New Pedalboard- Back to Basics

[newey]

My existing pedalboard has 6 pedals on it. It has a chorus pedal that I rarely use, except when plugging in with an acoustic, and a fuzz I really never use. And, over the past months, I've been playing around with the order of things, swapping some different pedals in/out of the picture.

I finally decided that, while I'll keep the existing pedalboard for occasional use, I wanted to simplify things and to have a separate pedalboard with just the absolute basics. I wanted it to be portable.

I had 2 Boss pedals which were going to be a part of this for sure- a TR-2 Tremolo pedal and an SD-1 SuperDrive. And, quite handily, Boss makes a plastic pedalboard case to take 3 of their pedals, with a daisy chain (power supply sold separately, but I had a Boss one already anyway).

I ordered this for myself as a sort-of Christmas present. My wife and I decided we wouldn't buy gifts for each other this past Christmas- but we didn't say anything about gifts for ourselves! But these were back ordered at MF, so I just got it last week.

It holds 3 pedals, and I had 2 of my go-to pedals for it- what about the third? The third, to me, had to be a reverb pedal. My stripped-down board would have a trem, a 'verb, and an OD pedal- the three things that ought to be onboard any amp, as far as I am concerned. But even when you can find an amp with all three, chances are they're not all footswitcheable.

So, I bought a Boss FRV-1, the "Fender '63 Reverb" pedal. He's the new rig:



I like the reverb pedal, and the whole rig, quite a bit. Each of these pedals has a simple three knobs, without any futsy toggles or other distractions. Being all Boss pedals, the knob layout is similar across all three.

And the power supply and cables all go in neatly and it closes up to a small case for transport. My only gripe is that the lid should detach from the base, so it could be put aside while the board is in use.

The '63 Reverb pedal isn't going to go head-to-head with the real thing, but it's definitely one of the better reverb pedals I've tried. I suppose there's never going to be a substitute for an actual tank, but the pedal has that "drippy" reverb sound to it.

The order here is Trem > Reverb > OD, as I thought that sounded the most logical way to do things, but I'm open to suggestion on the order.

[sumgai]

I did a head-to-head comparison of the FRV-1 to my own gen-u-wine FRU, and there was almightly little difference! IMO, the FRV-1 is hands-down the best runner-up, for those who can't afford the real thing, or for those who don't want to take expensive (and more fragile) equipment out of the house and on the road.

Let's face it, in a recording scenario, you the player can tell the difference, but those listening your productions might not be able to, depending on many factors. But for live, on-stage presentations, I challenge anyone that's captured more than one beer to tell me which is which, and I won't even blind-fold you.... the FRV-1 is that good.

IMHO, of course.

FWIW





sumgai,
the Dick Dale wannabe

[JohnH]

A nice little setup. I tried one of those FRV-1's in a shop and was very impressed, especially when combined with their Bassman pedal. I liked that better than the Twin reverb pedal, which I was hoping would cover both.

Have you tried it with the OD first? That would have been my guess. And what do you feed all that into? - did you come to terms with the Micro terror? or do you run a clean amp after that?

[newey]

Thanks, John. I'll have to try putting the OD first.

I've been using it with all the different amps, including the Micro Terror. I don't know that I've "come to terms" with it but for now it's still there and I'm still using it.

My original pedalboard held station in front of the Peavey, and that's mostly where the new rig gets plugged in as well. The onboard reverb on the Peavey is pretty good, but it's not footswitchable and the single knob doesn't give you the ability to mix in the reverb as on the FRV-1.

The Peavey is very clean the way I usually set it up. As with most Peaveys, it has that pre- and post- thing going on and a "saturation" knob, so it will get as dirty as one likes it with the twist of a couple of knobs. But if one leaves the preamp idling, keeps the saturation at "0", and just uses the power amp "post" knob, it has a great clean sound for a SS amp.

I will probably ditch the Micro Terror at some point, and one of those Fender reissue Deluxe Reverbs is definitely in my future whenever I get an extra $1000 lying around that I don't have a use for ( ). The Peavey had to earn its place in the line-up, and it has done so. That amp isn't going anywhere, regardless of what else comes and goes. . .

Of course, there aren't a huge number of songs where one switches in the reverb in mid-riff, although the Beatles "I Feel Fine" is one I play often. George cut the 'verb in at one point in the main riff on that.

I understand that tastes change, and amp manufacturers have to change with the times as well. But I sure like the sound of a little "shimmer" of tremolo with just a touch of reverb for depth. It's getting doggone tough to find a new amp with onboard trem and reverb both- the Fender reissues and the Vox AC series amps are about the only ones.

The Boss TR-2 pedal nails the old trem sounds. Of course, this is probably an easier task, electronically, than re-creating the tube reverb sound. Which may explain why the reverb pedal was a lot more expensive!

Or, perhaps it's more because Boss has to pay a big licensing fee to Fender?

sg, I'm heartened by your comparison of the two reverbs. I'm going strictly by memory of hearing the real FRU, it's easily been 35 years since I actually played through one and that was only very briefly. In addition to durability of the pedal, it also takes up a whole lot less space!

Previously, I used a pair of Dano pedals, a "slap echo" and a vibrato. I still have these, and they're OK for what they are. But vibrato isn't tremolo, and echo is not reverb!

[sumgai]

I have to caution one and all that not every Fender Reverb Unit is created the exact same. Even in my own experience, some of them sound "just plain better" than others, at least to my ears. But that degree of difference is minimal, especially when compared to the "FRU-wannabe" stuff made by a whole host of companies that try to get away without a spring-loaded tank.

Experience and fore-knowledge of how Roland/Boss operates tells me that they invested a lot, and I mean a helluva lot of time into developing the algorithms for this thing. Yes, it is digital, make no mistake. (As are the other two units in this series, the Bassman and the Deluxe Reverb.) But I challenge.... no, I defy anyone to engage with me in a blind-fold test, and to pick out which is which with any statistically meaningful results - the units are that good.

This is why Boss can command the big bux at the checkout stand - they invested more than just a box of Twinkies and a case of beer into their programming staff, in order to come up with the correct algorithms, meaning, the ones that work so well as to be virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

And insofar as I know, Fender has no lock on how to generate or how to use the reverb sound(s) - I seriously doubt there can be any licensing questions, beyond the use of their name on the tin.

HTH





sumgai

[newey]

Well, I meant licensing the name on the tin.

[ashcatlt]

Jan 30, 2013 6:39:09 GMT -5 newey said:

...vibrato isn't tremolo...

Tell that to Leo!