Pedal Board Projects
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:27 pm
So last year was the year that I decided to finally go beyond Boss and Ibanez 9 series pedals, first with adding DOD pedals to my collection and eventually going boutique. It started with a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 falling into my lap for $40. I didn't really know what I was going to do with it, but I decided to build a board focusing on distortion/fuzz/overdrive "classic circuits." It was originally going to be 4 pedals, then 12, but eventually it grew to 20+. Half of the fun of it was deciding what would be on that board. I wanted everything to be true bypass except for intentional buffers placed at various locations and I was lucky enough to track down a Pedaltrain Grande (42" x 16") board with tour case for a good deal. I placed things in approximate chronological order. I built this primarily as a teaching tool to help friends understand the progression of dirt pedals throughout history.
The current version is:
1966 - Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster (Snowman Effect Gruftah)
1966 - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (Wren and Cuff Your Face 70s, I preferred this to their germanium version)
1970 - EHX Big Muff Pi (Stomp Under Foot Pumpkin Pi, although I have had a couple of Ram's Head clones in this spot)
J Rockett Steampunk Buffer/Booster
1972 - MXR Distortion+ (The Mad Science Basement Script MXR Clone)
1974 - DOD Overdrive Preamp 250 (Chicago Stompworks Grey Spec)
1974 - Ross Distortion (Dat Pedal Co. Primate)
1978 - Proco Rat (Robo Pedals The Rodent)
1978 - Boss DS-1 (Keeley DS-9 2-in-1 DS-1 + SD9)
1979 - Ibanez TS808 (Originally had a JHS Bonsai since it would do the Boss OD-1/TS808/TS9/TS10, replaced by Chicago Stompworks Green Thing)
1981 - Boss SD-1 (The Mad Science Basement SD-1 Clone)
1983 - Boss HM-2 (BYOC The Swede)
1989 - Marshall Bluesbreaker + Guv'nor (Smiletone Audio Governors Blues 2-in-1)
1994 - Klon Centaur (Mojo Hand Sacred Cow)
1995 - Boss BD-2 (Keeley Super Phat Mod)
1995 - Fulltone Full-Drive (FD2 Mosfet)
2003 - Analogman King of Tone (Ly Pedals King of Clone)
2003 - Hermida Zendrive (Cleveland Music Co. The Heights)
2004 - Paul Cochrane Timmy (Z-Fx Rhino)
2004 - Fulltone OCD (OCD 1.4)
ABY Splitter
It was tough narrowing it down to these. I wanted them to be all pedals that either were staples that guitarists used and/or reached some form of legendary reputation (sometimes due to scarcity or cost). I avoided pedals that everyone owned but abandoned when they learned how to shape their tone (e.g. DOD Grunge). I also didn't go overboard on fuzzes, so I didn't include things like the Maestro Fuzz, Fuzzrite, Tone Bender, etc. or every important iteration of Big Muff. I fell out of love with the Bonsai, so now I'm missing the OD-1 and TS9, but I'm not sure I'm going to re-add those.
What was strange to me is that after 2004, there became far less consensus among players. When there are 109 boutique modified Rats and 102 modified Bluesbreakers available, people spread it around, and not very many individual pedals reach an extreme front-runner type level of success. It was also difficult to know where to stop at how many iterations deep a pedal goes. e.g. Treble Booster led to the OD-1 led to the TS808 led to the Bluesbreaker led to the King of Tone/Timmy, etc.
If you think I'm missing anything essential feel free to let me know.
For the record, I got the majority of these pedals in the $40-80 range.
A picture of the current version:
The current version is:
1966 - Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster (Snowman Effect Gruftah)
1966 - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (Wren and Cuff Your Face 70s, I preferred this to their germanium version)
1970 - EHX Big Muff Pi (Stomp Under Foot Pumpkin Pi, although I have had a couple of Ram's Head clones in this spot)
J Rockett Steampunk Buffer/Booster
1972 - MXR Distortion+ (The Mad Science Basement Script MXR Clone)
1974 - DOD Overdrive Preamp 250 (Chicago Stompworks Grey Spec)
1974 - Ross Distortion (Dat Pedal Co. Primate)
1978 - Proco Rat (Robo Pedals The Rodent)
1978 - Boss DS-1 (Keeley DS-9 2-in-1 DS-1 + SD9)
1979 - Ibanez TS808 (Originally had a JHS Bonsai since it would do the Boss OD-1/TS808/TS9/TS10, replaced by Chicago Stompworks Green Thing)
1981 - Boss SD-1 (The Mad Science Basement SD-1 Clone)
1983 - Boss HM-2 (BYOC The Swede)
1989 - Marshall Bluesbreaker + Guv'nor (Smiletone Audio Governors Blues 2-in-1)
1994 - Klon Centaur (Mojo Hand Sacred Cow)
1995 - Boss BD-2 (Keeley Super Phat Mod)
1995 - Fulltone Full-Drive (FD2 Mosfet)
2003 - Analogman King of Tone (Ly Pedals King of Clone)
2003 - Hermida Zendrive (Cleveland Music Co. The Heights)
2004 - Paul Cochrane Timmy (Z-Fx Rhino)
2004 - Fulltone OCD (OCD 1.4)
ABY Splitter
It was tough narrowing it down to these. I wanted them to be all pedals that either were staples that guitarists used and/or reached some form of legendary reputation (sometimes due to scarcity or cost). I avoided pedals that everyone owned but abandoned when they learned how to shape their tone (e.g. DOD Grunge). I also didn't go overboard on fuzzes, so I didn't include things like the Maestro Fuzz, Fuzzrite, Tone Bender, etc. or every important iteration of Big Muff. I fell out of love with the Bonsai, so now I'm missing the OD-1 and TS9, but I'm not sure I'm going to re-add those.
What was strange to me is that after 2004, there became far less consensus among players. When there are 109 boutique modified Rats and 102 modified Bluesbreakers available, people spread it around, and not very many individual pedals reach an extreme front-runner type level of success. It was also difficult to know where to stop at how many iterations deep a pedal goes. e.g. Treble Booster led to the OD-1 led to the TS808 led to the Bluesbreaker led to the King of Tone/Timmy, etc.
If you think I'm missing anything essential feel free to let me know.
For the record, I got the majority of these pedals in the $40-80 range.
A picture of the current version: