New Pedalboard aka Nebulon B progress build

Here's the last Schmidt Array board I built for my Rush cover band almost 3 years ago. Crazy how time flies. Just a "touch" of Strymon in those days. Lots more under the hood.

200524468_3920309578092210_3293322973641634726_n.jpg


201134516_3920309591425542_4922893772244917679_n.jpg
That’s an awesome looking board.

Since you mentioned Rush; what do you think of YYNot?
 
That’s an awesome looking board.

Since you mentioned Rush; what do you think of YYNot?
Thanks, man. It was featured on Schmidt Arrays website! YYNot are fantastic. That bass players energy is great, the guitar and drums are also very good. I mean, if you’re good enough to get Portnoy to sit in, well… I enjoy watching their performance videos. I don’t know their original material, but I hear that’s good too.
 
Thanks, man. It was featured on Schmidt Arrays website! YYNot are fantastic. That bass players energy is great, the guitar and drums are also very good. I mean, if you’re good enough to get Portnoy to sit in, well… I enjoy watching their performance videos. I don’t know their original material, but I hear that’s good too.
Agree, they are great. Their original tunes are very good. Lots of Rush inspiration.
 
That's odd; my H9 was really quiet. Are you sure you give it sufficient power? It's 500mA @9VDC, or close to 400mA @12VDC centre pin (+). It's power-hungry; underpowering would explain the hiss
Yup. It's 100% powered correctly. I've used their own power supply with it using the filtered AC outlet on my PF1800 PFR.

The hiss is VERY, very subtle. But my rig is so crazy quiet that I can hear it when it's on, especially when using its reverbs for some of the more ambient stuff.

It's got something to do with the converters, I guess. Doesn't stop me from using mine, because the things sound so good to me. If the H900 is quieter, I'll probably consider getting one once the bluetooth software becomes available. Big "If" because the tiny amount of hiss isn't very objectionable.
 
Last edited:
Yup. It's 100% powered correctly. I've used their own power supply with it using the filtered AC outlet on my PF1800 PFR.

The hiss is VERY, very subtle. But my rig is so crazy quiet that I can hear it when it's on, especially when using its reverbs for some of the more ambient stuff.

It's got something to do with the converters, I guess. Doesn't stop me from using mine, because the things sound so good to me. If the H900 is quieter, I'll probably consider getting one once the bluetooth software becomes available. Big "If" because the tiny amount of hiss isn't very objectionable.

There's always a walkaround with no Bluetooth; I'm considering adding CME WIDI UHost to work with my MIDI controller. I still want to do the MIDI via cable, but I could use UHost to wirelessly connect the Morningstar MC6 Pro to my phone or computer. The good thing with Morningstar edit software is - its website based optimised for mobile devices, so I can edit it from whatever I like without transferring data from one device to another. I will do it if I have a room

 
There's always a walkaround with no Bluetooth; I'm considering adding CME WIDI UHost to work with my MIDI controller. I still want to do the MIDI via cable, but I could use UHost to wirelessly connect the Morningstar MC6 Pro to my phone or computer. The good thing with Morningstar edit software is - its website based optimised for mobile devices, so I can edit it from whatever I like without transferring data from one device to another. I will do it if I have a room

Very cool! And reasonably priced. I'm going to explore getting one for my amp switcher. One less cable!
 
I know this is dragging; the 5th page and I didn't even cut a cable. But I will fire up my soldering iron after the weekend as I need to modify a few things.

I will modify the Xotic 25k Volume Pedal to the expression pedal; one of my Chasetone Secret Preamps will lose the switch and the knob; it's always on, and I need a footrest for an RC-10R (looper), so it needs to be trimmed.

I had an issue with GigRig The Wetter box - it's essentially a mixer for two sources, two overdrives in my case. The problem was it was in the "off" position every time I powered it. Nuisance, as I would have to kick it "on" every time I wanted to play. I contacted RigRig Customer Support, who said there was no way to activate it on power-on. I knew there was always a way to force a flip-plop circuit to always be in the "on" position. I did that many times with Ibanez, and Boss pedals. Long story short, jokes on them as there is a way. If you plug a shorted jack connector to the "remote" out, It forces The Wetter to always be in the "on" mode. The issue is; I can't really bypass it with the onboard footswitch, but this is hardly a problem. The Wetter Box takes the last loop in my GigRig Quadramaster, so I can kick it in and out that way.

I'm still alive, and the pedalboard is in (slow) progress. The pedalboard should be ready to be shipped in around 4 weeks. I will have everything prepared before then. I only missing 3 items; second OD to work with my Nordland in a Wetter mixer; I haven't decided which one yet, a One Control Minimal Series MIDI Dual Stereo Loop to switch between the Fillmore preamp stage and Synergy Syn-1 and a Boss RC-10R looper. All other bits are just that; bits and pieces cost nothing.

I can't believe I'm 4-6 weeks away from a setup I was planning for the past 18 months.
 
I know this is dragging; the 5th page and I didn't even cut a cable. But I will fire up my soldering iron after the weekend as I need to modify a few things.

I will modify the Xotic 25k Volume Pedal to the expression pedal; one of my Chasetone Secret Preamps will lose the switch and the knob; it's always on, and I need a footrest for an RC-10R (looper), so it needs to be trimmed.

I had an issue with GigRig The Wetter box - it's essentially a mixer for two sources, two overdrives in my case. The problem was it was in the "off" position every time I powered it. Nuisance, as I would have to kick it "on" every time I wanted to play. I contacted RigRig Customer Support, who said there was no way to activate it on power-on. I knew there was always a way to force a flip-plop circuit to always be in the "on" position. I did that many times with Ibanez, and Boss pedals. Long story short, jokes on them as there is a way. If you plug a shorted jack connector to the "remote" out, It forces The Wetter to always be in the "on" mode. The issue is; I can't really bypass it with the onboard footswitch, but this is hardly a problem. The Wetter Box takes the last loop in my GigRig Quadramaster, so I can kick it in and out that way.

I'm still alive, and the pedalboard is in (slow) progress. The pedalboard should be ready to be shipped in around 4 weeks. I will have everything prepared before then. I only missing 3 items; second OD to work with my Nordland in a Wetter mixer; I haven't decided which one yet, a One Control Minimal Series MIDI Dual Stereo Loop to switch between the Fillmore preamp stage and Synergy Syn-1 and a Boss RC-10R looper. All other bits are just that; bits and pieces cost nothing.

I can't believe I'm 4-6 weeks away from a setup I was planning for the past 18 months.
You've got mad skills with this stuff, Simon!

It's great to read that your plan is coming together in a good way. :)
 
You've got mad skills with this stuff, Simon!

It's great to read that your plan is coming together in a good way. :)

I will be fair with you, Les. There are fewer skills needed to mod pedals. Shortly after I started playing the guitar, I bought a Boss Metal Zone from a guy in my neighbourhood. He gave me another Boss pedal for free (I overpaid for Metal Zone) because it was broken. I took both home, took the other Boss apart, and noticed that the PCB on which the PSU jack was mounted was broken. I glued it with super glue and retouched the traces with my dad's soldering iron. It was my fave pedal for years; I have recorded my first (and last) demo on a 4 track with this.

Most importantly, I was hooked on fixing stuff. Most effect pedals are easy, max of 20 resistors, 5 to 10 capacitors, and other standard parts like opamps or different kinds of transistors. When the internet was more common, I started attending forums for geeks like me who like to fix and modify pedals. I'm not EE trained, I'm with healthcare, but it took me only a short time before I started understanding schematics and building things from scratch. A range of prototyping boards is available, and I became really handy in making layouts on stripboards and tagboards. I had a website with these which was popular 15 years ago. It got axed when I realised it was being milked for profit. It wasn't why I started the page back then; it got terminated as a result, and now I keep my stuff for myself or friends I made during this time. This is a long story, and I already drifting off-topic.

Anyway, I have a hard pill to swallow. I may adjust the plans and change some things with the pedalboard. The expression pedal was intended to be used with GigRig The Wetter Box, mixing two ODs in parallel, but it got me thinking. Firstly, I don't use overdrive pedals; one is a stretch, and two combined in parallel are excessive! Why won't I use the EXP pedal to hook it to the MIDI controller? I could use it with the Volante and other pedals (the H90, eventually) in the future expansion of my rig. I'm already stressed with available space with The Wetter, and I know I won't be using the Overdrive pedal that much. I could possibly eat the cake and have the cake if I figure out how to wire the EXP pedal with two outs; one for The Wetter and the other for the Morningstar controller, or better; how to use one of the Morningstar omniports to "feed" The Wetter and MIDI pedals... I will be brainstorming this in the next few days. To be fair, I need the EXP with Volante even less than I need it with The Wetter and two overdrive pedals, but if (when) I buy the H90, I'm sure I will need it. If I hook the EXP pedal to the Morningstar controller, I could add the function F/S to... With the same amount of gear, I can do much more. I will need to sleep with this. Now I'm kinda happy I still have at least 4 weeks before the build begins, as well as a bit let down, as I realised; there's not such a thing as a final pedalboard
 
Now I'm kinda happy I still have at least 4 weeks before the build begins, as well as a bit let down, as I realised; there's not such a thing as a final pedalboard
I like to think of a pedalboard as a self-contained, portable version of a studio. Studios are always works in progress for the same damn reason:

They keep coming out with juicy new stuff.

I put my current pedalboard together in 2018. I hoped I wouldn't have to mess with it for a long time, and it has been largely the same, but I've made a few small changes.

I planned to ditch a separate tuner, and initially did that using the tuner on the H9. However, I found it a pain to use, so I added a tuner with a better display. Luckily I had room for it.

My overdrive was a dual pedal Pettydrive 2. I only used the Chime part. So I gave it to my son (he still tours with it) and got the single Chime pedal and their Edge low gain pedal that I like very much. Those are the only changes I've made, but still more than I planned on.

I use the Mission Engineering expression pedal made to work with the H9s. But for one project I needed a volume pedal and got the Xotic (probably the same one you have). Unfortunately, I only planned on the expression pedal when I got the Schmidt, would need to add their two-rocker-pedal upper shelf and redo the board.

Seems like a lot of work I'm not eager to do at the moment.

At some point I may add a second, smaller Schmidt for additional pedals. I'd very much like to be done and just use what I already have.

But as I said, they just keep coming out with juicy new stuff! :eek:

Change is inexorable.
 
I like to think of a pedalboard as a self-contained, portable version of a studio. Studios are always works in progress for the same damn reason:

They keep coming out with juicy new stuff.

I put my current pedalboard together in 2018. I hoped I wouldn't have to mess with it for a long time, and it has been largely the same, but I've made a few small changes.

I planned to ditch a separate tuner, and initially did that using the tuner on the H9. However, I found it a pain to use, so I added a tuner with a better display. Luckily I had room for it.

My overdrive was a dual pedal Pettydrive 2. I only used the Chime part. So I gave it to my son (he still tours with it) and got the single Chime pedal and their Edge low gain pedal that I like very much. Those are the only changes I've made, but still more than I planned on.

I use the Mission Engineering expression pedal made to work with the H9s. But for one project I needed a volume pedal and got the Xotic (probably the same one you have). Unfortunately, I only planned on the expression pedal when I got the Schmidt, would need to add their two-rocker-pedal upper shelf and redo the board.

Seems like a lot of work I'm not eager to do at the moment.

At some point I may add a second, smaller Schmidt for additional pedals. I'd very much like to be done and just use what I already have.

But as I said, they just keep coming out with juicy new stuff! :eek:

Change is inexorable.


Totally agree; they are always coming up with new, more incredible stuff.

There are a few solid positions on my pedalboard, like the Kingtone Octaland. It's an analogue octave-up pedal, I have had one for the past couple of years, and it's brilliant. Tracking exceptionally well for an analogue octave pedal; sounds excellent, and it has the clean blend, so I can get the fuzz out, keeping an almost unaffected octave up to drive my amp. But it got me cheated today with FoxRox Octron 3; such a fun pedal, looks like its tracks equally well or better, and has the option to mix in analogue octave up as well as octave down; the 3rd version is big but smaller than they used to be.

There is no such thing as a final pedalboard, and I will apply a few solutions to my new build to make it easy to swap certain element blocks. I will always have an analogue octave-up pedal of some sort, and I will always have a booster, as well as a polyphonic pitch shifter. I'm currently having MXR Poly Blue Octavier, and I have a love/hate relationship with it. It sounds excellent with a single note but gets confused with polyphony. It also has a latency which they all have. Hopefully, the next great thing will improve this; this pedal will eventually make room for a different one. So I need enough space to have different footprint pedals for each pedal block I want to use in the future. I slept with The Wetter Box idea, and it's no longer in the picture. The EXP pedal will feed the Morningstar controller and hopefully H90 in the distant future.

I'm still in a better position than I was a few years ago, when I "had to have" any and every type of pedal in existence, where my ideal pedalboard was two 32" frames joined together with two 10-loop MIDI controllers and all that nonsense. I know what musician I want to be. I like raw music, and I need basic gear to reflect it.

Seems like a lot of work I'm not eager to do at the moment.
If you only were more local...
 
I Keep Wanting To Make My Dream Board But With As Much Crap As I Have It May Be Easier To Make A Dozen Awesome Boards And Just Be Done With It...LOL. Heck, I Have Even Thought Of Making Brand Specific Or Close To It Type Boards. Otherwise, It Is Too Difficult For Me To Come Up With A Favorite Pedal Of Said Type And Put It All Together Into A Nice Board And Not Change It. ( I Know, I Have Problems...Shakes Head In Shame).
 
I Keep Wanting To Make My Dream Board But With As Much Crap As I Have It May Be Easier To Make A Dozen Awesome Boards And Just Be Done With It...LOL. Heck, I Have Even Thought Of Making Brand Specific Or Close To It Type Boards. Otherwise, It Is Too Difficult For Me To Come Up With A Favorite Pedal Of Said Type And Put It All Together Into A Nice Board And Not Change It. ( I Know, I Have Problems...Shakes Head In Shame).

This is the battle I fight every day. This thread proves it; the frequency of concept changes is that. It's very different after just a few weeks if you look at the block diagram on the first page. I really restraining myself here not to going wild. The first rule of this pedalboard is to keep things I will use and ignore things I won't use very often. So no modulation pedals; I just don't like them; they distract me. I am a rock player, I like raw power and authority, and I like when my overdrive breaks into millions of pieces and rings, vibrates, purrs and barks. I like the string separation and ability to create tension with the picking force. These are my effect pedals; I feel lost with the chorus, vibrato, and tremolo confuse me. I wanted to like them, but I could never find a use for modulation pedals in my music. When I first heard phaser, I thought my cassette player ate the tape. I'm not meant to own or use modulation pedals.

I used to like fuzzes, and I used to like them a lot; it's funny how the perception of tone changes; I just hate them now. They narrow the tone, make it squashed, and are often hard to control or predict; they not enhancing (second rule of my pedalboard) the tone but often replace it.

I could easily go with SA250 for my rig. Volante delay; good delay is essential to me; these are the only "wet" effects I use. Analog active up, and a booster is vital too. Amp switcher, and I'm there. It took me year by year to cut things short, but I realised that; the less I have on the floor = the more I play.

Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to fit a lot of gear on my board, but it's mostly always on utility stuff or things adding a bit of push in several stages. The core of my tone is pretty similar
 
This is the battle I fight every day. This thread proves it; the frequency of concept changes is that. It's very different after just a few weeks if you look at the block diagram on the first page. I really restraining myself here not to going wild. The first rule of this pedalboard is to keep things I will use and ignore things I won't use very often. So no modulation pedals; I just don't like them; they distract me. I am a rock player, I like raw power and authority, and I like when my overdrive breaks into millions of pieces and rings, vibrates, purrs and barks. I like the string separation and ability to create tension with the picking force. These are my effect pedals; I feel lost with the chorus, vibrato, and tremolo confuse me. I wanted to like them, but I could never find a use for modulation pedals in my music. When I first heard phaser, I thought my cassette player ate the tape. I'm not meant to own or use modulation pedals.

I used to like fuzzes, and I used to like them a lot; it's funny how the perception of tone changes; I just hate them now. They narrow the tone, make it squashed, and are often hard to control or predict; they not enhancing (second rule of my pedalboard) the tone but often replace it.

I could easily go with SA250 for my rig. Volante delay; good delay is essential to me; these are the only "wet" effects I use. Analog active up, and a booster is vital too. Amp switcher, and I'm there. It took me year by year to cut things short, but I realised that; the less I have on the floor = the more I play.

Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to fit a lot of gear on my board, but it's mostly always on utility stuff or things adding a bit of push in several stages. The core of my tone is pretty similar
That's interesting!

I've found myself using modulation fairly often. I'll often modulate a delay sound, not the main signal.

I tend to like a little bit of swirl going into the front of my amps when they're overdriven, but then I've always liked the Hendrix/Robin Trower Univibe sound, and spent some time developing my own tone stew using it.

Last year I was asked to do a vibey, vintage sounding Ford Truck ad spot. I used the Fillmore, pretty straight edge-of-breakup panned to one side, and a second pass with a little bit of tremolo panned right, same amp settings, but lower in the mix. Sounded great. The clients thought it was right for their concept. I thought so, too. Worked really well.

But I realize writing music to picture is a different task than just getting out there and playing, and the mood and tone colors I use are determined by what I'm seeing on screen.
 
Life For Me Was A Lot Less Complicated With A High Gain Amp And A Noise Gate...LOL. That Is Still Home To Me. I Could Never Afford Much As A Kid And Was In The Middle Of The Thrash Scene So Delays, Modulation, Etc Wasn't Really In That Sonic Arena. I Loved It For The Clean Parts/Intros And Such To Songs Back Then. Admittedly, I Went A Lot Crazy With All The Stuff Available And Enjoy Messing With Everything But It Will Always Seem A Bit Foreign To Me Because I Went So Long Without Using Those Effects. I Wish I Could Pick The Pieces For A Single, Reasonable Sized Board And Go With That But I Know I Would Be Wanting To Try Everything Else I Have In This Or That Spot. That Is Why The Brand Idea Came To Mind. Maybe It Could Help Me To Better Compartmentalize Things...
 
Life For Me Was A Lot Less Complicated With A High Gain Amp And A Noise Gate...LOL. That Is Still Home To Me. I Could Never Afford Much As A Kid And Was In The Middle Of The Thrash Scene So Delays, Modulation, Etc Wasn't Really In That Sonic Arena. I Loved It For The Clean Parts/Intros And Such To Songs Back Then. Admittedly, I Went A Lot Crazy With All The Stuff Available And Enjoy Messing With Everything But It Will Always Seem A Bit Foreign To Me Because I Went So Long Without Using Those Effects. I Wish I Could Pick The Pieces For A Single, Reasonable Sized Board And Go With That But I Know I Would Be Wanting To Try Everything Else I Have In This Or That Spot. That Is Why The Brand Idea Came To Mind. Maybe It Could Help Me To Better Compartmentalize Things...
I have my pedals lined up by brand on my board. I realize it’s a bit goofy.

It just seems more organized when I look at it. So I compartmentalize, too. I need to do something about those cables sticking out. I've been meaning to, but never got around to it. Maybe when I feel better they'll let me lift something that weighs more than ten pounds so I can put it on a desk and make it a bit nicer. Unfortunately those van den Hul cables are only available in bright red. At the time, they were the lowest capacitance cables I could find, and I like the shrink-wrap reinforced traditional barrel plugs.. They're bulletproof. But kinda ugly.
7TVIKPg.jpg
 
Last edited:
But I realize writing music to picture is a different task than just getting out there and playing, and the mood and tone colors I use are determined by what I'm seeing on screen.
It's way different. I would live on a ton of gear if I would do your job. Don't get me wrong; I would love to work in MI, but I'm privileged to stick to only what agrees with me.

I could maybe practice more creative use of effect pedals, but I really struggle to find time to play with the work stuff; Alnus Rubra can relate; we are cut from the same cloth.

I promise I get a flanger and all if I ever score a hired gun gig :)

How do you do this with two H9s and no MIDI controller?

Life For Me Was A Lot Less Complicated With A High Gain Amp And A Noise Gate...LOL.

I know, right? For the first 10 years of playing guitar, I didn't even know what the pedalboard is. I get why people use pedals, I enjoy listening to a lot of this, but it's not for me. I had the Helix HXFX in the past on a separate host pedalboard. I only took it out when I felt like playing with modulation pedals. I had 6 presets in one bank in use. Most of the time, the HXFX has been collecting dust, so I sold it to a lad in Manchester.





 
How do you do this with two H9s and no MIDI controller?

I use the H9 Bluetooth app on my phone or computer to change patches. It'll do two H9s at one time.

However, I don't have to change patches on the fly, as I would if I gigged.

The app does it fast enough for studio work, but the pedals can be programmed with patches in the order of a set list, or just with favorite presets, and it'll cycle through them quickly. I haven't bothered with that, I just pick stuff with the app.
 
Back
Top