Vid of Trey talking about his rig

[ColForbin]

There is definitely not a noticeable volume drop when I switch to coil split on my AO.  I've never noticed it anyway, maybe AO implies the same sort of thing, I have no idea.  What about your guitar Happy?

[picture_of_nectar]

It's really one of the more amazing things about the Doc, how even the output is switching between all the different settings. The tone changes, but volume remains pretty consistent.

[Happyorange27]

There is definitely not a noticeable volume drop when I switch to coil split on my AO.  I've never noticed it anyway, maybe AO implies the same sort of thing, I have no idea.  What about your guitar Happy?

I definitely here a volume drop when I split the coil.  Maybe AO changed his method after my guitar was built.  And I don't really mind.  I switch to single coil when using my wah for clarity.  Or if I need to hide in the mix while someone is singing, I drop the volume with a flick as well.

I sent this info to AO in an email and asked him if he is doing this method mentioned above.  We will see what he says.

And when I put my pickups in series (which can only be done when the pickup selector is in the neck position) the volume is even louder than when the humbuckers are in parallel.  So I actually have 3 different volumes depending on the selection.

[jadirusso]

I have volume drop in single coil mode as well with my AO

[connor117]

thanks dudes- looking forward to hearing the repsonse from AO about avoiding volume drop.....

paul must REALLY use magic dust!!

* next questions> trey talks about streams of signals....the 2 ts9s, ross, and wah are 1......leslie is seperate....dijcrap is seperate....

so when he engages that stuff, is he running like stereo ? 2 sperate signals?
or does his main board then go INTO them?

for example, is he 1) getting a clean signal into the whammy II and then is fed back thru the ts9/ross board, 2) feeding signal into the whammy 2 and THEN into the ts9/ross board, or 3) are they running in parallel into the mesa??

how might someone do this with say loop master pedals versus a bradshaw rack system?

thanks brothers for your observations and opinions?

[Heady Jam Fan]

thanks dudes- looking forward to hearing the repsonse from AO about avoiding volume drop.....

paul must REALLY use magic dust!!

* next questions> trey talks about streams of signals....the 2 ts9s, ross, and wah are 1......leslie is seperate....dijcrap is seperate....

so when he engages that stuff, is he running like stereo ? 2 sperate signals?
or does his main board then go INTO them?

for example, is he 1) getting a clean signal into the whammy II and then is fed back thru the ts9/ross board, 2) feeding signal into the whammy 2 and THEN into the ts9/ross board, or 3) are they running in parallel into the mesa??

how might someone do this with say loop master pedals versus a bradshaw rack system?

thanks brothers for your observations and opinions?

I am not sure if I am completely following what your trying to ask about his signal chain, ie, the example you give, I don't see any difference between option 1 & 2? Never owned a whammy personally, but I am pretty sure it is the first thing to see signal in Trey's rig (probably important for tracking).

His main, pedal, effects always run before the other loops or paths in his signal. After those effects, he can choose whether to send the signal through his Dig Crap loop or whatever prior to sending the signal to either his guitar amp or leslie.

As far as series vs parallel, I believe these would be series. It would be possible to have parallel loops and running effects like delay and reverb as 100% wet effect only (not passing dry signal), then mixing it back with the dry prior to sending signal to an amp. This could help keep the signals integrity intact, however, when Trey demoed the reverse delay, it sounded like it was effect only and not being blended with dry signal. This makes me think the loop is series - not parallel and blended back with dry before the amp. Also - Happy, was that reverse delay thing he did what you were talking about when we discussed trying to get his really legato sound?

However, the signal does split when he chooses between the guitar amp or leslie - this would be parallel and could be run in stereo or blended (not necessarily stereo panned between the two), but, to be honest, I have no idea if he does that or not. On one hand, it would make an effect like the Leslie more subtle. Yet this is likely a moot point as I doubt 99.9% of people reading this have access to an actual leslie.

With a loop master, you would put effects in separate true-bypass loops to keep them from eroding the signal when not in use. You could have a loop for each effect or a loop with multiple effecta in it - your preference. All of your loops would be series (not parallel, again, unless you want delay and reverb, or even modulation, effect only and mixed with your dry signal - this would better preserve your dry signal, but could make using effects like the reverse delay Trey demoed impossible or difficult). On that note, if you have an amp with an effect loop, you could send signal out of the loop master to the amp input, amps effect loop send back to the loop master with loops for your wet effects, then send that back to the amp's return. Also you could run guitar>main effect pedals>loop master w/ dig crap type stuff>amp, or you could put your main pedals in a loop or loops. An example of why you might do the latter is if you don't want both TS9 buffers in your signal chain at the same time, or the whammy as it would affect your signal (though I have seen arguments that these artifacts are key to Trey's tone, I never used a whammy so I don't know).

Hope this makes sense, I can try to clarify some of the points. Also, hopefully it came through that a lot of what I wrote is just guesses or speculation.

[Happyorange27]

I was talking about a "slow gear" or a DIY version called the lazy sprocket. It is kind if a crescendo pedal to control attack. I'm not too interested in it now since I cranked my screamers and I get legato now.

A whammy II is on my list. I need to confirm placement in the chain and the searing tone.

[Heady Jam Fan]

I was talking about a "slow gear" or a DIY version called the lazy sprocket. It is kind if a crescendo pedal to control attack. I'm not too interested in it now since I cranked my screamers and I get legato now.

A whammy II is on my list. I need to confirm placement in the chain and the searing tone.

Yep - I remember that pedal in your thread or whatever. I am kinda on the same page with that - it sounded sweet when he demoed the reverse delay, but with the right approach, I can get fairly legato and a nice bloom on notes, which the reverse seems to do - I think it is a combo of compression and a slow buildup of feedback. Plus that last thing I need is to add another pedal just for that reverse effect - I just rewired my entire board and only have a tiny space left and no more power spots (I don't have a wah or my Rat on the board now, nor my EQ, which I was only using with my DR anyway).

There was a old pic of Trey's signal chain - I think it was from a 98 issue of GW.?. and I can't find the pic anymore, but it showed the whammy directly in his signal chain, right after the guitar. I can't remember if he said anything different than that in the video on this thread though.

[IamWILSON]

Happy - I'm sorry I've been too busy and haven't been able to get the Alesis Microverb recording for you yet.  It most likely won't happen until Monday or Tuesday, because I've already got a bunch of stuff on my plate this weekend.  It also entails pulling it off the board I have that's stored away right now with all my extra bells and whistles phish gear pedalboard, hence why I can't just do it when I have a minute.  The 3 knobs on it are input, mix, and output, so yeah, you you can put the mix totally on the wet side and get that sound. 

Heady- The Microverb can be had from Ebay for about $25-30 so it's not a big investment, however, it does/will take up the space of about 2 pedals and there's no switch for it, so you'll need to get a true bypass switching unit for it to turn it on and off (which you can at least mount right on top of the unit (haha...unit) if you want to, if you want to... okay enough with the silliness. 

Also, I always got the best tone out of the Whammy II by having it first in my chain, and I remember the layout thing about Trey's gear, and the Whammy was first, so you are correct Heady.  I think that's everything I can remember that I wanted to reply about after just reading some of this thread.

On a happy note for myself.... today I just breadboarded up a clone of a fuzz face pedal and after a little troubleshooting it sounded awesome!!!  And I also designed about 2/5ths of a Big Muff pedal with a couple changes, that obviously isn't really gonna be a Big Muff clone, but I may end up calling it "The Landing Strip!"

[Heady Jam Fan]

Happy - I'm sorry I've been too busy and haven't been able to get the Alesis Microverb recording for you yet.  It most likely won't happen until Monday or Tuesday, because I've already got a bunch of stuff on my plate this weekend.  It also entails pulling it off the board I have that's stored away right now with all my extra bells and whistles phish gear pedalboard, hence why I can't just do it when I have a minute.  The 3 knobs on it are input, mix, and output, so yeah, you you can put the mix totally on the wet side and get that sound. 

Heady- The Microverb can be had from Ebay for about $25-30 so it's not a big investment, however, it does/will take up the space of about 2 pedals and there's no switch for it, so you'll need to get a true bypass switching unit for it to turn it on and off (which you can at least mount right on top of the unit (haha...unit) if you want to, if you want to... okay enough with the silliness. 

Also, I always got the best tone out of the Whammy II by having it first in my chain, and I remember the layout thing about Trey's gear, and the Whammy was first, so you are correct Heady.  I think that's everything I can remember that I wanted to reply about after just reading some of this thread.

On a happy note for myself.... today I just breadboarded up a clone of a fuzz face pedal and after a little troubleshooting it sounded awesome!!!  And I also designed about 2/5ths of a Big Muff pedal with a couple changes, that obviously isn't really gonna be a Big Muff clone, but I may end up calling it "The Landing Strip!"

Lol, nice name for a muff - I was almost done building one a few years ago and never finished. I was thinking about housing it with a stereo chorus and calling it a "wide-set muff." I think it would go really well with a custom compressor called a "squish button."

Speaking of fuzz, I do sometimes miss my Skreddy Lunar Module. Expensive pedal, but sounded pretty killer - I just can't get past the scooped EQ on most fuzz.

I never really looked into other gear in Trey's rig aside from what makes up his core tone, but for $30, a Microverb is a good investment. I don't want to start getting rack gear again though - I had a Rocktron Xpressions velcroed to a board about two years ago with the footswitch velcroed on top of that. Trying to keep my rig simple and mobile.

[Happyorange27]

Damn I just had the sweetest dream last night. I received three packages from the owner of Bonepicker amps (I've been actually waiting forever on a compressor pedal from him). One of the units looked like a Bradshaw switchboard and it had some sweet loops and modulation. And then Trey shows up and I was explaining it to him to try to impress him with my sweet digs. Anyway those are the coolest dreams. I'm sure all if this recent study and revelations of his rig has been playing on my subconscious.

Wow you guys are working on breadboard projects and such?! Good for you.

[Heady Jam Fan]

I'm not really working on building anything - I do have a half built muff I started over a year ago, but I just added the part about the chorus to give it a funny name.

[fulltone1989]

The rest of the rig rundowns!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhSlyGvEpIjhKcYI_tN67emmZa8m3gG3Z

[Happyorange27]

Yep you are on the ball too.  NIce!

[Heady Jam Fan]

Gripped these from the video.

The treble is much higher than I usually have mine - the treble boost on the volume knob is also pulled, but the overall volume is louder than I can play at home (or probably inside anywhere) and the knobs on a Mesa are so interactive its hard to tell if the treble might get a bit more mild at that volume.