There is an affliction many guitarists suffer from. Beyond the obvious calluses or possible repetitive strain injury, GAS is the most costly (not that kind of GAS). Guitar Acquisition Syndrome affects many of our ranks; the need for ever more guitars is addictive. To mitigate the impact of GAS, some players have moved onto PAS – Pedal Acquisition Syndrome. Think of it as the methadone to guitar collection heroine.
I am dealing with this…right!
My latest geeky project is to rehab (get it?) my largest pedal board—one of three—to a more reliable and versatile arrangement.
The first concern was the “solderless” cables I had been using. I don’t trust them. While many have been in the pedalboard for years due, mostly to low profile of the connectors, a few have proven unreliable. They work by direct contact but if any part is loose, they will fail. There is little margin for error. I decided to revert back to soldered cable as they are more resilient and durable but faced the challenge of finding the same small solderable connector profile at a reasonable cost. I found a great supplier out of the States called Redco. Since they shipped via US Postal Service, it kept prices in line.
Next, I felt it was time to get a dedicated isolated power supply for mostly each pedal to reduce hum and ensure good good voltage for each; the non-guitar folks’ eyes are glazing over…
Finally, I needed better access to certain effects that were less than appropriately on the upper row (the two Line 6 pedals – DL4 and Roto-Machine), and these. The entire board had to be re-layed out to bring these more under foot. It also led to a few content changes with the TC Electronic PolyTune and Visual Sound Route 66 compressor/overdrive pedals being moved to another board, and the Boss TU-2 tuner and EHX Soul Food overdrive plus the newly acquired TC Electronic Hyper Gravity compressor taking their places. It also made room for the Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter/Delay.
The bulk of the work is done, although. few parts are still on the way to allow faster setup. Perhaps an update when that happens, along with a connected project (ha!) for a sideboard. TBD.
So yeah, I’ve got it under control. Thanks for asking!
Gig Reminder
Special Show Coming Soon!
I am working on something special and hope to have the details sorted out in the next few weeks. Details to follow!
Until then, new well!
felixandthecats.com 