Pedal Line Friday :: Steve

I play acoustic guitar for fun.. don’t gig and have nothing to promote but wanted to share my pedalboard nonetheless.

The foundation is a West Coast Pedal Pedalboard 28x13 in walnut.  The board has a 1/4 TS input on the stage right side and a 1/4 TS output as well as an XLR output on the stage left side.  It’s powered underneath by a Strymon Zuma.

My current signal chain is as follows:

From the pedal board it goes into:

- TC Electronics Polytune Mini (switched to always on)

- LR Baggs Venue DI.  This is the core of the board allowing me to dial in my tone, address issues such as notching, etc.  It also has a built in tuner that I’m not fond of, but that’s combined with a mute switch (very handy) as well as a boost switch.   The Venue has an EFX loop, so the remainder of the pedals will be through that.  Once the loop returns to the Venue, then it simultaneously outputs to both 1/4” and XLR giving me options on how to present my sound. 

From the EFX loop, the signal continues:

- JHS Morning Glory Clean.  This is so I can get just a bit of grit in the background if I want/need it. ->

- JHS Delay.  I’m still playing with delay and haven’t landed on one yet, so choose JHS as a baseline ->

- (There’s a missing pedal here that I have yet to acquire.  My plan is to put a Strymon Lex into the chain here)

- Strymon Flint.  The reverb is always on.  I prefer a spring over plate sound for the acoustic.  The flint has a handy tremolo side to it as well. 

The Strymon has an expression port with programable parameters.  I have a Black Mountain expression pedal hooked into it.  I like the dial over footpad and the Black Mountain allows you to plug in and control two devices at once so I have a spare port still.

Finally, from the Flint, it goes to a Black Mountain volume.  This is almost entirely so I can blend in with the people I’m playing with without having to constantly stop and adjust volume.  I usually dial my preferred sound and volume to 5 on the pedal which gives me equal breadth on either side to adjust my volume. 

Rattlesnake patch cables all the way through except for the TRS expression cable.. I already had a good one that worked (sorry Hank!)

From the volume, it feeds back into the Venue DI, closing the EFX loop.

I’m still working on dialing in my sound but overall, I’m pretty happy with this board and the routing.

Submit Your Pedal Line!

About a million years ago, I used to run a blog called EffectsBay. On that blog, the most popular feature I would run was Pedal Line Friday. This is where readers of the site would send pics of their pedalboard and a short (sometimes long) write-up of routing and thoughts about specific pedals and the reasoning why they liked it, etc. Readers. loved this. It was a great way to learn about new applications or techniques regarding pedals. It also brought a little inspiration and knowledge about pedals you were not familiar with. It also brought a great sense of community - people like sharing and absorbing cool things, right? It was a super popular feature, and I loved putting them together.

All you have to do is send a pic of your pedalboard (or pedal line - it doesn't have to be on a board) along with a short (or long) write-up of the board. We want a list of pedals (manufacturer/model), routing would be great, and, most importantly, why you use those particular pedals. Also, this is a great way to promote your band or musical project - include that information as well!

You can send the pic and the write-up to pedalline@rattlesnakecables.com.