Build Log: Bass Pedal Board build

19/06/17

Terry Relph-Knight copyright reserved.

This pedal board was commissioned to easily mimic the bass sounds of Roger Waters for a Pink Floyd tribute concert tour. The pedals used were already owned by the client. The intention of the board was to provide a durable, compact and portable effects package that could be easily set up at each performance. A prime requirement was that the client needed to have three basses plugged in to the pedal board, with each one easily selected by foot switch and that the pedal board provide a DI output, as well as an amplifier feed. Bass selection was accomplished using a Boss LS-2 Line Selector and a SansAmp Bass Driver Deluxe DI provided the DI and amplifier feed.

A Warwick Stage welded aluminium frame was chosen for the base, with power provided by a MEMTEQ Caline Power 5 switching power supply. Two of these supplies were purchased, one as a back-up. The pedals were attached to the base with mushroom stud Power Grip super velcro and Warwick flat Rockboard cables used for the pedal interconnects.

Warwick Step up wedges were fitted along the back of the Stage base, raising the SansAmp Bass Driver Deluxe DI, the delay, tremolo and EQ pedals for easy access to their foot switches.

Since the client was using his pedals almost continuously, the board layout had to be designed through a process of sending a series of emails back and forth, with final assembly completed in one day.

A couple of the pedals, the Korg Pitch Black tuner and the EHX Big Muff, had seen hard use and required some minor repairs.

Pedal Function

Korg Pitch Black Tuner Tuner – mutes through path signal when activated

Boss OC-3 Super octave Frequency or pitch change – 1 octave and 2 octaves down

Has a polyphonic mode, dry/wet mix and can add distortion – 50mA

Big Muff Pi Fuzz type distortion (analogue)100mA
Nano Bass balls Filter – twin envelope filter (analogue)100mA
MXR cps 1974 Phase 90 Modulation – phase or notch filter (analogue) no LED – 2.2mA
Boss TR-2 Tremolo Modulation – amplitude (analogue)
TC Flashback Mini Delay Ambience – Delay (digital) 100mA has Toneprint BUT as far as I can see you can only program it with one Toneprint at a time and that sets the character of the pedal until you re-programme it. Some of the other TC pedals have a selector switch with positions for several Toneprints as well as various other modes. So if you load up an Echoplex Toneprint then the pedal acts like an Echoplex until re-programmed.

SansAmp Bass Driver Deluxe DI – 7mA

Boss LS-2 Line Selector / Looper – a two loop switching pedal. This can switch two loops in various selectable combinations – in parallel Loop A or Loop B or both, in series Loop A or Loop B or both. Or it can be used as an A or B to Y / Y to A or B switch. For example one input to two outs (to two amplifiers for example).

Behringer BEQ700 (its the boss copy)

Client needs to use three basses, to easily switch between them and may need to be able to drive two amplifiers. A DI output is also needed. This will be accomplished by using the BOSS LS-2 as a three way input selector and the SansAmp Bass Driver as a tone modifier with the effects in its FX loop and the two parallel outs and the DI out used for all the outputs.

Latest pedal layout scheme

Bass 1 into BOSS LS-2 FX return A, Bass 2 into BOSS LS-2 FX return B, Bass 3 into BOSS LS-2 input (via BEQ700 EQ pedal). With the mode selector set to A>B>Bypass, repeatedly clicking the foot switch on the LS-2 cycles through these inputs as indicated by a Green light for A, a Red light for B and no lights for Input/Bypass.

The output of the LS-2 feeds the Korg Pitch Black Tuner.

The output of the tuner goes to the input of the Tech21 SansAmp Bass Driver Deluxe DI.

The following effects go in this order into the FX loop of the SansAmp –

Boss OC-3 Super octave

Big Muff Pi Nano Bass balls MXR cps 1974 Phase 90 Boss TR-2 Tremolo TC Flashback Mini Delay (note – ‘One of these days’ may require Trem after Delay)

PedalTrain boards

PedalTrain say that for 9 to 12 pedals a Novo 24 or a Classic 2 board should be big enough.

Looks like a Novo24 is the one, at £179 from Scan with flight case.

WidthLengthConnectorsCurrent

Behringer BEQ700 7 12 L,R power on side 30mA 9V

BOSS LS-2 7.3 12.9 L,R power on back 25mA 9V

Korg Pitch Black Tuner 6.8 12 L,R power on back 120mA 9V

Boss OC-3 Super octave 7.3 12.9 L,R power on back 50mA 9V

Bass Big Muff Pi 14.4 15.9 L,R power on back 3mA 9V
Nano Bass balls 7 11.5 L,R power on back 3mA 9V MXR cps 1974 Phase 90 6.5 11 L,R power on side 2.2mA 9V
Boss TR-2 Tremolo 7.3 12.9 L,R power on back 20mA 9V
TC Flashback Mini Delay4.89.3L,R power on side100mA 9V

Tech21 SansAmp BD DI 24.8 13.4 L,R & Back 7mA 9V

Power supply requires 10 outputs and total current of – 360.2mA

Or without the BEQ700 and with a loop lead from the tuner, 8 outs and 330.2mA

Cioks DC10 – 8 x 9V out £187.14  from Thomann

T-Rex Fuel Tank Classic – 8 x 9V out £111.42 from Thomann

Memteq Caline Power 5 – 8 x 9V out £26.99 on Amazon Prime BUT it takes 18V in from a wart

Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus – 8 x 9V fully isolated outputs (the downside is it is not auto mains switching and comes in either 100, 120 or 240V models)

Width L to R

Nano Bass balls 7

MXR cps 1974 Phase 90 6.5

Bass Big Muff Pi 14.4

Boss OC-3 Super octave 7.3

Korg Pitch Black Tuner 6.8

BOSS LS-2 7.3

6 pairs of jacks @ 4.5 27

  Total 76.3

Depth front to back

Bass Big Muff Pi 15.9

Tech21 SansAmp BD DI 13.4

Power jack on back of Muff 2

Total31.3

Clients Notes

My mock up fits into 62cm length x 40cm deep. Nope 62 by 30 

“One Of These Days”
Sounds like the delay with quite a bit of saturation, (so I may add the big muff for grunt)
The Phase 90 is on all the time I think..
So even though I will use the Phase 90 and the Big Muff separately on other tunes,
on ‘One Of These Days’ I will need to engage the Phase, Muff, and delay preferably in one switch
And then the TR-2 Tremolo, (at the end of the chain?) I can press separately for the second sound.
I Also need to keep the dry signal strong within the sound until I activate the tremolo which takes over the whole signal.

I may need a another bass overdrive Terry as well, maybe you could help me with this?
Just so once the big Muff is set for its roles, I can have a secondary drive pedal of a different kind
for other stuff. Actually the SansAmp bass driver does this stuff so maybe I need to dial in a preset for that… Yes, Mmm..

On other gigs I do I often use a Boss synth pedal ( believe it or not….!) and a second Octaver.
So I wonder will I just be able to interchange those pedals when I need to?

If it’s of any use, I have a an interesting pedal here too, Its the Boss LS-2 Line Selector.
It does loads of interesting things. It may be worth having a look if your not familiar.
It may help my cause I’m not sure.
I was hoping to use two amps on this gig if they will let me. I’m not 100 percent, but I think I could use the LS-2 to switch between amps according to the manual I downloaded.
I’d be happy to know what you think Terry.

Measured 20/06/17

60cm wide

32cm front to back with clearance

with no clearance

57

28

but with 3cm between

HotRox

Warwick STAGE board 61 by 31 £149 with flight case

http://www.hotroxuk.com/warwick-rockboard-stage-61x31cm-board-with-flight-case.html

Warwick Rockboard Step Up 1 14 x 8 x 2 cm £10.99

Warwick Rockboard Step Up 2 14 x 17 x 2 cm £12.99

Warwick Rockboard Step Up 3 14 x 25 x 2 cm  £13.99

Or all three at £19.95

GAK 

Warwick STAGE board 61 by 31 by 7cm £140 with flight case

PedalTrain Classic 2 (60.9×31.7×8.9 cm) with flight case £149

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/effects-pedalboards-and-cases

Board and cables order

Ordered 2 MEMTEQ Caline Power 5 switching power supplies via Amazon on 28/06/17

Already delivered on the 29^th.

£53.98 

Ordered on 03/07/17 from Hot Rox order no 100074408

1 x Warwick Stage pedalboard with flight case – £149

1 x set of all three step up brackets – £19.95

2 x 1M rolls of Power Grip super velcro – £19.98

Free Royal Mail 1^st class delivery

Total £ 188.93

paid by HSBC Visa card 

Ordered on 04/07/17 from Gear4Music W1961703

Rockboard flat cables

6 x 10cm £18

2 x 20cm £6.98

2 x 30cm £8.00

1 x 60cm £4.99

Post and packing £ 5.99

Total £43.96

Grand total – £286.86 leaving £104.13

Latest board layout 20/06/17

Left to right physical layout

Upper – Tech21 SansAmp BD DI (on a Step Up 3), Boss TR-2 Tremolo (on a Step Up 1), Bass Big Muff PI (on a Step Up 2), Behringer EQ. Connections between these are 2 x 10cm Rockboard flat cables between the SansAmp return and the Tremolo and between the Tremolo and the Big Muff. 1 x 30cm between the SansAmp send and the Big Muff. 1 x 20cm between the Behringer EQ and the Boss LS-2 in the lower row. 1 x 60cm between the SansAmp input and the output from the TC delay in the lower row. 

Lower – TC Flashback Mini Delay, MXR 1974 Phase 90, Nano Bass balls, Boss OC-3 Super octave, Korg Pitch Black Tuner, BOSS LS-2. Connections between these are by 5 x 10cm Rockboard flat cables.

That leaves 1 x 20cm and 1 x 30cm unused from the order and I contributed one 10cm of my own.

Power connections – The Behringer EQ power is daisy chained from the back of the LS-2 and the Big Muff is daisy chained from the back of the Korg Pitch Black Tuner. All other pedals are wired back to the MEMTECH Caline Power 5.

10 pedals in total

Connection order

Jazz bass into the EQ into the BOSS LS-2 FX input, Bass 2 into BOSS LS-2 FX return A, Bass 3 into BOSS LS-2 return B

EQ into Tuner

Tuner to Octave

Octave to Bass Balls

Bass Balls to Phaser

Phaser to Delay

Delay to Sans Amp input A

Sans Amp send to Big Muff

Big Muff to Tremolo

Tremolo to Sans Amp return

Serial numbers removed when rubber back was peeled off 

Behringer Bass EQ N0532087400 date 0509

Boss LS-2 DS56680

Boss OC-3 Super octave AS11107

Boss Tremolo TR-2 R 1H2962

(Rockboard cables available as 10cm £3, 20cm £3.49, 30cm £4.00 and 60cm £4.99)

7 x 10cm Rockboard patch cables @ £3 = £21

1 x 20cm £3.49

1 x 30cm £4.00

1 x 60cm £4.99

Plus some spare cables

Parts ordered

28/06/17 – 2 x Memteq Caline 5 power supplies via Amazon £53.98 due tomorrow

Warwick board, flight case, set of risers, 2M of Power Grip

Another 1M of Power Grip tape ordered from Hot Rox on 17/07/17 £13.99

Repairs

Korg Pitch Black tuner – Resprayed the case with matte black paint. Tightened up the very loose foot switch plunger. Polished the scratches out of the display window.

Big Muff – fitted washers to and tightened the loose foot switch.