MY CURRENT PEDALBOARD

Hello everyone, I want to share my current pedalboard that I use for practicing, recording and experimenting. It's actually a bit too big for me to carry during a gig, so I mainly use it only at home and I connect it with my Mesa Transatlantic TA-30 amplifier.

Signal Path
From guitar to Mesa TA-30 amp:
Boss GE-7 Equalizer, CAE MC404 Wah, EHX Micro POG, TC Polytune, EHX Doctor Q Envelope Filter, MXR Dyna Comp, EHX Worm, Ibanez AF-2 Airplane Flanger, Maxon OD9 Silvermod, Radial Tonebone Hot British, RC Booster, Morley Volume Plus.

On the FX Loop:
Boss DD-3, EHX Deluxe Memory Man.

Most of the pedals are powered by the 9V Visual Sound One Spot with the exceptions of Radial Tonebone, Deluxe Memory Man and EHX Worm.

Philosophy of my pedalboard
The general idea of this pedalboard is to be able to cover all kinds of popular effects that you usually hear on any guitar oriented music. Doctor Q can do some envelope filter funk songs, while Worm can deliver phaser,  trem and vibrato. On the other hand, OD9 can deliver some bluesy low gain overdrive tone while the Hot British can be cranked up to a very high gain John Petrucci crunch tone. The RC Booster acts as a transparent volume boost, more like a master volume rather than a gain box. MC404 wah can give you either a bright funky wah tone or a warm lead waht tone with a flick of a switch. Deluxe Memory Man will give you a rich dark analog delay tone while the DD-3 can cover more straight forward digital delay tone. AF-2 can act as either flanger or, with the right setting, an analog chorus from the '80s.

Do I need all of those 14 pedals to sound good?
This pedalboard grows from a simple idea that I talked about in a past post about signal path. Essentially, it can be reduced to four aspects with one pedal for each "tone aspect": EQ, Modulation, Overdrive and Delay. However, as we grow in terms of musical taste and tone consciousness, we usually want more choices for each aspect that I mentioned before. I've been very fortunate and blessed to have all these pedals but if the pedalboard is reduced to only 4 pedals to represent each tone aspect, I can still survive.

If you are a beginner in the world of effects, I wouldn't suggest you to get 14 pedals at once; buy just one or two pedals for each of the tone aspects I previously mentioned and then slowly upgrade in the future. Don't buy the cheapest you can get, buy the ones that sound good; buying cheap low quality pedals will give you hard time in the future, trust me.

What pedalboard to choose?
I'm using Gator GPT-Pro 16" x 30" but to be honest it's better if you can build your own simple board because you can save a lot of money unless you want to buy something more fancy like Pedaltrain or other high end pedalboards.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope you enjoy it. Cheers and God bless :)

BOSS DIGITAL DELAY DD-3

UPDATED, WITH SOUND CLIPS
Behold, one of the most popular Digital Delay Pedal you've ever come across, it's the Boss Digital Delay DD-3. It's one of the most used digital delay pedal on the world. Popular artists such as Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and many others use this pedal to get that crystal clear delay sound with no added anything. This pedal does not belong to me but I'm going to have it on my pedalboard for some time.

Digital vs Analog
As we all know, there's a significant difference between a digital delay and analog delay. Apart from the circuitry, the tone between the two delays is quite different. Analog delay is known for its lush, warm, wobbly, saturated lo-fi repeats that sometimes resemble an old tape echo delay. On the other hand, digital delay provides clean, pristine clear, hi-fi repeats that really aims for simply clearer repeats. Both have totally different feeling although they can be used on same situation. I still prefer analog delay for its wobbly-ness but this DD-3 provides an extra range that can further enhance your sonic projection.

What's so special about it?
You can read all the technical details on the website, I'm not going to include them in here. Anyway, there are many ways to use this delay pedal; it's quite flexible, unlike my analog delay pedals. Paul Gilbert used to store some lick in it and call it down using the "Hold" mode, while Eric Johnson replaces his Echoplex tape echo with this pedal just to simply get that 300-500ms repeats. Some people set the delay time very short and get that slap-back reverb-kind-of repeats; some others set the time very long and get that glorious long delay lead tone which everyone loves to hear. Very versatile indeed!!

Anything bad?
It's not true bypass if that's your main concern, but it doesn't suck too much bypass tone so if you only have one of these on your pedalboard, you should be fine. When engaged, your real tone will get darken a little bit; while this will make your guitar sound fatter, actually some people hate it because their high end got lost and they cannot get that clicky pick attack sound when this pedal is engaged. Other concern includes automatic turn on every time I power it up using my One Spot 9V pedal power. I never tried the using it with battery so I can't tell you if there's any battery concern.

Is it worth the price?
This one comes at around $110.00, quite expensive but sounds pretty good. I say it's worth it and I may even say this one is a "must-have" on your pedalboard.

From 0 to 10?
I can say 10, but remember to try it first and see if it matches your tone. A great pedal to experiment with.

CLICK HERE FOR SOUND CLIP. I hope you enjoy this post, cheers and God bless :)

DELUXE MEMORY MAN, NOW WITH SOUND CLIP

The holy grail of analog delay pedal is now finally available for review. I won't talk about it for too long, I'm just going to mention some of the best features from the pedal that I think is very interesting to know. Read on!

Dimension?

I've mentioned earlier about this pedal's ability of adding a certain "dimension" to your guitar sound. It is true, the myth is confirmed and it also increases the warmth of your tone even without any delay being added. The chorus on this pedal is amazing, it really pleases your ears with the super lo-fi wabbling lush repeats.

Booster
This pedal also has an adjustable level knob that can be set to match your amp's output. You can also use the level knob to make this pedal as a booster if you want to. It will sound similar to an Echoplex preamp I suppose, since it does not add any gain but push your amp to a near break-up when you dial the knob at its max. Sweet, isn't it? You got a pedal that functions as a delay, boost, vibrato and chorus.

Blend and feedback
It's a little bit too loud sometimes, the mixing between the dry and the wet signal is a bit weird because you'll get repeats that are actually louder than your original signal if you dial the blend too much. I had to find a spot where it doesn't sound too loud to keep it as subtle as it should be. The feedback knob is also a bit too short in my opinion, you don't get lots of repeats in my opinion even if you dial above 12 o'clock. They're just small things and they're very personal, but they don't really bother since you can tweak a bit to get your desired sound.

Memory Boy? Digital Delay w/ Analog Emulation?
This thing really shines and for its price it's really worth the money. But now, people might still ask, why do you still buy this thing if a Memory Boy can also do the same job with less price? I tell you, try playing with your earphone plugged to your ears and hear carefully how this pedal enhance your tonal space, a Memory Boy did that too but there's something unspeakable that comes out through this pedal that really makes it what it is. Until today, I can be certain that there is no digital emulation of analog delay that can sound like a real Memory Man. We're still lucky I guess, because Electro Harmonix still makes this thing. I don't know how long will this pedal still be available, so if you can get one of this, get it ASAP.

Sound clip of just the Memory Man: CLICK HERE (Andy Timmons - The Prayer/The Answer)
A comparison of Memory Boy and Memory Man, Memory Boy being played first: CLICK HERE

Thank you for checking out this post, hope you find what you're looking for and hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoy writing it.

Cheers and God bless :)

TC ELECTRONIC HALL OF FAME REVERB

Tonight, I got a chance to review a relatively new reverb pedal from TC Electronic called Hall of Fame. It's a superb pedal with lots of knobs to tailor your reverb to your pleasing. One thing that I want to point out to you before we even start is that this thing marks the new chapter of digital guitar world that still carries the passion of analog sound; it has the new Toneprint technology that allows you to download an artist's reverb tone to the pedal via USB.

Overview

This thing looks nice and neat, it's just as big as your nano EHX pedal. It has four knobs; one to adjust the length of the reverb called decay, one to adjust the reverb treble called tone, one to adjust the level of reverb, and one to select the reverb mode. It has a selector for long and short pre-delay. It also has a true bypass switch(sweet!) that can be switched to buffer(even more sweet!) depending on how many pedals that you will have in series with this pedal. It has stereo output and input. What more can you ask from this pedal?

Sound

It's a digital reverb, same as the other reverb pedals out in the market, they are basically delay pedals. This one is more flexible and adjustable. I can get lots of settings out of this little box that can totally enhance the trails of my tone. It's just so good and so tweakable that it requires hours of some serious tweaking to get the ultimate reverb of your dream.

If you don't want to spend hours on getting your reverb tone, take the USB cable from the box, connect this pedal to your computer and download your favorite guitarist's setting. Voila, you'll get the exact setting of your guitar hero.

The different reverb modes, all sound very convincing. It even has the Mod option to add chorusing to your reverb just to make it sound like you're using a super short delay with lots of repeats from a tape echo.

What it lacks

NOTHING! I can't find anything wrong with this reverb pedal. It's so flexible, it sounds great, it's easy to use, it's true bypass/buffer, and it's small enough. I wish everyone on this planet would make pedals like this!

Worth the money?

Price range around $150.00, a bit pricey for a reverb pedal. But with those options available in this pedal, it's worth every penny you spend, trust me!

From 0 to 10

10 of course, you can already tell haha!

Here's a sound clip containing different modes of this pedal that I think are the best. It starts from dry to room mode, hall mode, spring mode, church mode and modulation mod: CLICK HERE

Cheers and God bless :) !

SIGNAL PATH 101

Hi everyone, today I want to discuss about the so-called "GENERIC SIGNAL PATH" for guitar. Signal path is basically all the stuffs that are between your guitar and your amp or speaker or earphone or whatever device that will generate the sound. Let it be your preamp, your wah, your volume pedal, your FX pedals, your booster, your loop, your switching boxes, they're all part of the signal path.

There is no scientific rule about how to arrange your pedals

People had thousands of different configuration on their pedalboard. Some prefer certain pedals on a spot, others prefer same pedals on different spot. That really depends on a person's need and how they want their signal to sound.

What you need?

The first step on figuring out how to setup your signal path is by knowing what you need. These are what people usually need:

- at least one 'Gain Box' (Distortion, Overdrive, Boost or Fuzz)

- at least one 'Modulation' (Chorus, Flanger, Univibe or Phaser)

- Compressor

- Wah pedal

- at least one 'Time Based' (Delay or Reverb)

- Volume pedal

People go with rack-mounted effects for its superb control, but now stomp boxes are popular again. I'll go explain how I setup my stomp boxes, it's pretty general and you can apply my explanation to rack-mounted effects.

My signal path

On the input plug

Guitar -> Wah -> Overdrive -> Amp

On the FX loop

Send -> Boost -> Volume -> Chorus -> Delay -> Reverb

This is the most generic setup that you can find. You can replace the volume pedal out of the FX loop into the very beginning of the signal path to make it act like your guitar volume knob instead of making it acts like a master volume control. Some artists put wah pedal after distortion to get more extreme wah sound. Chorus or flanger can be put before or after distortion out from the loop to get more wobbly sound.

FX Loop

One thing that I should point out is the fact that I had a preamp pedal that acts as my amp and cabinet simulator. It has the send/return plugs for FX Loops which means you can put some boxes there that you don't want to get mixed with other pedals that you put before the amp. Usually you put delay/reverb pedal on the loop to avoid those pedals from getting affected by the increased gain signal from the overdrive or distortion pedal.

If you don't have FX loop, you can just put everything before the input of the amplifier or preamp. It will sound a bit different and some pedals might not be able to tolerate the amount of gain increase caused by gain boxes on the beginning part of your signal chain. If you do run into this problem, there are some loop boxes available to be placed right before your amp and it will have send/return option for your pedals.

Try to experiment as much as you can

You can start from the most generic signal path that I explained above, but ultimately there is no correct option of placing your FX units. Try to research different setup and see if you can find the best setup for the tone that you're looking for. Pay attention to your pedal requirements as well, sometimes a pedal doesn't want to be placed before of after a specific pedal because it might damage the unit.

That's all for now, I hope you enjoy my post!

Cheers and God bless ! :)

MXR CARBON COPY DELAY M169

I tested this guy on a real gig just this evening on my church and I have tons of things to say but I'll keep it as short as possible. Enjoy my review :)

Another delay pedal?

Yes. To be more exact: another true analog delay pedal with true bypass. Remember my Electro Harmonix Memory Boy review last month? Well, this is actually kind of similar like that.

This thing packs lots of features in a relatively small foot print. It's very easy to use and it has the same size as your nano-sized EHX pedals. The regen knob is for the feedback time, mix is for dry vs wet and of course delay knob is for the delay time. It has a modulation switch that turns on chorus-like effect on the repeats to emulate the famous tape echo effect. This thing is not 100% true bypass by the way, it has what they call a hard-wired bypass. I don't know what it is, but this doesn't seem to suck a very significant amount of tone so it's still better compared to a Boss or Ibanez pedal.

So what sets this thing apart from other analog delay pedals?

The delay time can reach a maximum time of around 600ms, that's long enough for me. The warmth of the repeats also has some unique characteristics that doesn't appear in any other pedal. It's hard to describe what I heard from this pedal, but trust me, this thing is good.

So far so good...

Please note, however, that this pedal is a very straight forward delay pedal. It will do basic analog delay functions, it doesn't do fancy stuffs, it doesn't have expression pedal output, it doesn't have stereo capability, no multi output, no fancy switching.

I personally use this pedal together for long-delay sound around 500ms. It works well combined with other delay pedals and it's quiet enough so that it doesn't create noises or anything. I switch to this pedal mostly during lead guitar parts and it does a great job on getting the repeats to blend together with the notes as long as you set the knobs carefully.

The obvious: is it worth?

Absolutely! Well, it's a bit pricier than a Memory Boy frankly speaking, but still, for this kind of price you get something very good. It sounds just nice, works very well as an analog delay pedal. You can get this pedal for around $140.00 more or less.

From 0 to 10?

I'll give this pedal a 9.5! Could be better if it's cheaper of course, and also I haven't really tweak the internal trim pots for modulation range and depth. I'll get back with more info once I tweak those pots!

Sound clip: click HERE --> dry, wet no modulation, wet with modulation, combined with Memory Boy and Holy Grail Reverb. I used a tube screamer on all sounds to add a bit of top end chunk.

Update: The internal trim pots for the width and speed of the modulation doesn't really change the sound that much since as you can hear on my sound clip that the modulation is too narrow and hard to hear. Nonetheless, without the modulation it already sounds great. Still 9.5....

Cheers and God bless :)

p.s: I will post a discussion about Memory Boy vs Carbon Copy soon

MEMORY MAN VERSUS MEMORY BOY

I just got a chance yesterday morning to mess around in my local Guitar Center and compare side by side a Deluxe Memory Man and a Memory Boy. Man, this is the greatest delay pedals comparison that I've ever done. Sorry, there will be no audio clip available for this comparison since I don't have a chance to have the Memory Man in my home for recording.

Let's start with the Man

It has extra Level knob to adjust the output of the pedal which is great. It also has two options of output: one for direct output, one for FX out. This is great since you can use both output for stereo kind of effect to get the dry vs wet signal to whatever configuration you like.

The sound that I'm getting is actually pretty subtle, nothing too dramatic or surprising. The knobs aren't as sensitive as the Boy, but this one is fine tuned for perfection. I can see why the price range is pretty high, this pedal is meant to last forever and there is indeed some feeling that the pedal naturally adds warmness to your signal.

That's the best 10 minutes I've ever had while testing this pedal. I didn't use anything fantastic: just a cheap Ibanez Artcore guitar plugged straight here onto the amp. The delay sound is very very classic, you can easily nail anything with this pedal. Furthermore, the chorus effect offers a very subtle slightly out-of-tune repeats that don't get too far; that's good since you don't want people to think that you're out of tune. This pedal also has slightly longer delay time compared to the Memory Boy.

I don't really have anything to complain from this pedal except that it's BIG, almost the size of a Memory Boy combined with a Memory Toy. Price range around $320.00. From 0 to 10, I give this one a 10 ! It's worth every penny you spent

How does the Boy compare to the Man?

To be honest with you all, after I compared this baby to the Man, I have to say that this is actually VERY CLOSE to the Memory Man. Really, if you're looking for something more basic that has the same power as the Man, this is what you're looking for. What are lacking from this pedal:

- Output Level adjustment

- Multi output option

- Overly sensitive knobs(especially the chorus depth knob...compared to the Man)

- Not so natural added warmness(I'll explain more)

What I mean by not-so-natural warmness

The pedal doesn't have output level adjustment, so it adds the most amount of warmness that you can get without the ability to reduce it at all. This is good enough for me, but keep in mind that when you turn on the pedal, there's gonna be a slight increase of volume(that doesn't necessarily alter your tone besides added warmth). It's not artificial though, the internal construction of the pedal is based on full analog circuitry.

Therefore, I can surely says that the Memory Boy now gets a 10 out of 10 for it's ability to almost match the Memory Man. Well, actually if I may add, the price of the Memory Boy is a bit "steal" for something this good, but if you want something more between the Boy and the Man, there's a Deluxe Memory Boy with Tap Tempo adjustment, just in case you want more flexibility of setting the delay time.

Good job EHX for making this great pedal at a very cheap price. Surely this one beats everything on its price range!!

Cheers and God bless :)

ELECTRO HARMONIX EHX HOLY GRAIL NANO REVERB

I decided to do a review today before continuing the Part II of the "Guitar Artists with Great Tone". Today we will be reviewing another great Electro Harmonix pedal called Holy Grail Nano.

Reverb pedal around the world

There are tons of good reverb pedal on the market, some come with a very expensive price tag and claimed to have some boutique qualities not found in other reverb pedals. But some reverb pedals actually come pretty cheap to the market and they sound just unbelievable! This one is one of those good cheap pedals. With a price tag of less than $130.00, this one blows the competition away!

What makes it so special?

First of all, EHX is known for its good quality pedals that ranges from overdrive unit to even fully functional power amp in a form of a stomp box. EHX makes the Deluxe Memory Man, the only worthy rival of the real tape echo. The Holy Grail reverb, not surprisingly, is also a very high quality pedal with exceptional sound.

It has three options to choose: Spring, Hall and Flerb. It also has one knob that basically controls dry vs wet. Furthermore, with the nano version of the Holy Grail, it takes only a very small space on your pedalboard. I tried all the three options of the Spring, Hall and Flerb.

The Spring option gives me that short slap type of reverb, very good for acoustic sounding tone and it doesn't over-boost the slap or pick frequencies thus making the overall sound not too harsh.

The Hall option gives me that classic concert hall reverb sound. I prefer the signal to be not too wet, maybe around 9ish, so that I can still get definition of my notes. But you can make it sound totally wet and roomy and try to experiment with it a little bit.

The only mode that I don't enjoy is the Flerb which is basically a flanger combined with reverb, sort of like chorus and delay of the Memory Man series. It doesn't quite attract me since I prefer a more traditional sound out of a reverb pedal. But you might find it useful for something that I haven't catch yet. Who knows :)..?

Inconsistencies?

Yes, I heard that the Holy Grail Nano pedal is famous for its frequent defect units. Some of them sound bad, some of them hiss when being used, even some of them won't turn on or even possess bad switching system. I am pretty lucky I didn't get any of those, but I've seen people in a guitar forum got pissed because they got the defect ones. So by any chance, test the pedal first if you can before you buy it.

How does this one compare to any other reverb pedal?

If we're talking best for its price, this one definitely wins the game totally. But yes, some other reverb pedals actually sound a bit nicer than this. They come with higher price tag of course as I mentioned before. The original Holy Grail and the Holy Grail Plus actually sound almost the same with this one, people confirmed this, and they're more expensive for sure; they offer more knobs for controlling various stuffs though, so maybe if you need to tweak your sound more, you should check them out. EHX also comes with the Cathedral stereo reverb if you want stereo reverb with tons of options and knobs, but of course it's even more pricey!

This thing is totally worth!

For around $120.00, it's totally worth every penny you spend. If you're looking for a basic reverb with decent sound and great price, look no further. For this price, I would call it a steal.

Anything you dislike?

Digital? No I'm just joking, the word digital doesn't really scare me because lots of reverb pedals are digital. If you want the sound of a true analog reverb, it will only come in the form of spring and it won't replicate the big Hall sound. I like this pedal so much, it gave me the reverb tone I'm looking for.

From 0 to 10

10, or maybe 11 if I may add. Haha !

Here's the sound clip: HOLY GRAIL

Cheers and God bless !

p.s. stay tuned for the next "Guitar Artists with Great Tone" post.

ELECTRO HARMONIX EXH MEMORY BOY

Analog Delay Pedal

Almost everyone who plays lead guitar can't live without delay pedals or racks on his or her rig. If you are a tone chaser, you would not want to settle for just any kind of delay FX, you'll either use an Echoplex tape echo that costs you as much as a brand new American Strat or an expensive digital rack that eats a lot of space and hard to carry around.

Hence, the analog delay pedals were created. Popular one is the EHX Deluxe Memory Man, used by Eric Johnson, Andy Timmons(YES, him again) and possibly some other cool players out there. That pedal is still pretty expensive by the way, thus EHX creates cheaper delay pedals that still carry the same basic function of a DMM but in a more affordable price. This is one of those.

Basic Sound

To start, analog delays are usually famous for their warmth and added 3D quality on the repeats. This sounds very different from the usual digital delay that just copy and paste your signal without adding anything. The EHX DMM is famous for it's ability to replicate a tape echo that has slightly out of tune repeats that makes the chorus-like effect on the repeats. Hence, it's usually called analog delay pedal with modulation/chorus.

This pedal here is basically doing that analog delay with added chorus effect. I don't know how it will compare to a DMM since I don't have one and the stores near me don't have them in stock since it's pretty rare. But this one, I kind of like it. When you turn it on, the entire signal will get more warmth and 3D-ness.

Chorus, Vibrato, Expression Pedal

I never tried the Expression Pedal mode. I enjoyed the Chorus modulation but only when it is engaged on triangular waveform with only tiny amount of blend. When you use the blend knob above 8am, it will sound very out of tune. Some people might be able to use that to create some weird layered sound but I personally don't aim for that sound. The vibrato is also nice to have around since it straightly makes the note bent on the repeats, unlike the chorus that uses layering to get that effect.

Boy vs Man, Boy vs other Boys

I really wish to compare this with a DMM and see how much compromisation is happening. I am able to find some youtube videos that compares between the two, but the sound quality is not really detailed(audio are recorded using the same device to take the video, not from recording).

Compared to other delay pedals out there, this one is still one of the warmest on its price range. It's not overly expensive and it does not have too much options. But this basic package already contributes a lot in my signal chain. Everytime I have my lead time, I just turn on this pedal and the hairs on my back rise haha !

Worth?

For only $120.00, this one is not too expensive. It surely beats the Carbon Copy from MXR for sure, I've seen it happening. Also I prefer this to a standard Boss Digital Delay since this adds more touches to your entire signal rather than just copy paste and make the repeats. Basic functions, great sound, great price, it is surely worth the price.

Dislikes?

Well, we all know there's a debate about price vs quality. Better quality needs greater price sometimes; this pedal is great, but maybe a real DMM will sound better, who knows, and that will surely change how you view the Memory Boy once you can compare it with the real deal. But I don't find any flaw on this pedal, I got compliment from using this pedal.

From 0 to 10

I say 9.5 for now, wait until I can compare with a DMM and maybe it'll get lower or higher. Hopefully the apple doesn't fall far from the tree haha !

Edit: I compared it with a DMM, here's the link to that post: CLICK HERE

Here's the audio clip: CLICK HERE

Cheers and God bless ! :D