Winston Psmith

Welcome, @Sparquelito! I've long been an advocate for the MFX-direct-to-FOH approach. Along with the ease of use, and much lower back strain, there's the fact that for most of us here in the Forums, few, if any, of the venues we perform at have the kind of space to justify hauling a 50 or 100-Watt Amp. Sure, I have fond memories of Rock Idols standing in front of Stonehenge-inspired backlines, but honestly, no one needs those things anymore, unless you're playing a stadium or an outdoor festival, and even then . . .

Sincere respect on building your own Pedalboard; those things are absurdly expensive, for what they are. Given that, my thought is to put some feet or risers underneath the 'board, to create enough space to mount the Power Supply underneath, clearing space for your pedals. Cheap and relatively easy solution. IKEA used to offer an inexpensive shelving unit called GORM. It looked a LOT like a Pedaltrain-style Pedalboard, but made of wood, and there are a lot of them posted online. Later on, IKEA switched to a design called HENJE, that, IMHO, looks even more like a Pedalboard. For some reason, the HENJE line is being discontinued as of July, so it looks as though most stores only have the entire assembly, rather than the individual parts? I got a 2-pack of the HENJE shelves for around $15, some time back.

Is your board large enough to try the "staggered" mounting I used on my Novo 24? It definitely saved me some space on that lower tier. My other suggestion would rely on your Amp having some kind of Channel Switching? Not the same as having two different settings for your DS-1W, but it would allow you to have different Gain or Drive levels for different tones.

Allow me . . . This is from a famous D.C. concert, way back when . . . One of maybe three songs that made me wish I was any good at Slide Guitar.

It doesn't appear so, not altogether. The three on the bottom left are Boss' original "Traffic Light" series, the Spectrum (I think it was the SP-1?), the OD-1, and the Phaser, the oldest of Boss' compact pedals. Way up in the uppermost corners, right and left, there are two PSM-5 Power Supply/Master Switches, with their boxes, mid-80's vintage. They were meant to work in Boss' BCB-6 molded plastic Pedalboard/Carrying Case. I had one back then, to go with my BCB-6. It powered 5 Boss compact pedals, and doubled as a sort of Master Bypass, where you could stomp on it and bypass, or engage, the Pedalboard. There are a few others that look like they're out of place, if it were meant to be a chronological line-up, like the deep red XT-2 Xtortion on the left-hand edge, with a Fuzz above it and next to it, but all in all, it's hard to be sure with the scale of the photo, and the glare on some of the pedals?

I have 2 Pedaltrain Pros (don't ask . . .) and they come in at 32 inches. Doing a quick layout check here, even with flat-head cables connecting the pedals, it would be an effort to get 20 compact Boss pedals on one Pedaltrain Pro. I can comfortably get 9 pedals side by side, with connecting cables. Late edit - This might be more helpful, a photo of a Pedaltrain Novo 24 where I staggered the bottom row of pedals to make more room. I managed to get 13 pedals on the board, arranged this way. FWIW, most of these pedals are right around the size of a Boss compact pedal, enough to make a good representation.

Much agreed. I have a number of "boutique" pedals that I picked up for decent "used" prices, by watching and waiting.

It also lacks some of the alternate model #'s, and even color schemes, of the "complete" collection. OTOH, it doesn't claim to be a complete collection of Boss products, which would include the twin pedals, like @Caevan O’Shite's RT-20, or the ME-80 that @KuruPrionz showed us. I have five different Boss MFX Pedalboards, and three Delay pedals that don't show up in that collection, either. As to value, or pricing, some of those Boss pedals are collecting absurd prices for original "vintage" models, like the Slow Gear; those are listing for somewhere between $600US and $800US on reverb. Not suggesting the whole lot is really worth $73,000, but, for some rabid collectors, being able to buy up the entire lot at once, instead of hunting down individual pedals, might be an incentive to just buy the whole thing, and maybe sell off any duplicates?

Still waiting for someone, anyone, to give us a RI of the Roland Funny Cat, Distortion & Envelope Follower. That thing had a truly unique sound.

@p90jr- That's why I keep a notebook. Old-school tech, literally, but it works, it goes anywhere, and if it's written down, I don't have to rely on my poor, tired brain.

@Scott Fraser- Like I said, I'm overcautious, even paranoid. I keep a plain 3-for-$1 notebook where I write down everything I'm bringing to a live set, down to picks and cables. I even have a Cable Tester, and before every live show, I check all the cables I'm planning to bring, including the backups. I'm dead serious about redundant systems, in terms of my gear. Stuff breaks down, and if you don't have a spare Guitar cable, like you said, no show.

Picking up some parts at my FLMS the other day, I saw this - WARM Audio RingerBringer If it looks familiar, it's supposed to . . . It's pretty much a clone of the original MoogerFooger MF-102 Ring Modulator, complete with extensive CV I/O's, in a slightly smaller enclosure. This has a Behringer kind of vibe to it. Even the name seems like a big hint, or maybe a big middle finger to Behringer, who are supposed to be working on their own MF clone series. As happy as I am to see the product being made available again, I'm wary of anyone ripping off Bob Moog's legacy? In spite of that, I'll probably wind up buying one. I already have an original Big Briar MF-103 12-Stage Phaser, and a mini-MF Ring Mod, but the MF-102 was practically an Instrument unto itself, and I first fell in love with the sound of a Ring Mod back in the mid-1970's, so it's hard to resist. Sideways thought - AFAIK, as the only current manufacturer of BBD's, Behringer pretty well controls that market, and some of the most sought-after MoogerFooger models are the MF-104 Analog Delays. Unless WARM Audio and Behringer have come to some sort of arrangement or agreement regarding the MF clones, I could see where Behringer might hold back BBD's to release their own MF-104 clones, and keep WARM Audio waiting.

@Scott Fraser- Anything that I rely on, particularly for live use, I have at least one backup, and that includes Guitars, Synths, MFX, and yes, power supplies. Yes, I'm overcautious, even somewhat paranoid, but WTH, it works for me. I have at least three or four 1 Spots, and a couple of PA-9 Power All's (basically the same thing, a 1700mA power supply), that aren't dedicated to any one device, so I can always count on having a backup available. I even have a little toolbox designed for first aid gear, where I keep all of my backup power supplies, and adapter cables. At right around $20US, you can't afford NOT to have one!

Well understood, and your response is well appreciated.

I have to agree with @Caevan O’Shite regarding Fuzz & Filter effects in most MFX; they lack something critical, a certain tonal quality that just doesn't come through. I have, however, been able to sculpt some very nice OD & Distortion effects from Digital MFX, even some very . . . dare I say it . . . "warm" sounds. Couple of thoughts here. A Digital Pedal, like the Iridium, wherein all the DSP is dedicated to one type of effect is very likely to outshine a similar effects model within a Digital MFX, because the Digital MFX has to divide the total processing power of the DSP among a legion of different effects models. Many MFX are still configured such that you can only stack effects up to the limits of the DSP, so adding the Stereo Pitch-Shift Effect means you might have to give up the Gated Reverb, or the Ping-Pong Delay? Others are configured so choosing any given effect from within an effects type means that you can't have another effect of that same type; you can have Phaser or Flanger, not both, and forget about redundant effects, like CHO+CHO. OTOH, some Digital MFX also offer more exotic, even bizarre, proprietary effects that you probably won't find in a pedal . . . which is fine, IF you really need or want those sounds. I'm sure I've said it before in this thread somewhere, but there is no ideal "One-Size-Fits-All" rig; either way, there are trade-off's and considerations, flexibility, portability, dependability, affordability, and even repairability, or replaceability. FWIW, I play Mix-&-Match depending on what I need at any given time. My Ambient Pedalboard has a handful of individual pedals feeding into a compact MFX, which doubles as an Amp Modeler. A Voodoo Labs 4X4 power brick powers everything, so I only need one power outlet to plug into, and I can go direct to FOH front the MFX.

Can't argue with that, as it fits exactly with what I've observed. I have no other way to test it, and would learn nothing from dis-assembling it. "Oh, look, I've totally screwed it up!" Something ain't right, that's for sure, and it's not worth risking any of my pedals on it, nor getting upset over it. It has the older Visual Sound logo underneath, instead of the TrueTone logo, so I know I've had it for a good while. Like I said, it's a quandary, not a crisis, I was just curious if anyone else had this happen, as I know a lot of us use the 1 Spot. I have more, and all of them seem to be working well. Thanks, everyone, for responding.

@CEB- I've been using 1 Spots for quite a while, as well, and I've never seen this, either? Even now, I have an older model 1 Spot, with the skinny cord, rated at only 1000mA, and it still works? Hell, I have a couple of old Boss PSA-120's from the late 80's/early 90's, along with an Ibanez 9-volt adapter from the same period, and all of them still function. I try to be good to my gear, so it tends to last. The pedal in question powered right up with another 1 Spot, and with the 500mA Boss AC adapter, as well, so it's definitely not an issue with the pedal. Among my other at-home tests, I tried using the problem 1 Spot with another Delay pedal, and again, no power-up. The truly weird part is that the 1 Spot is clearly putting out some power, and I'd been using it just the day before, with no problems. FWIW, the Tuners only draw around 20mA, and they powered up with no issues. It's a quandary, not a crisis. The pedal is fine, and I have more than enough power supplies to go around. I'll get in touch with TrueTone, see what they say.

I respectfully disagree, as I often use a single 1 Spot, including the one that just failed on me, to power a single high current draw pedal, so long as it's a 9 volt pedal. IIRC, the Deluxe Memory Man and PolyChorus weren't just high current draw, but also much higher voltage than a 9 volt power supply could manage. The Polychorus alone is a 24 volt pedal. The 1 Spot is supposed to put out 1700mA, far more than the 225mA needed for this pedal, and after switching to another 1 Spot (I have five or six?), the pedal powered right up. I've also used a single 1 Spot to power my Line 6 Delay Modeler, which is supposed to draw around 300mA+/-? FWIW, the Boss power supply that's recommended for this pedal only puts out 500mA, more than twice the 225mA current draw of the Delay, but less than one third of the 1700mA output of a fully functioning 1 Spot. I'm used to power supplies just plain giving out, I've never had one suddenly drop in output before.

The other day, plugging one of my Delay pedals into a 1 Spot, I got no power-up, nothing. Swapping out pedals and power supplies, it was clear that the pedal was fine. For experiment's sake, I pulled out a low current draw Guitar Tuner (20mA), hooked it up to the 1 Spot, and it powered up, no problem? I tried another Tuner, again, it powered right up. Going back to the original Delay pedal, rated at 225mA, no luck. I've tried just about every simple A/B comparison you might think of, trying different outlets on a power strip, plugging directly into the wall outlet, trying another high current draw pedal (no luck there, either), you name it, same result. I don't have a way to measure exactly how much power the 1 Spot is putting out, but it's nowhere near 1700mA. Not a tragedy, I have other power supplies, and my Pedalboards all run off of Voodoo Lab power bricks. Still, I would expect that the 1 spot should either work or not, rather than stepping down the power output? FWIW, I've never had any power supply do this before. I've had them wear out and stop working altogether, usually after long use, but not this. Has anyone else run into an issue like this with a 1 Spot?

Keeping the REC/DUB switch separate from the PLAY switch is a bonus. Having your Looper go into DUB Mode when you meant to start Playback is a big PITA, and makes for all manner of unfortunate glitches.

I'd been looking for a Red Panda Particle Delay for quite a while, and found one sitting near the DD-500, so I couldn't resist. The Krell Machine in a compact pedal. This video is as good an explanation as I can find for it . . .

I love Delay effects . . . probably my favorite thing right after Distortion effects, and I'm more than set for Distortion effects. A while back, I got a nice used Boss DD-200 Delay. I like it very much, but it made me curious about how much more I'd get out of the DD-500? I kept on eye on my FLUMS' Reverb site, and a used DD-500 turned up, at a more than reasonable price. The short take: If you don't want to dive headfirst into a Rabbits' Warren of menus and submenus, just back away. The DD-500 is NOT a Plug-&-Play effect, by any means; there is much more going on than the front panel controls can address. This thing is set up much more like a complex MFX device than a Digital Delay pedal, and it would really benefit from being connected to a MFX device with extensive MIDI Control, a MIDI Synth, or even a dedicated MIDI Footswitch Controller. Before you even begin editing the Delay effects themselves, there are a lot of choices to make, and a lot of menus to navigate. Just deciding what the TAP/CTL switch does requires menu-diving, for example. Let's get to the fun stuff . . . Of course, most of the sounds are very good, which is no surprise; Boss has been making Digital Delay pedals for around 40 years. There are some very cool unconventional effects (Pattern Delay, Slow Attack, and Tera Echo), the usual suspects (Analog, Tape, Reverse, Dual, and Digital), a couple of head-scratchers (Filter, SFX, Shimmer), and a Vintage Digital category, which is sort of a "best of Boss/Roland", featuring an SDE-2000 model, an SDE-3000, and a DD-2. The Filter Delay includes a variable Filter effect (LPF/BPF/HPF), that can be placed before or after the Delay line, and driven by an LFO, for Auto-Wah sounds. Placed before the Delay line, you can try for a Jerry Garcia-inspired "Mutron" tone; placed after the Delay line, each successive repeat re-triggers the Filter. Driven by the LFO, it can sound a lot like a Phaser or Flanger, but you get extensive control over the tonality of the effect. Analog Synth users will be right at home with this one. SFX adds a Bit Crushing effect, not everyone's first choice, but an interesting addition. Think of tossing your Repeats into a sonic wood chipper. Shimmer adds Pitch-Shifting to the Delay. Small (Fine, on the menu) amounts of Pitch-shift can add a nice detuning, "thickening" effect; larger amounts of Pitch-shift benefit from a light touch. I've tried getting a Bell Tree or Barber-Pole Flanger effect with it, but no luck, as yet. The Analog Delay is built around virtual BBD's, which are called "Stages" in the Analog menu. Each "stage" allows for up to 300ms of Delay Time, and you can stack up to four virtual BBD's, allowing for a total of up to 1200ms of Delay Time. Carries the idea of "modeling" to a logical extreme, I suppose, but it seems more like something you'd encounter in a virtual plug-in effect? The Pattern Delay is DEEP; Enter At Your Own Risk. Imagine Ping-Pong Delay with 16 Delay lines, in rhythmic patterns, as if synced to a Sequencer. Some of the Patterns are fairly simplistic, almost like having a straightforward Ping-Pong Delay, while others are dense and complex. Very interesting accompaniment for Chord Melody work, or even simple strumming. There's a USER setting for the Pattern Delay, where you can set the main Delay Time, how many and which of the 16 Delay Lines you want ON, where they appear in the stereo field, and their percentage, or ratio, in relation to the main Delay Time. Oh, yes, you can create more than one Preset with different USER settings. Brew up a pot of coffee, or your fuel of choice, and prepare for a very long session. Slow Attack is pretty much self-descriptive; it adds an Attack Delay to the Repeats, or to both the Repeats and your initial Input, acting like a "Slow Gear" effect. This can a very beautiful, even haunting effect. Tera Echo is odd, in a fun way. Boss describes it as somewhere between Echo and Reverb. Maybe if your Reverb Tank was full of Space Gelatin, or something? It's a very textured sound, like a thick, chewy Synth sound with heavy Filtering. Some general things . . . There's an onboard Looper, which requires you to press the A and B switches together to engage it, at which point the A, B, and TAP/CTL serve as REC/DUB, PLAY, and STOP controls for the Loop, in that order. It seems very like the Looper function built into most recent Boss MFX. Treat it as an add-on, rather than a full-function Looper. It's possible to set the Maximum Delay Time to 10 seconds, but that requires diving into yet another menu, and not all of the Delay Types are capable of the 10 second limit, or even the factory-set 5 second limit. The more DSP-intensive effects, like Shimmer, Analog, and Reverse, have shorter Delay Times, and Tera Echo is limited to 700ms, period. 10 seconds is not a lot of Delay time, considering the old DD-20 offered 23 seconds of Delay Time, and that was 20 years ago?!? You can add Modulation to any of the Delay Types, and you get a choice of a Single Phaser, or a Bi-Phase-style effect. While the MOD Depth is controlled by a knob on the top, like the DD-200, you can set the MOD Rate within each Preset by going into the Patch Menu, which is your main editing Menu. There are others, and they also get reedy deep, which leads me to a couple of issues with the DD-500. First off, much of the DD-500's processing power, and potential, lies within the multi-layered menus and sub-menus. Just turning the knobs and pressing the switches isn't going to get you very far, at all. I've seen more than one reviewer complaining that the DD-500 was too complicated, and some of them went back to the DD-200, for ease of use. (FWIW, the DD-200 also has a handful of Control Menus to navigate, but they're all for setting Control Assign or MIDI Parameters, not for editing the effects. All of the DD-200's effects editing can be accessed from the knobs and switches on the top.) There's a TRS jack for either one outboard EXP Pedal, or two more CTL Pedals, which will give you access to more functions, for more $$$, and with a slightly larger footprint. Boss/Roland really loves selling us those add-on's; at $400+/-, a new DD-500 doesn't include the AC adapter you're going to want for it. OTOH, if Boss had tried to include control knobs, switches, or sliders for most of the functions within the DD-500, it would be the size of a MFX Pedalboard, and probably cost more like $600-700. Even at $400, it should at least come with the AC adapter. I'm already wondering what I can get it to do sync'ed with a MIDI Sequencer, or hooked up with my GT-10, which also sends MIDI PC (Patch Change) and CC (Continuous Controller) commands, and there I am, back to viewing it as a versatile MIDI device, more than a Guitar effects pedal. To me, that's a good thing; YEMV.

FWIW, just now looking for Thorpy Tacit Blue on Reverb, that listing isn't showing up.

There is no way they're offering a new Thorpy pedal for less than it would have cost them at dealer/wholesale prices. My FLUMS has had a few Thorpy pedals over time, and even used, they sell for around $200US.

Detroit gave us a lot of great Music, but nothing sounded like the MC5. Rest in power, Brother.