In addition to my “Big Rig” – the Bradshaw rack/pedalboard system I use on tour – I have a much smaller board that I use for acoustic shows and gigs where we rent backline when our own gear is not available. This board has settled in with some cool pedals, so I thought I’d show it off this month. I’ll cover them in the order of the signal path.
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
The ol’ standby, a pedal version of the TU-12, features the well-known buffer circuit in bypass mode, making it a good choice for first in line to keep your signal strong throughout your pedal chain.
Line 6 ToneCore Constrictor
This pedal has three different modeled compressor tones: Compact, one of those red box Dynos from the seventies; Squeeze, an eighties CS-1 blue box thingy; and Mellow, rumored to be modeled after the old LA2A studio compressors. I’m not sure if it’s true, but it’s the smoothest setting I’ve found in a stompbox compressor and it is indeed “mellow” enough to work beautifully with an acoustic guitar’s transducer bridge pickup. In addition, it’s great with 12-string electrics. I also use this quite a bit in the studio.
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
An industry standard. I use this for my slide guitar and for riding my acoustic guitar level during a performance.
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Another new one from what I refer to as the “Bohemian Pedal Lab” – EH. They continue to design some of the coolest pedals at a time when you think it’s all been done. The Knockout is designed to take your humbucker-equipped guitar to a sparkling, chimey, single coil tone, which it does in a very cool way. It can also go the opposite direction and boost overall tone – mids, chimey highs and enhanced lows – as a lead boost, which is how I use it. It also works great with an acoustic guitar. If you use an EQ stompbox to boost your leads, you should definitely check this one out.
Line 6 ToneCore Echo Park
A stompbox version of a delay modeler. The Echo Park delivers good delay tone, allows tempo tapping and has a knob for quickly jumping between various delay patterns in the tempo you’ve selected. The combined function on/ off and tempo-tap switch gets a little tricky to jump between – stomp hard for bypass, step lightly for tap-tempo chores – but you get the hang of it.
Electro-Harmonix Stereo Electric Mistress
Instead of being a re-creation of the original Electric Mistress, they’ve come out with an incredible sounding and functional new version that offers chorus or flange effects – or a combination of both – ranging from very subtle to extreme. Simple controls are great for easy-to-dial-on-the-fly, rich, wide tones. Thankfully, they kept one of the cool features of the original: the ability to stop the flanger’s modulation speed to create a ring modulator effect, although, unlike the original, it’s dead quiet. A must have.
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus
Our guitar tech’s favorite to power our pedalboards. A versatile power supply that easily covers your Boss pedals, various other 9 and 12V pedals and those finicky Line 6 blue and green box modeler pedals that require isolated 9V A/C. The Pedal Power can also cover 18 and 24V requirements with their custom cables.
Voodoo Lab Amp Selector
A versatile amp switcher with a buffer and isolated outputs for strong signal and hum elimination when stringing two or more amps. This allows switching variations of A/B or “combined” amp signals. I use it to switch between two amps and a D.I. for the acoustic.
Pedaltrain Pedalboard
Ah yes, we can’t forget the board itself. This ingenious metal frame and Velcro combination allows quick build times as well as the ability to easily reconfigure pedals on the fly. Plus, it comes with its own road case. I own two different sizes, the other being my larger, USS Enterprise-sized studio pedalboard. They’re quickly becoming the industry standard.
Until next time...rawk on!
Peter Stroud
is co-founder of 65amps
www.sherylcrow.com
65amps.com
Diamond Pedals Dark Cloud
True to the Diamond design ethos of our dBBD’s hybrid analog architecture, Dark Cloud unlocks a new frontier in delay technology which was once deemed unobtainable by standard BBD circuit.
Powered by an embedded system, the Dark Cloud seamlessly blends input and output signals, crafting Tape, Harmonic, and Reverse delays with the organic warmth of analog companding and the meticulous precision of digital control.
Where analog warmth meets digital precision, the Dark Cloud redefines delay effects to create a pedal like no other
But by gosh, if delay—and its sister effect, reverb—haven’t always been perfect for the music I like to write and play. Which brings us to the Fishman EchoBack Mini Delay. The EchoBack, along with the standard delay controls of level, time, and repeats—as well as a tap tempo—has a toggle to alternate between analog, tape, and digital-delay voices.
I hooked up my Washburn Bella Tono Elegante to my Blues Junior to give the EchoBack a test run. We love a medium delay—my usual preference for delay settings is to have both level and repeats at 1 o’clock, and time at 11 o’clock. With the analog voice switched on, I heard some pillowy warmth in the processed signal, as well as a familiar degradation with each repeat—until their wake gave way to a gentle, distant, crinkly ticking. Staying on analog and adjusting delay time down to 8 o’clock and repeats to about 11:30, some cozy slapback enveloped my rendition of Johnny Marr’s part to “Back to the Old House,” conjuring up thoughts of Elvis trapped in a small chamber, but in a good way. It sounded indubitably authentic. The one drawback of analog delay for me, generally, is that its roundness can feel a bit under water at times.
Switching over to tape, that pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top. With the settings at the medium-length mode listed above, I could see the empty, glass hall the pedal sent my sound bouncing down. I heard several pronounced pings of repeats before the signal fully faded out. On slapback settings (time at 8 o’clock, repeats at 11:30), rather than Elvis, I heard something more along the lines of a honky-tonk mic in a glass bottle. Still relatively crystalline, which actually was not my favorite. I like a bit more crinkle—so maybe analog is my bag....“That pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear, pristine replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top.”
Next up, digital. Here we have the brightest voice, and as expected, the most faithful repeats. They ping just a few times before shifting to a smooth, single undulating wave. When putting its slapback hat on, I found that the effect was a bit less alluring than I’d observed for the analog and tape voices. This is where the digital delay felt a little too sterile, with the cleanly preserved signal feeling a bit unnatural.
All in all, I dig the EchoBack for its replications of analog and tape voices, and ultimately, lean towards tape. While it’s nice having the digital delay there as an option, it feels a bit too clean when meddling with time of any given length. Nonetheless, this is surely a handy stomp for any acoustic player looking to venture into the land of live effects, or for those who are already there.
