How you can get the most from a Grab & Go - Fly Pedalboard - ASK ZAC - 28

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