Ferryman's Pedal Board v2

[Ferryman]

Well, back in April I posted a pic of my pedal board. It's changed quite a bit since then, so I thought I would share a new pic in a new thread for all the pedalheads out there.....

I have been playing a lot with compressors and where it goes in the chain, and I now have a new compressor (the very reasonably priced Mooer yellow compressor) which is no longer first in the chain. The other big changes are that I added a GFI Synesthesia dual DSP stereo modulation pedal (instead of my mono Keeley mod station) and replaced the Orange Terror Stamp with a DSM Simplifier. This is a stereo amp and cab sim that can do Fender, AC30 and Marshall amp sounds.

The latest addition is the Hologram Electronics Infinite Jets resynthesizer. This is a very cool pedal that has two samplers that capture the incoming signal and then play it back in all kinds of weird ways that you can manipulate. The expression pedal is now linked to the Infinite Jets.

Signal path is Bass VI > Boss SY-1 synth > EQD Life Pedal distortion/boost > Mooer Yellow compressor > Infinite Jets > DSM Simplifier. The Synesthesia is in the stereo effects loop of the Simplifier, and the output of the Simplifier goes to the Collider stereo reverb/delay, which then feeds into the Ditto X4 looper, which then goes in stereo to the BR-800.

I think I am done fiddling for now. But we will see how long that lasts......

[Greeny]

The stuff of (fevered) dreams!

I still have compressor first. Is there a specific reason you moved it or was it just trial and error?

[Ferryman]

Trial and error. Ever since I first got a compressor in the early 80s it has always been first on the board. I found compressor first was getting in the way of the SY-1 triggering, and running it after the distortion/overdrive produces a slightly smoother distortion. Having compressor first does allow you to use distortion as a volume boost of you want to, whereas the way I have it that won't happen. But that's not an issue as I don't play live, and I have the boost on the Life Pedal "always on" to add a bit of grit to the sound rather than actually boost it for solos etc.

[Greeny]

Makes sense. Can understand why the SY-1 would prefer to be first in line.

Weirdest thing for me is how the whole set-up and sound changes depending on guitar and / or single coil versus humbucker.

I think mine is set up for live now, but I have no idea what it will really sound like with the tiny terror fully cranked. I wonder if I'll ever find out! It's working great for recording though - very versatile. Seems quite functional compared to yours though.

[Ferryman]

I think mine is what you would call "esoteric".  Lots of very cool sounds in there, the question is, can I find them......

[StephenM]

fun stuff Nigel...please record something with it so we can hear it.... way back in the 80s I found some compression for my old Gibson Les Paul (when i was a new guitar player and before playing bass) and i loved the sound of that with some distortion... lately I have started playing around with it some on the BR ....really love it... Tinkering for just the right sound is not my strong point... I tend to plug in, dial up something I kind of like (either on my ME-25 Multi effects  or the BR1600 sounds)....and start playing...
When I play live it's two or three settings, maybe 4 that I can live with and that are close by on the ME and then crank it up near feedback...lol.. The fascinating thing is that there literally can be infinite possibilities of sound from any instrument...
yes...please... record something we can hear...even if it's just a jam that you put in this post...have fun....

[Blooby]

This thread is porn.

[Ferryman]

yes...please... record something we can hear...even if it's just a jam that you put in this post...have fun....

That's the hard part! I am getting familiar with the Infinite Jets but promise to try to get a bit of a looping jam done soon.

[Ferryman]

This thread is porn.

All it needs is the addition of a Designer Va.........

[WarpCanada]

Do you play into the Boss Recorder and then monitor with headphones or do you have an amp/cab/powered-speaker coming out of the Boss Recorder?

I have an actual bass amp working in my studio as if it was a powered PA or studio monitor, because it has a headphone jack to let you attach a phone or mp3 player.  It's a mono thing, even though I have one stereo pedal (a Line6 DL4) and a stereo multifx output (Line6 PodGO), I play mostly mono.

But then I had this crazy idea to play my pedal board into my main remaining-married-happily 5w tube amp (a Blackstar HT5R), for practice volume plus tone that I love, and for reinforcement I started using the aux input of the bass amp as a "wet-dry and/or stereo second speaker", or what the live sound engineer would call a room sound reinforcement role.   What I find is that instead of having one amp turned up crazy loud,  I love the sound of two (or possibly more) speakers turned up just enough to create a feeling of being "inside" the sound.

So where my question is coming from is, when you're playing all these awesome pedals do you have any trouble feeling and experiencing an immersion into your guitar sounds.  The typical problem I have, as a non-gigging non-pro home guitar guy is that some part of my head wishes I was Slash and I had a wall of marshall amps turned up to 11 behind me.  I am not slash.  And I value keeping my hearing.  But there's this thing about sound, this feeling I have, that having two amps, not very loud, but one bouncing off one of my studio walls and surrounding me, and the other right in front of me at ear level, that I really really enjoy a lot, a lot more than playing guitar into headphones.

That being said,  the headphones thing can even work at 2 AM.

I live in the country and I have this plan to turn the horse barn on the back half of my property into a BarnORock, with an old acoustic drum kit, and a big 2x12 guitar amp and cab.