Acoustic Pedal Rig for Gilmore Sound On Sound

[Johnny K]

Sometime ago there was a brilliant summation of the DG Sound on Sound setup he used for his acoustic version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond on YouTube. I forgot about it for a while since I needed to improve my chops, and now I am where i feel i can do it well and I would like to replicate this rig, but the guy took the video down. Gilmorish.com has a write up, its not bad but it also not as helpful as the guy took his video down.

Maybe one of youse guys did it. If so, I'd like to hear about it. What'd ya do, what parts did you use the didn't cost a lot, since no of us have David Gilmore money. Did it work and is it just a one trick pony setup. IE does it work great for stuff that isn't David Gilmore.

[Johnny K]

Here is where we are on trial and error.

I went last week to a local guitar shop that sells used pedals and told them what I want to do. Guy was very helpful and accommodating.

(Shout out to Nate at Garrett Park Guitars in Annapolis, MD)

I told him I need a volume pedal, a delay and a a/b/y splitter.

He had the vol and a delay but no a/b/y. He did have the next best thing, a tuner pedal with 2 outputs. Suprisingly it works, and now I have a tuner pedal to boot.

We hooked it all up in the shop and I grabbed one of their guitars to test out.

It works.

Cost me 200 bucks for 3 pedals.

One new Boss Volume FV500 Mono vol pedal.
One used Rocktron Short Timer delay pedal (I took what they had)
One used Rocktron X-Tune pedal tuner. It has 2 Outputs, one continuous and one mute

I already had a guitar and multiple amps.

I pluged the guitar into the XTuner and output the mute channel to my Fishman Artist Loudbox. This is the channel for playing the picked notes.

I used the continuous output from the XTuner to the volume pedal and delay pedal, my Sound On Sound side. From the delay I plugged into my Fender Hot Rod 410. This SonS is the channel for playing the chords that you play the picked note over.

After much fiddling about with knob settings I got something decent.

In a nutshell here is how it works.

1. Foot on volume pedal, strum chord, a C or Gm...press volume pedal forward to swell the chord then back off the volume pedal, chord keeps playing thru the 410 for the amount of delay set.

2. Pluck notes, Bflat, G, F, E (The iconic 4 note phrase known by every Pink Floyd fan alive) as the chord sounds.

Downsides of this simple setup:

Chords will sound thru both amps until you start plucking the notes.

The Rocktron Short Timer Delay is not long enough to suspend the chord thru the 4 note sequence. The chord decays too quickly. I'm keeping it though, Its a great delay pedal for rockabilly and hybrid picking style playing.

I have a Boss DD-3 delay and a Morley A/B/Y box loaned to me try out.

The weak link is getting a delay that will hold the chord for almost 20 seconds.

Some other thoughts that may or may not work...I think instead of using amps, I would like to plug 2 cables into my recording interface to split the signals and record into my DAW. I may be able to get Ableton plug-ins what I cannot with hardware.

I'll post some sound clips and pictures soon...

[Johnny K]

Here is a sound clip of what I got so far. It's mostly noodling in and around the Gm chord. No microphones were used. Both amps had a Direct Out which I took advantage of and plugged right into the interface and into Ableton. The Sound On Sound signal is going thru the bass amp. The lead signal is going thru the Loudbox. I tried the Fender for the sound on sound signal, but the feedback was unmanageable with the Seagull.



This rig works best with a true ABY splitter. I also used the Boss DD3 instead of the Rocktron. Still not ideal. I need more continuous delay, but i'm not ready to splash 250 bucks on a DD-20, even though it is ideal. I guess I better sell a guitar or something.

[AlfredFelix]

I don't know much Gilmore, but if that is the sound you are going for, you might be able to just use an EHX Freeze. It is way easier to do. However, you get a constant sound and not so much of the wavy warbly effect from your recording.

[Johnny K]

Originally Posted by AlfredFelix

I don't know much Gilmore, but if that is the sound you are going for, you might be able to just use an EHX Freeze. It is way easier to do. However, you get a constant sound and not so much of the wavy warbly effect from your recording.

You are awesome. I think that might be the ticket! And it's way cheaper than a Boss DD-20. The videos on their web page showed me exactly what I needed to know. I like that I can use it with my bass guitar too. Thanks again.

[Johnny K]

Getting Closer...

This time, no bass amp. Fishman Artist is the ambient sound on sound channel and my Fender DeVille 410 tube amp is the main channel. Direct Out on Fishman only and double mic'd on the Fender with an SM57 and an AKG P120 condenser. It sounds less thin then the previous recording and I was able to use a filter plug-in in Ableton to remove a lot of line noise. I also stumbled on a better setting for the Boss DD3 delay pedal, I have less warbling.

A couple of takeaways today.

I am getting better at Ableton by doing something everyday

With a few proper settings, you can play an acoustic thru a Fender tube amp.
FYI, My Seagull has a Fishman I-Beam pickup installed.

[Johnny K]

And upon more research, It would seem all my needs can be handled by a Electro-Harmonix SuperEGO + and an expression pedal.

I bet Dave wishes he had a SuperEGO+ in 2006 when he did that set.