Multi Pedal of Doom, opinions wanted..

[hammerheadmusicman]

So, I'm away for the summer on a gig, and am getting serious withdrawal symptoms, so i have done lots of Eagle designing, and am getting a lot of small runs of boards done.

So, on to the "Multi pedal of doom". I have this idea to put a load of pedals in one box, so that i can just take that to a gig, dump it on the floor, plug in the power, and away i go. Obviously it's not to replace either my big board, or my pedal train nano, but i think it'd be really useful!

So, i have 4 main questions..

A) What to put in a 'ready for most scenarios' multi..

This is what i am thinking so far

1) Boss TU 2, gutted - and the screen screwed down, I saw it on a thread here maybe?
2) Compressor (Afterlife)
3) Fatpants v2 (clean tone secret weapon)
4) Shoot the Moon Tremelo (I'm having some 1590A boards fabbed)
5) Nautilus (amazing pedal - I've done an SMD layout in eagle that fits easily in a 125b or maybe 1590b can't remember)
6) Klon Centaur (True Bypass)
7) Zen Drive (I'm having some 1590A boards fabbed)
Zero Point Micro/Cave Dweller (not sure on that one)
9) Boost - Maybe Thunderpuss

As you can see, a lot of the boards are quite small, ish..

B) What enclosure would i need, perhaps a looper type enclosure?

C) Is there an issue with having that many charge pumps running of one power supply?

D) Does anyone out there have any information on a True Bypass conversion for the TU 2


Any information would be massively appreciated, on either on what should or should not be in there, circuit order etc...

EDIT - I've not built the Zero point micro, so opinions on that circuit would be good as well. Also, does anyone know if a tap tempo is easily rigged up with the ZPM?

Thanks dudes

George

[jkokura]

Here's a quick question. Are you a knob fiddler? Or do you set knobs and leave them?

If you're the former, I don't think my idea will work for you.

However, if you're the latter consider having no knobs, just trim pots. That way, you can have external switches, and use a 1590D enclosure. Eight switches is easy to get on there, you could prbably even go with 10. And, since you're not using knobs, it means you don't have lower costs too.

It would be a bit of a hassle to setup though, because in order to get your pedals sounding the way you'd like, you'd have to experiment, fiddle, and tweak for a while in an awkward way (back removed, flip it over, fiddle, turn it back over, play again, flip it over, etc.). It wouldn't be perfect, but then, when you get to the gig, you slap it down, plug in, and play.

Just a thought.

Jacob

[hammerheadmusicman]

Thanks Jacob,

unfortunately i'm a knob fiddler (man that sounds weird!). However, to save some space on the front the afterlife, fatpants, and thunderpuss could all be set with internal trimpots.

George

[jkokura]

With that many effects and switches and knobs, I think you're going to have to go bigger than a 1590D/DD, which means I don't know if you'll be able to find a box easily. Or, you could go the route of using multiple enclosures. But that sort of defeats the purpose.

Jacob

[midwayfair]

My biggest recommendation is: Consider forgoing true bypass altogether in something this complicated. You need to make certain you don't have any impedance issues between various pedals, because it's going to be a pain to replace stuff if you need to.

There's a lot of redundancy here, even if it's not obvious. You could do some fun things like leaving out the dry path circuitry from the delays and just splicing the delay path into, say, the Fatpants or Klone. Also, do you really need a Thunderpus on a board with both the Fatpants and the Klone?

[Hangingmonkey]

Multicomp G124MF

http://www.newark.com/multicomp/g124mf/box-diecast-222x146x55mm/dp/55T2820

Its got flanges either side so you can stick handles on them = cool!

[hammerheadmusicman]

Jon, Yes the Fatpants and thunderpuss are for different things. The Fatpants is a preamp, for the tasty active midrange that you get on the clean tone with a strat, the thunderpuss is just a boost to 'make me louder' for solos and lead work. The Fatpants could deffo get away with having a trimpot for the volume, and just have the 'Fat' on the front.

You bring up a good point about the delay signal, that warrants some thought. Are the other redundancies you are talking about with the two drives, i just like those two, and i need more than one drive on board, to be set at different gain settings.

The G124MF may work, but what do you guys think about using one of the 'looper' enclosures (cant remember the number), as it will be long enough for all the switches.

[GermanCdn]

Personally, I'd dump the TU-2 to get a little more room.  You can pick up the Planet Waves headstock tuners for cheap and they do the job, and unless you're like me and bring 6 guitars to an eight song set, you can get by with a couple per gig.  Alternately, you could put a tuner bypass out on the front end, which would also serve to silence the unit if you wanted to.

As far as enclosures go, I've got two similar projects at the 80% completed (got shelved when I got sick a few months back, and haven't got back to them for no particular reason), you can stick about 5 3PDTs in a NS-1032 looper enclosure.  The beauty of those is you can mount the two knobs you use the most on the horziontal face, and the less common ones on the vertical face, still allowing you to be a knob turner.  You'd need a couple, but you could do it.

Stick a couple of fx loops between the fx (ie. two stereo jacks which have normally closed contacts when no cable is present).  That gives you the ability to drop a few fx in strategic places later if you want to.  When I build comp/boost combos, I always run a loop between the two, so I can stick an EQ/Filter/Wah/whatever if I want to.

I'd put a reverb in too, either a rub a dub, or a Tenebrion, either should work in those enclosures.

[hammerheadmusicman]

i have a DR Z Maz Reverb, and the reverb on it sounds great, so there would be no need for a reverb, i agree about the effects loop. i know what you mean about the tuner, but i like the idea of having a tuner built in to it. The headstock tuners aren't accurate enough for me, i had a custom made intonated nut fitted to my strat, so that the chords at the bottom of the neck are more in tune, perhaps i'll just put a loop in for a tuner, as i use a planet waves strobe tuner.

i think i will have the fatpants at the start, set with two internal trimmers, and always on, just as a preamp.

save some space on the front, and i never turn it off anyway!

[DutchMF]

Stick a couple of fx loops between the fx (ie. two stereo jacks which have normally closed contacts when no cable is present).  That gives you the ability to drop a few fx in strategic places later if you want to.  When I build comp/boost combos, I always run a loop between the two, so I can stick an EQ/Filter/Wah/whatever if I want to.

This. And with one dedicated for the TU-2, that would solve a bunch of problems, like fuzzes that don't like a buffer before them. Or just use a headstock tuner....

Paul

[hammerheadmusicman]

my planet waves tuner is true bypass, but i was toying with converting the tuner to true bypass too.

[hammerheadmusicman]

The only reason i was going to go with a TU2, is because you can just take it out of it's enclosure, cut a square hole and the 4 allen screws screw it down, it would look sweet.

[kothoma]

What? No DIY tuner?

[juansolo]

Careful having multiple effects in the same enclosure running charge pump. They can hetrodyne. It's been a proper pain in the arse on a couple of my builds.

[midwayfair]

Careful having multiple effects in the same enclosure running charge pump. They can hetrodyne. It's been a proper pain in the arse on a couple of my builds.

You know, he could just tap the Klone at the 18v out ...

Using the LT1054 with pin 1 bend out seems like the best call. You could almost run the whole shooting match at 18v with a single 1054.

Oh, you asked for opinions on the Zero Point: it's excellent, and the modulation is perfect with the depth reduced slightly.