First pedalboard

[Bobwill]

Alas yes it was (did I recently mention my strong dislike for the BBE ?)...

I have looked up what a BBE sonic maximizer is, now what is it with this pedal that doesn't float your boat. I'm only learning, hungry for knowledge.
Bobwill

 

[ricksdisconnected]

Alas yes it was (did I recently mention my strong dislike for the BBE ?)...

never used a BBE. i see them on lots of boards though. why do you not like it?

 

[WellBurnTheSky]

Because the way it "enhances" tone is by selectively shifting phase at various frequencies. So basically it doesn't do much until it does in a very obvious way all you don't want about comb filtering: weird blurry mids, bloated unfocused low end, and "plasticy" top end. It's the botox of guitar tone. To me it's one of these many devices that intend to solve something that's not a problem in the first place.
And don't you dare use it on a stereo signal, or folding your mix to mono (as happens when you play music through a cellphone's speaker or most bluetooth speakers) will make the processed parts disappear.
Note that the BBE fad eventually went away, and for good reason.

 

[Bobwill]

Because the way it "enhances" tone is by selectively shifting phase at various frequencies. So basically it doesn't do much until it does in a very obvious way all you don't want about comb filtering: weird blurry mids, bloated unfocused low end, and "plasticy" top end. It's the botox of guitar tone. To me it's one of these many devices that intend to solve something that's not a problem in the first place.
And don't you dare use it on a stereo signal, or folding your mix to mono (as happens when you play music through a cellphone's speaker or most bluetooth speakers) will make the processed parts disappear.
Note that the BBE fad eventually went away, and for good reason.

WellBurnTheSky,
What a description of a pedal effects thank you.
I could actually feel what you were describing.
Bobwill

 

[WellBurnTheSky]

WellBurnTheSky,
What a description of a pedal effects thank you.
I could actually feel what you were describing.
Bobwill

Glad to be of help !
I make a living as a live sound engineer (massive misnomer btw, almost none of us in that business are bona fide engineers, just guys tinkering with sound with varying degrees of actually knowing of what we're doing), was a working guitarist for years (doing up to 100+ gigs a year), and have been building pedals in my free time for the last couple of years (strictly as a hobby though), also occasionally teach live sound. So this is what I do for a living, and also for fun. Still learning though (and will until the day I die), but again, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know much. But still can blabber about it until the cows come home and then some (as is painfully obvious in that post).

 

[Sapient]

Because the way it "enhances" tone is by selectively shifting phase at various frequencies. So basically it doesn't do much until it does in a very obvious way all you don't want about comb filtering: weird blurry mids, bloated unfocused low end, and "plasticy" top end. It's the botox of guitar tone. To me it's one of these many devices that intend to solve something that's not a problem in the first place.
And don't you dare use it on a stereo signal, or folding your mix to mono (as happens when you play music through a cellphone's speaker or most bluetooth speakers) will make the processed parts disappear.
Note that the BBE fad eventually went away, and for good reason.

Is that what ruined all the late '80s and '90s masters. Cold, glassy, slick, fake.

 

[Bobwill]

Glad to be of help !
I make a living as a live sound engineer (massive misnomer btw, almost none of us in that business are bona fide engineers, just guys tinkering with sound with varying degrees of actually knowing of what we're doing), was a working guitarist for years (doing up to 100+ gigs a year), and have been building pedals in my free time for the last couple of years (strictly as a hobby though), also occasionally teach live sound. So this is what I do for a living, and also for fun. Still learning though (and will until the day I die), but again, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know much. But still can blabber about it until the cows come home and then some (as is painfully obvious in that post).

WellBurnTheSky
Please keep blabbering on. I for one are taking this opportunity to gain from your experience. If you are happy to pass it on I am listening and I am sure others are.
Bobwill

 

[CroTone]

WellBurnTheSky
Please keep blabbering on. I for one are taking this opportunity to gain from your experience. If you are happy to pass it on I am listening and I am sure others are.
Bobwill

+1. Learned a lot from WellBurnTheSky. Lots of great advice, I guess the combination of being a musician and an engineer for a living makes you know stuff really well.
I also wondered back in the day what exactly is what the BBE sonic maximizer does.
On several occasions, I also came really close to buying some of their rack units, some people around me were selling them really cheap.
However, I never pulled a trigger on it because I really did not understand what I am getting with it and for what would I use it. Finding a reason why was difficult for me.
But...it did stay a mystery for me for years, regardless. Thank you for putting it in plain language. I realize I really didn't need it (and still don't lol)!

 

[CroTone]

To stay on topic a bit. I do find tape delay in front of an overdriven amp to sound fabulous. Just an idea to consider.
I am a simple guy, stuff like Dunlop echoplex in front, single repeat...just enough of level to blend into the mix...sounds absolutely gorgeous.
I guess for very complex delay/reverb schemes with long repeats etc. this might not work, however, for simple applications I find it kicking some major ass.
Gave up on the idea of using the FX loop anymore (although all my amps have the FX loop). I find it as a hassle, prefer to see the least amount of cables as I get older and years go by.
I just go straight in front of the amp and with the correct way of leveling the signal I get some awesome sounds.

 

[WellBurnTheSky]

Thanks guys, much appreciated ! I learnt what little I know from guys who took the time to answer my hundreds of questions, so it only feels right to give back what I got.

To stay on topic a bit. I do find tape delay in front of an overdriven amp to sound fabulous. Just an idea to consider.
I am a simple guy, stuff like Dunlop echoplex in front, single repeat...just enough of level to blend into the mix...sounds absolutely gorgeous.
I guess for very complex delay/reverb schemes with long repeats etc. this might not work, however, for simple applications I find it kicking some major ass.
Gave up on the idea of using the FX loop anymore (although all my amps have the FX loop). I find it as a hassle, prefer to see the least amount of cables as I get older and years go by.
I just go straight in front of the amp and with the correct way of leveling the signal I get some awesome sounds.

Definitely a matter of application ! Tape (and analog) delays work consistently great in front of an overdriven amp as long as you keep them kinda subtle indeed.
Even though there's some amazing exemples of just the opposite, the most obvious to me being The Edge's tone all over The Unforgettable Fire (THE The Edge tone we all think of). Guitar->Boss FA-1 (kind of a preamp with a bit of compression)->pair of Korg SDD-3000s (with the input section driven hard)->pair of Vox AC30s (which never are really clean, especially at stage level).
You can hear the later repeats clean up if you listen closely, which is a surefire way of knowing how overdriven the amp is.
So basically they (Daniel Lanois and him) were piling up several "big no-no's" from the audio world (plug an instrument level source into a rack designed for line level operation, crank the input of said rack into clipping, output it into an overdriven device)...and not only managed to make it work, but wrote music history and created a sound that's instantly recognized and that the whole world's been emulating for the next 30 years.
Another staple exemple of "long tape delay in front of an overdriven amp" is Blackmore's tone of Mistreated. Can't argue with that tone. Same for Tommy Iommi's lead break in the middle section of Sabbath's Heaven and Hell (the song). Might even have been an early digital delay such as the MXR rackmount, but no matter what, it works. Super vibey, sounds unbelievable.

Soooo...yeah, at the end of the day, the only way to know if a given gear combination works (and works in a particular context) is to experiment. If it sounds good, it's good. And it's all about using the right tone (which might not equate "a beautiful tone") in the right context anyway. Art. Once you know the general rules, feel free to experiment with them, you might stumble into something cool (amongst lots of not-so-cool ones we've all been there). You really need to go out of your way to damage anything anyways, and you'll gain invaluable firsthand experience on how stuff interacts and behaves.

 

[Rooster-p]

I have looked up what a BBE sonic maximizer is, now what is it with this pedal that doesn't float your boat. I'm only learning, hungry for knowledge.
Bobwill

Put the compressor first and the delay last unless you have a reverb, if so, put it last and everything in between to your liking. What ever sounds best to you, there are no rules. J.S. If you have a noise gate or suppressor put it after whatever is making the noise, common sense, but never put it after a delay or reverb.

 

[Bobwill]

I am getting more relaxed with the ideas behind guitar FX pedals.
There are rules to the structure of the FX train but go wild with the rules, you may just get a tone that suits you and you can call it your own. If it doesn't work learn why it doesn't work and try again.
Bobwill

 

[Bobwill]

I think I have all the components I need to build my first pedalboard.
I will start tomorrow, I will probably have more questions so please stay with me I will get there.
Bobwill

 

[Bobwill]

My first pedalboard.
I believe I have followed advice as given.
From the top right and the send from the amp is ;-
Send>Modulation>Delay>Reverb>Looper>Return.
The compressor;-
Guitar>Compressor>Front of amp.
The Marshall foot switch controles the amp preprogrammed settings
1Clean, 2 Crunch 3 OD1 4 OD2.
The small foot switch bottom right is a momentary switch controling the Tap Tempo on the Delay.
I have tried it all is working but I need to dial in each pedal.
Any advice or comments gratefully received.
Bobwill.
ps I would like to add an image but my low quality @ 7mp is too big a file to upload.

 

[WellBurnTheSky]

Congrats, now comes the fun part (dialing it in and playing it) ! You can upload the image to Imgur then post it here.

 

[fitz]

ps I would like to add an image but my low quality @ 7mp is too big a file to upload.

resize image to less than 1M.

 

[Bobwill]

I have resized the image of my pedalboard to <1M (ref fitz228 thank you for that).
Go easy on me it is the first one I have put together.
Any pointers to improve will be welcomed.
What are your thoughts on adding a Marshall GV2 Govnor in to the board.
The amp is a MG100hcfx so I can achieve 2 overdrive settings with the amp and pre-programme to the MG foot switch.
GV2 Govnor probably not required.
Please remember I play only at home currently.
Bobwill

 

[fitz]

That looks awesome - Nice work.
Adding a good OD pedal could give you some drastically different tones than the native MG internal choices.
But what sounds good to you is up to you.
You're probably not going to get anyone here to talk you out of it...
I have 2 new-to-me OD pedals inbound for my Origin20H & one of those MG footswitches for the MG15MS I'm building.

 

[Bobwill]

That looks awesome - Nice work.
Adding a good OD pedal could give you some drastically different tones than the native MG internal choices.
But what sounds good to you is up to you.
You're probably not going to get anyone here to talk you out of it...
I have 2 new-to-me OD pedals inbound for my Origin20H & one of those MG footswitches for the MG15MS I'm building.

fits288,
The board is a Kinsman case which is OK for my needs and I probably have room for one more pedal from the Marshall range, I am not sure at this time the one that will be most beneficial. That is probably personal taste.
The MG foot switch has the facility of a tuner but it does take out one of the preset options if used as a silent tuner.
Bobwill

 

[WellBurnTheSky]

I have resized the image of my pedalboard to <1M (ref fitz228 thank you for that).
Go easy on me it is the first one I have put together.
Any pointers to improve will be welcomed.
What are your thoughts on adding a Marshall GV2 Govnor in to the board.
The amp is a MG100hcfx so I can achieve 2 overdrive settings with the amp and pre-programme to the MG foot switch.
GV2 Govnor probably not required.
Please remember I play only at home currently.
Bobwill

Looks great, congrats, you did good ! And I second @fitz288 the Guvnor is a great choice to give you more options. IMHO one of the finest Marshall in a Box pedals ever produced, super flexible, I love mine.