Seeking Pedal Board Config Opinion - Advice From Admin M@

[Warrior]

M@,

I would love to get an idea of the way you would consider building a pedal board (or even see what you currently use) based around an Axe-II and MFC-101.

The majority of my playing takes place in a studio environment where the functionality of my pedal board is not as critical as a live environment. However, I want to begin playing live more and hoping to make my board more functional, if not efficient.

When I built my pedal board, it was based on a concept of getting the max out of my Axe-FX/MFC-101 and not necessarily around a specific need – like a group of shows around a specific set.

As a result, I’ve got a fairly complex pedal board setup that I don’t take advantage of. I would love to have a more minimal setup without sacrificing some of the complex capabilities the system offers.

My current board consists of:

MFC-101

Sonic Research Tuner (Primarily used to plug guitar at pedal board vs running to Axe)
4 switches currently used to control scenes
Mission Control Expression Pedal for Wah (Spring Loaded)
Boss FV500 Expression Pedal – Delay Mix
Boss FV500 Expression Pedal – Volume
Roland EV5 Expression Pedal - Misc

I would love to understand what changes and approach you might consider. (Eliminate this, add that, use this for that, combine this, etc). Understanding how someone with your experience and expertise would open my mind to consider options I would likely have never considered.

The sound I hear in my head might be described as Bonamassa meets Page meets Beck with a splash of Vai, Satch and Halen.

If you have time, this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[lqdsnddist]

Your question doesn't really make sense because nothing on your board actually produces its own sounds. They are all simply controllers, and as a result have essentially an infinite number of options. You indicated that the sound you hear in your head might be described as Bonamassa meets Page meets Beck with a splash of Vai, Satch and Halen; but to what end ?

Its not like you need 4 EXP pedals to sound like that, nor is cutting back to say, 2 EXP pedals going to make you sound any more/less like that.

With scenes you could probably do a whole show with 4-5 switches and a single EXP pedal, but then again, having dedicated pedals for certain controls for each and every patch has its advantages as well.

Unless you provide us with every and every patch you use, and how often you perform certain songs, video of you on stage, et al., how is anyone going to say "hey guy, you have aFV500 set for delay mix, but you only have the delay block in 3 of your presets, and when I watched countless hours of you on stage, only once did you ever even adjust the pedal: as a result, I think you can get rid of that controller"

One certainly can have different CC's assigned to the same pedal, but different blocks and you can turn different blocks on/off thus making one pedal able to do two roles, but again we'd have to actually look at all your patches to see how you have things routed.

If you have 50 patches, and you have 4 scene switches, 4 EXP's, 17 IA's all routed per patch, that would be A LOT of work for someone to sit down and reassign your controller routings.

Maybe you should have a goal as to how minimal you want to get first and foremost ? For example, maybe you want to use one Mission and one Boss pedal, so two EXP's total, and you'll get rid of the external switches and just use the MFC, then once you determined what your hardware is, ask specifically how to make those pedals do a given number of features, based on a specific patch you need, and a specific amount of control you need.

 

[electronpirate]

What lqdsnddist said.

How does someone go about minimizing your pedalboard when we have no idea what you do? Supplying the genre doesn't help.

If you require huge flexibility with every song, then not sure your goal of 'simplifying' will work. IMO the simplest you can get and retain crazy flexibility is 2 EXP pedals (variable for the patch) and the MFC. I'm sure your setup gives you all kinds of room to do what you need, but I would think you would have to look at your actual usage, and whether you need 'delay mix' dedicated to a single pedal etc (as opposed to 2 different delay settings on a CC to tap on the MFC.) In scene mode 5 scenes should be fine for pretty much any song, toggle off/on whatever FX you need/don't need on each scene...change to another patch if you need more.

We'd need more actual use cases if you need help. My personal philosophy is that if you have to think that much and search for what's on your pedalboard during a live show, you've lost. Make it simple and organized, 'verb on this button, phaser on this one, if there's a WAH it will engage on THIS pedal every time.

This is more about organization of what you want to do, and less about having someone else build your pedalboard.

Good luck. If you can be more specific, we can get you better answers.

R

 

[jarabuandi]

WOW....mate... I usually wouldn't have said anything as I'm no expert.....but holy c...just looking at all those switches and pedal gives me headache. I'm a KIS type of guy. I play live and have 2 pedals (Vol and WAH) and the MFC and that's plenty. I mean you know that the MFC can be programmed if you need specific thing, but I have to agree with @lqdsnddist and @electronpirate her's not enough info.

 

[Warrior]

My request was somewhat based on a post that M@ responded too with regards to someone requesting his advice for setting up their board for a "Jam Band" application.

He provided what he thought would be a good plan to develop the settings for the board.

My request is similar in that I would love to understand what M@'s thought process might be if he were taking my board and setting it up himself (or helping guide me through it) based on the influences I mentioned and the equipment I have on hand for my board.

I understand what you're saying but I don't see it as an impossibility at all.

Based on the influences I listed, M@ might suggest I use the external switches (4 of them) for something other than Scenes for reasons "a,b,c".
He may suggest I use 2 expression pedals instead of 4 and suggest their application.
He may suggest (again based on my list of influences) that I use specific types of delays and perhaps have them on 1 switch with an X/Y config.

I can, and do, experiment with my ideas but to be able to have advice from, and be able to see how he thinks things through, from someone such as M@ with all his expertise and experience would give me ideas I would never have thought of.

The intent isn't to set it up based exactly on what M@ would suggest and then leave it. The intent is to get a new perspective on how I might set it up, learn from that wisdom and apply it based on my current and future needs.

As I stated, if I had a set list of material that I was going to perform, the task would allow me to define my exact needs. This request isn't about creating a specific task based setup but is intended to understand M@'s thought process. A glimpse into genius.

 

[lwknives]

How does your situation differ from the jam band situation you mentioned? Why not just read that?
Are you just wanting to implement all your gear in a usable way?
Are you wanting to come up with the simplest way to accomplish your tone switching needs?
A jam band has pretty specific needs so that is an easier question to answer! You just need quick and simple access to generic tones. So you need to know how to get a clean, a crunch, a drive and a lead plus maybe a few FX. There are specific ways to access those particular tones but in your case we have no idea how many different tones you plan on using.