Rack mount effects pedals ideas

[waldo041]

I've read a lot of interviews where Jerry discusses the efforts to tame pedals to a consistent performance state - mostly as an explanation for the OBEL. Not sure what I'm not hearing and if it's my hearing, the lack of knowing what I'm missing, or maybe I'm just not playing the kind of venues that muck with the signal. My pedals, on the floor, seem to work reliably and sound great.

what he is referring to is the guitars volume potentiometer and it's voltage impact on the input of the effects pedals. the OBEL cured his need for taming the effects by tapping the guitar signal off the 5 way BEFORE the volume pot which sends a constant and consistent full volume/voltage to the effects, through them, and then back into the guitar and then to the volume pot and then back out to the amp.

early on when combo amps were still used they used zener bias regulation to "try" and keep things consistent. house power from venue to venue was not very consistent in those days.

~waldo

[jenkins]

The OBEL is an ingenious solution to the problem of effects being inconsistent, particularly the envelope filter.
I can see exactly what Jerry was talking about in that article where he says some effects are almost unusable live.
When if first got my qtron I was completely perplexed by how jerry used it live and made it sound so great.
I was able to get good sound out of it eventually but always had problems with inconsistency until I added the OBEL.

Most effects benefit from the OBEL but the EF really really does. The only other way to use it IMO is to have it set up so every time the EF is engaged you have your volume all the way up, but that creates its own problems to where it's hard to do that and not have it be too loud.
The OBEL is the solution to the problem and it's awesome that jerry invented it, that's some smart ass shit right there.
Thats just one of the many reasons Jerry was truly the effects master, nobody uses effects as good as he did IMO, at least not that I'm aware of.

[Winterland]

Back to the GCX:

I need the switch and the floor controler. Any thing else with those? there are a few on Ebay and want tom make sure they come with all the componets i.e Power supply, any special cables?

Sorry I suck at putting this together usually my sound guy(brother inlaw) has this covered but he is in a divorce thing right now.

[playingdead]

Back to the GCX:

I need the switch and the floor controler. Any thing else with those? there are a few on Ebay and want tom make sure they come with all the componets i.e Power supply, any special cables?

Sorry I suck at putting this together usually my sound guy(brother inlaw) has this covered but he is in a divorce thing right now.

The GCX will power the Ground Control Pro over the MIDI cable, but it has to be a cable with all the pins wired, the cheap ones may only have three of the pins wired. You can check that with a multimeter if the packaging is not labeled.

Wiring it up is a bit of a bear ... if you are using it in a rack drawer you wind up with a huge pigtail of cabling that is difficult to manage elegantly. I had stereo cables made by Redco which reduced the pigtail size by half. Don't waste your money on the Planet Waves or GeorgeL kits, it's not worth the hassle, in my experience.

[mgbills]

Winterland...and to others who may read this...

Patience for the Great Gear Hunt also pays off. I bought my GCX from a fellow board member, along with the Ground Control Pro. I got cheap & didn't take the cables with it for $100, and they ended up costing $300. But I digress...

I have seen CL finds, and Ebay finds for closer to $200 if you're patient. The GCX isn't a widely used piece of gear, so it may require more patience than other stuff.

It is a Great piece of gear. I forget about how cool it is, and I'll haul off my low watt rig to jam...grab a couple of stomp boxes....Oh & then a junction box for the OBEL...and then I"m there & I'm hooking it all up...and theres cords...and messes...and futzin' with knobs....(although not much with the OBEL).

Stummin'....love the modular pedal/tuner/furman section. That is in my next rig plan. GCX/Pedal/Furman section. Head/Preamp Section. Power Section. That way...I can always carry my own crap, choose the Mc I want (or tube section), and go. Very cool.

[strumminsix]

Stummin'....love the modular pedal/tuner/furman section. That is in my next rig plan. GCX/Pedal/Furman section. Head/Preamp Section. Power Section. That way...I can always carry my own crap, choose the Mc I want (or tube section), and go. Very cool.

Well, originally my rig was designed to go with a combo amp and that worked nicely. Then I *had* to have a SMS and poweramp. Now I have it all racked up in 1 box and it's too heavy to lift solo. I don't have the time time or patience to undo it yet as my wife has no issue helping with the lift into the SUV and can always bring down on my own and have help at a gig.

[playingdead]

It works really well in a 4-space rack ... tuner up top, GCX below, then bottom two spaces for the drawer. That puts the rack tuner on your effects loop (I used the extra rear panel pass through output on the GCX for the tuner), so you can tune the guitar by clicking the effects loop on and turning off the guitar volume -- very convenient. The outputs from your TRS cable plug into the 4-space rack and your main guitar cable goes to the amp (or I used a second rack for my preamp and reverb).