[YvesHertoghs]

"Dereck Johnsen" wrote:

Mhh, the MXR/CEO said it’s a midi switcher. And I looked at some youtube vids. I did’nt figure out that it swiched his pedals! How awsome! Thats a nice thing to know! Thanks man!

And if your from the dutch speaking part of Belgium: Bedankt voor de vette informatie!!

greets Dereck

P.s. Bedankt voor the vette informatie, in Engelsh it means: Thanks for the awsome information.

Geen enkel probleem

Yves

[YvesHertoghs]

All good replies , but from looking at Jay’s latest pedal board pics, he isn’t using too many distortion pedals, but rather overdrive pedals. And the trick is to play AT LEAST with two pedals at the same time, but with the gain NOT set to 10. I know this is a guitarist natural thing to do (dime all dials ) but the secret to jay’s tone is multiple, subtle gain stages. In my set up I have a tubescreamer (which is on pretty much all of the time), followed by two fuzzes. The gain doesnt go past 4 on any of the pedals. But combining a tubescreamer with a big muff is pure tone heaven. My jay rhythm tone is the tubescreamer on 4 and the bigg muff on 1-2. In this way you can still play arpeggios and the likes. For lead i kick on a second fuzz-pedal, gain about 4-5. All of this into a very clean amp with lots of headroom.

Yves

[YvesHertoghs]

"Dereck Johnsen" wrote:

Mhhh… nice…

The weard thing is… He doesn’t even use steps! (or lifters, tears, or whatever the fuck you wanne call them) I really cant’s play without my steps, without the steps I’m always tapdancing…
My god… J. must have the most flexible legs on earth to reach al the pedals on his board!

He doesnt do that much tapdancing. The switching system you see in the middle has two functions: it can recall any combinations of pedals (all pedals go through a looping system) with one click. But you can also run it in manual mode, where you just hit a switch and it will loop/unloop a pedal.

I have a similar (allthough severely downscaled) system, using a voodoolabs pedal switcher and lehle D.Loop, combined with a voodoo labs commander. This allows me to use up to 10 different combination of 6 loops.

Yves

[YvesHertoghs]

"Dereck Johnsen" wrote:

Jeah, I think switching between your pickups is one of the options. But I olso think that J.’s sound is always a litlle bit mellow and sparkley, you always hear what he’s playing. Try to build it up from the cleanest sound that you can reach with your amp. The amp must be so clean that it sounds borring and you want to use pedals to spice it up. Ill do it this way and I have always one or 2 pedals on. It gives me the perfect J. Mascis sound!

Good luck with you Dino Tribute band! I live in Holland if your playing in Holland or close to the border I’m comming to a show of yours!!!

greets Dereck

Cool! I surely will post here if/when we play. By the way, the idea is to call the band "Die Now, Sore Senior"

Yves

[YvesHertoghs]

I only posted here a couple of times but when i see an order ("Post Your Rig"!) who am I to disregard this:

Guitars:
2000 Gibson SG Korina
2007 Gibson Firebird Re-issue
2002 Fender Jaguar Re-issue
2009 Fender Jazzmaster Jay Mascis

Amp:

Hughes & Kettner TRIAMP MkI Combo (with MIDI interface)

FX:

Voodoo-labs Pedal Switcher and Commander, connected with MIDI interface of aforementioned amp.
In the 4 loops i have :
Zvex Fuzz Factory (Vexter)
Ibanez TS-7
Big-Muff (Sovtek)
Big-Muff (US)

The Pedal switcher is wired in the reverse order i.e. my guitar signal goes into the OUTPUT and the rest of the FX and amp go into the INPUT. This is because it has an insert jack which by default between loop 3 and 4. By wiring everything in reverse i effectively end up with the insert behind loop 1 and 2. ( I can’t use the buffered input on the pedal switcher, but i cant use it anyway because of the Fuzz Factory.). In the insert i have a Tuner, a wah and an MXR Micro-amp.

Behind the pedal switcher i have a Little Lehle loop pedal, with in the loop:
Boss PS-2 Pitchshifter
Moog MoogerFooger Phaser
Jim Dunlop Tremolo
MXR Phase 90
Line6 DL-4.

I’m a little anal when it comes to tone, and with this rig i can go straight into the amp, switch channels + add dirt boxes with one press of a button, or add some extra modulation/delay effects when needed.

Yves

[YvesHertoghs]

OK, Here is a short update on the ultimate quest for Jay-Like-Tone

I bought an Ibanez TS-7, which is essentially a TS-9 in a different housing. Killer pedal, and not too expensive. I plan to mod it to TS-808 specs later, just changing two resistors. I now use this with gain set between 3-4, tone to 7-9, and level to unity gain. This goes into a Russian Big-Muff with the gain at 1 (yes 1!), and the tone around 8 or 9, then into a clean tube-amp, fender style. This IS the Jay rhythm tone, i kid you not. The Tube Screamer rolls of some lows and gives a mid boost, together with some compression. The Big-Muf adds erghh…the typical Big Muff grunge and highs. I can play open-string chords, arpeggios, i get awesome definition and articulation, but still get the shizzle and distortion needed. Unbelieveable.

Then for power chords I use the same TS-7 into another Bigg-Muff (American), gain set between 4 and 5, and tone around 5-7. This looses some defintion but is perfect for the hard riffing stuff like start choppin and the likes.

For lead i use all three pedals at once TS-7–>USSR BM–>US BM. Singing Leads for hours.

I also use the TS-7 alone, for just a little bit of crunch. Before the TS-7 I also have a Fuzz Factory for ‘crazy parts’.

All of this goes into a voodoo pedal-switcher with commander, to limit the tapdancing

Hope this helps anyone.

Yves

[YvesHertoghs]

"hotmessization" wrote:

Overdrive into the Big Muff. The settings take some tweaking in order to not get massive feedback, but when you get it just right, it’s a beautiful thing.

Also, try rolling back on the volume of your guitar for rhythm and then bring it up for lead.

And pickup switching is a really important part.

Notice for the verses, he uses the neck pickup, then switches to the bridge pickup for leads, then back to the neck pickup.

I hope this helps you find what you’re missing.

OK, thanks for that, i’ll try the overdrive into Big Muff idea. I probably have to replicate that two times, one for lead, one for rhythm, but that’s not a problem with the switching system i’ve got. It does involve two overdrives extra on the board, but hey Any recommendations on overdrive ? I’m sorta leaning towards either a blues driver, a tube screamer, or a zvex box of rock.

I saw some old rig layouts (e.g. the one on guitargeek) where it seems that all the fuzzes went into one or two pre-amps (which probably gave the overdrive), but would seem to indicate fuzz into OD, thats what is puzzling me. Unless of course the pre-amps and fuzzes are all wired up into a switching system, and then you can get any order you want really. Unfortunately my switching system doesnt allow to change the order, being the voodoolab’s Pedal Switcher with the Commander.

On the volume comment: obviously volume always helps. It helps to achieve power amp and speaker distortion, which probably can be seen as yet two additional gain/distortion stages, beyond the two or three Jay is already using.

Pickup switching/volume roll off are things i am already using!

Keep it coming guys, all good ideas!

Yves

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