Show us your guitar setup

[murch33]

The guitars have been pushed further and further into the corner as the rest of the room has filled up. There’s a Bandmaster Reverb and a Wildwood 10 ‘61 Strat in the closet as well.

[croque]

I wanted to check how the guitarists on here are incorporating their Norns in their guitar setup. I have a Norns Shield which I put after my pedalboard. The last pedal on my board is a Line 6 M9 with stereo out, which is linked with a patch cable to the Norns, and from the Norns to a DIY box that sums the stereo outputs to mono and from there it goes to my amp. I always use a light overdrive to boost the signal a lot (volume cranked all the way). That’s my basement/rehearsal space setup. But I want to use the Norns in a more standalone manner.

I’m looking for something that I can plug my guitar into, with clean boost (or a different way to amplify the signal) and an effects loop to put the Norns in between before going to my amp. Any pointers what I can buy or possibly cobble up myself?

[jwudel]

Boss LS 2 might be worth looking at.

[croque]

Didn’t think of it as I thought it couldn’t boost the signal, but apparently it does.
You just solved my problem, thanks a lot!

[mateo]

I’m looking to buy a volume pedal for my guitar, and I’m not certain I should be going for a high or low impedance model. I understand the former is best when directly plugged into a guitar with passive pickups, but it’s not clear what’s better when plugged in elsewhere in the signal chain: say, after drive distortion pedals but before delay/reverb. From what I’ve been reading I think you still want a high impedance pedal in those cases due to the more even taper of the pot, but I’m not sure I understand how that works…

[corbetta]

If you have a buffer or always-on pedal in your chain you can place a low impedance volume pedal after it and get optimal sweep/high end retention. However if you’re switching pedals off and they are true bypass, the low impedance volume pedal may end up seeing the guitar pickups “first in line”, which can cause high-end roll-off

My preferred solution is to use an active volume pedal (which conveniently acts as a buffer) after my fuzzes. Best of both worlds.

[mateo]

Right, that’s what I thought, but then read something that confused me. But looking at it again I think I just misread. An active pedal does seem ideal, but they’re not as common and quite pricy: using another pedal before it seems to be a simpler solution. Thanks!

[corbetta]

totally; just make sure to have something either buffered (like most TS/Klon OD designs) or alway-on ahead of the active pedal for optimal impedance; also, there’s no hard/fast rules and some people actually like the loss of high end that comes from impedance mismatch or higher capacitance in a guitar setup (see coily cables, etc)

[sduck]

Just got this one. It’s a 1989 PRS Custom 24. I was one of the original PRS guys - bought one of the very first ones produced in 1985, back when I was still actively playing guitar semi-professionally. It was a fantastic guitar, but I had to sell it to get through some hard times while unemployed a few years later. I’ve missed it ever since. A year or 2 ago I thought about getting back into PRS, and searched out a pretty nice SE custom 24. Which was and is a really nice guitar, once you put on good tuners and pickups. But every time I played it I would think “this is a nice enough korean guitar, that happens to say PRS on it”. It didn’t have the soul, so to speak. So I put a ton of nice PRS 509’s and Custom 24’s in my reverb.com watchlist, and drooled over them on a daily basis. And then was checking the local stores, and found this one, much closer to what I really wanted, and for less - it’s a bit road worn, and the previous owner switched out the rotary pickup selecter with a 3 way switch. Tried it, and it hit all the spots, so after ruminating on it for a week went back and bought it. This 1989 is virtually identical to my old 1985 one. And now I’ve hunted up and bought an old rotary switch to put in it…

[corbetta]

great story in 20 characters

[zebra]

@croque

Any pointers what I can buy or possibly cobble up myself?

@jwudel

Boss LS 2 might be worth looking at.

this is what i use for similar pedalboard duties (guitar/viola looped through norns). though i do usually have a gain stage before it

[croque]

Oh, so even with the clean boost from the LS-2 you still use an extra gain stage (clean boost/light OD)? I’m trying to find a decently priced secondhand LS-2, but I haven’t had any luck yet. Might buy a new one, but if an additional gain stage is necessary, I’ll have to look at that as well.

[speakerdamage]

just got this custom hollow body mandocello built by OZMA instruments. super excited. highly recommend getting in touch with Jeff if you have crazy guitar ideas.

[jkbrogan]

Lots of great pedalboard photos here!

Any recommendations for a pedalboard for just a few pedals at a time? I’d like to avoid putting any kind of velcro on the bottoms of the pedals, and to allow for modularity, i.e., easily removing and adding pedals as-needed.

[fever606]

Temple Audio board and zip-ties? I think it looks goofy but it allows you a noncommitalist nature while still providing a solid platform. Available in a bunch of sizes (I have a Duo 17 which fits perfectly in a Pelican case. I did opt for using their plates, though, as it’s more stable - and a bit cleaner looking - than zips).

There’s another company that caters to the zip-tie crowd too… Holeyboard or something like that?

[steveoath]

Anyone using a MOD devices pedal with their guitar. I backed the dwarf and can’t wait to set up some boards on it.

[corbetta]

I’m a big Aclam fan. The single row S1 with fasteners works great for a small flexible/revolving kind of setup. No Velcro, no permanent attachment to the pedals. Tall enough to fit a small power supply underneath.

[jkbrogan]

The Smart Track fasteners remind me of installing Eurorack

[rumorazzi]

Latest tabletop noodlings

Fender Esquire > tuner >
Fairfield Circuitry The Accountant (compressor) >
Chase Bliss Mood > Blooper > Red Panda Tensor >
Strymon Iridium > EHX 2880

[hermbot]

Noice! Any clips of this setup?