Acoustic/Electric Pedal Board

[Tim Bowen]

My A/E board can double as an electric guitar board although I do more multi-instrument jobs these days. The board sees signals from standard and high string Larrivee guitars, Michael Kelly mandolin, Gold Tone electric banjo, six string Supro lap steel in D and eight string Gold Tone lap steel in C6. I gig a lot, both with regular projects, and as sideman with a variety of acts. Because instrumentation and material is diverse, it's not a typical acoustic-electric board. I do use an active Radial J48 DI but DIs with tone shaping such as Baggs Para don't seem to work well for me. In the past I tried an Empress Para EQ w/ Boost for tone sculpting and it was great, but too sensitive/time consuming with all my instrumentation. Working with a mixer presents logistical issues that I don't care to deal with. As master volume and EQ, I use a simple clean boost pedal called an RC Booster. This box has pre- and post- gains, as well as bass and treble knobs, and that's it. I can match output and set EQ for the different instruments quickly and easily with the RC Booster and don't require an additional EQ. As for tuners, I've mostly gigged BOSS TU-2s over the years. Do have a Peterson Strobostomp which I use for sessions. Did pick up another strobe stompbox tuner though, a Sonic Research Turbo Tuner St-200; gigged this for the first time over the weekend and jury's still out as to how good a fit it is for multi-instrument work. The board contains a compressor, overdrives for guitar and lap steel, analog & digital delays, and a combo reverb/tremolo unit called Strymon Flint. What makes all my instrumentation work live though is that RC Booster.

[Cal]

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