well hello friends and welcome to
0:21
another Ask Zac today we're gonna go
0:23
down the pedalboard
0:25
rabbit trail I had a lot of questions
0:29
about the pedal board that I use and so
0:31
we're gonna talk about that and why I
0:34
chose these pieces and how I power all
0:37
that jazz take a little quick pause for
0:40
the cause I want to thank everyone that
0:43
has picked up a mug or a t-shirt this is
0:46
the mighty fine
0:48
ask Zack mug mmm cool creamy water
0:54
fantastic so yes so I appreciate all the
0:58
support of the show and if you'd like to
1:01
support the show go to ask Zack calm we
1:03
have the the store there sure you can
1:06
find something that will meet your needs
1:08
so anyway enough of that let's move on
1:13
to pedal boards so my first pedal board
1:17
was one of those boss BC B sixes which
1:21
was a plastic board that just held boss
1:25
pedals and they were in a row it wasn't
1:29
you know double tiered and so I used
1:33
that for a number of years then of
1:34
course moved to Nashville and had a
1:38
series of boards that either I bought or
1:40
built and then of course the big
1:42
revolution came which was pedal train
1:44
and that was one of the first
1:45
mass-produced boards you could ever get
1:48
well I continued to use pretty big
1:51
boards and and you know I usually had a
1:56
a board that had you know a volume pedal
1:59
a couple of delays a couple of
2:02
Over Drives a compressor or chorus a
2:04
bunch of you know quite a bit of stuff
2:06
and then
2:09
I started doing the true tone lounge and
2:13
it was really interesting interviewing
2:15
these guys and seeing the rigs that were
2:17
coming in and I think the real the ones
2:20
that really kind of blew my mind
2:21
were John Leventhal and Guthrie trap
2:24
because they had very small boards and
2:27
they did a whole lot with him so that
2:30
inspired me to be more minimalistic
2:36
partially because I was just getting
2:39
tired of carrying around a big board and
2:41
and having to play the pedal board
2:44
because as nice as it is to have all
2:48
those different sounds on tap it's also
2:51
you know you have all those options and
2:53
instead of for me instead of thinking
2:55
about cool parts to play I ended up
2:58
spending more time you know tap dancing
3:00
and and so I was just trying to find a
3:02
way to simplify things also I tend to
3:05
play more roots music I don't really
3:07
tend to play music that has a ton of of
3:09
effects in it anyway
3:12
so I built this board so first off I
3:19
wanted something that was flat and
3:22
something where all the pedals could be
3:24
in a row because I just liked that setup
3:27
better and I think it goes back to the
3:29
boss
3:29
you know pedal board from when I was a
3:31
kid and I just liked that set up I don't
3:34
like having two tiers
3:35
I don't like angled boards nothing
3:37
against them and if it's necessary I'll
3:39
do it but I I just don't like that setup
3:42
so so this is a mono light plus board
3:47
and yeah so this was kind of the
3:51
starting place for it
3:54
then you know I decided kind of what I
3:56
was going to put on there another big
3:59
consideration was the Cape the patch
4:02
cables because I needed small flat
4:04
cables and I shopped around quite a bit
4:07
and on sweetwater I found these EBS
4:10
cables there these are the gold-plated
4:12
ones and the reason I got the
4:13
gold-plated one was not to be fancy but
4:17
it was just they were the lowest profile
4:19
ones and I really needed to squeeze
4:21
things in tightly like
4:23
in between the tremolo and the moss
4:24
torsion you know I just needed I needed
4:28
a lot of I needed him to be really low
4:30
profile and flexible so I really like
4:34
these cables and this pedal board I have
4:38
had together for close to three years
4:40
and I have not changed anything on it so
4:44
you know I don't haven't pulled anything
4:46
off of it or added anything in the times
4:50
where I do need to add something to it
4:52
like another effect I have one of our
4:55
one of these true tone MC twos and I can
4:58
pull one of the plugs attach this and
5:01
then I have I can reattach this one and
5:03
I can have one extra and that way you
5:07
know if I happen to need some some other
5:10
effect in addition to these so I usually
5:12
keep a volume pedal and a boss of 
5:15
vibrato pedal or whatever else that I
5:17
might need for a for a gig but this is
5:20
this is the core stuff so first off is a
5:26
polytune mini and I like it it's fine it
5:32
was just kind of what I had I think this
5:36
is the only one that make some kind of
5:37
statement about I think it works fine
5:40
but I kind of wish I had one of the
5:42
sonic research a little turbo tuner
5:44
minis because I really like that tuner a
5:46
lot I have the full-size version on my
5:49
other board I have a second board that
5:51
is my mess around board so it has it's a
5:56
pedal train metro 24 and then that one I
6:00
switch stuff out all the time so it
6:02
might have a TC chorus on it or you know
6:04
whatever what that's my mess around
6:05
board and that has the sonic research
6:08
tuner on it
6:10
so first up as far as an actual effect
6:13
is the Mirage compressor and of course I
6:16
learned about that from John Leventhal
6:18
I'd never heard of one before but he had
6:23
one on his little mini board and man he
6:27
had a great sound
6:28
and you know of course he's a great
6:30
player and he has great hands but here
6:34
is my dry signal so this is Dan o caster
6:38
blackguard with Ron Ellis pickups into
6:41
this you know deluxe reverb with just a
6:45
touch of verb from the amp
6:47
[Music]
6:59
let's carefully turn the compressor on
7:07
[Music]
7:25
so it's a little bit more of a subtle
7:27
compressor it just kind of smooth things
7:30
out it doesn't do the exaggerated like
7:34
adding a bunch of sustain or doing that
7:37
it's just and it's a it's a small
7:38
footprint easy to use too knob
7:41
you know compressor that doesn't do like
7:44
a Keeley compressor or a Dyna comp or
7:46
something like that it's just a little
7:48
more subtle and I like the I like the
7:52
the flashing what it's not flashing I
7:54
like the little indicator LED you know
7:58
who knows that might be just you know
8:02
just me being mental or something but I
8:04
just so that's fun
8:14
next is the you know boss TR - tremolo
8:18
this one is analog man modded and the
8:23
reason I have that is you know it was
8:26
used and it was about the same price as
8:28
a new boss one so I just decided to take
8:31
a chance on it with doing some
8:33
comparison with stock ones it just seems
8:37
to be a little clearer sounding and
8:39
comparing it against old older ones it
8:43
seems like the old boss Tremollo had a
8:45
little bit of a gain issue where they
8:47
would drop in volume when you turn it on
8:49
and this one fixes that but of course
8:52
the modern ones don't have that problem
8:53
anyway so I guess the advantage this has
8:55
is it's a little bit clearer in its
8:58
tremolo tone
8:59
here let's turn this baby on of course
9:04
it sounds like a tremolo
9:07
[Music]
9:25
of course I'll turn the speed up when I
9:29
want to get more of like a pops staples
9:31
kind of thing you know then you get more
9:33
of this
9:38
[Music]
9:48
[Laughter]
9:53
yeah so that that's mainly the way I'm
9:55
going to use tremolo I mean if I need to
9:57
lms with the other knob so that the
9:58
speed knob is what I'm gonna mess with
9:59
the most and just go in between those
10:02
two you know settings mainly I'm gonna
10:05
leave the tremolo on and hit the old
10:06
mosstorsion and yeah cuz I love going
10:15
tremolo into Drive because I just I
10:18
think it sounds better
10:19
[Music]
10:38
where's the bat pickup and the old
11:01
tremolo off let you just hear the old
11:03
masse torsion of course I heard about
11:05
the mas torsion from Jeff's in you know
11:08
doing it's just it's it's got like a
11:10
nice fizz on the top of course I did a
11:13
whole episode on the mas torsion I set
11:16
it toward the volume level it's just a
11:18
little bit more than bypass because
11:21
normally of course you're gonna use it
11:22
for a solo or I can just you know back
11:25
off the volume some and clean it up
11:27
so you know so that's the volume backed
11:33
off a little bit so I'm good and then I
11:40
can bring volume up just a little bit
11:41
more
11:42
[Music]
11:53
you do that kind of thing yeah next up
11:59
is the old boss dm3 and I've had this
12:02
I've been using the DM 3 since the early
12:07
90s and I've had DM 2s and I still also
12:11
own a DM 2 and of all the analog delay
12:15
pedals the the DM 3 is kind of my
12:18
favorite of I guess what you would call
12:21
the less expensive ones you know an
12:23
original octopuses are obviously a nice
12:27
pedal but the DM 3 has a really has a
12:31
fairly clear sound the DM 2 that I have
12:34
is very thud II which can be nice for
12:37
certain things but I like the slightly
12:39
clearer sound that the the DM 3 has
12:42
let's see if I can turn this baby on
12:44
alright and this is this is how I
12:49
normally you know set it for you know
12:51
basically kind of a country Vince Gill
12:56
you know Brent Mason you know
13:00
[Music]
13:08
[Music]
13:16
that kind of thing and I like just kind
13:20
of jumping ahead a little bit I like
13:21
having to delays because I can quickly
13:23
switch between that kind of sound and
13:25
and some you know in a longer delay time
13:28
the other thing that I use the dm3 for
13:31
is I will turn the repeats all the way
13:34
up so the maximum number of Pete's and I
13:36
will turn up the delay time as much as
13:37
possible and and the reason I do that is
13:42
to get more of a reverb type effect I
13:46
mean it's not really reverb but and
13:49
that's you know to to make me play less
13:53
and like what you backing up a singer
13:57
and you're wanting to do something
13:58
that's a little more ethereal you know
14:02
you can do
14:06
you
14:08
[Music]
14:47
[Music]
14:53
so that would be the the second point I
14:56
use the dm3
15:00
hit the old Echo Park and I usually set
15:03
this on the on the tape setting and I
15:05
usually set it to the dotted eighth not
15:07
because I'm going to play like the edge
15:09
or something but I like that subdivision
15:12
because it tends to kind of play in
15:14
between the notes that I'm playing and
15:16
kind of fill things out you know so so
15:29
and then also I'll set it to you know
15:38
that would be kind of setting as the the
15:41
dotted eighth they're actually tapping
15:43
it in now this is a fairly easy to use
15:46
easy to find pedal it's like a 100 bucks
15:49
used and these DM 3s or 150 used the
15:53
only effect that's on here that's
15:54
expensive is this Moss torsion and you
15:56
can get the Karma copy or other copies
15:59
for you know 200 bucks so on this one I
16:04
mainly set it on the on the tape setting
16:06
and dotted eighth and sometimes of
16:08
course I'll switch it to the quarter
16:11
note or you know sometimes I'll set it
16:16
to the the swell setting and so that way
16:20
I can kind of get by without using a
16:22
volume pedal you know if I just need it
16:23
for a certain song
16:25
[Music]
16:34
and I really like it for playing this
16:37
harmonics because it's hard enough for
16:41
me I mean some we all may have really
16:43
mastered you know doing this harmonics
16:45
and it's like trying to play a harmonic
16:47
and bend it and also work on volume
16:49
pedal it sometimes you know really
16:50
really hard so having that you know is
16:59
really nice so yeah so those would be
17:04
kind of the ways I use my board like I
17:08
said you know sometimes I'll add another
17:09
effect with the mc2 cable and sometimes
17:14
I'll bring a volume pedal yeah and let
17:17
me show you the the last thing on it
17:20
which is kind of the in some ways the
17:23
heart and I'm sorry I have to move these
17:28
blocks out of the way that are holding
17:30
this in place so this is the true tone
17:40
cs6 and you know this really kind of
17:46
makes this pedal board possible you know
17:50
of course I work for true tone and this
17:53
was a power supply a style of power
17:56
supply that I had requested and
17:58
partially because I wanted it and
18:00
partially because I was hearing more and
18:02
more people that were using a mix of
18:04
analog and digital pedals like Strymon
18:06
or H X's and things like that
18:09
that really needed isolation and you get
18:11
a quieter you know you have a lower
18:14
noise floor with an isolated power
18:16
supply so I had requested this type of
18:20
thing from Bob Wilde the owner and
18:22
founder of true tone and and so he he
18:28
did it and you know and I was I was
18:31
honored that he he chose to do it you
18:34
know because again I had nothing to do
18:35
with the design of this or anything I
18:37
was just the the kid that asked the chef
18:39
you know for a chocolate cake with
18:41
salted caramel icing
18:44
but yes he he made this supply and it's
18:48
made this type of board you know
18:50
possible for me because I really like if
18:53
you can't tell from my videos I really
18:55
don't like noise and I really like to
18:57
have a very low noise floor and so
19:00
having this type of low profile power
19:03
supply made it to where I could really
19:05
do one of these kind of boards and I'm
19:09
grateful for that so thank thank you to
19:11
Bob and you know of course it's got
19:13
different voltages and stuff I'm just
19:15
using straight up nine nine volts but
19:17
you know it's also can do eighteen and
19:19
other stuff so anyway I hope you've
19:23
enjoyed my little walkthrough on my
19:26
pedal board and I hope you all have a
19:28
wonderful week and I'll see you next
19:31
time bye bye