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For the nerds

The Gig Rig

THE LOOPING BOARD (left side)

Sitting on a Rockboard 4.1 (with installed Mod 3 V2) is:

  • TC Polytune 3 Noir Mini Tuner

  • Boss OC-5

  • Caline Queen Bee Overdrive

  • Boss DD-200

  • Zoom 100-BT (discontinued, but still rocking out after over a decade!)

  • RC-600

  • Nux Switch-2

  • Fender Engine Room 12 power supply

Signal chain is primarily in the order above, however there are tweaks:

Boss OC-5 pedal.

  • The main OUTPUT leads directly into the RC-600 Input 1 (L) so that it is not effected by any of the subsequent effects in the chain. I do not want the bass signals generated to be effected by the overdrive or reverb pedals.

  • I run the DIRECT OUT (which is a clean signal, unprocessed by the OC-5) into the Caline Queen Bee:

Boss DD-200 delay.

  • I have this connected via midi to the RC-600, to receive the timing clock so it automatically syncs the delays to suit to active loops.

  • This then connects to the RC-600 Input 2 (R).

Nux Switch-2

  • connected to the RC-600, I have 2 quick actions set with

    • "A" programmed as a CLEAR ALL CHANNELS

    • "B" programmed as a UNDO

I've also reprogrammed the RC-600 button layout to suit my needs. I love that it’s customisable like that.

Since this photo, I have also added pedal toppers that make it really feel more like the RC-300 which I love.

The Mod 3 added is vital to this board’s setup. You can set up the ports to be input/output to suit your needs.

  • 3 TS OUTPUTS are used for:

    • one signal to be sent to the VOCAL BOARD

    • one signal to be sent to the MIXER

    • a spare one so when Taylor is singing with me (I’ve built her a duplicate Vocal Board) she can also receive the guitar signal for her harmonies.

  • XLR INPUT receives a signal from my VOCAL BOARD so I can also loop vocals as needed

The Fender Engine Room 12 powers this board, but also has an IEC Power Out, which I connect to the VOCAL BOARD.

The benefit of this is only 1 x IEC cable is needed then to connect to power.

THE VOCAL BOARD (right side)

Sitting on a Rockboard 3.0 board (with installed Mod 3 V2) is:

  • ​TC Helicon Play Acoustic

  • TC Helicon Switch-3

  • Stompbeat Aus XLR A/B popless switch

  • Swamp ISO-10 Power Supply connected to the 3 pedals

    • this in turn, is connected to the Mod 3 module for IEC power connection.

    • This is really the only reason I added the Mod 3 to this board.

Starting the signal chain from the single vocal mic, this connects directly into the Play Acoustic pedal.

From here, the Play Acoustic Voice Out XLR is to the input of the A/B Switch.

From the A/B Switch, I have 2 XLR out cables -

  • connected to output A, is a direct XLR to the mixer. This acts as my main vocal signal.

    • This means I can sing independently while building and creating loops, without recording my vocals.

    • This also means I can independently adjust my main vocal gain structure to suit the venue and PA etc.

  • connected to output B, is an XLR which connects to the Looping Board.

    • This means that if I want to loop vocals, I can do so without sacrificing my audio tone and effects that I get from the Play Acoustic.

    • I also don’t need to have that awkward two-microphone setup (which I have done in the past)

Finally coming into the Play Acoustic, I also have a guitar cable running into the guitar input, connected from one of my 3 Looper Board Outputs (from the Mod 3)

  • This is so the Play Acoustic can always “listen” to whatever is playing, whether it’s a live guitar part, or a looped one.

To enhance the feature set of the Play Acoustic pedal, I also use the Switch-3 to control my desired effects:

  • Button 1=Tap Tempo

  • Button 2=Momentary delay

  • Button 3=HIT on/off for the selected harmony effect

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