Tedious backstory: I had/have a very nice board...let's call it Board A. A Pedaltrain 2, migrated to a Pedaltrain Novo 24 almost exclusively due to the fact that the PT2's 'rise' was not high enough to fit a new power supply underneath (CIOKS Ciokolate) when, for reasons still unclear and still annoying, my Voodoo Labs 4x4 died a slow and noisy death. I'm guessing I'm not the first to discover this ex post facto design limitation the hard way. I'm guessing I'm not the first to resent such a trifling incompatibility. I'm guessing I'm not the first to shrug my shoulders and cough up for a new pedalboard merely to get the additional clearance of a fraction of an inch with all other conditions remaining the same.
Board A, meticulously constructed and reconstructed with new power and new mini-patches, failed at the worst moment: onstage, mid-song, into a blazing authentic 1962 Showman. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! The bassist, who happened to own said Showman, looked on with horror. 'UNPLUG THAT @*$&!$%$ AND GO STRAIGHT IN!' he screamed over the din. I obeyed.
Tail firmly between my legs, I packed up and drove home after the gig. I felt sorry for myself only in the sense that I had done extensive work to improve (?) Board A only to have it let me down (spoiler: one of the mini-patches was twisted and a bit loose as I discovered later in troubleshooting). The missus, riding along, was in a sympathetic mood and asked what the problem had been. I responded with more emotion than explanation. She asked the magic question: 'Why don't you get a new board?'
Never say 'new' to a gear hound, even if it's used gear! It's all new to the gear hound!
Cue a lot of giddy print catalog and online shopping. I vowed to disabuse myself of some old habits, notions. Step 1 in creating Board B would be size and weight. Nothing but respect for the 'big boarders' who have a large board, even two of them. I used to have a Pedaltrain Pro myself with its casket-sized hard rolling case. But after a while I couldn't duck the question of 'How many pedals do you really use and how often?' And so I vowed to stay small - or at least compact.
And did I need aircraft aluminum? Plastic, on the other hand, was much lighter. And I was more than willing to trade a metal frame inside a soft case for a plastic frame inside a hard case. It appeared SKB had just the thing. Heaps of room underneath as well. Ironically, I purchased another Cioks power supply but this one was rebranded and sold by Eventide.
Kid-in-a-candy-store time arrived as I bought a stable of new pedals that arrived all at once. No swapping out, no rearranging pedals on an existing board, no wrestling with Dual Lock.
Turbo Tuner? An automatic choice. The only repeat from other board(s).
Strymon Compadre? A new offering from them, perfectly timed. I wanted/needed a compressor (lots of clean parts these days) and I wanted/needed a boost. Excellent unit.
Strymon Sunset? Almost a missed opportunity. I had the Riverside in my shopping basket all along until it finally dawned on me that the Sunset would be a much better match in this instance. Pedals occasionally (often?) offer options and features that, in the end, rarely get used either because once a base tone is dialed in it's satisfying enough or because complexity doesn't necessarily equate to versatility or improvement. As with the Compadre I didn't buy it because it was a 2-in-1 pedal but that aspect of it sealed the deal. I was/am very much a lover of the Klon(e) sound now - Board A has a J Rockett Archer Ikon (the gold one) that is among my all-time faves. I was hesitant to revert back to anything Tube Screamer-like with the mid honk. The Sunset will certainly get that sound but so many others that sound nothing like a TS.
Keeley Seafoam+? I'd recently jettisoned an MXR Analog Chorus - that sky blue unit seen everywhere for years. It just wasn't doing it for me even though my use of chorus had become rare except for period- or band-specific tunes. The Source Audio Gemini intrigued me with its single/dual/quad toggle. I played with it for a few months and was thoroughly put off by its artificial sound. It was like a layer of plastic wrap around the sound rather than part of it. Good bye Gemini. Despite reading about so many players' enthusiasm for Keeley pedals from the iconic (?) compressor to the Keely mods of other pedals to the newer Keeley offerings, I'd never owned one. Happy to report that the Seafoam+ is Goldilocks - not too much, not too little, just right. I guess I use the Dual Chorus toggle setting most often and rarely if ever use the Vibrato sound(s). So organic sounding - I suppose the best description is that if you hear the chorus added to the guitar in isolation you notice the effect but in a full-band setup it merely becomes coloration. Which is the point.
Keeley Verb O Trem? Another newish offering from an OEM. I'd recently spoken with a bloke who owned one of the Magnatone reissue amps. He was passionate about it and called it his desert island amp. He raved about the pitch-shifting vibrato. Duane Eddy fan that I am, all of this intrigued me. I needed a backup reverb pedal in case I used an amp (my own or others') that lacked reverb. I also needed tremolo for the same reason. Another 2-in-1 score. The reverb is a bit generic compared to something like the Topanga (which I have in reserve) but still acceptable.
Source Audio Nemesis Delay? After my misadventures with the Gemini chorus, I hesitated. But I'd read many positive reviews of the Nemesis. I don't do much U2 or other complex delay songs these days but having the option was still appealing. I've used an Eventide TimeFactor on Board A forever. It's big, it's bulky, it's fantastic-sounding, especially the tape emulation. Form factor was a consideration (again) so I pulled the trigger. Truth? I'm about 50/50 on it still. I don't have the time or the inclination to be faffing about with computer apps to do backups, custom patches, etc. I need to be honest and decide if I really need a delay with dual capability and all the emulation categories or just go back to a single delay, possibly/probably a tape emulation like Belle Epoque.
Joyo AC Tone? Here we have a situation akin to a golf bag full of state-of-the-art clubs with state-of-the-art graphite shafts and a state-of-the-art golf ball...alongside an old, beat-up Bullseye putter. What is this $30 pedal - a knockoff of a Tech 21 pedal that's no longer even made (not sure why) doing on this shiny new board alongside all these shiny new stompboxes? Well, there are two reasons. 1) As we know, live gigging requires foresight, contingency planning and the occasional need to switch canoes midstream as the incident above notes. At one point I was hauling two Vox AC30s around like a cut-rate Brian May. But these were the 2005-2008 CC Vox amps, widely praised for their sound but widely derided for their unreliability, design flaws, nightmarish disassembly for service/access to tubes and cheap components. A backup was compulsory. And so I had my Vox quasi-stack behind me - just the one amp powered on and its master volume rarely above 3 even at outdoor venues. After every gig my back ached and my hands bore new scars and scrapes from those damned stiff plastic handles with their molded raised textures that became torture devices when hoisting or toting 70 lbs of amp. Twice. What the hell was I thinking?
2) The 'lifeboat' scenario where tube amps are concerned is almost a forum unto itself. It seems at times that there's more creativity focused on something with a 1-2% chance of being used on the night than on the main rig. Power Engines, Pods, Zoom pedals etc. etc. But one solution was mentioned repeatedly. A cheap Joyo pedal. Many opted for the American Sound with its Fender emulation. But I'm an EL84 man so I chose the AC Tone. Actually, that's not true. I chose the AC Tone AFTER the American Sound. In fact, many stated that they mostly used the Joyo and - *horrors!* - went amp-less ie direct to the board or to a FRFR monitor. I tried this approach at rehearsal one night and damn me if it didn't work a treat. Guitar, pedalboard, mic stand shoulder bag and, er, cooler. One trip from vehicle to band room. I felt as if I'd forgotten something or had cheated. One caveat: putting the Joyo output into a DI box and then XLR into the board is a big improvement in sound. I'm sure there's a technical reason for this but I'm not fussed.
Occasionally I'll kick on the Joyo when using a tube amp for a nice expansion of the proverbial tonal palette especially to boost the top end (natch). But it's mostly there as peace of mind.