Simon’s Rig Rundown through time

I used the updated rig live for the 1st time today. I decided to use the Fender voicing on the “Hot Rod “ side of the Simplifier and make use of effects pedals. Although it is supposed to be the high gain side, the Fender voicing seems to have loads of head room.

My delay pedal was on all the time. I made use of the Bad Monkey, JHS Distortion and Chorus (as well as the tuner and page turner).

The rig worked really well. Playing softly gave me nice clean tones; playing a bit harder gave me some clipping if I had one of the gain pedals on.

The sound guy liked what he was getting from me. I think he probably also liked that I gave him a DI straight out of the Simplifier rather than him having to mic up an amp.

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Hi Simon

I was wondering whether the Cioks is a good multi power supply. I am just starting to build a very simple pedal board. I bought a Harley Benton board with a built in power supply for several pedals. I returned it because the power supply added significant noise to the chain, even though the reviews on Thomman were good. So now I’m looking at a regular board and a separate power unit and hopefully not getting extra noise in their signal chain.

Ian

I was just thinking we need more pedal board content. haha. I’m always struggling with mine.

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@ToshS It would be good to see the boards of others. You could start a thread or reinvigorate an older one if there is a pedal boards one already existing.

@Prof_Thunder Ian, the Cioks hits my 3 requirements of: powers the pedals, doesn’t introduce extra noise, fits under the board.

It was the only isolated power supply in Guitar Guitar Epsom that fitted under my board and which had the power inlet and outlets in locations that enabled access. If I’d had more depth under the board, and / or the board framework was in different places, I would have had more choice.

It has worked well for me though.

I have a power supply on my bass board that doesn’t have isolated power outlets, which hasn’t caused me problems. I did have a compressor setting that made a lot of noise - however as it was just a selector switch that I’d knocked to the wrong selection, I didn’t need to do any investigation into the source of the noise. It may or may not have been the power supply. So whether the need for isolated power is real, good marketing, good engineering science, pedal board community myth etc… I can’t really help. I guess I took the view that if it saved me potential problems it was worth paying for.

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Thanks a lot for the reply Simon. Very helpful.

So in this iteration the Nobels ODR1 is the new addition. It was bought by my 4 kids as a Christmas present (at my request). I shot the pedal out against other overdrives: the Boss Blues Driver, and one of the other Boss pedals (either the SD1 or OD3, or maybe both of them).

I needed space for it, so the TC Electronics Hall of Fame (HOF, a reverb pedal) lost its place. I prefer the reverbs on the Simplifier X and wasn’t using the HOF.

I tidied up the pedal arrangement a bit (that sits better with my OCD tendencies). I may need to make space for a page turner, but I probably don’t have a need to read until well into next year. The one I use (see previous iteration) is red though which will add a bit of colour balance😀.

I moved the Bad Monkey after the ODR1 and JHS distortion with the intent of using it as a boost. Thus far for instrumental breaks I’ve been kicking on the compressor though. This sounds quite good with the ODR1, but is a bit much with the distortion. I think (for instrumentals) I may experiment with the compressor and ODR1 together, with the Bad Monkey acting as a boost for the distortion.

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For this iteration I have replaced the Bad Monkey with the Boss GE-7. I was trying to use the Bad Monkey as a boost after the gain stages. It sounded too boxy to my ear. A mate suggested using an EQ pedal to do that job.

I’ve not played with it much but thus far think it’s doing what I want it to. Mainly as a boost with a touch of eq shaping for instrumental breaks, but maybe also for a bit of eq shaping when using the split coils on my PRS SE 24-08.

After playing with it a bit more:

I’d already got most of the way to making the single coils on my PRS more inspiring with the ODR-1. 1st impressions are the eq pedal has closed the remaining gap.

It looks like I can use it as an always on with the single coils, with a bit of eq shaping and the volume turned up a bit. Then turn it off for the humbuckers to give approx the same volume as the single coils, and use it as a boost for solos. The eq I’ve added for the single coils (a boost in the 800 / 1600Hz range and the others a small cut or flat) seems good with the humbuckers when a solo boost is required.

The current revision has the Keeley Compressor Plus on the right hand side. It replaced the Boss CS3, so one compressor replacing another.

I was finding the CS3 sometimes killed the dynamics. My theory was that the ratio was too high for my playing. However having tried the Keeley prior to buying it, I found that it also killed the dynamics if I was playing with humbuckers on the single coil setting (accessed via the toggle switch between the knobs). Apparently the attack time is shorter for single coils due to the note spike being steeper with a single coil than a humbucker. I’m guessing the release time is longer in single coil mode than it is with humbuckers.

So maybe with the CS3, if I’d fiddled with it whilst playing single coils, perhaps it’s not surprising that I found the compression too much if I then switched to humbuckers.

I suspect I’ll also find I want the knobs in different places for single coils and humbuckers. So the next revision of the board will probably have bright dots on the pedal where I want the knobs for single coils and humbuckers.

The Keeley won in my shoot out against the Boss CP1X and Wampler Ego. Based on my experience with the CS3 and TC Electronics Hypergravity (which I use for bass) I wanted at least one of multi-band compression (the CP1X) or a blend knob (the other 2). A ratio knob would also have been good (CP1X).

I found the Wampler seemed to boost bass too much for my liking on ocassions, but otherwise sounded pretty good.

I can’t say anything bad about the CP1X, the Keeley just sounded and felt better. I expected to find the lights showing how much it was compressing useful, but I found them a bit gimmicky and after about 5 minutes was just listening to how it reacted to my playing.

The Keeley just felt and sounded best to me.

The CS3 will probably go on a 2nd board I have in mind for bass. A small one with my Bassrig pedal amp on it. I bought a board at the same time as the Keeley. It is big enough to take the 2 pedals and a power supply underneath, with enough room for a multi effects unit later, whilst being small enough to sit on top of my keyboard amp.

Nice. I have a Keeley compressor, although it’s not currently on either of my boards.
I know space always generates compromise, but personally I’d be looking to get the looper on the bottom so it’s easier to hit accurately (perhaps move the EQ, unless you’re using it as a boost?).
I’ll let the cable tied tuner (and power supply?) slide :rofl:

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@mathsjunky Paul, at present I’m only really using the looper for playing over loops I’ve already created. E.g. record a 12 bar blues (and don’t delete it) then solo over the top of it in later sessions. If I want to record a further one to play over (which I did a few nights ago with overdubs for the 1st time) I turn the board round so it is easy to hit the switch. If I get into it more, I may do a rejig of the board.

The eq has a couple of uses. It is there for a boost for solos if I’m using the humbuckers on my PRS. The other use is for single coils, I find the single coils a little uninspiring on my PRS. An eq tweak gets them to a good place; the volume boost gets them to about the same volume as the humbuckers so it’s an easy mid gig change from humbuckers to single coils.

The cable tie is a redone cable tie - so I must like it :grinning_face:.

I’m intrigued as to what else you would do with the power supply - or is it you’d rather the flex wasn’t in shot? There was a cat (Rocco) in shot at one point😀.

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This one is just a board rejig plus a direct replacement.

The direct replacement is the polytune for the Landlord tuner. I think the Landlord was occasionally causing a loss of volume.

I’ve moved the Chorus, Flashback and Ditto+ into the effects loop of the Simplifier X. I think the chorus was causing a bit of tone suck. It has a reputation for doing so when not engaged. I also thought it may have been one buffer too many into the front of the amp. My initial impression was that the move to the effects loops was an improvement. It seems fine as I’ve continued playing it, so the 3 pedals will stay in the effects loop.

Whilst the order of the 3 pedals is still the same (Chorus, Delay, Looper) I have moved the chorus and delay to the rear rails and the looper to the front. I don’t use the chorus much and if I do it is on for the whole song, so I don’t need easy access to it. The delay is always on, so I don’t need access to it. I do need access to the looper if I’m using it, so it makes more sense for it to be on the front.

I’ve put another board together in the last couple of weeks. The main reason was that my granddaughter was in danger of pulling my bass preamp off the top of the keyboard amp onto the floor / herself. I figured if I put it on a board I could secure it to the carry handle on top of the amp with reusable cable ties. That worked, but the thing about a board, is if there is space I’ll fill it, so:

I’d been thinking of getting a drum machine for a while. After a bit of research I decided on the boss RC10R. It seemed the best fit for my recording workflows, practice and looping use cases. Although it’s on what’s nominally a bass board I think I’ll link the guitar board to it at times.

My only use thus far has been with the drum side.

On bass I’ve been using it to get slap rhythms from about 80bpm up to 120bpm. I’m finding this is a bit quicker for me than with a metronome, and it is more enjoyable.

With guitar I have been using it to practice moving from rhythm to solo and practice the solo itself. So rather than having one go at a solo every play through of the song with a streaming service or a manual rewind or a bit of hassle to set loops up, I can now just set the drums going and cycle through song sections e.g. chorus (rhythm), solo, bridge (rhythm) and repeat as often as I want.

The Hypergravity compressor is a recent 2nd hand purchase (for reasons of space to fill). I use one on my main bass board. The HOF wasn’t getting used on my other boards, so I put it on here as one of my favourite bass players (Bakithi Kumalo) uses reverb. I may add a tuner to the board. I may later replace the hypergravity and HOF with a multi-effects unit - we’ll see.

I looked at that one, it is way cool. All of the larger loopers and drum machines are a bit above my head.

I have a basic looper that is similar to the RC-1. I did look at a bunch of them and but when starting to add a few extra channels and then different drum effects I sort of went uhhhh.

I think KT Tunstall is super rad with a looper, I read she uses a Boss RC-30 and also a Akai E2 Headrush. I looked into her set up. I looked at some others as well.

One thing happened notice right off was that not a lot have a reverse setting. I have been listening to a lot of John Frusciante solo work. He does a lot of backwards melody stuff. I saw an interview where he said he loops a lot of backward stuff at variable speeds, until it sounds cool to him. Then layers it on top. Some of it definitely sound trippy. so I figured that should be in the requirements. That is until I realized it is not common. So much to consider with those things. I also think the Pioneer integrated system is also sort of cool but also very foreign to me.

Its good you are looking at it in context to your current workflow.

Thanks for all these cool updates. I just got a bass so the bass stuff is really interesting to me, as well.

I am about to get my phaser dusted off and set up on my board. I havent used it much but I got a couple of old school funky Tom Tom Club songs to learn that have some heavy effect use.

:victory_hand:t2:

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Hi Simon,

Always like to read your updates.

I have a question about the looper/drum machine. I would like to have a drum machine (preferably with a simple looper integrated). I tried a cheap one made my Mooer, but it had such an annoying whining/hissing noise in the background I couldn’t stand using it. It’s a shame as the drum sounds were very good. I’ve heard that some of the Boss loopers are quite complicated which is not really what I need right now. However, my question is about the drum machine. In addition to making different drum sounds, does the display have a flashing light or something on the screen showing the beats? As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m deaf in one ear and that means sounds from different sources merge together. It’s very difficult to try and play along to backing tracks or drums. In trying to get in time to the drums, it helps to additionally have a visual signal. I wondered what the display is like on the Boss. I’m still looking for a drum machine that works for me. I currently use my Valeton GP-50 multi effects pedal as a drum machine but the drum sounds are not that good and it has no visual indicator of the beat. Otherwise I have to use the Justin time trainer app (metronome) and use the screen display as the visual signal for the beats.

If you watch the start of this video you will get a good idea of the display that goes with the drum rhythm. Not a simple light, it also shows the beats and the bars. Not sure if this would help or be too confusing?

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Thanks a lot. I’ll have a look. Obviously I really don’t need something as complicated as this in terms of looper functions, having never used a looper before, but I’ll have a look.

I agree - she’s very good with a looper.

It’s unlikely to be one of my use cases and for sure isn’t going to be common in my music room :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:.

Thank you. It’s easy to make a purchasing decision based on a YouTube video giving a bit of kit a thumbs up, without thinking about how you are actually going to use it.

Thanks again. I’ll likely keep posting updates for as long as I’m making changes or on things I find that may be of interest to others.

Welcome to the wonderful world of bass. I wish you lots of bass fun.

Thanks Ian. It’s good to know people find them interesting.

I assume the video @telemann1 linked has answered your question. If not or you wish to ask anything else about the RC10R (or anything else on my boards) feel free. The drum beat circular visual is easy to see.

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Indeed, although your looper has a lot of functions I will probably never get good enough to use, the visual display for the drums would be ideal for me.

@simon_plays_bass

Do you do a lot of moving stuff back and forth from your looper to laptop? Save stuff you like? After you layer it up? Or is it a build stuff for practice only.

I was sort of at a cross roads where I was “do I need to buolild stuff like that on a looper” or “can I build stuff like that on my Reaper? Then move to looper or do I build it up KT style?”

It suddenly becomes a thing, right? Is it practice or is it part of the set list or “show”.

Edit
Or is it just backing tracts as I dont have a band yet like you guys do

Any loops I’ve saved are on my looper only (the Ditto+, I haven’t done any looping on the RC10R). I haven’t saved anything to my PC or iPad.

Currently the loopers are just practice tools for me. I may start using the RC10R as a song writing tool. Being part of the show isn’t really on my radar, though I guess it could be if I do a solo open mic.

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