Sunday was National F#$% Around With Your Pedalboard Day.
Oh, you've never heard of it? Dude, get with the program!
The savvy man prepares for National F#$% Around With Your Pedalboard Day in advance, as best he can. However, bonus points are awarded if in the middle of the project he inevitably finds himself having to make a guitar store run for something that proves necessary, and if he can do the round trip within a couple of hours without forgetting something on the list.
I prepared for NFAWYPD by acquiring a few things: a Lehle "Little Lehle II" true bypass switcher, another Eventide H9, and a Gig Rig Cinco Cinco pedalboard patchbay. Naturally, I had to run to the guitar shop to get some George L's cables to complete the project because what I had on hand proved to be an inconvenient length.
I use my pedalboard for more than effects. It's my Command Center (note: it's good for a man to be in command of something) for switching between amps, and sending the signal (with our without effects) to any one of the amps, or to more than one amp at a time. This my pedalboard already did.
But I have some outboard effects that I often want to insert toward the end of the signal path, such as the Fulltone Tape Echo, and pedals like overdrives that I like to have after the boost and compressor. So I decided to put the Little Lehle II on the board between the H9 and the Lehle amp switcher that handles 3 amps.
I also had to install a new H9, because my son is in the middle of a 26 city tour, and one of his pedals started having issues just before he came in for my daughter's wedding last weekend. He was flying from Michigan to Oklahoma the day after, and then out on the road; there was no way he'd have time to order one and wait for it to be delivered, plus mine has all the Max algorithms. So I insisted he take mine, and I replaced it last week after he left.
To have the most room on the pedalboard, the best spot for the Little Lehle was just below the jacks for the amp outputs and pedalboard input that were built into the board. Rather than have the plugs impede access to the Lehle's I/O for the loop, I ordered a Cinco-Cinco, five in, five out patchbay from Gig Rig. It's a handy little box that lets me put more I/O at the edge of the pedalboard, and who can't use more I/O? Can I get an Amen for more I/O?
Anyway, here it is, all wired up, with the tape echo wired into the Cinco-Cinco, the Cinco-Cinco wired into the Lehle, and everything connected with more Van den Hul cables, except the Cinco-Cinco, because I didn't want to order more of the Van den Hul until I was sure I'd like this setup (yes of course I will because I'm that guy whose cables must match).
I would also like to say that more than once during this project, while cussing over the trials and tribulations of trying different layouts on the board, only to return to the original layout, I thought, "Why don't I just stop doing this pedalboard nonsense over and over, and get a Helix or FX8?" only to remember that I basically don't love most digital effects, and found the H9 only after exhausting many other options.
National F#$% Around With Your Pedalboard Day was a success, and there's no additional noise. I even left room for "Future Dirt Pedal," to be added when National Replace Your Power Supply Day comes (I have pre-ordered a Strymon Zuma that has more outlets, I've used up all the outlets on my PP 4x4).
Ta-Da!
Oh, you've never heard of it? Dude, get with the program!
The savvy man prepares for National F#$% Around With Your Pedalboard Day in advance, as best he can. However, bonus points are awarded if in the middle of the project he inevitably finds himself having to make a guitar store run for something that proves necessary, and if he can do the round trip within a couple of hours without forgetting something on the list.
I prepared for NFAWYPD by acquiring a few things: a Lehle "Little Lehle II" true bypass switcher, another Eventide H9, and a Gig Rig Cinco Cinco pedalboard patchbay. Naturally, I had to run to the guitar shop to get some George L's cables to complete the project because what I had on hand proved to be an inconvenient length.
I use my pedalboard for more than effects. It's my Command Center (note: it's good for a man to be in command of something) for switching between amps, and sending the signal (with our without effects) to any one of the amps, or to more than one amp at a time. This my pedalboard already did.
But I have some outboard effects that I often want to insert toward the end of the signal path, such as the Fulltone Tape Echo, and pedals like overdrives that I like to have after the boost and compressor. So I decided to put the Little Lehle II on the board between the H9 and the Lehle amp switcher that handles 3 amps.
I also had to install a new H9, because my son is in the middle of a 26 city tour, and one of his pedals started having issues just before he came in for my daughter's wedding last weekend. He was flying from Michigan to Oklahoma the day after, and then out on the road; there was no way he'd have time to order one and wait for it to be delivered, plus mine has all the Max algorithms. So I insisted he take mine, and I replaced it last week after he left.
To have the most room on the pedalboard, the best spot for the Little Lehle was just below the jacks for the amp outputs and pedalboard input that were built into the board. Rather than have the plugs impede access to the Lehle's I/O for the loop, I ordered a Cinco-Cinco, five in, five out patchbay from Gig Rig. It's a handy little box that lets me put more I/O at the edge of the pedalboard, and who can't use more I/O? Can I get an Amen for more I/O?
Anyway, here it is, all wired up, with the tape echo wired into the Cinco-Cinco, the Cinco-Cinco wired into the Lehle, and everything connected with more Van den Hul cables, except the Cinco-Cinco, because I didn't want to order more of the Van den Hul until I was sure I'd like this setup (yes of course I will because I'm that guy whose cables must match).
I would also like to say that more than once during this project, while cussing over the trials and tribulations of trying different layouts on the board, only to return to the original layout, I thought, "Why don't I just stop doing this pedalboard nonsense over and over, and get a Helix or FX8?" only to remember that I basically don't love most digital effects, and found the H9 only after exhausting many other options.
National F#$% Around With Your Pedalboard Day was a success, and there's no additional noise. I even left room for "Future Dirt Pedal," to be added when National Replace Your Power Supply Day comes (I have pre-ordered a Strymon Zuma that has more outlets, I've used up all the outlets on my PP 4x4).
Ta-Da!
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