Dox
19 posts
Sep 18, 2017
8:52 AM
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BACKGROUND
In a recent post I'm looking for a right pedals spot and now I've the answer :D I want to review my pedalboard in order to show my choices for those who want to adopt a system that largely excludes the use of the amplifier and goes straight to the PA.
I tried some integrated guitar pedalboard and their quality and usability for harp. Well, I tried the TC Electronic Nova System and Zoom G3. Briefly, the part of the environment (reverb and delay) can be good, as well as the intervention on the equalizer bands. The compression and overdrive aspects, however, found them unusable and really poor. In short, for those who want to spend a little with a good amp for harmonica, this can be a viable road.
Personally, I want to avoid the use of amplifiers for a matter of convenience in transportation and adaptability / versatility to situations. Surely I will also buy an amplifier for certain situations, but the pedal in question is predominantly designed to fit best the PA. That said, let's start with the description!
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MICROPHONES
Let's go in order, following the chain of elements. First of all, the microphones! As you will understand, the pedals will accept two types of microphones at the same time: high and low impedance. The low microphone is Audix Fireball V, while the high one is the very good italian Bluex Lab Crystal.
Before the first pedal, there is a "stage 0": I made a panel with two XLR inputs, one for high impedance microphone and one for low impedance. Both inputs are brought to the first pedal with a special split cable: on the microphone side we have a female jack with an impedance adapter that is connected to the XLR panel for LowZ microphones and a female XLR that goes to the XLR panel for HighZ microphones. In this way you can have 2 microphones connected at one time (...or only one obviously).
PEDAL
1-> 2. Lone Wolf Harp Break -> Lone Wolf Harp Octave: The Harp Break is well know, useless to spend words. The octave would say it is less known. Indeed, at the expense of the name, it can not be considered a classic octaver. It will adopt an "octave" system, but the result is to generate a vintage tone, like a kind of dirty booster. I put these two pedals together just because they work virtually always at the same time in my optics. They are both active when vintage tone is needed: the octave helps to get the "honky" sound through the PA, while the harp break determines the amount of saturation and low frequencies. The octave between 8 and 11, while the harp break between 11 and 15 allow me to get a wide range of really good vintage shades (and without valves !!: D).
-> 3. Keeleey Compressor Pro: Pedal studio compression. It is in my opinion very useful with the low impedance microphone, especially during recording to avoid large "post-production" make-ups, but also live helps to maintain an "homogeneity" of the sound. This, however, only applies to LowZ microphones. For HighZ microphones it is unsuitable because it "sucks" (even at low settings) the vintage tone of the microphone itself. I have to say that I'm fought on the compression factor, I can decide to eliminate this stage.
-> 4. Source Audio Digital EQ: "Always on" pedal! Digital multiband equalizer with 4 presets!!! Outstanding pedal, incredible quality/price/versatility. Strongly recommended and functional for the harmonica. With its 4 presets it is possible to call up the right equalization with a "foot shot" also according to the microphone used!
-> 5. Ehx Pitch Fork: This is a real octaver, but not only, this is a terrific pitch machine that can enrich the note with all the typical ranges: 1 to 3 octaves, 4th and 5th perfect, etc ... It's not a fundamental pedal, but it's fun and opens up a lot of endless experiments! From the sound of "organ" (it's spectacular !!) to a "detune violin" effect, up to the "robot talk". Apart from its "extreme" uses, it can be effectively used to "fatten" the sound, keeping low setup values. For example, using an octave (maybe setting the eighth low ONLY) and setting the blend to a minimum (about 8 o'clock) it is possible to get a rich sound: the octave is almost imperceptible to the ear of the listener but the note is clearly whiter and harmonic.
-> 6 -> 7. Mxr Carbon Copy Delay Bright -> Lone Wolf Spring Reverb: Another 2 pedals "always on"! As in the case of the first two pedals, these two work often together to get the best "environmental effect". The Lone Wolf Spring Reverb is great: all the world speaks very well about this pedal and we can not be said otherwise. Simple and effective. In my opinion it reaches an unthinkable quality by coupling it to the Mxr Carbon Copy Delay Bright! It is a classic to introduce a delay to "enhance" the effect of fullness, depth and corpusity of the note given by the reverb. This Mxr works very well in this way, keeping very low values: for example, by resetting the regen parameter, 8 o'clock delay, and mix between 10 and 12. This one can enhance and lead the reverb effect to a superior stage!
-> 8. BBE Sonic Maximizer: "always on"! Pedal became famous thanks to Jason Ricci. I have to say that it actually provides an "extra ride" to its own sound. Hard to explain what it is: it's a kind of dual band enhancer that "amplifies" (to me it seems in non-linear way) low and high frequencies.
-> 9. Palmer PDI09: Outstanding Passive DI Box! It's crucial to the versatility of the pedalboard: it lets you get out to the PA or to the amplifier, or both if you want to mix the sounds !! It also features a "speaker simulation" filter that can be set as normal/mellow/bright. This switch is surprisingly effective for harmonica, especially for the PA: in bright mode it helps to get more "trumpet style" sound, while in mellow mode it helps to get more blues/muddy sound.
SUPPORTS AND MISCELLANEOUS
To finish two words on power, wiring and pedal: everything is powered by a CIOKS DC10. Since I started using the CIOKS power supplies (several years ago with the electric bass!) I no longer used anything to power the pedals! Silent, powerful, versatile.
The pedals are wired with modular Planet Waves cables, similar to the famous G & L but in my opinion much better!
The pedalboard is a Temple Audio DUO 17. Temple Audio are Canadian pedalboard maker: the best pedalboard on the market (always IMHO).
Finally, someone will be asked: yes ... but how much money?!? REALLY TOO MUCH! I admit that everything has a waste cost (some things I had for the bass and recycled it ...), though the quality and versatility that you can get is really up to top !! You can't able to get this quality with other integrated solutions (as I said at the beginning of the review). For those who use the classic amplifier to achieve the chicago sound, it's absolutely useless, but for those who want to try having fun with the harmonica in search of even more modern sounding and extreme versatility, this is the way I think to go through!
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BYE!
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