Acoustic/Electric Pedal Board

[Ed Goist]

I am thinking of putting together a pedal board for my acoustic/electric applications.

I have one for my electric applications (guitar & bass guitar - see below) and it's very convenient for transportation to/from rehearsals & gigs, and especially for set-up and tare-down.

For the A/E board, I'm thinking of going with:
* An AC Power Supply (Visual Sound One Spot)
* A pedal tuner (the Snark SN-10S - Love this tuner! Great accuracy & large, easily readable display.)
* My Baggs Para DI
* A Phantom Power Supply (to power the Para DI)
* A looper pedal (don't use one now, but might be good to have & fun to experiment with).

So, my questions:
* What phantom power supply do you folks recommend?
* What about looper pedals? Suggestions for a decent, basic one?
* Are there other pedals I should consider? I'll be using the Pedaltrain Mini board (it's what I use for my electric pedal board) and I could probably fit a small footprint fifth pedal if desired.

[Ben Milne]

If you're going XLR to the house, I don't think it's too much to ask them to supply phantom power...

[Ed Goist]

Ben, the phantom power switch on our PA doesn't work. Also, there will be times when I'll be playing through an amp, so I'm thinking it would be nice to have an on-board power source for the Para DI.

[foldedpath]

Audio-Technica makes a good phantom power supply:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AT8801/

It's compact, but you'll need room for the wall wart AC adapter.

[Dan Krhla]

The Ditto looper is drop dead simple, and tiny. It's too small for a battery so you'll need the one spot splitter. I've had loopers form the boss R-2 up to the big 8 pedal x50, the ditto's the one on my board now. no frills, no latency, no problems!

[Ben Milne]

Fair enough. Just trying to de-clunkify things a bit, anything that says it will do the job should indeed be fine, it's a matter of if you can find one you like with regards to powering the unit etc.

You have however given me an idea... It would cut down on clutter etc less wall warts and boxes etc.
Since you've got a 9V supply already, you should be able to power the Para-DI from it via the 9V battery compartment.
If you're handy with DIYing, with a few bits from RadioShack it would be cool to make a cartridge that could make a connection from your one spot and pass it to the terminals within the battery compartment...

Use this holder as a cartridge since you probably wouldn't want to destroy the original one), mount a female DC socket in the end (avoid the spring), wired to a (glued in) snap connection at the live end. You could glue a Lego brick or something (whatever) inside to help hold the snap connector an alleviate the pressure on the glue join.

[Ian Rossiter]

I've heard really good things about the TC Electronic Flashback Delay.
In fact, it's my next purchase for my Electric Guitar rig.

[Dan Krhla]

I love my Flashback delay. I have the "normal" sized one not the new fat one. The dynamic delay is AMAZING. It's like tap tempo. Hit the pedal. Strum. Hit pedal again and delay speed is set to what you strummed. Awesome sauce.

[Ian Rossiter]

I love my Flashback delay. I have the "normal" sized one not the new fat one. The dynamic delay is AMAZING. It's like tap tempo. Hit the pedal. Strum. Hit pedal again and delay speed is set to what you strummed. Awesome sauce.

Wow!! Now I REALLY,REALLY want one!!
I don't suppose you've tried dialing in a Rockabilly slapback, have you?? That's a bit criteria for any Delay Pedal...for me anyway.
Thanks.

[Ben Milne]

Fair enough. Just trying to de-clunkify things a bit, anything that says it will do the job should indeed be fine, it's a matter of if you can find one you like with regards to powering the unit etc.

You have however given me an idea... It would cut down on clutter etc less wall warts and boxes etc.
Since you've got a 9V supply already, you should be able to power the Para-DI from it via the 9V battery compartment.
If you're handy with DIYing, with a few bits from RadioShack it would be cool to make a cartridge that could make a connection from your one spot and pass it to the terminals within the battery compartment...

Use this holder as a cartridge since you probably wouldn't want to destroy the original one), mount a female DC socket in the end (avoid the spring), wired to a (glued in) snap connection at the live end. You could glue a Lego brick or something (whatever) inside to help hold the snap connector an alleviate the pressure on the glue join.

Alternatively, if the unit isn't under warranty and you don't mind a small mod to make it more functional, you could simply avoid the battery compartment altogeter and mount the DC input socket on the body of the DI and solder into the power circuit within the unit.

[Bradley]

I just did something similar, I went with the TC electrics Polytune and also the Arena reverb pedal. I also use the
Baggs DI box and power it solely with the 9v unless a phantom supply is available. I am too tight to pay
$150 for a power supply so I just used a boss power supply that has enough current to power both pedals

for the pedal board, I bought a pedaltrain Nano, and it is sized perfectly for what I need and so easy to carry.

[Ian Rossiter]

I've heard that the
Polytune,doesn't play nice with acoustic instruments...how is it treating you??
Thanks

[Jim]

Digitech Jam man is a great looper. I plug my A/E guitar into the 1/4 inch input ( sometime with effects in line like a wah wah) and run an sm 57 into the xlr input giving me a miked sound and pickup reinforcement. lets me use mike proximity to get louder or softer and add some effected sound when needed as well as looping which I sometimes use in solo gigs.

[mandroid]

cannot speak for the individual pedal choices

there are hard pedal board /cases with a number of 9v plugs to power a number of pedals ,

there you would reduce the power inputs to one..


Years ago I got a Yamaha AG stomp it has a wall wart to power it, and the option of using a TRS cable

and power the 9v preamp the Guitar may have , and a dummy battery
that closes the circuit shorting across the snaps ,
leaving the actual battery out.

[55bar]

Tuner. Peterson Strobo stomp, no other tuner comes close.

[Chip Booth]

You can power the Baggs with a battery clip adapter off of a power supply, though maybe not a One Spot.

The TC Flashback is a solid little delay, about as a good a choice as any for an inexpensive flexible unit. I use one regularly. It has some nice analog sounding delays that work well in lots of applications, including slapback. I particularly like the stock lofi delay. The TC looper setting seems fine, I have only played around with it a little bit. Figure out just how you want to use loops and make sure the unit's controls suit your purposes.

The TC tuner works very well for me, though I have not tried it with acoustic instruments. I suspect that if you use the preamp first it should be st fine. The thing I like about the TC is that it is the most visible LED tuner I have used in bright sunlight. I am not a fan of strobe style tuners, I guess you can get used to them, but I just like using that type of display.

[homermando]

I, too use the Ditto looper and I use it with my acoustic/electric guitar. I think a little chorus and a little reverb really fatten the live sound and the delay can be really friendly to plugged in acoustics!

[Markus]

Tuner. Peterson Strobo stomp, no other tuner comes close.

I love that tuner too. Absolutely love it and have started to dislike using anything else to tune. I only have to bump a tuner afterwards to get the pairs DEAD on.

A friend has one of those TC Flashback Delays and I think quite a lot of it.

Outside of a solo show, I can't see using a looper at a gig. I am quite fond of the XLR input and save memory on my Boss looper, which can often be found used at a fairly cheap price. If I were using one live, I'd go with a Boomerang as nothing is as functional [they sure are fun, but do not save so for my home use not great]. IMO, buy a looper for your use - not all do everything equally well.

[Bradley]

I've heard that the
Polytune,doesn't play nice with acoustic instruments...how is it treating you??
Thanks

It works well with all except the low E String. If I would have had it to
do over I would have bought the Boss to be honest

In a quiet setting the Polytune works fine but in a live setting it really struggles

[Dr H]

I've been using the Jamman JML2 for a couple of years, and I'm happy with it. Does almost everything I want from a looper: sounds good; works well with electric and acoustic input; simple learning curve; built like a brick ...outhouse; has a considerable amount of storage (with an added SD RAM chip, about $12, you can store 198 loops with up to 16 hours total recording time); compact; AC powered (wall wart). Has 1/4" phone, 1/8" phone, and XLR inputs -- only caveat is the XLR doesn't have phantom power -- but you say you';re getting a separate phantom supply, anyway. Lists for around $249, but if you shop around you can get it for closer to $200 (I paid $210 for mine, shipping included).

[Dr H]

This thread got me thinking... I built my own (hard-wired) pedalboard back in the early 80s, when not even may pros were using such things, and no local bands had ever heard of them. People thought I was nuts, hooking up a suitcase full of boxes to play a bar gig.

Now that pedal boards are hip and ubiquitous, I find that over the years I've duplicated most of the boxes in my various boards with individual effects units, and when I go to a gig I just grab a couple of stomp-boxes, couple of patch cords, and I'm off. No more hauling the suitcase and feeling obligated to use a dozen effects that I really didn't need for the gig.

Guess as I got older and my playing improved I didn't see as much need to enhance it (or cover it up) with effects.

That, or I just got tired of carrying so much tonnage around.

[Ian Rossiter]

I got the Flashback AND the Polytune on Friday!! I didn't even try em'...bought em'...went to Soundcheck,fired em up,and they sounded/worked amazing!!

[Ian Rossiter]

I just received a TC Polytune mini & HOF mini reverb for my Acoustic chain. Just a touch of reverb in the effects loop,nothing too drastic.

[MojoDaniels]

Regarding power supply, forget the onespot. Spend the money on a voodoolab pedal power series. I use the 2plus abd it is rock solid. It even included a plug that terminated in a 9v snap that would solve your para-di issue and it will deliver clean hum/buzz free power to up to 8 pedals plus a grounded three prong AC outlet. I used to daisy chain two of them but when I started playing more acoustic and less electric I trimmed my board down. I was able to resell one for $10 less than I paid for it new after 2 years of use.

[mandroid]

seems a 48v > 9v step down regulated power supply would be possible ,
to run a bunch of typical wall wart or 9v battery pedals off the house snake on stage .

so not have a need for an AC-DC transformer and Rectifier of your own ..

perhaps I am describing an already made commercial product , IDK