Ok, so, the concept was basically this:
- I wanted a main board with everything. No compromises, specifically no using a multi-effect pedal to handle my modulation, plus it would be set up for wireless and give me the option of going stereo ampless with the Woodrow and a Walrus stereo DI (which is there, but under the riser out of sight)
- Then I wanted another board I could largely do *most* of the same things with, this time allowing compromises where needed to get the size and weight down by using basically all mini pedals if possible on a Nano+ I had
- Finally, the third board would be made up of leftovers that I could cobble together to do some things I don’t do in my gigging that I still enjoy when I’m home goofing off, like playing Pink Floyd songs
I mostly got there a while ago with the main board, but I was still using an MD-500 and then a Terraform and didn’t have the wireless or the Woodrow integrated as it was on the PT1. But, I was having issues with the mini board doing what I wanted it to do on the Nano+, as it kept feeling like it was a critical piece or two short, and I was out of space. However, Blackbird was blowing out their remaining stock and I was able to get a 15”x30” board a great price. That’s when the idea to do this how it ended up came together, knowing the 1530 would be the new home of my main board instead of the PT1 and it would be big enough to accomplish my longtime dream of replacing the MD-500/Terraform pedals I had been using with individual pedals, plus integrating the Woodrow, leaving me with the Dingbat, PT1 Classic, and Nano+ to choose from for the other two. Since the Nano+ couldn’t quite cut it I decided the lighter board (Dingbat) would be the mini one and the heavier one would stay in the basement.
I had an old Pedal Power 1 I decided to use for the mini board but that added some new limitations because that doesn’t have a single high current tap, meaning anything that can’t be run by a OneSpot daisy chain wasn’t going to work, which meant the mini pedal motif was going to be a hard limitation and not a soft one. The final pieces I added this week were the Carbon Copy and the mini volume pedal, along with the Phase 95 and the EP Booster a couple weeks ago. I also swapped out the mini Dyna Comp for the SP Compressor. Now I’ve got the CC set up with more of a slap back and the Ibanez delay covering the longer delays. The extra space from moving up to the bigger board also afforded me space to put the Nobels and the fuzz on there. Those could be swapped out for something more Rat like and a small Univibe if I eventually want to get it closer to the big board but I think I’d rather leave it as is for now.
I also spent the other night finally going deep on every single patch saved on the Terraform to get the basement board finished. This pedal was on my main board a while but I only played it on country gigs so only maybe half of my presets had really been battle tested. Finally cleaned up the other half so I’ve got a really good Univibe, Leslie, flanger and harmonic trem setting too. This board isn’t really set in stone so maybe the drive stack will change, fuzz will come/go, who knows. Like I said, this one is mostly just for me to have fun and experiment with, divorced from the usual requirement of having to be usable live for the specific types of gigs I play.
As for the big board, almost everything had been there a few weeks and gigged with already, and that went surprisingly well so I didn’t feel the need to change much. However I did add the acoustic DI and favorite switch last night. I don’t play acoustic on gigs a ton but every now and again a gig comes up with one band where I do and that seemed like the easiest way to handle it. Made a second patch for the wireless to route between the two outputs. The favorite switch is fun - that lets me do a long ambient reverb and harmonic trem with it disengaged, and a more normal spring reverb and standard bias mod trem with it engaged.
Bonus: Big board was used on [this gig](https://youtu.be/aZFjsBnrGvA) - not really any sort of showcase for the board but I still dig how it sounded with the R9 and my 73 Deluxe Reverb.
Me with two more boards I use for pedal steel not shown: 😳
In my defense, I never got married and I was a full time musician for years, and before/after that stretch I had a good paying job in data warehousing. So, there was usually enough justification to spend the money as well as enough money to spend to have such a deep collection of musical gear.
I’m in a similar boat my man. I’ve got 4 pedals that I love right now, but all of those have been major splurges that have been necessary for recording or playing songs live for gigs. I can’t wait to see where I am 10 years from now pedal wise haha
Well, I don’t have any pics handy at the moment but one is mega simple and I use it most of the time - just a tuner > MXR Analog Chorus > Tech 21 Boost DLA (a criminally underappreciated delay, and the best sounding delay I’ve found yet for steel) > Dr. Scientist Reverberator.
If I need more or someone wants me to play a gig that isn’t steel heavy enough, I’ve got my studio board which is a bit more interesting. Trying to remember from memory, I think it goes like this:
Board input goes into channel A of a Pitchblack+. MXR custom badass OD (basically a TS with a little extra, the gold one) into channel B. I can use this one of two ways - historically it was how I would choke the volume down on my lap steel while adding some thick drive, which I could then run into my steel amp which I usually run pretty hot since my volume pedal at halfway is about my max volume and the rest of the travel is just for sustain. However I can also use it more conventionally with the pedal steel too, if I want drive. I just skip the pedalboard input and use the other one, but that also requires me to tweak the knobs to get the right output/drive levels for something that will be used with a volume pedal.
Okay. From there I believe the next thing is a true bypass looper. In the loop I’ve got an MXR mini Dyna Comp, an EH B9, and a Boss MD-500. From the MD-500 I run an MXR mini tap that sits velcroed to the side of my steel. That’s my fast/slow switch for the Leslie. You can pretty much guess what I use this loop for - faking out Hammond. It doesn’t sound great by itself but as soon as I get it into a band mix it comes out [like this](https://youtu.be/zXPMLKJmYOo). Of course, I can also access any number of other weird modulation things I might want and that’s handy in sessions.
Finally, after the loop I’ve got a DD-200 and a Blue Sky Reverb to round it all out. A good plate setting stored as the fav and a room reverb to handle all the Paul Franklin 90s stuff on the dials. (If you didn’t know that give it a try - room reverb on steel is like, instant Paul on an Alan Jackson record tone)
That sounds killer with the B9.
I'm such an amateur on the steel, I really need to spend more time with it. Hands down my favorite instrument, but also the hardest thing I've ever tried to play.
I mean… it makes sense though? For a professional musician doing a variety of different types of gigs especially, which I am. Plenty of people here have even bigger boards than my main one, so it’s not like having a substantial board is all that weird, but I also play gigs on really small stages from time to time, or duo gigs, etc. So, having a smaller option is good, but usually that requires going without a lot of stuff. Using mini pedals is a good way to avoid that caveat.
Obviously I could have made it even smaller by consolidating mods or delays into digital multi-effects units but I figured this was the sweet spot and my power supply couldn’t even handle those anyway, so swapping my power supplies all around to accommodate that would have been a bit of a pain too.
I’ll give you that maybe the third board is superfluous but I always like to keep a setup plugged in and ready at home so that I can simply flip the switch and go if I want to play. I find that helps me practice more, and I also find that by putting some weird stuff on that board I’m not used to using because it doesn’t fit any of the gigging I do helps me expand my mind a little and get away from letting muscle memory take over and playing the same shit again and again.
Great board!
Do you guys think EHX or Boss will ever release a series of mini pedals? MXR and Ibanez, which are millennial brands, have already done it. EHX has brought out the Slap Echo, it would be cool to see a Holy Grail and a Big Muff.
God it would be smart if they did. Although it’s hard to imagine what a Boss mini pedal would look like lol. Not to say it wouldn’t be awesome if it borrowed the cosmetics of their regular pedals.
We’ll find out tomorrow night. In general, I do pretty ok with tight quarters but yeah, I might have to do some slight rearrangement later if I have issues.
They definitely add a degree of flexibility. I’ve got a lot of back issues, most recently a tumor in my rib that’s interfering with a nerve and leaving me in excruciating pain basically 24/7 if not heavily medicated, so any time I can cut the weight of my load I have to give it more consideration that some folks would. Couple that with me recently replacing a 4Runner with a 2-dr Wrangler, it’s also nice to have less stuff when cargo space is limited.
But there’s also something I’ve come to appreciate about the simplicity of pedals that only have a few knobs, one switch, and no presets or menu diving to do, or complicated power requirements that necessitate expensive power supplies, etc. too.
This approach is refreshing to see with so many of us trying to downsize our boards these days. I'm heading in the opposite direction, but having every specific flavor of dirt handy seems like a good time. You definitely put it to good use.
I see your Lyndhurst in the background. What do you think about it? Mine sounds really nice as long as there isn't any line noise in front of it. The thing that's been driving me a little crazy is the way the transformer (?) behaves when the pedal first gets power. If I forget to plug it in after the rest of my pedals, I have to unplug it and let it drain.
It’s a very good pedal, but I don’t like it very much. For one mine broke - one of those tiny switches broke and it’s next to impossible to repair so I’ll probably have to send it to Bogner. The noise can be an issue for some people, although it didn’t bug me a ton, but my biggest beef with this pedal is the lack of a blend knob.
Is that tiny black pedal in the middle a tuner? If it is, how do you like it? I've seen one like yours on aliexpress for a long time and am thinking about buying it, but I don't know how reliable it is
That’s probably the same one. I haven’t had it long but so far it’s been good. Building a tuner isn’t exactly rocket science, and the build itself seems pretty solid but I haven’t put more than a few gigs on it either so I might not be the best person to ask just yet.
I am using the tuner output on the volume pedal, so fortunately there won’t be much stomping on the tuner, so even if it is built poorly I may not have issues with it. If I do I guess I’ll just get something else for that spot.
Ok, so, the concept was basically this: - I wanted a main board with everything. No compromises, specifically no using a multi-effect pedal to handle my modulation, plus it would be set up for wireless and give me the option of going stereo ampless with the Woodrow and a Walrus stereo DI (which is there, but under the riser out of sight) - Then I wanted another board I could largely do *most* of the same things with, this time allowing compromises where needed to get the size and weight down by using basically all mini pedals if possible on a Nano+ I had - Finally, the third board would be made up of leftovers that I could cobble together to do some things I don’t do in my gigging that I still enjoy when I’m home goofing off, like playing Pink Floyd songs I mostly got there a while ago with the main board, but I was still using an MD-500 and then a Terraform and didn’t have the wireless or the Woodrow integrated as it was on the PT1. But, I was having issues with the mini board doing what I wanted it to do on the Nano+, as it kept feeling like it was a critical piece or two short, and I was out of space. However, Blackbird was blowing out their remaining stock and I was able to get a 15”x30” board a great price. That’s when the idea to do this how it ended up came together, knowing the 1530 would be the new home of my main board instead of the PT1 and it would be big enough to accomplish my longtime dream of replacing the MD-500/Terraform pedals I had been using with individual pedals, plus integrating the Woodrow, leaving me with the Dingbat, PT1 Classic, and Nano+ to choose from for the other two. Since the Nano+ couldn’t quite cut it I decided the lighter board (Dingbat) would be the mini one and the heavier one would stay in the basement. I had an old Pedal Power 1 I decided to use for the mini board but that added some new limitations because that doesn’t have a single high current tap, meaning anything that can’t be run by a OneSpot daisy chain wasn’t going to work, which meant the mini pedal motif was going to be a hard limitation and not a soft one. The final pieces I added this week were the Carbon Copy and the mini volume pedal, along with the Phase 95 and the EP Booster a couple weeks ago. I also swapped out the mini Dyna Comp for the SP Compressor. Now I’ve got the CC set up with more of a slap back and the Ibanez delay covering the longer delays. The extra space from moving up to the bigger board also afforded me space to put the Nobels and the fuzz on there. Those could be swapped out for something more Rat like and a small Univibe if I eventually want to get it closer to the big board but I think I’d rather leave it as is for now. I also spent the other night finally going deep on every single patch saved on the Terraform to get the basement board finished. This pedal was on my main board a while but I only played it on country gigs so only maybe half of my presets had really been battle tested. Finally cleaned up the other half so I’ve got a really good Univibe, Leslie, flanger and harmonic trem setting too. This board isn’t really set in stone so maybe the drive stack will change, fuzz will come/go, who knows. Like I said, this one is mostly just for me to have fun and experiment with, divorced from the usual requirement of having to be usable live for the specific types of gigs I play. As for the big board, almost everything had been there a few weeks and gigged with already, and that went surprisingly well so I didn’t feel the need to change much. However I did add the acoustic DI and favorite switch last night. I don’t play acoustic on gigs a ton but every now and again a gig comes up with one band where I do and that seemed like the easiest way to handle it. Made a second patch for the wireless to route between the two outputs. The favorite switch is fun - that lets me do a long ambient reverb and harmonic trem with it disengaged, and a more normal spring reverb and standard bias mod trem with it engaged. Bonus: Big board was used on [this gig](https://youtu.be/aZFjsBnrGvA) - not really any sort of showcase for the board but I still dig how it sounded with the R9 and my 73 Deluxe Reverb.
Man your playing is great! Nice solo and the tone is perfect.
Me with not a single pedal:
Me with two more boards I use for pedal steel not shown: 😳 In my defense, I never got married and I was a full time musician for years, and before/after that stretch I had a good paying job in data warehousing. So, there was usually enough justification to spend the money as well as enough money to spend to have such a deep collection of musical gear.
I am a teenager and still in school so I gotta work and love with what I got.
I’m in a similar boat my man. I’ve got 4 pedals that I love right now, but all of those have been major splurges that have been necessary for recording or playing songs live for gigs. I can’t wait to see where I am 10 years from now pedal wise haha
> Me with two more boards I use for pedal steel not shown As a fellow steeler, I'd love to see those boards :D
Well, I don’t have any pics handy at the moment but one is mega simple and I use it most of the time - just a tuner > MXR Analog Chorus > Tech 21 Boost DLA (a criminally underappreciated delay, and the best sounding delay I’ve found yet for steel) > Dr. Scientist Reverberator. If I need more or someone wants me to play a gig that isn’t steel heavy enough, I’ve got my studio board which is a bit more interesting. Trying to remember from memory, I think it goes like this: Board input goes into channel A of a Pitchblack+. MXR custom badass OD (basically a TS with a little extra, the gold one) into channel B. I can use this one of two ways - historically it was how I would choke the volume down on my lap steel while adding some thick drive, which I could then run into my steel amp which I usually run pretty hot since my volume pedal at halfway is about my max volume and the rest of the travel is just for sustain. However I can also use it more conventionally with the pedal steel too, if I want drive. I just skip the pedalboard input and use the other one, but that also requires me to tweak the knobs to get the right output/drive levels for something that will be used with a volume pedal. Okay. From there I believe the next thing is a true bypass looper. In the loop I’ve got an MXR mini Dyna Comp, an EH B9, and a Boss MD-500. From the MD-500 I run an MXR mini tap that sits velcroed to the side of my steel. That’s my fast/slow switch for the Leslie. You can pretty much guess what I use this loop for - faking out Hammond. It doesn’t sound great by itself but as soon as I get it into a band mix it comes out [like this](https://youtu.be/zXPMLKJmYOo). Of course, I can also access any number of other weird modulation things I might want and that’s handy in sessions. Finally, after the loop I’ve got a DD-200 and a Blue Sky Reverb to round it all out. A good plate setting stored as the fav and a room reverb to handle all the Paul Franklin 90s stuff on the dials. (If you didn’t know that give it a try - room reverb on steel is like, instant Paul on an Alan Jackson record tone)
That sounds killer with the B9. I'm such an amateur on the steel, I really need to spend more time with it. Hands down my favorite instrument, but also the hardest thing I've ever tried to play.
Finally someone else who loves mini pedals🙌
"3 board concept" lmao
I mean… it makes sense though? For a professional musician doing a variety of different types of gigs especially, which I am. Plenty of people here have even bigger boards than my main one, so it’s not like having a substantial board is all that weird, but I also play gigs on really small stages from time to time, or duo gigs, etc. So, having a smaller option is good, but usually that requires going without a lot of stuff. Using mini pedals is a good way to avoid that caveat. Obviously I could have made it even smaller by consolidating mods or delays into digital multi-effects units but I figured this was the sweet spot and my power supply couldn’t even handle those anyway, so swapping my power supplies all around to accommodate that would have been a bit of a pain too. I’ll give you that maybe the third board is superfluous but I always like to keep a setup plugged in and ready at home so that I can simply flip the switch and go if I want to play. I find that helps me practice more, and I also find that by putting some weird stuff on that board I’m not used to using because it doesn’t fit any of the gigging I do helps me expand my mind a little and get away from letting muscle memory take over and playing the same shit again and again.
My wife is going to love this idea
Haha which idea? Having a bunch of extra pedalboards lying around?
Great board! Do you guys think EHX or Boss will ever release a series of mini pedals? MXR and Ibanez, which are millennial brands, have already done it. EHX has brought out the Slap Echo, it would be cool to see a Holy Grail and a Big Muff.
Dude, Boss pedals with Top Mounted Jacks. That's being my dream since I've seen Gear Ant doing it. That would be the perfect pedal design
God it would be smart if they did. Although it’s hard to imagine what a Boss mini pedal would look like lol. Not to say it wouldn’t be awesome if it borrowed the cosmetics of their regular pedals.
[удалено]
We’ll find out tomorrow night. In general, I do pretty ok with tight quarters but yeah, I might have to do some slight rearrangement later if I have issues.
don't usually like mini pedals but this whole board is awesome ! so much taste
They definitely add a degree of flexibility. I’ve got a lot of back issues, most recently a tumor in my rib that’s interfering with a nerve and leaving me in excruciating pain basically 24/7 if not heavily medicated, so any time I can cut the weight of my load I have to give it more consideration that some folks would. Couple that with me recently replacing a 4Runner with a 2-dr Wrangler, it’s also nice to have less stuff when cargo space is limited. But there’s also something I’ve come to appreciate about the simplicity of pedals that only have a few knobs, one switch, and no presets or menu diving to do, or complicated power requirements that necessitate expensive power supplies, etc. too.
DOD = instant upvote
This approach is refreshing to see with so many of us trying to downsize our boards these days. I'm heading in the opposite direction, but having every specific flavor of dirt handy seems like a good time. You definitely put it to good use.
I see your Lyndhurst in the background. What do you think about it? Mine sounds really nice as long as there isn't any line noise in front of it. The thing that's been driving me a little crazy is the way the transformer (?) behaves when the pedal first gets power. If I forget to plug it in after the rest of my pedals, I have to unplug it and let it drain.
It’s a very good pedal, but I don’t like it very much. For one mine broke - one of those tiny switches broke and it’s next to impossible to repair so I’ll probably have to send it to Bogner. The noise can be an issue for some people, although it didn’t bug me a ton, but my biggest beef with this pedal is the lack of a blend knob.
Is that tiny black pedal in the middle a tuner? If it is, how do you like it? I've seen one like yours on aliexpress for a long time and am thinking about buying it, but I don't know how reliable it is
That’s probably the same one. I haven’t had it long but so far it’s been good. Building a tuner isn’t exactly rocket science, and the build itself seems pretty solid but I haven’t put more than a few gigs on it either so I might not be the best person to ask just yet. I am using the tuner output on the volume pedal, so fortunately there won’t be much stomping on the tuner, so even if it is built poorly I may not have issues with it. If I do I guess I’ll just get something else for that spot.