David Eaton
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
- Messages
- 220
It's time for a fun summer game that I like to call...build Dave's pedalboard. Things like this happens when I'm either a) bored, or b) need something fun to occupy my mind. If neither of these apply to you right now, feel free to play when they do or skip this all together.
Background: I'm currently the music director for our contemporary service at church. We play a wide range of stuff Crowder to Rend Collective to Brewster to Hillsong to Tomlin to...well, you get the idea, if there's a good song that works well with our people, we'll try to play it. However, I don't try to match tones...our team consists of people from our congregation, we have a flute player each week. And a violin. We start with an arrangement we like, and fit it to our team's abilities and our church setting. (So, we're not going to do an 8 minute, ambient, version of Hillsong United's "Oceans," it doesn't fit our service/church personality...I might do an acoustic version of that song...but our context drives what we do, and I'm very ok with that). I grew up in the 70s and 80s so we also tend to rock songs a bit harder than their recorded versions. I love the power of distortion and dynamics.
I also like to goof off a lot at home and play/explore stuff I'd never play in the church setting. I have a recording rig that I'm using more. I'd like one board, but I've thought of having board a, b, and c and using some combination.
My main guitar is a PRS DGT, though I use a P22 and a Hollowbody with piezo a lot in the band setting, particularly when we don't have an acoustic player or I want to add another level to the sound. I've thought of having two volume pedals, one for each input. The magnetic pickups go to an amp (Peavey Classic 30 at church, various at home) the piezo goes direct to board live, to a SWR California Blond at home.
Currently my board (Pedaltrain II) has:
Xotic EP booster. On almost all the time. With me till I die
Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive: 90% of the time I hit an overdrive, it's this one. Love the clean blend.
Visual Sound Rt. 66: Rarely use the compressor (should mess with it more)...love the OD for a thicker overdrive sound than the Sparkle Drive. This is the old home plate shaped (and sized) pedal.
Xotic SL Drive: Rarely use this live, love to use it at home
Strymon Mobius: Love the mod sounds...have found some nice phasing and flanging sounds. I've explored other sounds...love messing with them at home, use this pedal live some (mostly phase), but not a bunch (one song every other week).
Strymon Timeline: Love this delay. I don't exploit it's power as much as I should, but exploit the presets...we play to click and I love having the whole set programmed in. I love what you can do with the delayed signal...I've really enjoyed this pedal, both for live use and as something to explore with at home.
Strymon Blue Sky: I don't use reverb a lot. This has a nice full verb setting for when I'm not using the delay, and I'll use the shimmer setting for a little ambiance at times.
Visual Sound Visual Volume: Nice volume pedal...big footprint.
Hanging around the house I also have:
Bogner Ecstasy Blue: Just came off the board in favor of the Rt. 66. Like the sounds...didn't work live as well as the sparkle drive. I might send it off for the mod to cut back the volume jump when the boost is engaged. Love both sides of the pedal, I just need to work with it a bit more.
Electro-Harmonix B9 organ: This will go on the board. Which means either pulling something off (volume pedal?) or going to the Pedaltrain Pro I have sitting around (which would then need more pedals to seem full).
Boss RC-20 loop station: From about 15 years ago...I love this pedal, use it at home all the time...have had it on my board some, lot of real estate, not a lot of live use.
Dunlop 535Q wah pedal: I like the pedal, don't use wah much...maybe I should mess with it more.
In my ideal world, I run a dual cable from the P22 or hollowbody to the board, the mag side goes one direction, the piezo another...I've thought about a volume pedal for each to blend on the fly (though that's a lot of board real estate with the visual volume). I've thought it would be nice to have a looper that one or both run through, I've had the RC-20 on the board some...easy to use, but I have to choose either acoustic or electric as the input. I really like drive pedals, but tend to rely on just a couple live.
I do sometimes play acoustic and have run that through the board...more for the time based and modulation effects, not so much for the drives. I'm not opposed to an acoustic board, separate from the main live board. I'm also not opposed to a "live" board, "acoustic" board, and "used mostly at home" board that could be pieced together as needed.
Seriously, I'd love to hear the wisdom of other players, even on how to use what I have in a better fashion...
Background: I'm currently the music director for our contemporary service at church. We play a wide range of stuff Crowder to Rend Collective to Brewster to Hillsong to Tomlin to...well, you get the idea, if there's a good song that works well with our people, we'll try to play it. However, I don't try to match tones...our team consists of people from our congregation, we have a flute player each week. And a violin. We start with an arrangement we like, and fit it to our team's abilities and our church setting. (So, we're not going to do an 8 minute, ambient, version of Hillsong United's "Oceans," it doesn't fit our service/church personality...I might do an acoustic version of that song...but our context drives what we do, and I'm very ok with that). I grew up in the 70s and 80s so we also tend to rock songs a bit harder than their recorded versions. I love the power of distortion and dynamics.
I also like to goof off a lot at home and play/explore stuff I'd never play in the church setting. I have a recording rig that I'm using more. I'd like one board, but I've thought of having board a, b, and c and using some combination.
My main guitar is a PRS DGT, though I use a P22 and a Hollowbody with piezo a lot in the band setting, particularly when we don't have an acoustic player or I want to add another level to the sound. I've thought of having two volume pedals, one for each input. The magnetic pickups go to an amp (Peavey Classic 30 at church, various at home) the piezo goes direct to board live, to a SWR California Blond at home.
Currently my board (Pedaltrain II) has:
Xotic EP booster. On almost all the time. With me till I die
Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive: 90% of the time I hit an overdrive, it's this one. Love the clean blend.
Visual Sound Rt. 66: Rarely use the compressor (should mess with it more)...love the OD for a thicker overdrive sound than the Sparkle Drive. This is the old home plate shaped (and sized) pedal.
Xotic SL Drive: Rarely use this live, love to use it at home
Strymon Mobius: Love the mod sounds...have found some nice phasing and flanging sounds. I've explored other sounds...love messing with them at home, use this pedal live some (mostly phase), but not a bunch (one song every other week).
Strymon Timeline: Love this delay. I don't exploit it's power as much as I should, but exploit the presets...we play to click and I love having the whole set programmed in. I love what you can do with the delayed signal...I've really enjoyed this pedal, both for live use and as something to explore with at home.
Strymon Blue Sky: I don't use reverb a lot. This has a nice full verb setting for when I'm not using the delay, and I'll use the shimmer setting for a little ambiance at times.
Visual Sound Visual Volume: Nice volume pedal...big footprint.
Hanging around the house I also have:
Bogner Ecstasy Blue: Just came off the board in favor of the Rt. 66. Like the sounds...didn't work live as well as the sparkle drive. I might send it off for the mod to cut back the volume jump when the boost is engaged. Love both sides of the pedal, I just need to work with it a bit more.
Electro-Harmonix B9 organ: This will go on the board. Which means either pulling something off (volume pedal?) or going to the Pedaltrain Pro I have sitting around (which would then need more pedals to seem full).
Boss RC-20 loop station: From about 15 years ago...I love this pedal, use it at home all the time...have had it on my board some, lot of real estate, not a lot of live use.
Dunlop 535Q wah pedal: I like the pedal, don't use wah much...maybe I should mess with it more.
In my ideal world, I run a dual cable from the P22 or hollowbody to the board, the mag side goes one direction, the piezo another...I've thought about a volume pedal for each to blend on the fly (though that's a lot of board real estate with the visual volume). I've thought it would be nice to have a looper that one or both run through, I've had the RC-20 on the board some...easy to use, but I have to choose either acoustic or electric as the input. I really like drive pedals, but tend to rely on just a couple live.
I do sometimes play acoustic and have run that through the board...more for the time based and modulation effects, not so much for the drives. I'm not opposed to an acoustic board, separate from the main live board. I'm also not opposed to a "live" board, "acoustic" board, and "used mostly at home" board that could be pieced together as needed.
Seriously, I'd love to hear the wisdom of other players, even on how to use what I have in a better fashion...
