Help Me Design An Alt-Country Pedalboard

[todd richman]

I am going to redesign my main L.A. Sound Design pedalboard. I am keeping the folloiwng: XTS Pusher Boost, Precision Multi-Drive, Fuzzy Tube Driver, Pro Analog Dirt Royale, Boss FV-500 Volume Pedal, Empress Tremolo, Ibanez Echomachine, Xotic X-Blender. The Analogman Juicer is going to be a necessity for slide tones. All of you help me with the rest. I have a significant amount of room to fill.

[tzamosti]

Todd...I'll throw in some of my faves.

- Telenordia TA-100 for light, vintage and warm OD
- Greer Ghetto Stomp for a nastier, tweedy OD
- vintage Ibanez AD-80 for slap back delay and Skreddy Echo for longer tape delays
- You need a good fuzz...Sunface, BJF Folk Fuzz or Skinpimp Buzzaround
- Klon or Sexdrive for boosts
- VB-2 or Arion SCH-1 for modulation
- BJF PGC or Telenordia TK-23 for compressor

Thats a good start...and a Tele!

[todd richman]

Thanks. Got the RS Teles-one is the famous Rockabilly Jr #1 with the PowerTron that you may remember posted by RS this summer when it was built. I also play through a Victoria Tweed split-front Super. I agree with the Arion-think I will use the new EWS modded SCH-Z. For fuzz I am considering the Basic Audio Spooky Tooth. Instead of the AD-80 I am considering the new XO Deluxe memory Man and a XO Holy Grail Plus for reverb duties along with my much loved Echomachine that is perfect for tape delay sounds. The Ghetto Stomp is intriguing as is the Telenordia although I use the Pro Analog Dirt Royale w/ Cheeze for germanium meets silicon drive sounds. Very versatile pedal. The XTS precision Multi-Drive is a great Tube Screamer type and the Fuzzy Tube Driver is similar but has an old school bluesy tone. The Pusher is a copy of the old Stratoblaster on-board preamp. I am also intrigued by the Buzzaround clones-Skin Pimp comes to mind as does our own eric-d who has a new Buzzaround-how will that pedal work for alt-country?

[Casey]

Definitely add a Ghetto Stomp = )

[cacibi]

My current country/alt-country board is:

Strobostomp>76 Dyna Comp Reissue (Analogman mods)>Barber LTD SR>Pork Loin>highly modded BYOC TS-808 (germanium clipping stage gives it a fuzz/overdrive hybrid sound)>Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (on Little Lehle footswitch loop for true bypass)>Keeley TR-2 Trem>Analogman ARDX20 Dual Analog Delay

The Dyna Comp obviously helps get a more modern chicken pickin' sound when desired, or I can set it for boost sustain on solos. I'm preferring it more that way right now.

The SR gives me just a hint of breakup so I can get a little dirt at low volume. I stack the Pork Loin on top of that to get a dirtier OD with more mids. The BYOC modded 808 gives me a Byrds-ish, 60's germanium OD sound - the Keeley TR-2 is a great trem which, with the mods, can also have a higher level to compensate for the natural TR-2 volume loss or boosted trem solos or - just as a clean boost if desired - and the Analogman dual analog delay gives me a slapback on one channel, and an ambient delay (to sub for reverb if needed) on the other. Volume pedal for swell/steel effects and....bob's your uncle, you're making some country music.

[todd richman]

The only thing with the Ghetto Stomp is that I already have the crunchy tweed tones covered with my tweed Vicky Super amp. I think the Ghetto would be wasting valuable space since I get those tones from the real deal amp rather than the pedal. The other pedals are to enhance the tweed sound and add some variety.

[Teleking]

I'd definitely add a Tim pedal. I think I've tried every damn overdrive there is. I play Teles (Dancoster, LSL, Fender) into Tweeds (Clarks, Victoria, Swart, even have a Clark super that I use a lot).

Tim is by far the best overdrive I've used for that amp. RC is the best boost I've tried. I own the Ghetto Stomp, nice pedal, but as nice as the Tim. The other pedal I like is an Eternity to get me a little mids to cut through when I need to.

The one I haven't tried is the Pro Analog, and I suppose that's next on the list.

[Teleking]

By the way, I just run the Tim on all the time, adjust my volume knob, then I either goose it with an RC Booster or an Eternity to get the sounds I need.

[909one]

It might be hard to fit Jeff Tweedy, Jay Farrar and Gary Lourdis all on the pedal board, but if you can, that'd be the way to go.

[Casey]

The only thing with the Ghetto Stomp is that I already have the crunchy tweed tones covered with my tweed Vicky Super amp. I think the Ghetto would be wasting valuable space since I get those tones from the real deal amp rather than the pedal. The other pedals are to enhance the tweed sound and add some variety.
Hmmm...true that.

[thedroid]

Honestly I think the only essentials are amp gain, tremolo, and reverb/delay, maybe a fuzz for the NY-style leads. And a bigsby. Gotta have a Bigsby.

I'd focus on getting a good acoustic sound. That's a big part of it, and harder to pull off live than a rootsy electric.

[loiking]

A vintage delay/tape echo emulator.

A booster that works with your amp/ and another dirt.

A trem.

My suggestion
Timmy
Honey Bee/Emerald Green Distortion Machine
Keeley TR-2
Skreddy Echo

[erksin]

A vintage delay/tape echo emulator.

A booster that works with your amp/ and another dirt.

A trem.

My suggestion
Timmy
Honey Bee/Emerald Green Distortion Machine
Keeley TR-2
Skreddy Echo

Add something like a Fulltone '69 to this list and it's pretty much all I'd need. :aok

[loiking]

Add something like a Fulltone '69 to this list and it's pretty much all I'd need. :aok

:phones:wave

[Realfi]

Todd, you know the permutations of my rig pretty much as well as I do so nothing I'd recommend would be a surprise!

Low gain OD:-Timmy/TIM has always been my choice for amps with lots of mids (Voxes or Tweeds) because they don't obscure the amp mid content and just dial in so easily.

More organic fatter OD:- As you know this is the one I've struggled with the most trying to get something that doesn't sound too pretty and refined but still has the note integrity to handle the fact that I play a lot of distorted steel bends and double stops. At the moment the Dual Drive is kinda working for me but it's still not perfect. As you know I've used the TA-100GF a fair bit over the years too which has great warmth and character but sometimes doesn't quite contribute enough sustain & punch unless I can get my amps cooking a bit more. It stacks amazingly well with the Timmy though!

Clean (ish) boost:-Klon or RC. So many options. Depends on your ears and whether you're pre-boosting OD's, using clean boost alone or post-boosting for level. I tend to do the last two hence I need tone controls.

Volume Pedal:-If we're playing some of our slower stuff for romantic sounding steel swells. I have an Ernie Jr that Matt from Telenordia completely re-built for me with discrete parts and a switchable buffer which helps a lot with the typical Ernie tone suck problem but I tend not to need if the Klon's on the board. I still tend to work from my guitar volume for normal gain riding sort of uses.

Fuzz:- I do wonder if I should try to work more with a "real" fuzz for more variety as I can get a bit safe with my sounds sometimes. and do admire the Gary Louris lyrical fuzz use. The '69 I had was really good I must admit but I sold it in a fit of anti-Fuller rage! I don't need to tell you about fuzzes as you're far more well versed than I with them.

Compressor:- My on again/off again relationship with comps has been pretty well documented. Handy for slide and textural overdub synthy things in combination with the vol pedal sometimes. Could be handy with my Mando Guitar too I suspect. As you know I'm gonna try the mini-bicomp this time.

Tremolo:- At the moment I have the TT3 Telenordia which is a great character trem. It blends well with overdrive in particular rather than sitting on top as some trems seem too. It's always a little gritty though so I'm going to supplement it with something more pristine. You already have a great trem so stick with that.

Delay:- I tend to have it set most of the time so you only hear the sound has got a bit dry when I turn it off which for certain rhythm parts I do actually do. Sometimes I tap in a longer delay for slower melodic things and volume swells. You have stuff already that would more than do the job. I probably still need to find something that sounds more like the Roland Tape Echo I used to cart around!

[todd richman]

Hey Grant, thanks again. I think I got a plan:

BOSS FV-500 Volume Pedal (already on my board and good for swells plus a silent link to the tuner)
Durham Crazy Horse (like Doug's Fuzz Factory with more vintage tones)
Xactone Pusher Boost
Xactone Fuzzy Tube Drive
Xactone Precision Multi-Drive (a great and versatile take on a Tube Screamer)
AnalogMan Comprossor (Saffron Squeeze specs that Mike Piera offers)
Ibanez Echomachine (on the board already and a great Echoplex simulator)
EHX XO Deluxe Memory Man (I want analog delay this time and wil run it in my X-Blender for parallel mix)
EHX Holy Grail Plus (some funky lo-fi spring reverb emulation)
Empress Tremolo (had it over a year now and still amazes me)
Earthquaker Devices Pulse Machine (got one one ebay and the PGS demo video convinced me)
ZVex Seek Wah II (listen to Doug's use of it on the Live at the Fillmore Lucinda CD to get a great taste for this funky pedal's sounds)

I would love to add an old Ampeg Gemini or 65 Amps Stone Pony for those classic Stonesy early 70's rhythm things to run simultaneously with my Victoria Tweed Super.

Teles, Esquire, RS Rockabilly Jr and hopefully a Creston and/or Fano one day and something with humbuckers for slide-thinking SG also influenced by Brad's video with Tift and a Trussart ala Doug.

[JayRue]

No wah, Todd? Not real common in Alt C-type stuff, I guess, but two of my favorites-- Gary Louris (Jayhawks) and Cary Hudson (Blue Mountain)-- are devoted wah guys, and it's rubbed off on me. I also saw Buddy Miller rock one with Plant/Krauss, as well as Neil Casal with Ryan Adams. Also guys I dig. Then there's the Black Crowes...:D. They're a lot rootsier these days, which has been making me very, very happy. Personally, I keep my modded Vox off to the side of my PT Jr, but sounds like you have plenty of room on the board.

I was also curious: once you're committed to a line-up on the LA Sound Design boards, I assume you're REALLY committed, right? No changing things around without a big redesign?

[Realfi]

Hey Grant, thanks again. I think I got a plan:

BOSS FV-500 Volume Pedal (already on my board and good for swells plus a silent link to the tuner)
Skin Pimp Buzzaround Fuzz
Pro Analog Dirt Royale w/ Cheeze (erskin inspired this one and I love mine)
Xactone Pusher Boost
Xactone Fuzzy Tube Drive
Xactone Precision Multi-Drive (a great and versatile take on a Tube Screamer)
AnalogMan Juicer (that Brad Rice slide clip convinced me)
Ibanez Echomachine (on the board already and a great Echoplex simulator)
EHX XO Deluxe Memory Man (I want analog delay this time and wil run it in my X-Blender for parallel mix)
EHX Holy Grail Plus (nice reverb without being too studio quality for clean passages)
Empress Tremolo (had it over a year now and still amazes me)

I think that is it. I would love to add an old Ampeg Gemini or 65 Amps Stone Pony for those classic Stonesy early 70's rhythm things to run simultaneously with my Victoria Tweed Super.

Teles, Esquire, RS Rockabilly Jr and hopefully a Creston one day and something with humbuckers for slide-thinking SG also influenced by Brad's video with Tift.

I'd have option anxiety Todd but that looks like a cool rig!

[todd richman]

JayRue-I tore apart my L.A. board to make way for this revision. Dual Lock is tough but you can remove the pedals with a little work. As for wiring, I will send it back to L.A. for the redo on the wiring and signal path.

Grant, it is a lot but really a few dirt pedals, a boost, a fuzz and compressor plus a few delays and a trem. Not really crazy!

[todd richman]

After spending a good part of Sunday watching Doug Pettibone with Lucinda Williams on youtube, I must design my effects selection with his tones in mind. I cannot think of a more similar tone than his that I would like to capture. I wish he was a TGP member. I would love to chat with him about gear and technique. I tweaked the list I posted above to come closer to Doug's rig and the purchases have begun!

[Realfi]

After spending a good part of Sunday watching Doug Pettibone with Lucinda Williams on youtube, I must design my effects selection with his tones in mind. I cannot think of a more similar tone than his that I would like to capture. I wish he was a TGP member. I would love to chat with him about gear and technique. I tweaked the list I posted above to come closer to Doug's rig and the purchases have begun!

Hey Todd,

With all due respect mate perhaps it's about time to define your tone. Sure it gets changed up here and there but to me it's all about having a core tone that lets you play and express without thinking too much because it sort of becomes a part of you.

Funnily enough I think my 80% of the time my core sound pretty much stays the same - it's the other 20% that seems to cost me the most money!

[Bulldog]

I'd have option anxiety Todd but that looks like a cool rig!

Me Too. I gotta keep it simple.

Volume -> Overdrive -> Boost -> Tremolo -> Tuner

Seems about all this guy can handle.