For a long time I used 9 volt batteries to power my pedals. When I think back on all the money I spent on those things. Not only that, but I've had batteries go dead on me during gigs and that can be a big pain. Some pedals act a little differently when the battery goes dead in them so you may not realize the battery is dead for a while because the lights are still working. With a 9 volt power supply you don't have to worry about all of that.
I finally got tired of spending over seven dollars for a two pack of 9 volt Duracell battery's and decided to buy a One Spot while in a Guitar Center store one day. Now I've heard some not so great things about using a "wall wart" power supply. But, as long as your power supply has enough mA output you should be fine. A One Spot handles up to 1700 mA and that's enough to easily power 4 or 5 pedals as long as they're not all digital pedals. I only have one digital pedal and I've been told that digital pedals use more power. That could very well be true because I sure seemed to go through a lot of batteries with that pedal. For the record, the pedal I'm talking about is a Digitech Screamin' Blues Driver. Its not a bad pedal, but since I got my Wampler Paisley Drive pedal I have pretty much quit using it.
This is a pretty good article that tells you more about powering your pedals and what is best for your setup. Since I only use 3 to 4 pedals the One Spot works great for me. Some people say they are noisy, but that has not been the case with mine. It could be that my noise suppressor is taking care of that, I'm really not sure. Some pedals take more than 9 volts to run them. If that's the case with you, you are going to have to look at a more expensive power supply that has multiple outlets and different voltages. The One Spot is just for 9 volt pedals. For more on powering your pedals, take a look at this short video. This guy does a pretty good job explaining the basics of what you need to know about using the One Spot.
If you want to get something a little more versatile (and expensive) you can check out Voodoo Labs youtube channel and find more information on their products as well. Whatever you decide to use, just remember the cost involved in keeping your pedals powered with 9 volts batteries and I think you'll see it just makes good sense to use an AC power supply instead.
Hello folks, just a quick post to explain why I deleted my previous post. It was full of errors, and the editing was horrible. I thought I was done with it until I actually read it after I posted it. That was a poor excuse for a blog post. I have another draft or two right now and I will post them as soon as I get time to do some editing. I've been very busy lately. Until yesterday I did not even have internet service for almost a week due to lightening hitting a junction box. It took the technician a couple of hours to find the problem, but its fixed now and I'm hopefully back in business for a while. My ISP is putting in new fiber optic cables in the area right now and service has been sporadic lately. Hopefully they will get that finished before long and my internet speed will be a little faster in the end.
I apologize for having to delete that last post. I will get back to that story when I have more time to put the proper effort into it. I had not posted in a while and I was in a hurry to throw something up for my readers. That was a mistake on my part and I will strive to do better in the future. I have been attending classes four days a week and have not had much time for writing. I do have some things in the can so to speak and I will try my best to get them posted as soon as possible. Since my last few posts have been about effects pedals I will post one more geared toward that subject before I move on from it. Its going to be about powering those effects pedals and the different ways you can do that.
Hang tight, and I will try to get that post up before the weekend is gone.
About a year ago I decided to buy a Wampler Paisley Drive to add to my small pedal collection. I'm really not big on effects pedals but after hearing this Wampler Paisley Drive I decided to buy it. Its not that I wanted to play any Brad Paisley songs, or even sound like Brad Paisley, I just like what the pedal will do. I pretty much use it as a clean boost but its capable of getting down to some serious rock and roll playing when you turn up the gain. Its got three knobs, Volume, Gain, and Tone, and two switches, Presence, and Mid Contour. Unlike a lot of pedals out on the market these controls are very responsive and distinct. You can really dial in your sound with one of these things. Like I said, I'm really not much of a pedal kind of guy, but the Paisley Drive is one I would recommend to anyone. You can get a ton of boost out of them without distortion. And if you want some distortion its got plenty of it. I don't think I would recommend it for playing death metal, but its definitely a nice pedal for blues, classic rock, and modern country music. Also, unlike most pedals I've used over the years its really clean as far as noise goes. I've got a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor but you don't really need it for this Paisley Drive. Its that clean!
I know this is kind of a short post today but I've been pretty busy for the last couple of days. I played music over the weekend and I'm paying for it now. Playing guitar has gotten pretty hard on me since my accident and back full of steel rods and screws but I still try my best to keep playing. I'm going to leave you with a video demonstration of the Wampler Paisley Drive and encourage you to check out their other pedals and even subscribe to the Wampler Pedals youtube channel. They have regular podcasts on the channel and its usually pretty informative. I'm not necessarily trying to sell anybody anything, nor am I endorsed by Wampler. Unless Brian happens to read this and wants to send me some free pedals to review haha. Yeah, fat chance I'm sure.
I just think they make some really good pedals and I would encourage everyone to try them out. Brian Wampler is not only an electronics genius, he's a guitar player too, so he does have a little advantage when it comes to making a good effects pedal. I plan on adding another one of their pedals soon too. I'm going to get an Ego Compressor as soon as possible and as soon as I get to another Guitar Center store to try it out first hand. I already pretty much know I want one just by the video demonstrations I have watched on them. And really, no pedal board is complete without a compressor anyway. You can also purchase these Wampler Pedals directly from the Wampler Pedals website. I know the prices seem a little high, and that's what kept me from buying one until I tried it out. A year later I still think it was worth every dime I paid for it @ $ 219.97. I know you can buy overdrive pedals all day for 50 to 100 dollars and get a pretty decent one, but I have never tried a more versatile overdrive that's as clean as this thing is. Most all overdrive pedals put a lot of hiss in your signal chain and you can clean them up using a noise suppressor. But, you don't even have to have a noise suppressor with this pedal.
Its a super clean pedal and it loves tube amps especially. It doesn't sound as good on my little solid state practice amp, but there's a ton of difference in my practice amp and my gigging amp, which is a tube amp that I've written about on this blog not long ago. My practice amp is a Fender Frontman 25R which I believe is out of production now. The 10 inch speaker in them are kinda crappy Chinese made speakers with scrawny little magnets. I plan on replacing that 'spanked' speaker with a good one eventually because it really was a good sounding amp with a fresh speaker. Anything past 7 on the volume knob is just making it sound bad. Its just not quite enough for using as a gigging amp (not enough stage volume) but its plenty good for practice because its small and light. My Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III weighs over 40 pounds and I have to have help with that one. I'm literally not supposed to lift over 10 pounds for the rest of my life because of my back being pieced together, so I either use a dolly and or get someone to carry it for me. That's a lot of the reason why I got a Telecaster and put my Les Paul in its case on standby. My Telecaster is between 3 and 4 pounds lighter than my Les Paul. That probably has a lot to do with why it always took me 3 or 4 days to get over playing a few hours. Its worth a little pain though to be able to play with a whole band, (just as long as you have some pain pills with you) haha.
Check out the Wampler Paisley Drive and see what you think of it. Go try one out at your nearest dealer and see for yourself just what this pedal is capable of. I think you'll love it as much as I do.
Much Peace and Love to Everyone .... and remember ...
~Its All About The Music~
As promised I've got a few pictures to share of my last and bigger pedal board. This one is 18 inches long as opposed to my original 14 inch board that just holds 3 regular sized pedals, this bigger one holds 4 regular sized pedals, You could also get a few more spots on the board if you used some mini pedals which are becoming more popular these days. I learned a little something new today while watching a video with Brad Wampler and a couple of his guys. Brad says the more digital circuit pedals you run on a daisy chained power system, the louder of a hissing noise will be produced. In my own case there's no problem with the pedals I'm daisy chaining together. That could be partially due to the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor I'm running. If you're going to run pedals, especially several of them it might be best to think about an isolated power source for your pedals. Of course you'll be looking a quite a price increase too. You can get a One Spot for around 20 dollars and an extra 7 or 8 dollars will get you a jumper wire for powering up to 5-7 different pedals. Below you'll see the newest pedal board all set to go, This is a front view of the board and you can see how the patch cables just found a home of their own and sit nicely inside and under the top of the board. I also used a 1x6 bottom on this board as opposed to the 1/4" plywood on my 14 inch board. Its crossed my mind to put a cover over the front but I don't see a useful purpose for it other than cosmetics. With this set up I still have another power plug in my daisy chain line for powering a wah pedal or something else that's bigger. Wah pedals are made to sit as flat as possible and the more area they cover the more stable the pedal will be. I'd need a little bigger board for my Dunlop Cry Baby but I can also just set it on the floor beside my pedal board and it would work just fine that way.
And there you have your top view of the pedal board. I actually like the way this turned out because of the way the finish ended up being on it. I sprayed it with flat black paint. When it dried it felt like sandpaper, so I used a brown Scotchbrite pad on it and smoothed it out. Naturally it took the paint off in spots but it had a used look about it. I hit those spots again with some more flat black and smoothed it out again with the Scotchbrite pad. It just has a used look about it while still being a brand new board. I am totally making these boards out of 1x4's and 1x6's in white pine lumber.White Pine is easier to work with, its softer than yellow pine and doesn't tend to warp as much as yellow pine. The board is not heavy despite using the thicker overkill bottom I used. I'm sure it is a little stronger than my first one with the 1/4" bottom on it. But this board is strictly glued together using Gorilla Wood Glue and its pretty damn strong.
I've got a 14 inch board in the works and its close to being put together now. I'll get some pictures in the different joints I'm gluing and we'll catch up there. I'm thinking of maybe using a Hammered looking paint or maybe camo or something wild. In the mean time, check out this short video from Brad Wampler and friends discussing ways to power these pedal boards. The pedals you see hooked up here have no hiss or any kind of noise at all. A lot of that could be because of the noise suppressor I run. I think I only have one pedal that might qualifiy for "digital" and that would be my Digitech Screamin' Blues Driver but other than that my pedals are not noisy like pedals were 30 years ago. If I get what I have I mind to get I'll probably sideline my blues driver before long anyway. I've got my mind about set on a Wampler Ego Compressor. I know there's cheaper compressors out there but I already own one Wampler pedal and love it. Brad Wampler is a guitar player himself who happens to be an electrical engineer genius dude. I've been around rockin' since the 70's and one thing about it, the effects pedals industry has gotten so much better than back in those days. All those old pedals had tons of hiss in them no matter how you hooked then up.
Anyway, take a look at this short 5 minute video from Wampler Pedals and get the low down on powering your board. Especially if you want something twice the size of mine. I could carry my 14 inch board around in my gig case. My 18 inch board isn't going to go inside my gig bad so there's yet another thing to think about on the 18 inchers. I make even build some bigger ones capable of holding 10 or 12 pedals. Something like that would require you to invest in one of those VooDooLabs type Power Conditioners. With the price of 9 volt batteries these days you're money ahead if you can power your whole board from one unit even if it does cost you a hundred dollars or more. It doesn't take that much to run through those 9 volt batteries when you're gigging
Just a short blurb about these pedal boards. I'm one of those people
that see things and have a way different outcome in mind than when I
started. Right now I'm in a strictly experimental stage with these pedal
boards. Right now my only agenda (if you could call it that) is to show
people a good way to build their own pedal board and save some money
from buying store bought pedal boards. I've got a ton of ideas about
these things but I have to keep in mind the affordability factor. I'm
doing this for the little guy that doesn't have tons of money to throw
at music gear. So far its not looking like spray painting is not the
best way to go about this. A decent can of paint is upwards of 8 dollars
in some cases. And it takes a can to do one right.
I
bought some ebony Minwax stain the other day and I'm going to use it on
my next pedal board. Of course I'll put a satin finish on it at least
before its said and done but the spray can type of clear coat is a
little pricey. My last board was an 18 inch board and I used a .97 cent
can of Wal-Mart flat black on it. Naturally it came out with a rough
surface, so I used a brown scotch brite pad to smooth it out. I had to
do a touch up once and then lightly went over it again with the scotch
brite pad and clear coated it until it was pretty smooth.
I
will probably end up changing the design of the pedal board eventually
and make it really cool. I've got it in mind to make a flight case
around the pedal board. Right now I'm getting prices together for the
aluminum extrusions its going to take to do this right. Also some small
latches are in mind for holding it all together. I bought a rack case
about a year ago and its a well made case, so I have something to go off
of at least.
I have some doubts about this being very
cost effective versus buying a case already made and on the market
already. They make them pretty cheap from what I can tell so far just by
the hardware prices and other materials. I've got some vendors lined up
already for these DIY cases. One of them is http:/orangealuminum.com
and I've noticed that they have been advertising on my website already. How
cool is that? Or is it a little too "big brother" seeming? Either way,
they are placing relevant ads on my blog already.
I'm
also kicking around the idea of doing some more work to a cherry wood
guitar body I have roughed in already. When I got the wood it was said
to have been aging over 40 years. I took the two slabs and glued them
together about 20 years ago and its sat there in that state since then,
so this cherry wood has aged a good 60 years now. One thing for sure is
that its going to be unique when I get it finished. I modeled it on the
bottom half of a Strat body. I just doubled the bottom and used the same
cutouts on top. Its similar to a Les Paul Jr with the equal double cuts.
I used my Jackson/Charvel Strat body as a guide line for doing this. It
should be pretty interesting when I get it done.
Next
time I'm going to show some pictures of my 18" pedal board in black. I
took some pictures of it tonight with the pedals on it and tried to get
some shots of how easily the patch cords sit under this board, along
with the jumper wires for powering the pedals. I've got a lot of cool
things in the works so just stay tuned and keep jammin' folks!
Okay folks, I hope everyone had a good weekend. I took it pretty easy still recovering from being sick and all but I feel a little better today. I actuality felt like doing something today and I haven't felt that way in a couple of weeks. I managed to get a little time in at my shop this afternoon late. Its still like an oven outside here in SW Arkansas but that's pretty normal for late July. It gets a little hotter before it cools off a little. A lot of people tend to stay inside as much as possible during July and August around here because its just too hot to want to get out and do anything. If you want to mow this time of year its best to have some headlights on your riding mower because the only time it gets cool enough to mow is close to dark thirty.
But back to the pedal board .... The one I've chosen to build and show picture progress with is a 14" pedal board. That just means its 14 inches long. Just right for holding 4 normal size pedals like the Boss TU-3 tuner pedal for instance. Personally, I have a Boss TU-3 Tuner on my board but you can always get a good clip on tuner and use that spot for something else. I pedal I will always keep on my board, and always last in line, is a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor. That was the very last pedal I bought and probably the best pedal I ever bought. I also have on my board a Wampler Brad Paisley Overdrive Signature Pedal. I've always been a little tight when it came to buying pedals. I've always actually had a little something against using them at all. I love the sound of a good guitar plugged into a good tube amplifier. Nothing beats it when you have a person operating the guitar that's pretty damn good at playing it. Something else about that, it keeps you on your toes and keeps you honest. The cleaner you play, the more telling you are of your skills. If you're a sloppy player who rely's on pedals to get by, you're probably not going to have a good time. Just sayin'
So the pedal board .... I took a 1x4 piece of pine and cut it into two strips about an inch and a half wide using a table saw. I had already cut my 1x4 to 14 and a quarter inches beforehand with finishing the length on my miter saw.to 14 inches + I put the plus mark in there as to mean about a sixteenth of an inch over isn't a bad thing. We'll see why when we get to the end of the project. So, yeah, keep in mind to feel free to add a sixteenth of an inch to that 14 inch finish we want to come out with, Its really freakin' cool what we'll do here, trust me.
Everyone pretty much knows a 1x4 isn't actually one inch, right? Its more like .750 inches or 3/4"
The 4 isn't 4 inches either. Its more like 3 1/2" or 3.500" ......... so I set my saw guide at around 1 1/2" to 1 5/8" and ran the 2x4 through twice. Using the straightest side against the guide and then using the cut side of the left over (wider) piece run it through the saw again and you'll have two pieces from 1 1/2" to 1 5/8" wide. That's a good width because it provides plenty of room between the pedals to work your patch cords. You can also buy a roll of Velcro from Wal-Mart or wherever else you might find Velcro. What I use for my boards is 1 inch wide, black, and has a very sticky back on it. You can get a 1" by 36" roll of it for about 8 dollars by the time you pay tax on it.
As you can see above I have my main 4 pieces laid out in separated pieces. The ones in the middle are the 14 inch + 1x1 1/2" boards. The angled pieces were made using a 1x6 standard piece of pine and setting my miter saw at 10 degrees. I don't actually measure anything when I make this cut. I use a piece of my miter saw to "eyeball" it where I want it to be and it comes out at about 1/2 - 3/4 inch at the small end. Depending on how I chose to eyeball it I guess. Keep in mind I was just making this up as I went along. I just happened to measure it later so I could reproduce it if I wanted to. After I give them all an initial sanding I will put some Gorilla Wood glue to them and carefully piece them together while clamping them into place for an overnight stay. On my first pedal board I used wood screws, but in hindsight I think its a little overkill. I used nothing but glue on the 18 inch pedal board I made and I think its probably fine that way. But I am thinking about sticking some finishing nails in it just for good measure. After I pre-drill the holes of course. You don't want to split the wood. You want to drill the hole just a little under size so you get a good grip with the finishing nail. Squirting a little glue in the hole with a syringe ain't a bad idea either. Another old carpenter trick I learned a long time ago was to tap the sharp end of your nail with your hammer a couple of times to dull the end of the nail a little. Its keeps from splitting the wood, trust me ;)
And this is how it will set together once we get it sanded and glued. I'll try my best to make that happen tomorrow evening-night sometime. On my first pedal board I used a piece of 1/4" plywood for the bottom piece. It gotten the job done quite well on several gigs after I built it. Before that I was laying them side by side in the floor poor boy style. You can still consider this pedal board "poor boy style" I guess. I've seen a lot of these pedal boards people pay a lot of money for and to me, it ain't worth it. Especially when you have the means to build your own. I'm more set up for working with steel in my shop. It is a small machine shop after all. But I do have some wood working tools. I've got a few more things I'd like to have but I'm working on that. Last but not least is a picture of my first ever home built pedal board, minus the Velcro. I took the Velcro I had on it off so I could put a full strip on it like I did with my last one. Since I had stained it I wanted to show the wood color as much as possible so I just used 2" wide Velcro pieces and cut them into pieces just big enough for each pedal. I also used wood screw in this one and did not try to hide them. The Velcro will cover them anyway when I put a new strip on it.
Pretty simple and straight forward so far. Next we'll look at a front view of this board and you can see where and how I mounted my keeper.holder for the One Spot harness end piece. I used a simple door latch like you might use on a storage shed or even a chicken house door. I think they cost about 2 dollars for a brass one and its perfect size for making a good tight grip on the One Spot jumper harness for you pedal power.
A few months back while watching some Lexington Lab Band videos on youtube they did a series of Johnny Cash songs and had a guest guitar player named JD Simo. This guy played Johnny Cash songs like I'd never quite heard before. If Mr Cash were alive to witness JD playing his songs I think he would approve. In fact, if he were still with us he might try to hire JD to play on a new record with him.JD Simo is like the Eddie Van Halen of Nashville. But that's not all this young man has up his sleeve as a guitar player. He's a rocker and he's really into the blues and Jimi Hendrix and all the old great famous rock and blues based bands.This man is a virtuoso guitar player. Here's one with JD Simo covering a Johnny Cash song called Big River, with The Lexington Lab Band and part of The Big River Band.
According to his Wiki page:Simo grew up inChicago.[2]He began playing guitar at the age of five. By age 15, Simo had already formed a band and released a live EP recorded in Phoenix Arizona, which sold 5,000 copies.[2]He quickly earned a strong local following in the Phoenix area, pleasing crowds of all ages with dynamic stage performances that showcased his guitar skills. He spent most of his teenage years touring, either in his own solo endeavors or in various other bands.
In the winter of 2006 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he established himself as the lead guitarist in the Don Kelley Band. This led to Simo's employment as an in-demand session musician. Simo continued to play in this capacity until 2011.
In the beginning of 2010, he joined bassist Frank Swart and drummer Adam Abrashoff to form the rock band SIMO. They spent much of 2011 on tour and released their debut album in November. They closed out the year with a homecoming show at The Basement in Nashville, the site of their first show. Sundazed Records released a vinyl single of Shake It/AoH off their debut album on January 25, 2013. SIMO was featured at several festivals including Mountain Jam and Bonnaroo in the summer of 2013.
Simo maintains an online blog, featuring videos of his playing style as well as information about vintage music equipment. In addition, Simo often films promotional videos for Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, TN.
This is what JD's band sounds like when you go to see them live. He just reeks of Jimi Hendrix in this video and it shows that chicken pickin' isn't the only thing Simo has up his talented sleeve. In fact JD said in an interview I watched with him in reference to his chicken pickin' .... "I can't do that" and "what I do is not technically chicken pickin'" ..... I'm not sure just exactly what he means by that because it sure sounds like chicken pickin; to me. But here he is in his element, this is what he likes to play.
Did you get that Hendrix vibe? This dude blows my mind. Anyone who hold down a stage playing lead guitar and singing lead vocals like that is one talented son of a gun in my book. I've tried it, and I've been trying it for many years. I don't think I have it in me to do that, but that's okay. I'd rather watch someone else do it anyway. Anyone who knows what the pressure is like in a live performing situation would probably agree. You can watch JD's videos on his youtube channel and you can catch a lot of others just by putting JD Simo into the youtube search engine.
One big thing I have learned about playing music out live like that is you only get one shot at not fucking the whole song up. Nobody wants to see a band that has to start over a couple of times on a song. And nobody wants to hear you continue to butcher a song from start to finish.
People make mistakes .... that's a given in anything you do. What makes a good musician is one who can cover his own ass in a note or two and make it look like he meant to play it that way. Great musicians can cover the rest of the bands ass too if needed. One thing you NEVER want to do when playing a live show is to just crash and burn a song into complete silence. Its about the worst thing I can think of happening at a show where you're getting paid, Its embarrassing as hell. I've still got some redeeming to do at a place called Fat Jacks one of these days. I didn't crash the songs and I won't name anyone in particular to blame for it. There were five of us on that stage that night. Inexperience played the biggest factor in that incident. Luckily we were only opening for another act and using about 45 minutes to an hour to play while they got set up and ready. Luckily, we also had a lot of supporters in that crowd so nobody booed us at least. But I still felt like I had a score to settle when I left that place that night with my head hung low. It was a real bummer compared tothe night before when I was playing on stage with JB and The Moonshine Band and sittin' on top of the world.
One of these days, Fat Jacks ... one of these days!
