Pedal Line Friday :: Neal E.

My pedal collection started many years ago when I visited the late Pro Guitar Store in Portland, OR. As my collection grew and evolved, stringing it together proved increasingly challenging as I was chasing down noise in the signal chain, so my friend Pete D. with Customer District Pedalboards helped me build out a board using a Truetone CS12 1 Spot Pro Power Supply that went under the riser deck, which cleaned up many of my noise issues. My signal chain starts with an outboard Ernie Ball volume pedal I bought in the 70s. On the board, it flows into TC Electronic Polytune 2, then into a Catalinbread Epoch Boost that is always on. From there it flows into an MRX Duke of Tone that I use with single coils and to drive a Drunk Beaver Cold War Bat from Poland, the most flexible distortion pedal I have tried. That feeds a MRX Phase 95 Mini for that 80s sound into a Drunk Beaver Jellyfish Chorus, another amazingly flexible pedal that finally gives me that chorus sound I have been chasing. The signal then flows into a Drunk Beaver Lighthouse delay that is on most of the time. I was recently gifted a vintage Fulltone Supa-Trem tremolo that doesn’t fit on my board so I run it outboard. I have not been a trem fan, but at subtle settings it adds some nice, warm tones. From the trem, signal flows to a Catalinbread Topanga that my friend Pete had tried out at NAMM some years ago and recommended. It is always on providing both reverb, and boost and tone control for the Vox MV50 AC amp head that I run clean. Two years ago, I built a 1x12 cabinet using StewMac plans with a Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker that gets the sound I have been chasing.

One of the biggest challenges building this board has been efficient cabling. My friend Pete had met Hank from Rattlesnake Cables at NAMM and put me in touch with him. He built a set of custom patch cables that allowed for efficient use of board space. I also noticed immediately an improvement in sound quality. Over the years as the board evolved, Hank and the team hooked me up with cables from my guitar through to the speaker cables. They have been great to work with and provide a great product.

Wishing you, your family and the team a wonderful holiday season, and great new year,

Neal

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.