New Patch Cables

[mullyman]

Been experiencing a LOT of noise when I hook up my pedal board. I've been using those cheap ass patch cables that you can grab out of the plastic bucket at the guitar shop. You know, the one that sits on the counter? I've never really been that big into using effects. Up until a year or so ago my regular MO was to run directly from my guitar to my amp with nothing in between. I started jonesing for other sounds though so I bought the bare minimum of what I thought I would be interested in. That bare minimum would be chorus and delay. I did buy a wahwah and a phaser but only because they were VH striped. haha!! Anyway, I've been happy with what I've been learning with the effects and now it was just time to upgrade the patch cables. I broke bank and bought some Montreux Pro series cables. Jesus, just sitting them next to my old cables makes the old ones look even cheaper than I thought they were. ha!!! Anyway, these aren't cheap and I hope I don't need to buy anymore after this. I made sure to get one spare.

And here is my pedalboard if anyone is interested. I know a lot of you guys have tons of stuff but this does pretty much all I need. I am looking forward to picking up the EVH flanger in red and white when it comes out......the red and white wahwah too. I never really did like the black and yellow one.....which is upstairs.

Anyone, please feel free to chime in on the order of things I have going here. I have no idea if this is right or not. It goes wireless unit, chorus, phaser, delay.

Oh, I also bought some Schaller strap locks for the incoming Frankenstein guitar. I grabbed the satin pearl. They look really nice.

And, please feel free to post your pedalboards/effects here if you like. I may not use them but that doesn't mean I don't like looking. hehehe!!!
MULLY

 

[mullyman]

And don't make fun of my Jurassic tuner. :icon_tongue: I bought that thing 20 years ago and it still works like a charm.  :icon_thumright: I had considered buying a new fangled stomp pedal type but there's really no reason to.
MULLY

 

[ghostrider25]

Are you powering the pedals with individual adapters on a power strip? That can cause a lot of unwanted noise from poor grounding. I'm using batteries in mine for the moment but looking forward to a Pedal Power 2+ in a couple of months.

 

[mullyman]

Are you powering the pedals with individual adapters on a power strip? That can cause a lot of unwanted noise from poor grounding. I'm using batteries in mine for the moment but looking forward to a Pedal Power 2+ in a couple of months.

The pedal board has a power source built in underneath. That shouldn't be the problem, I don't think. Unless Gator uses cheap power supply boxes.
MULLY
which is possible

 

[pabloman]

If the wah is close to a transformer it could get noisy. Looking good Mully!

 

[mullyman]

If the wah is close to a transformer it could get noisy. Looking good Mully!

I honestly can't remember the last time my Wah was on the board.
MULLY

 

[alterbridgefan]

I had a wah once, sold it almost as soon as I got it.

I remember seeing rainbow patch cables once. :headbang1:

Someone needs to make glittery neon patch cables, I would load up.

:blob7:

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have had crappy wahs, and they are, well, tiresome.  I bought a good one, and I like it a lot.  I don't use it much, but when I do, it is a smile inducer.  I have some nice pedals, fun to use, but I tend to go straight to the amp these days.  Probably going to just get a lil combo and only use the bigger stuff at the friends studio.  Someday I'll get the pedal board done, but there are all of these other DIY toys to build...
Patrick

 

[AndyG]

Been experiencing a LOT of noise when I hook up my pedal board. I've been using those cheap ass patch cables that you can grab out of the plastic bucket at the guitar shop. You know, the one that sits on the counter? I've never really been that big into using effects. Up until a year or so ago my regular MO was to run directly from my guitar to my amp with nothing in between. I started jonesing for other sounds though so I bought the bare minimum of what I thought I would be interested in. That bare minimum would be chorus and delay. I did buy a wahwah and a phaser but only because they were VH striped. haha!! Anyway, I've been happy with what I've been learning with the effects and now it was just time to upgrade the patch cables. I broke bank and bought some Montreux Pro series cables. Jesus, just sitting them next to my old cables makes the old ones look even cheaper than I thought they were. ha!!! Anyway, these aren't cheap and I hope I don't need to buy anymore after this. I made sure to get one spare.

I've been using the Planet Waves cable kit for my board
http://www.planetwaves.com/pwMobileProductDetail.Page?productId=22&productname=Cable_Station_Pedal_Board_Kit
Easy to build, and you can make them any length you want/need.  Nice thing about this is you can arrange your pedalboard based on the pedals you use most, rather than on the order of the chain ... which is especially useful on pedalboards with more than one row.

 

[MikeW]

Does your amp have an effects loop? If so, you might want to consider running your chorus and delay in the loop instead of in series between guitar and amp. I've found that delay, flange and chorus sound brighter, less cluttered and more distinct in the loop. YMMV, but I found that delay especially cleans up when I run it this way instead of in serial.

My rig currently looks like this:
Guitar - Boss Tuner - Cry Baby Wah - Seven Deadly Sins (autowah) - RC Booster - Amp - (loop send) MXR MicroFlange - Vox Time Machine (loop return) - Amp - Speakers

You might want to try putting your distortion/drive/booster at the front of your chain as well.

 

[mullyman]

Does your amp have an effects loop? If so, you might want to consider running your chorus and delay in the loop instead of in series between guitar and amp. I've found that delay, flange and chorus sound brighter, less cluttered and more distinct in the loop. YMMV, but I found that delay especially cleans up when I run it this way instead of in serial.

My rig currently looks like this:
Guitar - Boss Tuner - Cry Baby Wah - Seven Deadly Sins (autowah) - RC Booster - Amp - (loop send) MXR MicroFlange - Vox Time Machine (loop return) - Amp - Speakers

You might want to try putting your distortion/drive/booster at the front of your chain as well.

Yeah, I've been hesitant to run them through the loop because I'm sure about impedance. I actually dropped a message to a guy I know that works at Mesa Boogie last night asking about that. Anyone here care to chime in? As you can see from the picture all of my stuff is MXR. The chorus is Zakk Wylde and the delay is Carbon Copy. My amp is a Mesa Boogie Mini Rectifier. Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated as I am totally ignorant about effects.
MULLY

 

[Cagey]

The effects loop is designed to run effects in. Don't worry about it.

You probably will want to arrange things so that time-based effects (reverb, chorus, delay) are in the loop, and overdrive/tone-shaping/distortion effects are on the front end.

 

[AndyG]

And, please feel free to post your pedalboards/effects here if you like. I may not use them but that doesn't mean I don't like looking. hehehe!!!
MULLY

I'm happy to play show and tell!
This is my bass pedalboard.  Pedaltrain JR with a Voodoo Labs power supply.
Pedal order:  Polytune -> MXR bass compressor -> Boss NS2 -> (NS2 loop out) MXR 10 band EQ -> Tech 21 Programmable Bass Driver -> (NS2 loop return) MXR Chorus -> Vortex Flanger

I have the NS2 because the MXR EQ is a little noisy, and I also use it as a kill switch live when I need to unplug.  Eventually the MXR EQ is going to move to the other side of the board, and come after the Tech 21 in the signal chain, and  I want to add a BBE Sonic Stomp to the end of the chain

 

[mullyman]

And, please feel free to post your pedalboards/effects here if you like. I may not use them but that doesn't mean I don't like looking. hehehe!!!
MULLY

I'm happy to play show and tell!
This is my bass pedalboard.  Pedaltrain JR with a Voodoo Labs power supply.
Pedal order:  Polytune -> MXR bass compressor -> Boss NS2 -> (NS2 loop out) MXR 10 band EQ -> Tech 21 Programmable Bass Driver -> (NS2 loop return) MXR Chorus -> Vortex Flanger

I have the NS2 because the MXR EQ is a little noisy, and I also use it as a kill switch live when I need to unplug.  Eventually the MXR EQ is going to move to the other side of the board, and come after the Tech 21 in the signal chain, and  I want to add a BBE Sonic Stomp to the end of the chain

How's that TC Electronic tuner doing for you?
MULLY

 

[mullyman]

The effects loop is designed to run effects in. Don't worry about it.

You probably will want to arrange things so that time-based effects (reverb, chorus, delay) are in the loop, and overdrive/tone-shaping/distortion effects are on the front end.

Yeah, but if the impedance doesn't match won't it be a scream fest? And I have no distortion pedals, just delay, chorus, and phaser. What should I do with the phaser?
MULLY

 

[Cagey]

I have the NS2 because the MXR EQ is a little noisy...

I've always liked what you could do with those MXR EQ units. They work well as an overdrive if you need it, can be selective about what gets blasted, or just be an EQ. Unfortunately, they are noisy little buggers. Seems strange, coming from an EQ. But, as long as you've got some kind of gate they work out well anyway.

 

[AndyG]

How's that TC Electronic tuner doing for you?
MULLY

It's a great tuner.  The display is huge and bright, and it tracks the low B on my 5-string perfectly.  I have the same TU12 that you have, but it stays at home.  It doesn't track the low B very well.
I'm also using its power output for the chorus and flanger pedals.

 

[AndyG]

I have the NS2 because the MXR EQ is a little noisy...

I've always liked what you could do with those MXR EQ units. They work well as an overdrive if you need it, can be selective about what gets blasted, or just be an EQ. Unfortunately, they are noisy little buggers. Seems strange, coming from an EQ. But, as long as you've got some kind of gate they work out well anyway.

Apparently there are a few companies who can do a mod to the pedal that makes it quieter.  But the NS2 I picked up for $40 used ... and the mod is at least 3 times more.

 

[Cagey]

The effects loop is designed to run effects in. Don't worry about it.

You probably will want to arrange things so that time-based effects (reverb, chorus, delay) are in the loop, and overdrive/tone-shaping/distortion effects are on the front end.

Yeah, but if the impedance doesn't match won't it be a scream fest? And I have no distortion pedals, just delay, chorus, and phaser. What should I do with the phaser?
MULLY

More often than not, if there's an impedance problem it'll manifest as lost signal or undesirable distortion in a loop. Because of that, the loops on some amps will give you a level adjust switch or pot so you can balance things out. In any event, you're not going to hurt anything so just try it. If it sounds like kukka, go back to where you were. If it sounds better, good for you!

As for where to put the phaser, you could go either way but I'd probably put it on the front end. It's more of a tone modifier than anything else. The fact that it has a sweep frequency doesn't make it a time-based effect like reverb or delay. It's more a beat-sensitive thing, where you might match it up to the music's time signature.

 

[dudesweet157]

I run my phaser at the very beginning of my chain, just after my tuner.