a plethora of tonal options.
- Up to 6 presets can be stored for quick recall via the footswitch. Up to 24 presets can be recalled using a MIDI controller.
- All controls are accessible using a MIDI controller.
“Neuron is the culmination of years of research and development,” said company founder, Brian Neunaber. “We studied the gain circuits of both tube and solid state pedals and amps to learn, not only how they sound good, but why. We developed new and unique algorithms to test our findings, then refined these algorithms based on what we learned.”
Neuron is expected to ship in mid-February at an MSRP of $299.
For more information:
Neunaber
