Pedalboard Setup

[joeguam]

Now that I've seen your setup, here are some comments/suggestions:

1. There are hard NO RULES for pedalboard setup, only guidelines. Do what works best for you in your setup to achieve the best tone.

2. Harmony-G XT: When I use this pedal, I normally kick it at least 5-10 times within a song. To help me kick the harmony and keep my head up in the mic without having to look down, I place this pedal on the bottom-right-corner so that I can feel the corner of the pedalboard with my right foot, and easily locate the right-side harmony switch on the pedal.

3. Its a great recommendation arrange your pedals on your board based on the number of times you access the pedal in a gig. The most frequently-accessed pedals should be upfront, and the set-and-forget pedals should be at the back. For example, I'd imagine that you set your MXR noise clamp on at the beginning of a gig and never turn it off right (I'm assuming that you never want to induce noise purposely)? If this is so, then shift this to the back. You might want to think about also moving the GE-7 pedal to the back as well, because I don't recall you saying that you use it as a boost, right? With the MXR and the GE-7 moved to the back, then maybe think about moving the PZ-Pre to the front as I see you have the boost switch enabled in your picture, and you'll most likely kick this pedal more frequently for solos and leads right?

4. The only exception to the frequency suggestion is the tuner. The reason you could keep your tuner at the back (even though its not a set-and-forget) is because when you need that pedal, your normally not playing and usually have a bit of time between songs or sets. So I guess you could say that you should arrange your pedals both based on frequency and urgency (the tuner being one of the least urgent on the board).

It probably goes without saying, but pedal arrangement should not change your signal chain order.

[Jayrdesilva]

Thanks... I just use the 15v power adaptor for the Tonebone PZ Pre and the rest from T-Rex power supply...

[Jayrdesilva]

Originally Posted by joeguam

Now that I've seen your setup, here are some comments/suggestions:

1. There are hard NO RULES for pedalboard setup, only guidelines. Do what works best for you in your setup to achieve the best tone.

2. Harmony-G XT: When I use this pedal, I normally kick it at least 5-10 times within a song. To help me kick the harmony and keep my head up in the mic without having to look down, I place this pedal on the bottom-right-corner so that I can feel the corner of the pedalboard with my right foot, and easily locate the right-side harmony switch on the pedal.

3. Its a great recommendation arrange your pedals on your board based on the number of times you access the pedal in a gig. The most frequently-accessed pedals should be upfront, and the set-and-forget pedals should be at the back. For example, I'd imagine that you set your MXR noise clamp on at the beginning of a gig and never turn it off right (I'm assuming that you never want to induce noise purposely)? If this is so, then shift this to the back. You might want to think about also moving the GE-7 pedal to the back as well, because I don't recall you saying that you use it as a boost, right? With the MXR and the GE-7 moved to the back, then maybe think about moving the PZ-Pre to the front as I see you have the boost switch enabled in your picture, and you'll most likely kick this pedal more frequently for solos and leads right?

4. The only exception to the frequency suggestion is the tuner. The reason you could keep your tuner at the back (even though its not a set-and-forget) is because when you need that pedal, your normally not playing and usually have a bit of time between songs or sets. So I guess you could say that you should arrange your pedals both based on frequency and urgency (the tuner being one of the least urgent on the board).

It probably goes without saying, but pedal arrangement should not change your signal chain order.

First of all, thank you for posting my photos for me.
My GXT works the same way like yours, it's the pedal I'm tapping a lot during the songs, but I used my left foot most of the time, so it's on the left side.

I agree with you on your recommendation about the pedal arrangement. All the upfront pedals kinda remind me whether it should be on or not after each & every song every time, it works well for me that way at least. The MXR ended up on the very bottom right corner for other useful way for me, my guitar connects directly to MXR and I found it ver useful just to unplugged the cable on that side after each gig, and it's neat IMO.

The EQ-GE7 works both ways for me, as a Tone Shaping Primarily and a slight boost whenever I need. Combining this Tone Shaping with the very powerful and (musically sounding) functionality of the ToneBone PZ pre EQ is very versatile I should say, It's like I have two acoustic guitar I can access every time, all the time I want to.

All the signal chain is coming through effects loop of the PZ-pre guitar pre amp and I only set the boost switch as a loop function, I noticed that boosting the signal using the boost function of the PZ pre, is noisier (which is the last thing I need) than that of adjusting the level signal of GE7. The combination of the two really is very effective and very musically sounding.

[Jayrdesilva]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

That last link finally worked for me. Wow, that's a lot of effects for an acoustic set up! I used to use the Zoom A2 (although I have the A2.1u model with the built in expression pedal) but now all I use is the GXT like yours (for my wife's vocals) and a Red-Eye pre-amp. My amps have onboard reverb (not great but good enough) and that's about all our music requires. We are a simple acoustic duo.

What type of band/music do you play in that uses so many effects for acoustic? I like the set up and how you wired it together. Looks pretty solid. How's your tones from it? What's your amp? Or does it just go into the PA? what's you guitar(s)?

I agree, it's more like a lot for acoustic sound. I also a firm believer of why color the acoustic sound, why don't just use electric guitar, but that's just me.
Having said that, I also believe that (less is more) in so many ways. And in my setup is no exception, all my effects pedal such as reverb, delay, EQ and the compression of Zoom A2 never exceeds 50% effects level, the technique I learned from it is just by using a very subtle of everything (about 10-12 o'clock) of effects pedal makes my acoustic guitar sounds like I'm always in the studio recording but playing it out loud in Descent PA system. It's just proven, less is always more.

I've to mention my favourite pedal here is the MXR Analog Chorus, I always ended up using more gain or crank the effects level on this one, no matter how I crank up the level, it always sound good and to me, it's perfect for acoustic guitar, it makes the guitar strings sounds fatter and rings out more beautifully, comparing the digital chorus from Zoom A2 and Voicetone GX-T is far beyond. To me, analog chorus is just simple and very useful.

If you look closely, I just have the same effects built in the Zoom A2, (the useful ones), with the difference of having that effects individually rather than that fiddling with the settings of the A2 is far more easier to me, and not to mention, they sound better than the built in ones, that's why there are single effects pedal in the first place.

I play most commercially acoustic genre.
Among the artist I played the most are Eagles, Restless Heart, Beatles, (similar artist)
I also like Alternative artist such as 3 doors Down, Collective Soul, Goo Goo Dolls, Vertical Horizon, Train, etc. Rock Artist such as Bon Jovi, Nickleback, RHCP, White Lion and classic Country artist such as Dan Fogelberg, Don McLean, Jim Croce, James Taylor stuff like that.

I currently own a Yamaha FGX720sca, Taylor 814ce, PRS Hollowbody 2 electric Guitar,
Marsahall AS100D, Marshall JVM1000 head, Bose Compact L1, and my favourite AER 60 amp combo.