Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I use several different pedals in my rig and it is getting difficult to use them the way I would like to. I have been thinking about getting a pedal switcher for quite some time, but I am still not sure what would work the best for me. I would like to get the most amount of pedals into it and have a dual line out to two amps. Here is one company that makes what I'm looking for but does anyone else have any suggestions?

http://www.carlmartin.com/product_octaswitch.htm

In Deadhead land we use this
http://www.voodoolab.com/gcx.htm

I dont have one though

Is true bypass and buffered

pedal board is extra I think

In Deadhead land we use this
http://www.voodoolab.com/gcx.htm

I dont have one though

Is true bypass and buffered

pedal board is extra I think

Thanks I'll look into the Voodo Lab...do you know if you get any noise? that seems to be the issue with pedal switchers.

ALthough neat devices, they really don't do much more than allow you to take certain pedals OUT of a chain when you want. I guess it would be good if you wanted to switch from one chain to another quickly with just 1 button (for example P1 + P2 + P3 to P1 + P2 + P5 + P6)
A truly effective switcher would let you change the order of the FX, too.
A guitarist that uses a ton of pedals live (Jesse Gress) has two huge boards set up, A/B-ed, then on each board has A/B/C set ups.

ALthough neat devices, they really don't do much more than allow you to take certain pedals OUT of a chain when you want. I guess it would be good if you wanted to switch from one chain to another quickly with just 1 button (for example P1 + P2 + P3 to P1 + P2 + P5 + P6)
A truly effective switcher would let you change the order of the FX, too.
A guitarist that uses a ton of pedals live (Jesse Gress) has two huge boards set up, A/B-ed, then on each board has A/B/C set ups.

Yeah, that's exactly what I would use it for. I'm not sure how it works as far as changing the order of the signal chain, I just thought it automatically did that too, depending on how you store your stettings. I have to check on that, because it is important to keep certain pedals towards the end of your chain, and others in the beginning (at least for me). What I'm really looking forward to is having a pedal chain going out to one amp and then hitting a button and havind some of the pedals from that chain, plus other pedals going to another amp. If I could set up my rig that way I would be really happy.

I've built and used many loop switchers and used them to control more than the average amount of pedals. IME if you are worried about noise you may want to focus on your power supply and cable more than anything else. I'm sure there's exceptions to that but... hasn't bit me yet.

ultimately, if all you need is a loop selector and an aby switch... just get that. Plenty of folks building 8 loop control boxes these days and it will keep you from tap dancing and be pretty simple functionally.
http://www.loop-master.com/
http://www.americanloopers.com/

the GCX is nice if you plan to use midi, but I'm fairly certain you can find some threads that will contend whether or not it's actually true bypass.
in fact "use the finest gold relays sealed in nitrogen" pretty much means not true bypass (at least not in the mechanical sense). that said I don't think it takes much away from a great product.

carl martin is said to have some nice buffers

for me, there is nothing out there that will do EXACTLY what I want (order switching, mechanical true bypass, buffer control, tuner out, small size, simplicity)... so DIY!
plenty of info on the net:
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/PRSplaya ... B.png.html

EDIT: as a side note... you mention concern about fx order, and if you are (say) using a germanium fuzz and love the pickup interaction: I think mechanical true bypass is going to yield the best preservation of that dynamic.

I use a RockTron Patchmate 8 in my rack. It allows me to configure 8 pedals in separate midi-channels. I step on a RockTron MidiMate (which also controls my preamp and effects), and the pedals for that midi channel go in/out of the loop.

Recently, Rocktron started making a floor version:

http://www.rocktron.com/products/controllers/patchmateloop8floor/

Take a look.

Things were so much easier when I was starting out!
You had your basic amp, and if it was a Fender, you had that cheap oval footswitch for the built-in spring reverb and tremeloe. Then you had a fuzz box, and maybe a wah. That was it.

Man I just line my effects up in a row and tap dance.