The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I've been playing some gigs lately, and I've gathered up a few pedals that I think are pretty useful and that I might be happy with as "my sound". Now I'm thinking about finally getting a pedal board, to make it quicker and easier for me to set up and tear down. Anybody have any experience with any? Song Fight! seems like maybe more of a DIY crowd, but I don't really have the resources or interest to go that route. I was looking at maybe getting one of these:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=150581

I think I need something that's 2' wide and 1' long.

Wouldn't you want the Rat down front instead of the tuner? (I know, it's just a photo op)

I used to use the Roland GP-8. I loved the whole integrated thing, being able to pre-program banks of effects for each song. But I keep waiting for some standard to emerge that lets you link all your individual boxes to a central controller, giving you the best of both worlds...your favorite boxes, plus integration. I always fell over trying to stomp on two (or more) boxes at the same time.

I've got a Boss ME-X that I've had for years. It's a multi-effects unit (built in reverb, chorus, delay, [crappy digital] pitch shifting, and a volume pedal. The twist is that it has room for three pedals and a set of 9V outputs to power them. You hook your pedals into the unit instead of chaining them in a loop, and you can program each pedal in or out of each patch, which is nice for quick changes. The whole thing has a lid and it's supposed to hold your three pedals in a nice, self-contained, easy-to-carry unit. All in all, it's a neat idea, but kind of a crappy implementation.

The pros:

• Built in power supply, so no batteries for your pedals
• Built in tuner, volume control, and basic effects can replace some of your pedals
• The programmable routing is nice for quick changes during a song

The cons:

• Being a Boss product, it only fits Boss pedals, and not even all of those. Grr. Anything else and you run the risk of the lid not closing anymore, which negates that whole integrated-package-easy-to-transport thing. I've also had to build custom power cables for some of my pedals, which is still better than having to carry batteries and a screwdriver.
• Only three pedals is kind of limiting
• The built-in effects show their age. Good if you like cheesy 80s digital chorus and pitch shifting, not so good otherwise.

Anyway, like I said, it's a neat idea that falls short in execution. It would be cool if there were a modern version that had more room for pedals and accepted a more flexible range of pedal sizes. Is there?

POD XT Live! F**k all those pedals. I made the change and I never looked back.

This is pretty spiff. Looks like it might be shy a slot for your rig, though.

I haven't had the breakage/signal issues that some of the reviewers are complaining about...

Lol songfight:

"I need a board to house all of my legitimate, quality pedals."

"EFF THAT, GET A MULTI-FX UNIT THAT SOUNDS LIKE SHIT AND WILL BREAK AFTER TWO GIGS."

Lunk, the rhythm player from one of my last bands used that exact board for like 5 years, took it overseas, etc. It's a solid buy for sure.

Sober wrote:Lol songfight:

"I need a board to house all of my legitimate, quality pedals."

"EFF THAT, GET A MULTI-FX UNIT THAT SOUNDS LIKE SHIT AND WILL BREAK AFTER TWO GIGS."

Ha ha! Er, I have to admit, I was kind of thinking something along those lines. I also already have all the individual pedals. That picture was one I took to get an idea of what my pedal layout would be like. No offense to the multi-fx fans, but I think that's just not really my cup of tea. I bought one once and wound up returning it. I didn't have fun setting up my own patches and I didn't care for the factory patches that much, and I didn't think it sounded that great, ultimately. Admittedly that was several years ago. Anyway I think individual pedals are easier for me to grok, especially at gigs, where I don't want to have to think about cycling through different patches. I know there's the limitation of really only being able to turn one thing on and off at a time with separate pedals but I think I can live with that.

Sober wrote:Lunk, the rhythm player from one of my last bands used that exact board for like 5 years, took it overseas, etc. It's a solid buy for sure.

Cool, good to know. thanks Sober.

Sorry Lunk, I wasn't being helpful, no offense. I just really like my POD. After years of dealing with pedals and cords, then switching to my POD and putting all my pedal FX into my POD banks, I had no use for the pedals anymore.

roymond wrote:But I keep waiting for some standard to emerge that lets you link all your individual boxes to a central controller, giving you the best of both worlds...your favorite boxes, plus integration.

The most awesome way to accomplish this would be a board that has a bunch of electric motors that automatically turn the knobs and push the switches, under control of a program. This would allow you to use vintage pedals as-is.

I actually saw a pretty sweet pedal board like this at NAMM that used relays and switches to let you set up an array of pedals.

http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/TheGi ... BLack.html

That Pro-14 looks really amazing. The controls actually look really straight forward. (Each of the 14 "presets" has teeny dip switches letting you set the on/off status for every pedal and 6 features of the board itself, along with tiny gain knob, for those who don't check out the site.) Too bad that it's $1149!!!

The 6-pedal, 8-preset MIDI8 is "only" $799, though. For some reason they don't actually describe what the MIDI support is. It's got one unlabeled MIDI jack, so I'm not sure if it's MIDI in or out. Otherwise it looks like a paired down version of the Pro-14.

http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/TheGi ... Black.html

There are some similar but much cheaper takes on the same idea here:

http://www.carlmartin.com/product_octaswitch.htm

Octaswitch supports 8 effects loops and 8 presets, with configuration done by a set of 8 dipswitches for each preset controlling on/off for each loop. "Only" $377 at www.musiciansfriend.com. Still not cheap but a little more accessible.

http://www.carlmartin.com/product_combinator.htm

The Combinator is a little fancier. Again 8 effects loops, but you get 3 banks presets, 6 presets per bank, and 2 (versus one) stereo return loops. Programming is not done via dipswitches, but one on/off button per loop that you use in a "programming" mode that's activated by another button. "Only" $685!

Now that's the kind of thing I'm talking about!

Well, all except for the cost...

Lunkhead I'm late to the party as usual. I have one of these and it works great. I can second Billy's thoughts on ease of use and have one of these because of that. But I still insist individual pedals sound better despite the pain in the ass factor. Here's my setup.