What's on your pedal board?

Season

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I'm a gear head. I love pedals! I go see uke performers and take pictures of their pedal boards! So what pedals are you using for your electric or acoustic ukes?
 
I am decidedly not a gear head, but I do believe that equipment is important. There aren't many threads on this particular forum about pedals, so thanks for starting this conversation, Season!

My pedal "board" is simple: LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI and Digitech TRIO+ band creator, Jamman Solo XT, and FS3X footswitch pedals. This combination is a superb practice and performance aid.

I plan to replace the Baggs Para Acoustic with a muting DI and an equalizer switch soon. I'd also like to add a foot drum and some basic effects pedals (compression, reverb, delay, etc.), but I am not yet knowledgeable enough about this stuff to make these decisions.
 
I like an acoustic uke sound but I also like to experiment (play) so...

While I don't have a proper pedalboard yet I do have a Behringer ADI 21 Acoustic Modeler, a Behringer RV600 reverb pedal and a Zoom G1X ON. I also like to play with IK Multimedia iOS software products for modeling and effects.
The only pedal on my wishlist at the moment is an Electro-Harmonix POG.

Season, what are some of your current faves?


That Digitech Trio+ certainly looks interesting...
 
I am decidedly not a gear head, but I do believe that equipment is important. There aren't many threads on this particular forum about pedals, so thanks for starting this conversation, Season!

My pedal "board" is simple: LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI and Digitech TRIO+ band creator, Jamman Solo XT, and FS3X footswitch pedals. This combination is a superb practice and performance aid.

The L.R. Baggs Venue pedal seems to be the new standard - mutable with tuner. Dominator and Victoria Vox both use this pedal, but it just seems so standard on most boards that I haven't been noting it any more. Steve Espanoila uses the L.R. Baggs Sessions DI and Daniel Ho uses the Fishman Aura Acoustic Imaging. All superb D.I.'s.
 
Total rookie question from a guy who has no instrument electronics experience.

What is a pedal board and why would one need more than 1 pedal on it?
 
I like an acoustic uke sound but I also like to experiment (play) so...

While I don't have a proper pedalboard yet I do have a Behringer ADI 21 Acoustic Modeler, a Behringer RV600 reverb pedal and a Zoom G1X ON. I also like to play with IK Multimedia iOS software products for modeling and effects.
The only pedal on my wishlist at the moment is an Electro-Harmonix POG.

Season, what are some of your current faves?


That Digitech Trio+ certainly looks interesting...


I had to go look at that Digitech Trio+ too! :) Here are some of the pedals that I've spotted on different boards:
L.R. Baggs Sessions D.I. and Boss RC-30 Loop Station, Love Pedal Gen5 Echo - Victoria Vox
Boss Digital Delay DD7 and Boss Compression Sustainer CS3 - Brittany Paiva
L.R.. Baggs Sessions DI, Mock II Mimic, Boss Loop Station RC-3, Cusack Music More Louder, FS-5U foot pedal - Steven Espaniola
T.C. Electronic Hall of Fame - Sarah Maisel
T.C Electronics Ditto X2 Looper, Boss Octaver Pedal, Fulltone Fat Boost, T. Rex Reptile Delay, Korg Tuner - Zanuck Lindsey
Fishman Aura Acoustic Imaging (the bigger one with 7 knobs) - Daniel Ho

The Fishman Aura is interesting as it's an acoustic pedal with different modeling for different guitar types. Lots of fun to hear the different sounds with your uke and you can balance your lows, mids and highs as well as having a tuner and an anti-feedback switch.
The Hall of Fame is also a blast to use to pull up different types of modeling.
The More Louder is a great pedal to boost your signal when taking a solo.
I need to play with loopers more - I got some great ideas from a video that Zanuck Lindsey did for playing your scales musically over a loop pattern.
Most of my amps already have reverb, I love the delay pedals and the extra sustain you get out of them.
 
I am decidedly not a gear head, but I do believe that equipment is important. There aren't many threads on this particular forum about pedals, so thanks for starting this conversation, Season!

My pedal "board" is simple: LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI and Digitech TRIO+ band creator, Jamman Solo XT, and FS3X footswitch pedals. This combination is a superb practice and performance aid.

I plan to replace the Baggs Para Acoustic with a muting DI and an equalizer switch soon. I'd also like to add a foot drum and some basic effects pedals (compression, reverb, delay, etc.), but I am not yet knowledgeable enough about this stuff to make these decisions.

But you said "not a gear head".....
 
There are hundreds of different pedals to choose from. If you just look at the three DI pedals that I mentioned, what they will do for you is keep you signals as clean as possible without the buzzes they may pick up from the line. If you have a ukulele that is not perfectly balanced between you low, mid and high tones, you are able to balance your sound through the box. Some have knotch filters that will cut the feedback that often happens with hollow body instruments.

Some will give you some interesting effects as though you were playing in a big hall instead of a little cafe. Some will enhance your sound with echos or delays. Some will make your instrument louder when activated. Do you remember the Waa Waa pedals from the 60's and 70's?

Loopers can be used to amazing effect. I remember the first time I saw one on stage was when I saw Glen Hansard's band, The Frames, and their fiddle player taking the stage alone with a looper pedal. I was blown away watching him build that song live on stage.

They're just a lot of fun to use to model your sound.
 
I kick around a lot of stuff depending on the gig, but for a Hawaiian show I was going to play last week (rained out) I had Baggs Venue > Strymon El Capistan > Digitech Hardwire on the board. Could get away with the Venue and El Cap, no problem. For more crazy stuff I throw in a Digitech Drop or just bring a Boss ME-70.

Question for those who have tried them both: Venue vs. Session? Know they kind of do different things, but I don't really use more than one EQ band to scoop the mud out on the Venue. I've have been wondering if I could save some real estate/gain some tools by moving to the smaller box. Gotta see if I can borrow my buddy's and A/B them.
 
What is a pedal board and why would one need more than 1 pedal on it?

This is a pedal board:
pedal+board.JPG


Not mine. ;)

I don't currently play out, but if I did, I would not have a pedal board. I would have a single multi-effects unit or maybe even my iPad feeding the PA directly. My last steady gig was with electric wind controller and I used a Line6 POD with a foot controller to switch patches.
 
Personally - use a Boss Blues Driver, Marshall Vibrato, Boss Delay, Big muff fuzz, Boss Chorus, Vox Wah, and a Boss pedal tuner. Not all of them at the same time!
 
A big thank you to everyone who commented on the other DIs. These tools are still a foreign language for me, so your guidance will be taken to heart.

But you said "not a gear head".....

Nickie, I meant only that I neither obsess over gear nor even know much about it. Gear heads are basically the gear equivalent of an uke player with UAS.

That Digitech Trio+ certainly looks interesting...
I had to go look at that Digitech Trio+ too!

The Trio+ is useful, especially in combination with a looper pedal with memory features. I have put together many backing tracks by storing the Trio's output in the Jamman's memory. It's great for improv and creates serviceable backing tracks though I wish it had better sound samples for its "instruments".

Jake's pedalboard

As a woodwinds player, I love that volume pedal!
 
I own only one pedal: Roland Tremolo TR-2

It does great tremolo.

Petey
 
Mike Love's pedal board...
pedal.jpg

in action...
 
I love that Mike Love song! Just heard him play in Nashville a few nights ago, and he's pretty fantastic! He and Sam are both fantastic, that is! :cool:
 
Total rookie question from a guy who has no instrument electronics experience.

What is a pedal board and why would one need more than 1 pedal on it?
Different pedals for different sound altering effects when one is playing through an amp. You screw them all down on a board and then tap them to turn on whatever effects you feel like at the moment, or turn them off. Lots of fun to play with, unless you are a purist, then they are not fun to play with.
 
The Trio+ is useful, especially in combination with a looper pedal with memory features. I have put together many backing tracks by storing the Trio's output in the Jamman's memory. It's great for improv and creates serviceable backing tracks though I wish it had better sound samples for its "instruments".

That Trio+ looked so cool I ordered one. I've been struggling with using band in a box type apps on my ipad for use in video covers. I've done this several times now and the whole process is so slow and annoying. This looks like a much better approach. The quantizing and tempo adjustments are so seamless and it even changes the drum and bass licks as the tempo changes. That's pretty amazing.

I'm curious why you ended up selecting another digitech loop pedal in addition to the Trio. I realize that there are limited storage options on the trios card but you can still store 5 song parts with unlimited loop layers on each. Did you simply run out of storage options or was it just easier to call up different saved backing tracks on the JamMan? Have you tried simply exporting backing tracks using the desktop software and if so, is that cumbersome or easy?
 
Librainian,

I think the Trio+ will fulfill your desire for a "simple" solution. It takes a while to learn to use effectively.

I'm curious why you ended up selecting another digitech loop pedal in addition to the Trio. I realize that there are limited storage options on the trios card but you can still store 5 song parts with unlimited loop layers on each. Did you simply run out of storage options or was it just easier to call up different saved backing tracks on the JamMan? Have you tried simply exporting backing tracks using the desktop software and if so, is that cumbersome or easy?

At first, I thought the same thing. The only reason I even kept the Jamman when I bought the Trio+ was to have a pedal that could loop in stereo. In retrospect, I'm glad I kept both because they do different things.

The Trio+ is a fantastically simple arranging aid; however, it is inept at loop storage and recall. It has enough space (12 song slots, each with 5 separately loopable sections, expandable with memory cards), but it saves song sections automatically, which presents a major issue in a live setting. I think Digitech envisions the Trio+ as a home practice and "composition" aid (note also its lack of stereo).

Where the Trio+ falls short, the Jamman excels; simple loop recall and manipulation are its forte. It can store 400 song sections separately (with a memory card), and it will not save unless you tell it to. This summarizes why I arrange with the Trio+ and record the arrangements with the Jamman. I'm sure using a computer to save and recall the loops would render the Jamman redundant.

In theory, the Trio+ has the potential to rearrange songs on the fly, slowly evolving a song through its repeating sections in ways novel to solo musicians. I'm convinced that it's entirely possible to make the Trio+ work well in a live setting through deft manipulation of its features; however, this would require managing the Trio+'s myriad features while simultaneously playing the ukulele, a feat I have not yet managed to accomplish.
 
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