We recently put this pedalboard together for a local player currently playing in a cover band and writing original material.
The wide variety of material that has to be covered & the flexibility to respond to requests we important criteria to the player, as such we built a series wired system in a "4CM" configuration.
For rental amp situations where there may not be an effects loop on the amp we built in some functionality that helps the player flex with the hardware available at the moment. There is a 4CM vs Series wiring switch in the latching connection In & Out box. When the Switch is in the "4CM" position, Delay & Reverb are placed in the signal chain after the pre-amp stage of the amplifier.
When in "Series" mode the Amp's Effects Loop is disconnected from the signal path and the Output of the Delay & Reverb is routed to the input of the Amplifier.
The TC Electronic Flashback X4 & the Strymon Blue Sky Reverb are connected to the system in the "4 Wire" or "Series"configurations through a Jonny Rock Gear "Ze Mixette". This pedal is a great tool for getting the most nuanced use of the Delay & Reverb by blending the "Dry" Signal with the "Wet" Signal in Parallel with a variable mix control.
The player doesn't need to worry about passing "Dry" signal from the Delay & Reverb, but rather tweak the effects for only the effect and combines a 100% Dry signal with the Wet. Whether the Ze Mixette is in the 4 Wire or Series position, the "point" of every note hits the amplifier with a parallel feed of pristine Delays & Reverbs.
To expand the range of tones available to the player, we built a Signal Order Reversing Switch between the Wah & the Nova Drive-Disnortion-Big Muff chain. By stepping on a switch the player can place the Wah before or after the OD's & Fuzzes.
In 4 Wire Mode (Wah First) the Signal flow is;
Guitar > Wah > Nova Drive > Disnortion > Big Muff > Compressor > Clean Boost with Tuner Split > Uni Vibe > Phase 90 > Flanger > Amp Input > Amp Send > Ze Mixette > Delay > Reverb > Mute > Amp Return
In Series Mode (Wah First) the Signal flow is;
Guitar > Wah > Nova Drive > Disnortion > Big Muff > Compressor > Clean Boost with Tuner Split > Uni Vibe > Phase 90 > Flanger > Ze Mixette > Delay > Reverb > Mute > Amp Input.
The TC Electronic Flashback X4 allows the player to have 3 different Delays & a Looper available with minimal programming. The Nova Drive gives the player 18 different combinations & routings of Distortion and OverDrive. A wide variety of sounds in a compact space without using MIDI.
The Strymon Blue Sky & it's "Favorite" switch give the user 2 different studio quality Reverbs from a choice of Room, Plate or Spring style with Modulation & Shimmer options.
The Pigtronix Disnortion is ran at 18V for the highest headroom and best tone. We series wired 2 9VDC taps on the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 4x4 to output 18VDC.
We modified the Jim Dunlop JH1 Wah to True Bypass with Blue LED's added. We also added parallel Input, Output & DC jacks to save space in the board lay out.
