.

darkhorse hate to highjack your thread but you seem to have a lot of knowledge on tubes/amps and I have a bit of a problem maybe you can give your opinion.

I have a Hot Rod Deluxe amp that I have never been thrilled with the tones I get no matter what pedals etc that I use ( Unfortunately I don't have many )

I noticed one of my power tubes has a blue hue to it but I have read this probably doesn't matter. So i deceided to I want to buy I new set of tubes and looked at a package on tubestore.com.

What I am confused about is if I need to bias the amp or not. According to the tubestore website even though the tubes in their package aren't the same ones that came with the amp they are saying that they do not need to be biased and I was wondering if you think that is true or should I have the amp biased for those tubes?

One I'd be interested in hearing about is the EQ pedal. People who use 'em say they're a great tone shaper. I've bought a couple and ended up selling them because I didn't get much use ... but I keep wanting to buy another. :lol: What am I missing? Essential ingredient or just a bit of seasoning for the stew?

Wow, thanks! That was quite an eye / ear full of info!

Well, it looks like no one talks these days. Sort of like tossing a bottle off your island. "...just nod if you can hear me, is there anyone at home?"
I don't have much experience with separate effects (I have a V-amp to mess around with, but no individual pedals to stack in any particular order), but I am listening to what those with experience are saying.
Probably lots like me, too.
Then there's the acoustic folks, probably don't have a lot to share on this topic...

Don't be discouraged. 4 pages in a thread isn't too shabby.

Horsie,

There is a lot of good information in this thread. Since it started I've moved my volume pedal to the end of my pedal chain & started looking at line buffers.

There's a fairly consistent pattern on web forums: newbies get ignored. These boards are much better than most, but still. It all works out over time. You can kill a lot of threads in your first hundred or so posts, then in a few more weeks you could be a moderator. (This has happened to me.) So keep it up!

Back on topic: Talking about pedals got me looking at my rack-mount stuff again. Between pedals & rack units on hand (and the Line 6 Pod 2.0) I have access to a lot of sonic possibilities. Do you combine rack & pedals at all? Are racks totally passe these days? (I never see the big, '80s-Crimson-style racks on stage anymore, but I still see pedalboards a lot. Then again, they don't let me leave the grounds all that often....)

I have no real idea how to put pictures on this site or if you can. There is a IMG option but not sure how to send my pic in here.

Anyone help an old man cross the street?

You can't upload them directly to GuitarNoise.
You need to put them somewhere like a free image host website. My ISP gives me some web space with my account. I also use flickr.com.

Once you have your pictures put somewhere, then you link to them using the IMG tag.
For instance, I have this picture of my son with a mini guitar at Flickr

If I wrap the IMG tag (complete with square brackets) around the address of the picture (not the whole web page)should cause the picture to embed here like this:

There's more info on how to do fancy stuff in a forum post here

My biggest issue right now is trying to decide whether to put my Chorus in front of or after the delay. I have always put modulator units before echo, school of thought being to echo the chorus or other modulator rather than feed the echo repeats into the varying sweep of the moving chorus, seems to make more sense. However, I see the Visual Sound dual H20 pedal has their delay before the chorus, I am puzzled, surely they brainstormed this a bit before deciding. Does it sound better????? Any thoughts out there? I just cannot decide. I am used to the Chorus into the Delay and perhaps I am used to this config in controlling and using it.

I had been using chorus before the delay, the traditional way. My delay pedals, however, have a "modulation" feature which, on some of the settings, is basically a chorus effect applied to the repeats. I like that sound, quite a bit, delay into chorus. Not quite the same as what you've got, but it works quite well for me.

While those rigid connectors do make for a very clean, compact setup, what do you know about long-term reliability?
I would think that small amounts of motion in the pedals (such as from aggressively stomping, or vibration during transport) over time would cause damage to either the rigid plugs or the jacks on the pedals.

Unless the alignment is very good, and the mounting of the pedals doesn't allow for movement (for instance bolted firmly to the pedal board),that is.
Or is there some flex built into those couplers?

That said, i would expect the offset ones to be a bit more forgiving than the straight ones.

We have a problem in common! 8)

Industrial Velcro a) doesn't provide especially sure connection to the board, and b) pulls off the OEM stickers from my pedals, which are all either vintage or just old, depending on point of view. In considering my new pedalboard, I found a metal mending brace at Ace Hardware (p/n 5292040). They're 2x1 1/2", holes are 1 3/8 " center to center. I figured, screw a couple to bottoms of boxes where rubber feet should go, then screw 'em to the board.

Problem is, several of my pedals have no rubber feet. For those, I'm looking at releasable cable ties made by Eagle Plastic Products and sold by Mouser Electronics ( http://www.mouser.com ). The longest tie is 11 1/2', long enough to tie down even my largest boxes. They're releasable, so you can move stuff around easily. Cables would secure to the board... somehow. Still on the drawing board.

Any better suggestions are more than welcome.

So darkhorse you've got me interested in the Rocktron Metal Planet pedal but what is this BBE sonic maximizer? Is that a sperate pedal you also run in your lineup and is that required to get the tone from the Rocktron or is the Rocktron good on it's own?

what mod did you make to your v3?

So there you have it a huge board for like $25 worth of wood and attached w/ simple cable tie downs. It's not going on tour w/ Megadeth but serves to look pretty cool in my studio.

Beautiful board!

Just to clarify: You aren't using those screw-tab things from the European company? Just the cable tie downs?

I got this idea but just looking at the cable tie downs and thought if I drilled another hole on the bottom flat I might be able to screw these down into the board. And it worked.

An elegant solution to the problem, and one I plan to steal, so please don't file any patents on the method just yet. 8)