OWEN'S BIG PEDALBOARD

Yes, Owen's big new pedalboard is finally finished!

IN addition to his playing with the Armadillos, Owen's work takes in metal, rock, funk, pop, jazz and many other sessions and live gigs. To give him maximum flexibility and versatility on such huge range of pro gigs, he has developed this monster board, incorporating just about all the effects he needs to cover all bases - in practice, he seldom uses more than two or three pedals at a time...
(For some Armadillos gigs in smaller venues, it's just too big to fit on the stage, so he'll continue using a smaller board, or selected "loose" pedals!)
The board has taken more than nine months to develop, with a great deal of experimentation, trial and error, to get the right pedals in the right order and optimise the wiring to retain flexibility and keep noise to a minimum
- though, of course, it's very likely to keep on changing to suit his changing tastes and requirements.

The pedals are housed in a custom 1040mm x 640mm (41ins x 25ins) flightcased board, specially built for him by NSP CASES.
For maximum signal quality, they are exclusively connected, using George Ls cable.

 

THE CURRENT LINEUP IS AS FOLLOWS:

1. 10-way true bypass looper strip
Pedals 2-12 (which are non-true-bypass) are individually connected into the loops on Owen's true-bypass strip, so they are only in circuit when needed, to maintain maximum signal integrity. Each loop has a super-bright status LED, so Owen can see when it's switched into the circuit. The strip also has a master bypass switch, allowing all the loops to be bypassed or switched in together, so Owen can pre-select combinations of pedals and kick them in with one switch. Because of his special requirements, Owen designed and built this looper himself, but you can buy very similar ones (with fewer loops!) from LOOP-MASTER .

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2. Boss DD3 Digital Delay
Classic Boss digital delay - mainly used for shortish slapback echoes.
Click here for more info.

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3. Original 1970s MXR Distortion+ distortion
Classic Seventies distortion - mainly used to add a more middly, compressed tone to Owen's overdriven sound. This is an vintage pedal, adapted for mains-driven pedalboard use. Jim Dunlop now market a reissue. Click here for more info.

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4. Original 1980s Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Overdrive
THE all-time classic overdrive pedal - this is one of the original 1980s models, which, no matter what Ibanez may say, do sound better than the reissues - smoother, more responsive and more "tubey". The reissues are good pedals in their own right, though and can be modified to give a sound closer to the originals.
Click here for more info about reissues. For modded pedals, Robert Keeley and Analogman are good places to start.

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5. Roger Mayer Voodoo 1 Distortion
Great-sounding modern distortion pedal, from Hendrix's favourite FX guru. Used here to get classic distortion sounds a la Hendrix. Also has a handy buffered second output that can be used to drive a second amp. Click here for more info.

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6. Boss OC2 Octave pedal
Classic Boss pedal - now discontinued. Adds one or two octaves to the original sound - used sparingly.
Click here to read Harmony Central reviews of this classic pedal.

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7. Aphex Punch Factory Optical compressor
Owen's current compressor of choice (he also occasionally uses a Boss CS2, but finds this more flexible and natural-sounding.)
Click here for more info.

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8. Guyatone WR3 Wah-Rocker
A little-known, cheap-and-cheerful little pedal, but, nevertheless, the auto-wah of choice for many pro players. Sounds great.
Click here for more info.

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9. The Zoib Slopper
One of Owen's secret weapons - basically a phaser/rotovibe type pedal, without the treadle.
Click here for more info about the original Jim Dunlop Rotovibe, which this closely resembles.

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10. Roger Mayer Vision Octavia
Another favourite from Jimi's pedal man - basically an updated, modernised and pedalboard-friendly version of the classic Octavia "rocket" fuzz, with mains-adaptor socket and another handy amp-splitting buffered output.
Click here for more info.

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11. Danelectro Rocky Roads Spinning Speaker Simulator
One of the best-sounding Leslie simulators around (sadly, recently discontinued, but a few online suppliers are still selling them really cheap - £35ish!) this tiny plastic pedal is Owen's Leslie of choice (when not using his "proper" Leslie cabinet, of course!) These units sound great, but have one fatal flaw - you get a massive gain-boost when you kick them in. There is, however, a simple mod you can carry out to fix this and make them more useable. Owen also has a Line 6 Roto-Machine, which he sometimes uses for stereo applications, or when noise is more of a consideration (the Dano is strictly mono-only and a tad on the noisy side.) .
Click here for Harmony Central reviews of this pedal and here for details of that all-important gain mod.

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12. Boss DD3 Digital Dimension Chorus
A classic chorus/flanger from Boss (long discontinued). The digital version of the original, legendary Dimension C flanger, it's a very subtle, but incredibly effective pedal with a sound that's instantly recognisable once you've heard it.
Click here for more information

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13. Boss TU2 Tuner pedal
Industry standard tuner - does what it says on the box. Run from the" tuner out" socket on the volume pedal, keeping the tuner out of the main signal path.
Click here for details.

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14. Vox Clyde McCoy Wah
Upgraded version of the classic Vox wah. Owen prefers this to the standard Vox, mainly because of its ability to run off a 9v supply on the pedalboard - the standard one won't . Owen has tweaked the range to his own requirements.
Click here for details.

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15. Ernie Ball VP Jr Volume Pedal
Another industry standard. This pedal sits towards the end of the signal chain, giving Owen the option of running his guitars flat out to drive overdrive pedals hard, while still being able to control the overall volume of the signal going out to the amps.
Click here for details.

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16. Line 6 DM4 Delay Modeler
One of Owen's very favourite pedals - one he's seldom seen without. True bypass, too. He uses it to create huge range of high-quality delays, including some great soft analogue delay models and spooky reverse echos and swells. The expression pedal (18) widens the range of sounds available still further. The only thing he doesn't like about it is the fact you can only store four preset sounds at a time - he's seriously considering getting a second DM4, to give him another four sounds on tap.
Click here for details.

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17. Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler
A truly weird and whacky one. Does great auto-wahs, plus all many other off-the-wall tricks, including pseudo synth sounds and ring modulation - great for those more "out there" fusion-style moments!.
Click here for details.

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18. Line 6 Expression pedal
Adds extra sounds and functionality to the Delay Modeler (see16)

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19. Space for Digitech Whammy pedal
Owen plans to add one of these to his armory very shortly.
Click here for details.

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20. Various power-supplies

HOWEVER... none of the above is the true secret of Owen's awesome tone...

IT'S THE FINGERS !!!