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Yesterday, after the arrival of a Digitech Jamman Solo XT pedal, I re-assembled the pedalboard I'd put together a few years back when I was playing mostly guitar (electric & acoustic) with the band Flywheel. The pedalboard had been a compilation of pedals acquired over decades, and then--after Flywheel's sad demise--disassembled, since a rack of pedals is generally NOT a requirement for someone only playing bass (as was the case with Toast, my other band.)
I'd still use the Digitech RP500 (the large device at the bottom right) and the A/B switch (the pedal directly above the RP500) when I played with my friend Mark as the "Davis Leigh Duo", since I played both acoustic guitar and bass there, and I do like the occasional chorus on acoustic, and the A/B box allowed me to have both bass and guitar plugged in and easily go back-and-forth between them.
But Toast doesn't play all that often (maybe once a month or so) and the Davis Leigh Duo plays even less frequently (maybe three or four times a year), and I'd still like to be playing more often. Since no bands have come calling, I've been considering offering myself up as a solo act... and that's why I picked up the Digitech Jamman. It's a 'looper' pedal, which would allow me to put down a rhythm track with some percussion, then play a solo line over the top of it -- which can add variety to a solo performance, instead of it having to be just vocals and accompanying guitar all the time. And hey, since I like to change up the sound of the guitar a bit now and again, even with an acoustic, I put the pedalboard back together, adding in the Jamman set-up. I'lll experiment with that awhile and see what happens.
For me, though, the difficulty of becoming a solo act is that it requires me to go market myself to the owners and managers of the venues in which I might play, which takes me WAY out of my comfort zone. I love being on stage, but I don't care for the marketing aspect that goes along with acquiring that stage--it's one of my (many) character flaws. But that's another story...
Anyway, for the music geeks, here's a rundown of the pedals, moving clockwise from bottom left:
-- a Digitech FS3X pedal, which is an adjunct piece to the Jamman; it allows you to move with your foot quickly between the 200 memory slots in the Jamman so you don't have to lean down to press the little buttons on the Jamman with your finger.
-- a Digitech Jamman Solo XT. The looper I talked about above. You can use it to record an entire song (the looper has an incredible 35 minutes(!) of memory), overdubbing whatever you like on top of it.
-- Boss Bass Chorus. I bought that for (surprise!) the bass, to add a chorus effect to that instrument. A bass chorus sounds deeper and slower that the standard guitar chorus.
-- Boss Digital Delay. I picked this pedal up on a whim a long time ago. I thought I'd play with the various delay sounds... and it had a looper setting too (about 15 seconds worth, IIRC, which was a lot at the time).
-- Boss Chromatic Tuner. For tuning guitar or bass. Period. It did have another nice feature for a pedalboard: you can hook up a chain of power inputs from the Tuner to other Boss (and some other brands) pedals, which means you don't have to have an individual wall wart powering each pedal, or be going through 9-volt batteries like water.
-- DOD A/B switch. You can plug two separate instruments into the pedal, and switch between them with the press of a button.
-- Power. The pedals here require three wall warts: one for the Jamman, one for all the Boss pedals, and one for the Digitech RP500.
-- Digitech RP 500. I bought this because it combines a ton of effects as well as amp simulators into one box. It's actually a rather powerful tool, and I certainly don't use it to its full potential. It also has a (30 second) looper function.
And there's easily room for another pedal or two... :
I'd still use the Digitech RP500 (the large device at the bottom right) and the A/B switch (the pedal directly above the RP500) when I played with my friend Mark as the "Davis Leigh Duo", since I played both acoustic guitar and bass there, and I do like the occasional chorus on acoustic, and the A/B box allowed me to have both bass and guitar plugged in and easily go back-and-forth between them.
But Toast doesn't play all that often (maybe once a month or so) and the Davis Leigh Duo plays even less frequently (maybe three or four times a year), and I'd still like to be playing more often. Since no bands have come calling, I've been considering offering myself up as a solo act... and that's why I picked up the Digitech Jamman. It's a 'looper' pedal, which would allow me to put down a rhythm track with some percussion, then play a solo line over the top of it -- which can add variety to a solo performance, instead of it having to be just vocals and accompanying guitar all the time. And hey, since I like to change up the sound of the guitar a bit now and again, even with an acoustic, I put the pedalboard back together, adding in the Jamman set-up. I'lll experiment with that awhile and see what happens.
For me, though, the difficulty of becoming a solo act is that it requires me to go market myself to the owners and managers of the venues in which I might play, which takes me WAY out of my comfort zone. I love being on stage, but I don't care for the marketing aspect that goes along with acquiring that stage--it's one of my (many) character flaws. But that's another story...
Anyway, for the music geeks, here's a rundown of the pedals, moving clockwise from bottom left:
-- a Digitech FS3X pedal, which is an adjunct piece to the Jamman; it allows you to move with your foot quickly between the 200 memory slots in the Jamman so you don't have to lean down to press the little buttons on the Jamman with your finger.
-- a Digitech Jamman Solo XT. The looper I talked about above. You can use it to record an entire song (the looper has an incredible 35 minutes(!) of memory), overdubbing whatever you like on top of it.
-- Boss Bass Chorus. I bought that for (surprise!) the bass, to add a chorus effect to that instrument. A bass chorus sounds deeper and slower that the standard guitar chorus.
-- Boss Digital Delay. I picked this pedal up on a whim a long time ago. I thought I'd play with the various delay sounds... and it had a looper setting too (about 15 seconds worth, IIRC, which was a lot at the time).
-- Boss Chromatic Tuner. For tuning guitar or bass. Period. It did have another nice feature for a pedalboard: you can hook up a chain of power inputs from the Tuner to other Boss (and some other brands) pedals, which means you don't have to have an individual wall wart powering each pedal, or be going through 9-volt batteries like water.
-- DOD A/B switch. You can plug two separate instruments into the pedal, and switch between them with the press of a button.
-- Power. The pedals here require three wall warts: one for the Jamman, one for all the Boss pedals, and one for the Digitech RP500.
-- Digitech RP 500. I bought this because it combines a ton of effects as well as amp simulators into one box. It's actually a rather powerful tool, and I certainly don't use it to its full potential. It also has a (30 second) looper function.
And there's easily room for another pedal or two... :