Tag Archives: Guitar Gear

Line 6 M9

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I keep hearing more and more about the Line 6 M9 and thought I’d give my opinion.

The M9 is a multi-effects processor that takes the Line 6 stompboxes and puts them into one unit. You can get sounds from the DL4, MM4, FM4, DM4 as well as the Verbzilla. It was made to be used going into an amp afterwards and you can even use it with other pedals. The M9′s big brother, the M13 was cool, but just way too big.

I was attracted to it when I saw it was about the same size as the DL4 (a little bigger) and could do all the DL4 could, but was built better and sounded just as good, if not better. You could also have 6 presets at a time, allowing 3 to be on at a time. There were also some really cool reverb patches as well. Once I got mine, I sat down with it for a few hours and dialed in all different kind of sounds. They sounded great, were easy to access and seemed to be an all around great unit.

When I put it on my pedalboard in place of my DL4, I started thinking about how this would change my pedalboard a lot. I didn’t need to pedal to do drives or modulation as I had that covered. I only needed the delays I had on my DL4 and maybe a few reverbs. Then I realized that my DD-20, Timefactor and DD-5 (whichever combination of those I have on my board at the time) can do a lot already and I really only need my DL4 to do those 3 delays I like a lot (with the 3 other setting via the expression switch). Having the M9 just to do a few delay sounds would be overkill for my rig. I thought it might be nice to have for smaller gigs and flight dates and such, but I’ve already got a flight board too and don’t really ever play a lot of smaller coffee shop-type gigs to make it worth it.

However, it is a great unit and worth looking into to replace your DL4, MM4 and just to have in general. Check it out!

Pedalboards

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I just went through searching for a new pedalboard to replace my Pedaltrain Pro and thought I’d pass on what I found out if you’re looking for a new board. I wanted a board that my Juicebox and Pedal Power 2+ could fit under, that had a jack on the outside to power it. I also wanted a board that would live in the bottom of a roadcase, so I didn’t have to keep lifting it in and out of the case. Although there are lots of different companies, these are some of the ones I looked at and like the best. Feel free to post a comment with a link to your favorite company if it’s not on here.

  • Pedaltrain – Pedaltrain is almost like a monopoly in the pedalboard world, especially for the Christian/worship music world. You rarely can go to a Christian music concert and not see a Pedaltrain. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not bashing Pedaltrain. I’ve had 3 Pedaltrain boards and still have one. They have a cool and convenient design with open slots that allow you to keep your board clean by running cables and power to pedals underneath the board, without even having to drill holes or anything. The newer models even have a place and kit to mount a power supply like Voodoo Lab’s Pedal Power or BBE’s Supa Charger underneath the board, giving you more space on top of the board. The board frames themselves are made of a welded aluminum alloy that keeps it really lightweight and great for traveling and can even be made with custom colors. They come in 5 different sizes: Mini, Jr, 1, 2 and Pro. You can get them in a soft case or a hard ATA roadcase. I have a 2 board with the ATA roadcase for when I fly and it’s the perfect size and weight, even when loaded with pedals. The design is cool and convenient and the cases are nice. Definitely a top pedalboard company today.
  • PedalGear.net – You may have heard of the Juicebox power supply made by these guys, but their Modular board is pretty cool too. This board is cool because there are some rack spaces available and you can do some really cool custom options with them. The design is hard to explain and worth taking a look at.
  • Trailer Trash – These boards are really cool too and I’m seeing more and more people use them. The design of this board is slanted, like the Pedaltrain boards, but made with a solid top and solid sides. You can get them with a soft case or an ATA roadcase as well, so that the board sits in the bottom of the case while you’re playing (or you can take it out) so you just have to take the top of the case off. They come with power jacks on the side so you put you power supply (or supplies) under the board and power it by simply plugging in the jack. You can also get custom neutrik jacks put in the side for guitar input, output and effects send/return or whatever you can dream up. They come with some cool custom options as well, including having a clear top on the board that actually glows! You can get one in 5 sizes, in red, black, a silver diamond plated pattern or a limited edition white or blue board. If you want, Trailer Trash will even do a custom job on wiring up your board for you.
  • Pumaboards – Pumaboards have a similar board design to Trailer Trash, but with more custom options for the actual board (no glow tops though). They have 2 different models: the classic and the low-rider (which is exactly that, lower and not as tall). The board comes in 10 sizes from 18″-36″ in width in 2″ increments. The color options for the board are almost limitless and even be made with racing stripes. The same power and neutrik jacks are available on the side of the boards. You can get a bag or I’ve seen some guys get custom roadcases made for their’s.
  • Showcase – I’ve seen a bunch of guys use these boards (Taylor Johnson, Jon Neufeld from Starfield, Scotty Murray with Aaron Shust and Brenton Brown). I knew my Juicebox would fit because Taylor told me his did. The design is slanted and the board is attached to the case by a Positive Spring Clip which holds the board tightly and lets you get under the board conveniently. When I emailed about it, I found out that they really only make one board model now as opposed to what their website says about the Standard and the Silver Bullet. They now combine the lightweight of the Silver Bullet into a Standard type case for their Black Bullet. It’s stronger than the Standard and about 1/2 the weight. They can come in any size you want, but have 5 standard sizes.

Ambient Sounds and Pads

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Even though I wrote this post forever ago, I wanted to come back and explain it in a little more detailed manner.

I had heard of a few guitar players who would make ambient pad sounds on the fly live and loop them. Pads are great for transitions and just filling up the mix as well. I knew that I could make these loops on the fly or record a bunch of presets and use them live in different keys, running my guitar through my effects and running the looper into an amp. This is what I had heard and seen some other guys do before, but it just didn’t make sense to me.

I would have to buy another amp to run the pads through (increasing my rig to three amps with my stereo amps) and would be another pedal to put on my board and so on. But if I got rid of the amp, then the tone of my guitar alone with the pedals would not sound near as good.

I thought I could record some keyboard pad sounds from Reason into the Boss RC-20XL Loop Station and only have to run an output from the Looper. The Boss Looper allows you to record into it and save it and loop it. I chose the Boss RC-20XL over some other loopers simply because Chris Orr already had one and gave it to me. It’s got eleven presets and I just use each one for a different key of pad (although I really only use 6-7 of them). I found a few good sounds in Reason, ran an output from my computer and into the Looper and recorded the pad holding the I and V in every key we play in on the Looper. I only record about ten seconds of pad sounds and cut off the recording while I’m holding it the keys still, so that it loops cleanly. Because I play the I and V, there typically aren’t any times that the notes sound dissonant (you have to watch it in different chord progressions though…and be sure to watch it during any key changes as well). I will play a few different octaves for some of the keys, depending on how they sound, but I typically play the I on two octaves and the V just on one.

Live I just run the Looper into a volume pedal and into a DI. This lets me control the volume without bending over and twisting the knob. I still run my stereo amps and then get another line ran for the pad. We mix it very low in the house so you can hear it during transitions well, but it doesn’t cut through the mix while we’re playing very much at all. Because it’s really there to fill the mix just a little and help during transitions, make sure you don’t go overboard in making the sounds or mixing them in the house. By itself, it gets boring, old and doesn’t sound good playing by itself for a long period of time. I will usually pick through some clean, delayed chords or make other ambient noises using my volume pedal, delays and reverb play some partial chords to add variety (pulling your tone knob back on the guitar and turning up the repeats has a nice effect as well).

I haven’t heard of anyone else doing it like this, but have found it to be the easiest and cheapest way for me. I hope this helps and y’all can take it and run with it. Let me know if you have any other questions…