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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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

[loiking]

Originally Posted by erksin

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

[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!