Dig it! The “ultimate” pedalboard rebuild thread.

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
I can’t afford to make the changes all at once for my live rig, so I’ve been doing it in stages.

The Strymon Iridium was to give me the option to go direct and still sound good. I’ve wanted to do something like this for years but never like any product out there. I’m very happy with the Iridium other than the need to use a separate direct box.

My overdrives have been a source of irritation for quite some time. I’m hoping that the Origin Revival drive gives me what I want without doing any more digital modeling than the Iridium provides.

I outgrew my power supply a couple of years ago and the daisy-chaining is a mess. I think I’m going to order a Strymon Zuma this week. Still pondering that one.

I hate the Pedaltrain Pro that I’ve been using and would like to move to a flat board. My main issue is that the pedaltrain rail design determines where certain pedals can or cannot go and it limited how I place things on the board. I’m thinking of stealing an idea from TPS and securing a piece of sheet material (whatever I can dig up that is fairly light) and screwing it to the top of the PT Pro and drilling holes for my cable access.

Eventually I would also like to ditch the solderless cables and build all new patch cables, but that can wait. The George Las have even great and since they came out with the little rubber boots for the cable ends I never have problems with the ends coming loose but it makes a rats nest of the cables coming out of the ES-8 and repatching something on the fly usually means unplugging a bunch of stuff and trying to figure out what you just did.

I also want to add a better patch bay for the audio and power ins and outs. Having it all where I need it and not sticking out where it can be stepped on or crushed by my vocal monitor would be nice.

Most of this stuff is more practical and not fun Pedal stuff. I have all of my modulation and time based stuff taken care of although my custom shop Phase 90 will be returning to this rig. I also need to fit a wah pedal in there somewhere although I’m thinking of just having one I can put on the floor next to the board if I don’t have the space.
 
Mark, I saw something on TGP that may help with the Pedaltrain. I wish I could remember the thread, but a guy was getting small pieces of material ( I think it was sheet metal) and making little plates to put down in places where there were gaps in the rails if he wanted to put a pedal down. They were really just as big as the pedal he was mounting. Might not be as easy as covering the whole board, but will save some weight and drilling for cable management.
 
Chad said:
Mark, I saw something on TGP that may help with the Pedaltrain. I wish I could remember the thread, but a guy was getting small pieces of material ( I think it was sheet metal) and making little plates to put down in places where there were gaps in the rails if he wanted to put a pedal down. They were really just as big as the pedal he was mounting. Might not be as easy as covering the whole board, but will save some weight and drilling for cable management.
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I’ll think about that one. The nice thing is that I can go down to my father-in-laws shop and see if there is any scrap material laying around that I can use.
 
I've grown to hate my Pedaltrain Novo 24 for exactly the issue you're having. I have to constantly choose between jamming pedals way too close together and leaving a ton of wasted space. I always end up with a mixture of both. Plus, I have to mount pedals more based on where they'll fit vs how the signal chain runs, so I have a bunch of extra long patch cables running back and forth underneath. The cabling is a mess. I also "need" any pedals with an expression feature on the first row... so the HOF2, Pitchfork, Distortion/feedbacker, and Spark must be on that rail regardless of signal path.

Unfortunately, I haven't come across any other pedalboard that is significantly better in this regard. There's also an issue of not quite enough of a gap between rails for patch cables and power leads to share without getting torqued weirdly.

I'd like to see a board with a fixed frame and adjustable sliding rails that could be spaced at different intervals. That would solve a ton of issues.
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ok. New Strymon Zuma power supply ordered. Also got the midi cable for the Iridium so that I can change presets on that with the ES-8.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
A colleague was asking about my pedal builds in Friday. I completely forgot about the Jeremy Drive.
Thanks for posting that pic.
It did my heart good to see it being used.
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Yes, looking down and seeing his image on my board is something that puts a lump in my throat, but also inspires me. It's a neat pedal too, and it provides a type of gain that is unlike any other pedal I've ever used. Not my wheelhouse tone by any stretch, which is good because it forces me out of my box and really opens up my playing.

The Firebird really loves that pedal. A lot. I'll try and record something for you guys.
 
I’ve lately gotten the vibe that your pedal board would eventually basically be one of everything Strymon.
 
Flamencology said:
I’ve lately gotten the vibe that your pedal board would eventually basically be one of everything Strymon.
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Almost. Usually once I find a Strymon product that fits my needs it doesn’t go anywhere. I ended up not digging the overdrives as much as I thought I would but I really like their delays and the rotary sounds. Chorus and flange are “just ok enough” and I hate the phaser in the möbius.
The Eventide H9 gives me my synth sounds, reverb and the occasional modulation.

Plus they have really good customer service if you destroy one of their products on stage.
 
Here is a tip for you @Mark Wein ... Get an oversized volume knob for your Spark Mini. I think mine came from a Nose brand pedal I had, it was on my Phaser for a while, and now lives on my Mini. It allows me to adjust my boost level by leaning into the knob with my toe and give it a little twist. I have a rubber washer underneath so it doesn't move too easily, but requires purposeful action. Hell, get two and put one on your Phase 90.

Edit: Mine looks like the one on this pedal:
T1M%20MVP%20Left-600x600.jpg
 
baimun said:
Here is a tip for you @Mark Wein ... Get an oversized volume knob for your Spark Mini. I think mine came from a Nose brand pedal I had, it was on my Phaser for a while, and now lives on my Mini. It allows me to adjust my boost level by leaning into the knob with my toe and give it a little twist. I have a rubber washer underneath so it doesn't move too easily, but requires purposeful action. Hell, get two and put one on your Phase 90.

Edit: Mine looks like the one on this pedal:
T1M%20MVP%20Left-600x600.jpg
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Oooh! I'm lovin' that idea. Can't imagine how often I might actually need to adjust the volume on mine, but as a just-in-case sorta thing that would be very handy.
 
OGG said:
Oooh! I'm lovin' that idea. Can't imagine how often I might actually need to adjust the volume on mine, but as a just-in-case sorta thing that would be very handy.
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i use mine every gig... especially when the band gets louder by the end of the show and i can’t hear myself during a solo.
 
This was tonight’s incarnation just to get me through the show:

E86D85D5-1128-4DFD-A74F-32FBA0711069.jpeg


The Sparkledrive came back as just a lead sound. I used the Em Drive a lot with the volume cranked up a little more than I used to have it (both knobs at 12:embarrassed:0) and the valve rectifier side of the revival drive for my crunchy crunch. I hated it for solos but some of that is because I still have not dialed it in very well. The rhythm crunch is great and lively though.
 
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Mark Wein said:
Anyone try the J Rocket Archer?
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I have. Sounds like a klon. :) Supposed to be the exact circuit. But the side by side still had a little less bass in the demos I’ve seen. Must have left out the crystal lettuce.

The Tumnus has the bass covered, IMO. The deluxe version of that may be a good candidate.

May absolute favorite is the love pedal Kalamazoo. Not a klone though. Way more gain on tap. Sounds so good though.
 
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Guitar Heel said:
I have. Sounds like a klon. :) Supposed to be the exact circuit. But the side by side still had a little less bass in the demos I’ve seen. Must have left out the crystal lettuce.

The Tumnus has the bass covered, IMO. The deluxe version of that may be a good candidate.

May absolute favorite is the love pedal Kalamazoo. Not a klone though. Way more gain on tap. Sounds so good though.
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After last night I’m rethinking things. I kind of like keeping the Sparkledrive as a dedicated lead sound. Part of me wants a second spark mini to be able to switch in and out as programmed boosts instead of needing to hit two buttons with the one I have after the ES-8. I think I still have an open loop or two on the ES-8 and I don’t think I’m bothering with a compressor for the time being. I use the spark with my clean sound quite a bit, too.

Definitely putting the Dirty Shirley on Reverb today, though. It’s pretty pointless now that I have the Revival drive.
 
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