I got pedalboard and almost everything I needed last Thursday. Put it together during weekend and found out I didn’t have everything I needed. I didn’t have long enough cables from hub below the board to right hand side pedals. Place for the hub is left from the center and it is just too far for cables I got. At the moment Obscura is not part of the signal chain and I have to connect cable from guitar to tuner. I should get cables next weekend if I am not going to get them from store before it.
Pedalboard is close to what I planned. I put T2, Obscure and Neo Mistress to fill the board. I put Neo Mistress to test if I need flanger. Answer was yes I need one and Polychrome is already ordered. Might have waited longer before getting it but it was going out of stock and I didn’t want to miss out. Neo Mistress was good enough for testing but I want more control.
Obscura is there because I will have digital delay at that point and it is closest to what I want of delays I already have. Not sure if it will stay there or I will get another. It has two useful modes, tape and lo-fi. Reverse is completely useless because it kills dry signal. Analog is pointless in this board because I have two real analog delays. It has tap tempo and tone control. I want to have both which limits number of delays that are useful for me. Walrus Audio’s D1 is interesting but I try to survive with Obscura for a while.
T2 is there because I had it and I couldn’t think anything better to fill last position. It is pointless as only reverb but as third reverb it makes sense. Not really sure if there is use for it but it is there until I figure out something better.
I didn’t plan this but all bottom row pedals go before amp and all top row pedals got to amp’s effects loop. I only planned pedals. It was surprise pedals fit this way. I get colored cables next weekend. Then I can test four cable method. I have tested it only before amp.
I am not sure which fuzz I will have on board. Giygas is more versatile but I have had some problems with it. It is bit noisier on board than it was on smaller set up. I haven’t had same problems with Manx Loaghtan. Putting before amp pedals in NS-2’s loop would fix the noise issue but don’t have cables for it at the moment. It would fix other noise issues too. Pedalboard is not that noisy unless I use high gain pedals with higher gain. Noise issues are only with Giygas and Lost Highway or Night Wire to highest gain settings of G3. After taking the photo I have changed Manx Loaghtan to be the fuzz on the board. It is much more silent and I like the sound better but lose some versatility.
Now that I mentioned Lost Highway and Night Wire I have to say I am not sure if Lost Highway will stay on board. Night Wire can do phaser. Not as good as Lost Highway but it can do it. And with Polychrome coming I might not need dedicated phaser. Octaver or pitch-shifter could be more useful. When I make pedalboard for synths Lost Highway will probably find its place on it. When I started to plan this board I was sure Lost Highway will be on it. I don’t want many pedals doing same thing. Yes. I know board has three delays and reverbs. Each of those three reverbs can do different things or is superior at one thing and you can stack delays. Stacking phasers doesn’t make that much sense and I am not sure if Lost Highway is better enough.
Tone Corset is also a pedal which might not stay on board in long run. It doesn’t have all features I want from compressor. I don’t have problems with it but if someone releases new compressor which have all features I want I might get the new compressor. Not going to be checking new pedals all the time and might keep Tone Corset on board if I don’t have issues with it.
Overall I am pretty happy how pedalboard is at the moment. It does all I want to do. It is easier to start to play when you have setup ready and don’t have to plan which pedals to put to setup. Just turn pedals on and off depending what I want to do. It doesn’t do anything weird if you don’t count T2 as weird. In future I want to have something weird but so far I haven’t found pedal which does weird way I want my weird. But that is in future after I have figured out which of these pedals stay on board.