What is on your pedal board

Certainly! It’d be a pretty dull world if we all liked the same thing,

And yes, big amps are different than small amps for dozens of reasons. I feel that with a small amp, just dime everything and go without dirt pedals. An 8 or 10 inch speaker in a small enclosure is not like a pair of 12” speakers in a big enclosure.

An 8” is all midrange already. It’s not going to need a push in the midrange the way something like a Deluxe or a Twin, etc., with a more scooped sound can.

Small amps have way different output transformers, they operate differently in the bass region, blah blah I could go on but I’ll spare you.

This doesn’t mean champs are bad, they’re just a bit different. Fender supplied my son’s band with a couple of hand wired champs to use in conjunction with their Mesas on tour (in a wet-dry, they were the wet and close-miked) and they sounded pretty damn nice. The guys loved them. But they were also running 100 Watt Mesa Lone Stars.

Did look a little weird to see two tiny amps sitting on top of a bigger rig, but the sound was cool!

Yeah so my Champ dimed sounds super clean. Big but squeaky clean. But that’s why I bought it. For the cleans. Fast forward to now and my Champs are my downstairs practice amps so I now need more than just clean.

I totally get the output transformer differences between say my Mesa and this little guy but this one, dimed, produced a clean sound with zero character.

When I hooked up the screamers, I expected to hear a thickness that wasn’t there before but nope. I tried the screamers on a few of my other Champs (I have several of them) and it was the exact same thing. In my experience with them, they just don’t like the tubescreamers... at least my little family of Champs don’t. If I get curious enough, I might run both screamers into the Champ.
 
Yeah so my Champ dimed sounds super clean. Big but squeaky clean. But that’s why I bought it. For the cleans. Fast forward to now and my Champs are my downstairs practice amps so I now need more than just clean.

I totally get the output transformer differences between say my Mesa and this little guy but this one, dimed, produced a clean sound with zero character.

When I hooked up the screamers, I expected to hear a thickness that wasn’t there before but nope. I tried the screamers on a few of my other Champs (I have several of them) and it was the exact same thing. In my experience with them, they just don’t like the tubescreamers... at least my little family of Champs don’t. If I get curious enough, I might run both screamers into the Champ.

Casi’s little Champ family!

Have you named them?
 
Six.

I bought every one that I could find that hadn’t been modded. This was when they were selling for less than 120 each.

I modified one but the other ones are pretty much original. Only problem I’ve had on any of them has been a failed pot.

So you’re a collector?;)

Hoarder? :D
 
Just rebuilt my old neglected board, with a few new additions-


anonymous photo hosting
Signal path= Boss TU-3 tuner, Dunlop 535Q Wah, Boss CS-3 Compressor, TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion, Devi Ever Hyperion Fuzz, Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, Electro Harmonix Neo Mistress Flanger, Keeley Magnetic Echo Delay, Foxpedal Magnifica+ Reverb. Powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 4x4.

Buying that reverb really made me love this board again, after not touching it for about a year. Future plans? The Dark Matter might be replaced with an overdrive of some sort, perhaps a Soul Food. The Neo Mistress will probably be dropped for a phaser (Phase 90?) and a noise gate will be on at some point.
 
Not on there yet, but in 3-4 months a Snouse BlackBox 2 Stage Pro Mod pedal. I'd been eyeballing them for a while and they were having a sale so I took the plunge and now the waiting game begins.

Le sigh. Still waiting...
 
That's ok, I've just got on the king of tone waiting list. What's that now, two years long? At least it gives me plenty of time to save up

You have way more patience than I. The KOT is a sweet pedal, but I saw that waiting list and just couldn't do it. I'm not getting any younger and in 2 years, I'd have forgotten why I ordered it in the first place.
 
You have way more patience than I. The KOT is a sweet pedal, but I saw that waiting list and just couldn't do it. I'm not getting any younger and in 2 years, I'd have forgotten why I ordered it in the first place.
Ah, well I've built myself a clone that sounds really good, so that's helping. I don't need the pedal really but I thought there's no harm getting on the list. So I'm not counting down the months which helps
 
Six.

I bought every one that I could find that hadn’t been modded. This was when they were selling for less than 120 each.

I modified one but the other ones are pretty much original. Only problem I’ve had on any of them has been a failed pot.
Too much to address on the Screamer Topic in one post. But take what Les said a few posts back about scooped fenders and I agree. Like the screamer types less though, with Tweed Fenders (and Marshalls, as he mentioned).

And yes, they pair perfectly with MANY Mesa models, especially Marks and Rectos, because the shave off the bottom that can get loose, and the top that can get ice picky. With an amp with smooth treble and one that can pump bass without getting loose, like the Archon for example, screamers work less well. Pedals that are more transparent and don’t roll off as much bottom and top, work better with an Archon. Barber Gain Changer or Direct Drive, for example.

From the sound of it though, your champs may be black of silver faced (if they stay clean all the way up and are scooped rather than mid forward). If that’s the case and the screamer doesn’t work for them for you, I’d look at a Gain Changer or some form of Zen Drive of you want a smoother gain tone.
 
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Too much to address on the Scream Topic in one post. But take what Les said a few posts back about scooped fenders and I agree. Like the screamer types less though, with Tweed Fenders (and Marshalls, as he mentioned).

And yes, they pair perfectly with MANY Mesa models, especially Marks and Rectos, because the shave off the bottom that can get loose, and the top that can get ice picky. With an amp with smooth treble and one that can pump bass without getting loose, like the Archon for example, screamers work less well. Pedals that are more transparent and don’t roll off as much bottom and top, work better with an Archon. Barber Gain Changer or Direct Drive, for example.

From the sound of it though, your champs may be black of silver faced (if they stay clean all the way up and are scooped rather than mid forward). If that’s the case and the screamer doesn’t work for them for you, I’d look at a Gain Changer or some form of Zen Drive of you want a smoother gain tone.

Yeah, I have no idea regarding the logic behind it... but it makes sense. My Boogie is a TA-30 and it loves the screamers in both channels (except Tweed).

As for Fenders, the only real Fender amp that I’d buy would be a Twin Reverb (and that’s only if I can convince a Leprechaun to shrink one into a 20 lb or less package). Because of weight restrictions and the unlikelihood of me finding that leprechaun or convincing him, I’m most likely going to end up with a Quilter instead.

I havent found a PRS amp yet that I love the sound of enough to shell out money for... and I’ve played through quite a few at Dave’s.
 
Just finished another major overhaul on my pedalboard. Recently, I added the Victory V4 The Sheriff. That fundamentally changed things for me.

I was already running the preamp of a head through a rack power amp. That's a lot to carry around. I started researching if there were small preamps that I could mount on a pedalboard, and sure enough, there are a handful of them on the market. This thing has 4 tubes in it and sounds really great. I've been running the same head for almost 20 years and this sounds very similar, similar enough that the band (and I) were happy to keep using it.

As a bonus I'm using 75 fewer feet of cable in my rig. 25 foot footswitch cable, plus 25 feet of guitar signal to the amp and 25 feet from the FX send back to the pedalboard.

OU1dQ6C.jpg


The Sheriff is very large, so I had to move the tuner to the back row and the Wampler Super Plextortion to the middle where the tuner was. Also, those tubes are power hungry, so I had no choice to but use the included wall wart with the Victory. I fabricated up this shelf supporting power input thingy out of a portable power strip, a rack mount arm from an early 2000s uninterruptable power supply, and a C13 input power thing from an old computer power supply. (and a lot of heat shrink and hot glue)

H2WZvkC.jpg


You can see it mounted up here, and the junction box I've been using the last few years pokes through very nicely. The piece of wood creating the 3rd row shelf was in my garage scrap pile and is not very straight or flat or nice at all. Painted flat black, it's not too bad.

0kqGP8R.jpg
 
Just finished another major overhaul on my pedalboard. Recently, I added the Victory V4 The Sheriff. That fundamentally changed things for me.

I was already running the preamp of a head through a rack power amp. That's a lot to carry around. I started researching if there were small preamps that I could mount on a pedalboard, and sure enough, there are a handful of them on the market. This thing has 4 tubes in it and sounds really great. I've been running the same head for almost 20 years and this sounds very similar, similar enough that the band (and I) were happy to keep using it.

As a bonus I'm using 75 fewer feet of cable in my rig. 25 foot footswitch cable, plus 25 feet of guitar signal to the amp and 25 feet from the FX send back to the pedalboard.

OU1dQ6C.jpg


The Sheriff is very large, so I had to move the tuner to the back row and the Wampler Super Plextortion to the middle where the tuner was. Also, those tubes are power hungry, so I had no choice to but use the included wall wart with the Victory. I fabricated up this shelf supporting power input thingy out of a portable power strip, a rack mount arm from an early 2000s uninterruptable power supply, and a C13 input power thing from an old computer power supply. (and a lot of heat shrink and hot glue)

H2WZvkC.jpg


You can see it mounted up here, and the junction box I've been using the last few years pokes through very nicely. The piece of wood creating the 3rd row shelf was in my garage scrap pile and is not very straight or flat or nice at all. Painted flat black, it's not too bad.

0kqGP8R.jpg

You did a nice job with that! Very tidy, indeed.
 
zy7jbTn.jpg


Sorry, there’s mood lighting at our rehearsal spot so it’s not easy to get a good pic.

This is as small a board as I can make that still does everything I need, and everything has at least two jobs.

Korg Pitchblack: tuner, obviously, but it’s real job is as a foot switchable mute. I have to switch between keys and guitar in about 50% of our songs and being able to mute the guitar and/or preset an effects chain silently while playing keys is invaluable for my sanity.

1st Zoom MS50g: compressor, eq, and switchable auto wah with a limiter after it. The limiter really helps it from getting too spiky and woofy.

Bogner Ecstasy Red: Probably the best, and most amp-like pedal ever. Turns the DG30 into a quasi three channel amp, and makes it scream.

2nd Zoom MS50g: Light noise reduction, switchable phaser with a high pass filter to keep the bottom of the swoosh from farting my speaker(s). There’s a second preset that does tremolo with a modeled “Klon” after it to dirty it up subtlety.

Eventide H9: Delays and sh!t.

Here’s a pic of all the crap I have to haul around, it’s as small as I can make it.

EdYhspO.jpg


Those trashy Strats aren’t mine.
 
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