Post and share about your pedal boards you use with your ukulele's.

mjh42

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Well perhaps I've been posting in the wrong areas or maybe this area just needs a little more love. As the title says show off and tell us about what pedals or pedal board you are using with your ukulele.

I'm running a Godin Mulituke into Fishman Loudbox Mini. After several years of that I though hey what about some pedals for music/sound augmentation. I picked up a Zoom G1X4 to get my feet wet. Lots of fiddling with the computer-machine-settings. If that's your thing then there are many digital options out there. I did learn some things from the G1X4 to apply to the next step. I for sure wanted dials and setting I could easily see and change at my fingertips. Wanted more "acoustic" options and the ability to get loud and "dirty". I looked at many offerings. Of course the Zoom A1X had some features I liked and inexpensive as well, but then again the interface aspect was not appealing. The T Rex Soul Mate Acoustic was very interesting indeed but would have spent all my budget. ( I still ended up a little overbudget but like the options I have.) So I went for the ZOOM AC 3 Acoustic Creator. Very happy so far. Not sure I'll use all the guitar modeling features but the other features fit well with an ukulele. Then for the oddball part I've paired it up with a EH Turnip Greens, a Ibanez 850 Fuzz, a Donner Echo Delay. Clean and acoustic or loud and dirty I get the best of what I might want. There certainly some compromises here and plenty of other options. I may look for a looper and drum tracks down the line. Can't wait to hook it up to my son's 100W Fender and open it up a bit. I put all the pedals on a Alcam board and have an Eventide mini powerbank. Aclam is out of Spain. Shipping was outrageous but I had it in about 4.5 days an it is a quality product. No velcro! But space is taken up with the brackets that hold everything in place. Powerbank is held underneath. A carry bag came along with the kit. The Aclam was available in the USA but I still would have needed accessories shipped from Spain so overall getting everything from the source was cheaper than going through more than one source.

So what is the present signal chain??

Godin to the Soul Food to the 850 Fuzz to the AC3 to the Delay to the Holy Grail Max to the Fishman.

I was inspired to buy the Godin from watching Brian Pi'ikea Vasquez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKZzU5yI3zY

Perhaps someday I can play something like this as well.

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Great idea! Here's mine: Mooer Yellow Compressor --> Ernie Ball volume pedal --> LR Baggs EQ --> Fender Smolder acoustic overdrive --> TC Prophet digital delay --> (Someday soon - a looper). From that into a Fishman Mini Loudbox Charge and the board is by Tourtek. Both have onboard batteries so I charge them before gigs and never have to worry about plugging in which is handy for playing outdoors venues where power is often hard to come by. From the Fishman I can send a feed into a PA when I play a place that big.

The rig sounds best with my Pono AT with a passive UST. I have a Kanile'a with a K&K but that's almost too resonant!
 
Nice Just a fan! How would you compare the Fender Smolder acoustic overdrive to a more traditional electric overdrive?? I find if I have the Soul Food turned down low with just a little bit of drive and everything else set for more acoustic I get nice little bit of edge that I like to hear on some of the more bluesy tunes I play.
 
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Gosh! I really wish I could compare the Smolder to another overdrive pedal, but I haven't done that yet. When I was putting this board together I searched the web for info about overdrives with acoustic instruments and found the Smolder. The two most important features of the pedal (for me) are the ability to blend in some of the dry signal and the feedback busting ability. Not things you find on other overdrives for electric instruments. And probably not super important for someone like you using a Godin Multiuke. I'll bet your Soul Food sounds great! How about your Loudbox? Do you use the reverb and chorus on it? I'm guessing not the reverb since you seem to have that covered (and it looks like the AC3 has chorus too).
 
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I've been setting the amp settings all in the neutral position except gain (although I haven't changed that setting in a while, keeping in a kind of low) and using the pedals to effect chorus and reverb. I can use the chorus settings on the AC 3 then the Donner Delay and then the HGM reverb as well.
 
Well I've been playing and making adjustments and trying out the pedals. I moved the Fuzz in front of the overdrive and the Fuzz/overdrive combo did sound better. But I don't think the Fuzz is going to work out with the music that I am playing. The Fuzz sure has ITS sound and I'm sure it has a place. Good thing I have a son that plays electric guitar, he won't mind a new pedal to play around with, and hey if I want it back I know where to find it.

I am still liking the Soul Food overdrive. Turned up just enough about 10 o clock or so. I can run the signal into the AC 3 with compression up or down or off,,then some chorus out to the mini delay then into the reverb and I like what I am hearing. Still more to experiment with. I'm going to get a mini pedal, a Mooer Blues Mood and add that in at the beginning and see what that does. This decision is partly based on cost and room on the pedal board. Perhaps if I like it I'll spring for a more expensive Blues Driver. I listened to plenty of youtube videos and like the Waza Craft Blues Driver but it's a greater cost and size. Plus I'd likely have to take the Turnip Greens off the board as well and add in a mini reverb pedal to end the signal chain with. I hear tell of a syndrome called PAS just as bad as UAS or GAS for that matter. :cool:
 
The struggle is real! PAS is unavoidable. So is pedal board rearrange-itis. I took off the volume pedal and compressor. Added a Boss tuner which will basically be my mute switch - plus the 1 M ohm input impedance works better with my K&K equipped Kanile'a. I added a Boss looper at the end, now I've got a buffer at the beginning and end of the board. A little reverb and chorus dialed into the Fishman Loudbox. Done! I'm happy with how it sounds (at least for now).

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I need to learn about loopers. I'm having fun with the delay pedal but don't know how it fits in the the music I am playing. I like the tape and analog delay as I've used it but the other settings are a bit spacy and while fun to noddle with not really in sync with music I usually play.
 
Well I decided to rearrange the board again today. Soul Food before the Blues Mood. I really do like the Soul Food.

As I listen and learn for me I think an Overdrive---> Something like a LR Braggs Venue DI Or the Zoom AC 3------> Compressor/other (if needed) ----> Chorus/Multi-----> Delay-----> Reverb and that is about all I would really need for a long time.

Depending up what combination one chooses a pedal or two more or pedal or two less. Such as the LR Braggs does not have some features that the AC 3 has but the with the AC 3 some features cannot be used at the same time. In the middle section of the AC 3 one can only one run feature/effect at a time. Thus some might want other pedals patched in to have the features/effect they do what access to.

I know there are loopers and all sorts of other effects out there and even with 5 or 6 pedals one can get a wide range of features. But with the basics one can do a lot.
 
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Today's changes. So the Fuzz was not a keeper. I really like the Soul Food but the Holy Grail was ho hum. And the stompbox was big. So I'm been doing research on reverb. I'm thinking I could trade in the Fuzz and the Turnip Greens for just a single pedal Soul Food and a reverb pedal. I've kind of got the reverb down to a MXR M 300 and Boss reverb or an Oceans 11. I go on line and the local Guitar Center has a Soul Food and an MXR in stock. So I box up the Turnip Greens the Fuzz in already boxed up and off to the shop. An hour and a half latter ready to play some music.
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Well here's today's change. I like the ZOOM AC 3 but I wanted to be able to have chorus, delay and reverb all separate controls/adjustments. I was also thinking the AC 3 was clouding the ukulele sound a bit. I usually had the input settings on nylon and piezo. I tried other input settings for the instrument--did like the resonator setting--but again all the input settings make a slightly different sound than just putting the ukulele straight into the amp.

Working with the Fishman ToneDEQ the input sound and the output sound were much closer to just the uke and amp. I like that so far.

I'm thinking the AC 3 effects might but just a little bit better but I need more time to decide. Don't really use delay that much, chorus a little. I'll work with the ToneDEQ before I make a final judgement.

The MXR Reverb is giving me all I want and them some.....good buy there.

And the Soul Food still is doing it's job when I want it.

The Echo Delay and the Blues Mood are in their boxes. I may keep them a bit, trade or sell--who knows.

Maybe I should have just picked single pedals for the effect I'm looking for or just bought a T Rex Soulmate acoustic and an overdrive pedal and called it good.

Well it is fun to experiment, test, learn....find that groove.

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Well the polytune3 arrived today. I've been playing on and off this pm. The SF was giving me some popping issues when I pushed it to on and researching online it seems this can be an issue. With the polytune in buffered mode this seems to have gone away. (The popping actually was not gone) Something of a power serge on a resistor I gather with the buffered gate as it were in front of the SF the surge is minimized. I'm liking my set up after all the trials and so forth. May try to trade in two unneeded pedals on a drum/rhythm pedal at guitar center. Also have a looper pedal that I will have to figure out how it works and if it fits in with my needs and wants. I actually had to open up the SF and change the internal setting from true bypass to buffered bypass to eliminate the loud popping sound when I pushed the pedal on and off. But the board is working well now.
 
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Well I tried out my son's TC Electronics Cinders overdrive pedal. It is a lower gain pedal. Sound was clear. Not what I'm looking for. While it is an overdrive and I'm looking for a clear sound it just didn't have an umpf. Not much edge at all. The Soul Food still has a wider range and gives the clear overdrive or a little umpf that I'm looking for.....more kinda of bluesy.....

Also tried a BOSS OD 3. I like the clearness of this pedal. I can see why guitar players might like it. Too much for the ukulele and the speaker I am running it into. Good pedal no doubt.

Back to the Soul Food.

I might look at a JRocket Audio Blue Note next.

There just isn't all that much info out there for clean low gain overdrives that might add a little bit to ones electric ukulele.

I know it's an odd ball area of the world but I'm having fun with it. Just spending more money. Good thing my son plays electric guitar, I can pan off my discards to him if I don't other wise sell or trade them.
 
Well I tried out my son's TC Electronics Cinders overdrive pedal. It is a lower gain pedal. Sound was clear. Not what I'm looking for. While it is an overdrive and I'm looking for a clear sound it just didn't have an umpf. Not much edge at all. The Soul Food still has a wider range and gives the clear overdrive or a little umpf that I'm looking for.....more kinda of bluesy.....

Also tried a BOSS OD 3. I like the clearness of this pedal. I can see why guitar players might like it. Too much for the ukulele and the speaker I am running it into. Good pedal no doubt.

Back to the Soul Food.

I might look at a JRocket Audio Blue Note next.

There just isn't all that much info out there for clean low gain overdrives that might add a little bit to ones electric ukulele.

I know it's an odd ball area of the world but I'm having fun with it. Just spending more money. Good thing my son plays electric guitar, I can pan off my discards to him if I don't other wise sell or trade them.[/QUOTE

I just got the new Fulltone OCD v.2 with the gain down and it really fattens up the sound.
 
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