Good evening,

I’ve fallen out of love with the Helix. I’m going back to traditional pedals, and, instead of traditional amps, I’m going to use a pedal-based preamp system, a la Tech 21. In fact, I have a Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe, which I will be selling.

To that end, I have purchased the following:

Ftelettronica clones of Lovetone Meatball, Ring Stinger and ? Flanger With No Name
Orange Guitar Butler
Valco BloodBuzz, a clone of the Lovetone Cheese Source
Digitech Bass Whammy

To finish the project, I will need:

Chorus
Reverb
A clone of the Lovetone Doppelgänger
A clone of the Lovetone Wobulator
Delay
Orange Bass Butler
Power supply that can handle all of this
A pedalboard. I’m probably going to get an appropriately sized Pedaltrain
Patch cables

There is a catch, though: Either our beloved United States Postal Service is completely incompetent, or someone stole my flanger. I don’t especially want to buy another, but I might have to.

I’m also wondering about the chorus and delay: I’d love to try that SDE-3000, and see if that can do both effects simultaneously. Otherwise, it’s a Space Echo and a Dimension C for me.

I just worked a night shift, so I’m not exactly at 100%.

Thank you.

Direct, or through a power amp?

Powered cab, and direct. I may get a power amp in the future, but my Accugroove Latte is a powered cab, so I’m in absolutely no hurry to buy one.

Okay, I have a problem:

The Anonymous Flange has not arrived. USPS insists that they delivered it, yet the parcel locker service can’t find any evidence that it was stolen, but they did find that the mailman didn’t log the package in their system upon delivery, which they were required to do.

I want to file a claim against the USPS, but I’m afraid the seller will be punished. The seller has been pretty helpful, I bought a subsequent pedal from them (the ring modulator), and will probably buy the phaser, so I don’t want to burn any bridges.

Why would they punish the seller and how?
File the claim

You’re right: They can’t punish the seller, especially when they file the claim, which is what will happen tomorrow. What will also happen is that Sound Shoppe NYC will be sending me a replacement. I will be buying the other Lovetone clones I would like to complete the collection - the Doppelgänger and Wobulator clones - from this vendor, and no other. They didn’t have to do this, and I can’t thank them enough for helping me.

So, I have some updates:

1. Sound Shoppe NYC did me a solid, sent me a replacement Anonymous Flange, and filed a claim with the USPS. I have the pedal at home; I am currently in Minneapolis.
2. I have purchased a Bass Butler, a Strymon Ola and a Strymon El Capistan V2. The latter two were purchased here in Minnesota.
3. I think I need to take a break from this project for a while. While I’m not hurting, I’m not exactly eager to spend shitloads of money at one time, unless it is for a new car or a new house.
4. I am not buying a house or a car at the time of this post.
5. Next has to be the Voodoo Lab or the pedalboard, no exceptions.

Update time:

1. I bought a Pedaltrain Novo 32, which accommodates the majority of these pedals. Not all of them, which I will have to address in the coming days, but I don’t have all of the pedals I want.
2. There is only one I really want anymore: A Strymon BlueSky V2. That’s because…
3. I bought the Ftelettronica Twin Oscillator Phaser/Vibrato clone of the Lovetone Doppelganger, from Sound Shoppe NYC, as I said I would do. I may have mentioned that I think they’re a great vendor.
4. I will be buying flat-jack patch cables, to get that extra tight fit.
5. I love the Parapedal as a wah, and I have the Chicago Iron Parachute, which is its reissue. There is a reason that pedal designs have evolved since 1971; I hate this period-correct chassis bullshit.
6. I am listening to way too many Iron Sheik Howard Stern interviews.
7. I will need a Pedal Power 3 Plus, as well.

Sorry man I lost track of this pedalboard build. Sometimes your posts are hard to follow


So what are pedals/orders?

I get a little scattered. Here are the pedals:

Valco BloodBuzz
Orange Guitar Butler
Orange Bass Butler
Digitech Bass Whammy
Strymon El Capistan
Strymon Ola
Chicago Iron Parachute
Ftelettronica Anonymous Flange
Ftelettronica Twin Oscillator Phaser/Tremolo
Ftelettronica Transformer Matrix Ring Modulator
Ftelettronica Envelope Follower/Triggered Filter

I am in the process of arranging the pedals. The last one in the chain has to be the Butler, because it has the effects loop. The plan is to swap out the Guitar and Bass Butlers, depending on what I’m playing. The BloodBuzz stays out of the loop.

So, here’s an update:

1. The Bass Butler does not have an effects loop. This is not a dealbreaker, but it’s a tremendous pain in the ass.
2. It also doesn’t have a single, full blend balanced XLR out, like the Guitar Butler does. It’s all in on the bi-amping, which I don’t understand, as a concept.
3. I’ve been dressing my cords with waxed, black nine-cord. Nine-cord, for those who do not know, is a cord, made up of nine individual polyester fibers, coated with wax. The purpose of this is to tie down power and telephone cabling, in Bell System Central Offices. As a DC power engineer, it is an integral part of my job, and I have to use six different types of stitches to run cable: Kansas City, Chicago, box, bundle, running and fiber tag. I wasn’t great at it for the past six years, and now I’m fairly decent. In the telco world, we use white cord, as that is the last vestige of the Bell standard, which had a multicolored cable lacing system. Comcast uses black, though.
4. I bought a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 3 Plus, and a 18v 2.5mm polarity reverse cable, also by Voodoo Lab. That is the only way to power the Orange. It also allows me to use my PP2+, which basically prevented me from needlessly spending money on the Strymon power supplies.