The Small Board Trend....

Modern Saint

Modern Saint

Starve your Fear, Feed your Dream!
Reading everyone HNPD as well as Mark wanting to downsize made me decide to declare my small board metamorphosis.

The Board is Populated - S.jpg


Since I am no longer playing in a blues band most of the pedals on this board are no longer there. They don't get sold but they go to Saints common ground of pedals in waiting. The Plush Drive is back in my backpack that I use for jams, the TS9 is on the country board, the BYOC trem and EP are at common ground. The only one that remains is the Polytune.

What do I expect to do with this board?

Well for the past few months I have been meaning to create a simple no frills type board that I can use for quick setups. It isn't downsizing as my GP board and Country board will still remain true. The first addition to this board will be my first purchase from Reverb.com. It will be here in a few days.

Euphoria on box.jpg


The plan is what I posted on the 5 or 6 thread

http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/threads/5-or-6-effects.67811/

Tuner>Light OD>OD>Boost>Time Effect

Filling in the gaps here is that plan.

Polytune>Euphoria>Pinnacle>Mini Spark (maybe)>Undecided Yet

As for the Time Effect I can go two routes: Flashback (Delay) or Mind Bender (Chorus). Haven't really decided yet but I do own both already.

Still pondering...
 
:thu:

Sounds like a plan!

As for me, I just needed something portable, that I could take to the barn, or to my buddy's house, or wherever. It's been a fun challenge for sure, as my main board is a stationary monster with plenty of room for everything.
 
Cool! I think it would be a neat trick to make 2 or 3 small boards that fit in a suitcase like I have, that are set up for individual situations and that could be transported in a separate smaller case. The trick would be how do I add on phase and time stuff to an earlier in the chain board that has dirt if I wanted to. Not that I am doing this but just an idea to think about.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
Cool! I think it would be a neat trick to make 2 or 3 small boards that fit in a suitcase like I have, that are set up for individual situations and that could be transported in a separate smaller case. The trick would be how do I add on phase and time stuff to an earlier in the chain board that has dirt if I wanted to. Not that I am doing this but just an idea to think about.
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Irony is that the small board was created for two reasons. One was for use with the blues band and the other for the TP band. Future plans were to do some East Coast gigs (the connections were there) and just use a provided backline. This meant scaling down my gear to a very basic level for travel. Sadly this didn't happen.

The other thing that is nice about this board will be Volto. After a few years I want to give it a go for jams and small gigs. What is Volto?

http://www.pedaltrain.com/volto/

VOLTO-2.jpg
 
I've settled in with the PTjr size for guitar. On bass, I only run 3 pedals, so I can use the Mini with lots of room to spare.
 
I kept the same size pedalboard, a pedaltrain pt2, just have far fewer pedals on it now.

It looks kinda silly having a large board with only a couple pedals but man does it sound really good.
 
sleewell said:
I kept the same size pedalboard, a pedaltrain pt2, just have far fewer pedals on it now.

It looks kinda silly having a large board with only a couple pedals but man does it sound really good.
Click to expand...

I could get by with a smaller board, but I like that they are not all crammed together and I have a Voodoo labs pedal power mounted to it. Plus it gives me room to try new pedals every now and again.
 
Denverdave said:
Volto looks awesome! Want!

Except the reviews are pretty mixed.....
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This has been my big question mark. I first saw this at NAMM in either 2011 or 2012 and wanted to wait until I read some reviews. Without reading them, one does need to follow Li-ion battery practices. Much of the battery failures come from poor care. Best to create a log for optimal battery usage. Besides one can always carry their One Spot for emergencies. I have found more of a pain to find an available outlet anyway.

Besides this board won't be using hardcore power sucking time effects anyway so battery life should a plus.
 
Anyone try 2 small boards that you can sort of run in series, or parallel(?), when you need more effects?
 
LeftyTom said:
Anyone try 2 small boards that you can sort of run in series, or parallel(?), when you need more effects?
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I almost did it. The second board would have had the Wah, Volume, etc. I gave up on the idea later as I didn't want to setup two boards all the time.
 
My Euphoria is scheduled to come today but have been thinking of a TC Mini Spark for a boost pedal.....

So the plan maybe is:

TC Tuner>Euphoria>Pinnacle>Mini Spark>Time Efx?

another option is:

TC Tuner>EP Booster>Euphoria>Pinnacle>Mini Spark>Time Efx?
 
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EP and a Spark? Interesting. I sold one to buy the other, but then I don't really use the EP as a boost, so that should work well if the EP is kinda the always on pedal.
 
Guitar Heel said:
EP and a Spark? Interesting. I sold one to buy the other, but then I don't really use the EP as a boost, so that should work well if the EP is kinda the always on pedal.
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The Spark is only for solo boosts. The EP is for tone and boost shaping. Works great with single coils aka strats. Can't wait to see what it will be like when the Gretsch comes home.
 
I cold never mount my tuner like that. I would be twisting my neck around every time I tuned. :grin:
 
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