Hi everyone,
It's my first post
I have ordered a TL-1TH but it hasn't arrived yet. So I started two small projects while I wait.
The first is a compact pedalboard. 30mm x 30mm pine for the base, and 40 x 19 mm pine for the top rungs, plus some velcro all from the big green shed. Fits perfectly under the table holding my amp (first gen THR-10C), and still room for some new pedals (thinking of building The Chancellor from BYOC - a Guvnor clone). The whole thing cost about $15.
Timber cut to length:
Screwed together and velcro loop tape applied (I put the hooks on pedals):
Current layout. Some cabling not as neat as I would like, but the patch cord from Trio to Sweet Baby is a tad too short:
The ugly red pedal is a BYOC OD-2 which doesn't appear to be available anymore. It's best described as a heavily modded tube screamer with a separately switchable clean boost. I built it around 5 years ago and it's still my favourite pedal. Of course, I didn't know a thing about using spray can lacquer then. Just sprayed one super thick coat that stayed soft for ages.
Project 2 for the pedal board was a DIY version of a Digitech FS3X to control the Trio. It's just an enclosure, three SPST momentary contact footswitches, 2 diodes and a stereo jack. Much cheaper to build than spending >$50 on the original. Didn't even bother to paint this one.
Make sure to start a build diary when your kit arrives! How do you like the xtomp? What pedal are you running on it at the moment? Do you swap them out much?
I most often have the xtomp set to the Governor (Marshall Guv'nor). For the most part I only use the overdrive and distortion patches, primarily the plexi-style ones like the guv'nor or wampler plexitortion. The OCD, fulldrive and Direct Drive patches are nice as well. My THR-10C doesn't have an effects loop so the pedal can only go in front. I haven't had much luck getting a sound I like from the modulation effects. I do better using the effects built in to the amp, mostly chorus. I was able to get a very nice compression dialed in, but again I prefer the compressor built into the THR (it's always on and I prefer to run it after drives to retain dynamic feel).
I would change the patch a lot more often but two things make this less attractive: the patches don't retain their settings, so you have to dial in the sound every time, and I can't be bothered changing the cabling. I deal with the first nuisance by taking a photo of settings that I like for a patch so I can get it back quickly. For the second, I have the pedal last in the chain and use it with a fairly clean setting on the THR (usually the Blues Jr amp model) that has just compression, delay (~25ms) and reverb. That way most patches still sort of work.
The best thing is I got the pedal new for just $99 on eBay. I haven't seen them listed close to that price again though, or I might run two
Oh, and I like the xtomp just fine. I wish I had the full size model, as there are a bunch of patches the mini can't run but they are so expensive! The Guv'nor patch is great, and it gets some wicked harmonics with the OD-2 in front to kick it up a notch.
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