Until today, I was pretty satisfied with my rig, but felt that something might be missing. Yesterday I tried an Xotic EP Boost, that really didn't work for me. I took it back today and swapped it for an Xotic SP Compressor. This wasn't to be a "get my tones" improvement, I just needed one for some tracks I'm working on.
After trying it in a few locations, I decided to put it after the buffered tuner in a true bypass loop. I like the way the Fulltone pedals sound without compression or a buffer in front., and since they're true bypass, when they're off, they're out of the signal path anyway. I generally haven't used a compressor with distortion in the past, so there was no plan to have everything on at once.
I fired up the board and turned up the amp, really just hoping that I'd use the pedal to add a little sparkle to humbuckers with the compressor, and fatten up single coils.
Well, to shorten things up, I LOVE this pedal. Yes, it adds what I wanted, but beyond that, it does something great for the tone, and I can blend in the uncompressed signal the way I do with a mult in a mixer! Wooo!
When I tried the EP, I immediately knew it wasn't for me. But the SP is a delight! I don't even want to turn it off. And as an added party-bonus, using the blend control, it sounds absolutely killer after the OD and distortion pedals, something most compressors can't manage (my two cents, everyone's opinion is different).
So I am in love with my board now. Here's the most recent pic of Best Tone Ever (the SP is to the left of the tuner, behind the true bypass switch box):
Big thumbs up!
PS - Yeah, it's a board I made, nothing fancy. It's plywood with black formica on top, edged with maple. I put rubber feet on the bottom. It's not angled.
I found that changing pedals as much as I do for projects, a fancier board with velcro was kind of a pain to deal with. Since I only use it in the studio, nothing really needs to be stuck in place with velcro; the rubber feet that come on pedals keep everything in place just fine. I can see the power supply wire routing so changing the setup doesn't involve trying to figure out which lead goes where.
It's not pretty, not too cool, but it works for me...
The one George L's on the board will be replaced with another PRS patch cable. I like the PRS for the analog gear, gives everything a warm tone when I bypass the digital gear, and seems to be immune to RFI and EMI. I found the GeorgeL's to be a little more prone to EMI/RFI noise than the PRS, and it's a bit too bright sounding for my taste.
The digital connections to the switch box are Lava cables. They're not prone to EMI/RFI problems, and actually they sound very good, but the reason I use them is that I wasn't able to get the PRS cables at the right lengths, and Lava doesn't have the Van Damme on their site any more!
After trying it in a few locations, I decided to put it after the buffered tuner in a true bypass loop. I like the way the Fulltone pedals sound without compression or a buffer in front., and since they're true bypass, when they're off, they're out of the signal path anyway. I generally haven't used a compressor with distortion in the past, so there was no plan to have everything on at once.
I fired up the board and turned up the amp, really just hoping that I'd use the pedal to add a little sparkle to humbuckers with the compressor, and fatten up single coils.
Well, to shorten things up, I LOVE this pedal. Yes, it adds what I wanted, but beyond that, it does something great for the tone, and I can blend in the uncompressed signal the way I do with a mult in a mixer! Wooo!
When I tried the EP, I immediately knew it wasn't for me. But the SP is a delight! I don't even want to turn it off. And as an added party-bonus, using the blend control, it sounds absolutely killer after the OD and distortion pedals, something most compressors can't manage (my two cents, everyone's opinion is different).
So I am in love with my board now. Here's the most recent pic of Best Tone Ever (the SP is to the left of the tuner, behind the true bypass switch box):
Big thumbs up!
PS - Yeah, it's a board I made, nothing fancy. It's plywood with black formica on top, edged with maple. I put rubber feet on the bottom. It's not angled.
I found that changing pedals as much as I do for projects, a fancier board with velcro was kind of a pain to deal with. Since I only use it in the studio, nothing really needs to be stuck in place with velcro; the rubber feet that come on pedals keep everything in place just fine. I can see the power supply wire routing so changing the setup doesn't involve trying to figure out which lead goes where.
It's not pretty, not too cool, but it works for me...
The one George L's on the board will be replaced with another PRS patch cable. I like the PRS for the analog gear, gives everything a warm tone when I bypass the digital gear, and seems to be immune to RFI and EMI. I found the GeorgeL's to be a little more prone to EMI/RFI noise than the PRS, and it's a bit too bright sounding for my taste.
The digital connections to the switch box are Lava cables. They're not prone to EMI/RFI problems, and actually they sound very good, but the reason I use them is that I wasn't able to get the PRS cables at the right lengths, and Lava doesn't have the Van Damme on their site any more!
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