Hello!
I'm making the rounds while I have some time spare!
A while ago I made my own DIY board and used it heavily for about 2 years or something. I've played all around the country with it and it's done me extremely well.
Unfortunately, the rigors of touring with tuba players have taken their toll on the poor thing and it's begun to fall apart.
I decided to invest in something solid that would last me ages and that would (hopefully) tour well.
Sp after following them (Temple Audio/Templeboards) for a year or so I ordered this as a Christmas present to my wonderful self last year:
It has 4 locking jacks and a power connector for your underboard PSU and an LED strip light (9v powered by your PSU) to help back light everything (very #swag).
It also comes with a very, very, very nice flight case made by Pelican:
The pedals are not mounted with velcro but instead with Templeboards patented pedal mounting plates. Basically you put a plate on a pedal and lock it into position with a thumb screw.
It's a really solid set up and the flight case is great. My main quams: 1) make sure you properly clean the glue from your previously applied velcro (washing powder and hot water soak works) or the plates won't stick right. 2) the floorboard seems a bit more flexible than I'd like but it hasn't bothered me at all at gigs and since I'm mostly using my loop switcher I don't notice it at all. Perhaps the flexibility is needed? Dunno, but its flexible.
It's super solid and it has loads of storage space. The back lighting is also a cool feature that I find I'm missing when it's not there. I didn't realise how helpful it would be!
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JHS Morning Glory
So I ordered a MG and SB a while back. Shipping and duties made them expensive. (Protip: Get Craigamps to make you a clone)
The enclosures have a nice feel to them since they're taller and wider than the traditional hammond enclosures but this also makes them take up more space. You also can't put a 9v in them. Sometimes it's nice to just be able to grab a single pedal and put a 9v in it for a smaller gig, but you can't with these.
The MG sounds great. It's a "transparent" drive. That doesn't mean it doesn't alter your tone, it just means that all the notes ring out nice and clearly and individual notes in a chord are discernible.
It sounds pretty awesome. The high cut feature is actually quite desirable for me too.
Unfortunately after only 4 days the LED would intermittently cut out and now it's permanently out. Pretty annoying. And it's not a dry solder joint either... Maybe the LED is broken or something, IDK. Sending it to Craigamps this week.
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JHS Superbolt
This was a trendy pedal for a while and I opted for this because I wanted a "coloured" overdrive that wasn't a TS. TS's sound great but that makes everyone buy them and personally it's just too familiar for me.
The SB is based on the old Supro/Valco amps. Basically it behaves badly at higher input volumes and starts to sag and compress in a squishy sort of way.
It has an 18v pump so you can select to have more head room and use it as a clean boost too if you like.
What I've been doing is running a clean boost (Craigamps trem/boost, but a SHO will do fine) infront of it to hit it much harder. The result is that as you dig in really hard it starts to compress extra hard and sound like a fuzz.
It's a pretty reactive pedal that gets some sweet tones. I've been using it to soften harsher lead tones but in it's 18v mode it can actually make them more piercing in either a good or presence range ouch kinda way so just watch out for that!
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Here's a pic of the board and pedals in action at Red Bull Studios:
PS
I think I'll fill the final gap with a JHS colourbox. Also wanna swap out the Jimi Octave fuzz for that new purple MXR fuzz thing maybe?
