Pedal Boards

[ptuner1]

I am interested in what pedal boards (if any) you are using for jazz performances. Share photos of your setup. thanks !

Here is mine. it's small and fits in the little rack bag that the setup is sitting on.

I play a L5 Wes, Hendriksen 10 inch jazz amp.

[gitman]

I have my stuff on a small pedaltrain board with a custom power-adaptor that feeds everything. The rig is built around the Helix stomp pedal
with a separate volume/wha pedal in front and an outboard reverb in the loop, all controlled via the Hotone midi switcher in front, the 2-button footswitch on the right
for the tuner and reverb (on/off for the Helix loop) and the three buttons on the Helix itself for three separate scenes i.e. snapshots per preset.
This all plus my iPad stand, bluetooth page turner and cables fit into a hard-plastic case and the weight is still bearable. Took me about 4 weeks of thought and planning to put this
together but it's really flexible and suits all my needs with my different bands and projects. The mono-out signal goes either into the return of my BUD6, my
Evans RE200 or into a powered monitor cab. When I go all-out I split the signal and route the fx into a separate amp/speaker, so it's a wet/dry setup.
For straight-ahead jazz gigs I don't need this and play straight into the Bud (sometimes with an extra Raezers Edge 6" cab).
Setting up/tear down takes about 7 minutes max, one trip to/from the car .....

[rpjazzguitar]

I use a Boss ME80 for most gigs. I use a Boss ME70 for one big band because it fits better under the cardboard band-style music stand.

I use the volume pedal, tuner and reverb constantly. I have four sounds programmed in: clean (with reverb), add in an octave lower, distortion and a wet one (delay, a bit of chorus and more reverb).

The ME90 just came out, but I haven't tried it yet.

[Skip Ellis]

I have an Earthquake Systems Dispatch Master Reverb/Delay; don't really need a board - just put it on top of the amp and run it through the effects loop. Use the tuner on my phone, so that's about it.

[jeremiahzellers]

Overkill for most of my needs, but love the Fractal FX8.

[Webby]

Well, with my main band we're doing 30s/40s swing, and I'm really into vintage aesthetics.
So i put this together:


Paul

[gianluca]

I use a Boss ME80 for most gigs. I use a Boss ME70 for one big band because it fits better under the cardboard band-style music stand.

I use the volume pedal, tuner and reverb constantly. I have four sounds programmed in: clean (with reverb), add in an octave lower, distortion and a wet one (delay, a bit of chorus and more reverb).

The ME90 just came out, but I haven't tried it yet.

I got the same, mainly because I want to get into a more modern overdriven tone for jazz and funky, with a semi.
I’m curious about your distortion settings…

[omphalopsychos]

My only must have is reverb. The simpler and more transparent the better.

[marcwhy]

Here's my main board (I have a smaller version for a grab-n-go rig): Temple Audio board with a Cioks power supply underneath; Mission Engineering volume pedal with a handy tuner out (to tune silently), to a Turbo Tuner mini tuner; the other pedals you can see. [The Temple board comes with a gig bag.]

[rpjazzguitar]

I’m curious about your distortion settings…

I've tried various approaches to distortion but I haven't loved any of them. The sound I wanted was Santana's Mesa Boogie sound, but I haven't gotten it yet.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

The sound I wanted was Santana's Mesa Boogie sound, but I haven't gotten it yet.

There’s an easy way to get that…..

[wintermoon]

What's a pedal board?

[rpjazzguitar]

There’s an easy way to get that…..

You might be referring to an amp that sits in my closet where, somehow, time has connected it to the floor (feels like the center of the Earth).

I could go in there and get that sound, but I was hoping to get it from something I can still lift.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

You might be referring to an amp that sits in my closet where, somehow, time has connected it to the floor (feels like the center of the Earth).

I could go in there and get that sound, but I was hoping to get it from something I can still lift.

I get that! I finally sold the Mk 1 Boogie a few years ago that I bought new back when the Mark 2 was still a gleam in Randall Smith’s eye. But they make a few pedals now that sounded very good to me when I tried them at stores and shows. You might want to give them a glance.

Of course, that Boogie “only” weighed 65 pounds with an EVM

[Stringswinger]

I get that! I finally sold the Mk 1 Boogie a few years ago that I bought new back when the Mark 2 was still a gleam in Randall Smith’s eye. But they make a few pedals now that sounded very good to me when I tried them at stores and shows. You might want to give them a glance.

Of course, that Boogie “only” weighed 65 pounds with an EVM

For about 10 years my main amp was a Boogie Mark IV with an EV Speaker (Thank goodness it had casters!). I sold it when the weight presented concerns about injury (about when I turned 50). I tried three other Boogie amps that weighed less (and at one point I had swapped out the EV Speaker in the Mark IV for a lighter Celestion speaker). The Mark IV with the lighter speaker and the three other Boogies I tried (Subway Blues, 50 Caliber and Mark V 25) just did not deliver the fat, warm tone that my Mark IV did with that EV Speaker.

Ain't nothing like the real thing baby........

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

For about 10 years my main amp was a Boogie Mark IV with an EV Speaker (Thank goodness it had casters!). I sold it when the weight presented concerns about injury (about when I turned 50). I tried three other Boogie amps that weighed less (and at one point I had swapped out the EV Speaker in the Mark IV for a lighter Celestion speaker). The Mark IV with the lighter speaker and the three other Boogies I tried (Subway Blues, 50 Caliber and Mark V 25) just did not deliver the fat, warm tone that my Mark IV did with that EV Speaker.

Ain't nothing like the real thing baby........

You may know of Fred Cooper, a wonderful guy and musician who played guitar for and recorded with some of the major R&B acts of the 20th century. He's also an excellent luthier and technician who loved to do instrument repairs and maintenance at a long defunct music store here called Zapf's. I went over to visit back in the '90s and happened to be in the process of switching to a 7 from a 6 at the time. Fred said "I hear you're selling your 6 string guitars - can I buy your D-28?" After a little discussion, he offered to trade me for any gear of his that I wanted, suggesting his new and almost unused Boogie Mk IV. I replied that it weighed 90 pounds, to which he responded "Gee- the roadies never complain."

[bluejaybill]

I get that! I finally sold the Mk 1 Boogie a few years ago that I bought new back when the Mark 2 was still a gleam in Randall Smith’s eye. But they make a few pedals now that sounded very good to me when I tried them at stores and shows. You might want to give them a glance.

Of course, that Boogie “only” weighed 65 pounds with an EVM

I had a Jim Kelley amp with a maple cabinet and an EV, I think it weighed even more! Nice amp though.

To previous poster, I"m pretty sure those Mk, I's are sought after, might be worth some dough! It's practically a vintage amp now.

[Hammertone]

Here's one in the minimalist vein - a Princeton Reverb clone w/Deluxe power, with a boost pedal, for "more." It is a More pedal.

[wintermoon]

You may know of Fred Cooper, a wonderful guy and musician who played guitar for and recorded with some of the major R&B acts of the 20th century. He's also an excellent luthier and technician who loved to do instrument repairs and maintenance at a long defunct music store here called Zapf's. I went over to visit back in the '90s and happened to be in the process of switching to a 7 from a 6 at the time. Fred said "I hear you're selling your 6 string guitars - can I buy your D-28?" After a little discussion, he offered to trade me for any gear of his that I wanted, suggesting his new and almost unused Boogie Mk IV. I replied that it weighed 90 pounds, to which he responded "Gee- the roadies never complain."

yeah Coop's a super nice guy, he bought my dead mint Gibson Howard Roberts @ the height of Boyz to Men's popularity. I went to his house some years ago and he had the late Charles Fambroughs upright bass. I bought a bunch of parts and cases from him that day and almost his '64 Super 400 but it had some weird headstock repair [I didn't ask if he did it but it was pretty funky] I tried to buy the Howie back but he had sold it to Butrey. I ran into him at a festival a few yrs ago and he still had it but by then I had moved on.
and rip Zapfs....

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

and rip Zapfs....

[Shameless plug here] 8th Street's been my main dealer since the early '60s. The family that owns it are long time friends - my trio even played Mark's last wedding. It's still my go-to source for anything they have that I need.

But some of the guys I worked with at Music Associates in the late '60s and early '70s taught at Zapf's, so I often went over there to have lunch and hang out with them - it's where I met Fred. I even bought a new '69 L5CN from them because they gave me the employee discount. When they opened the Plymouth Meeting store, two blues friends (Alan Wallace and Walter Runge) worked there. And when they started making plans to close it, they sold me some great stuff for very little $$ (2 PRS customs, my first 7 string, and an outstanding early relic Strat among them).

[wintermoon]

I bought my first amp from them back in the day, a Princeton [and an under the table real book, shhhh...!] @ the old location in town before the move to 10th, they're close by now in an industrial park [as you no doubt know] but I've only been there once to pick up an xlr cable. pretty nice guys. it's pretty much online sales now.

[rpjazzguitar]

I get that! I finally sold the Mk 1 Boogie a few years ago that I bought new back when the Mark 2 was still a gleam in Randall Smith’s eye. But they make a few pedals now that sounded very good to me when I tried them at stores and shows. You might want to give them a glance.

Of course, that Boogie “only” weighed 65 pounds with an EVM

If my Boogie, a Mark III, had one more circuit, it would bend light around itself and I wouldn't be able to find it.

I anticipated the weight issue, although I was in my 30s at the time. So I bought head and cab. The combo unit might as well have been depleted uranium for weight. Now, I don't want to lift either the head or the cab.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I...and an under the table real book, shhhh...

And for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, fake books were illegal back in the day because no royalties were paid. My first one (shown below - I still use it) cost me $10 in 1959 at Music City in Atlantic City. The shop owner closed up, turned out the showroom lights, and took me into the back room where his stash was kept in a locked cabinet under his workbench.



By 1963, the cost and print quality both went up (notice the $50 mark on the cover) and they came in spiral binding like the one on the left below:



By the time I got to college, I had 5 volumes and carried them to gigs in a briefcase. And to bring this back to the topic of the thread, there was barely enough room in the case for the books, a cable, a string set, and my first effect - an EH LPB-1 that I got when they came out in 1968. The LPB-1 had a 1/4" phone plug on its front panel - you plugged it directly into the amp and plugged the guitar into a jack on the other end. I used it to juice my 175 through my B15N for a smooth and truly fat OD. I like to think of it as the successor to Clapton's "woman tone" - it was more of an old woman tone

[Stevebol]

Not jazz, but this is my board;



I use the Kingsley in the 2nd FX loop of the Boss GT-1000 Core.

[rpjazzguitar]

Those were the good old days! There was one book and everybody had it. You counted it off and made an arrangement on the fly.

Now, in planning a gig I have to keep track of who is on paper and who is on tablet.
There's no longer one chart per tune. People can scan them into an editable format and make their own. Sounds great, until you have to make sure that every band member is looking at the exact same chart - among several available. And, sometimes the differences may be hard to spot in a once-over. I have to work to make sure that the paper charts that some are reading are an exact match for the pdfs that I send out.

And, there's something about notation that brings out a very assertive aspect of the human personality. Rehearsals grind to a halt while the cogniscenti discuss finer points of Finale, Sibelius, Musescore and notational ambiguities.

Sorry for the rant and about continuing the thread hijack.