Faulty Patch Cables & Dying Pedalboards

Trouble shooting pedalboards, improvisation, figuring things out on the fly and other fun anecdotes from the road, updates from Ohio

Pedals pedals pedals. Above is my current tour board for this fall run with Dante Elephante. While each of the above pedals are stellar little noisemakers, the board itself died third song into our set a couple nights ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Briefly (and as quickly as possible) if something dies on stage, you go through your mental checklist of what possible things it could be. Guitar? Guitar into board? Guitar into amp? Patch cable? A pedal that’s lost it’s power? The venue’s power? Your amp dying? The bigger the board the more variables to run through, at least with how I put boards together.

I’m not much of a gear junkie even though I do enjoy what pedals offer for inspiration and tone shaping. The older I get the more I get into these things as well and see the value there in. That said, I have friends who do a better job of putting these things together, making their own cables and what not. Generally I don’t have the patience for that but truth be told, I should. There is not really a right or wrong way to do it, just a more effective and efficient way. I’m just always a little slow to learn.

As a quick example, it wasn’t until I was about 28 that I got wise to using an isolated power supply, up till then I used multiple power supplies and a daisy chain to make things work. It was during my first LA session, and showing up with all my stuff not working, that I realized how badly I truly needed an upgrade.

Since then, my principal is to still keep things as simple as possible while having access to a few more sounds and a cleaner signal path.

Now back to my current situation…my gut told me to bring my smaller more manageable board for this run, however given we are short a keyboard player I figured what the hell… might as well bring some extra sounds to help fill the space.

I should of listened to my gut. That night back in Tulsa I ended up just plugging direct in. Guitar into my vibrolux. Turned the amp way up and just controlled everything from my volume and tone pots via the Strat. This actually worked surprisingly well and was a good reminder of the power of keeping it simple.

Thankfully my amp is working like a champ. Bought some new speakers right before tour and my Pops (who is a talented electrician) went through it, cleaned it up, changed the speakers, tubes and helped optimize the power level. I.E. cleaner tones and more volume. Grateful to him and for the old fashioned east coast quality of work. The amp is shining through.

I’m continuing to trouble shoot and go through each pedal individually, but each night since it died I’ve been having steady issues. I’ve rearranged the order of some pedals. Changed out patch cables and removed some things to stream line it a little bit more. Right now there is still a ghost in the machine I’m chasing down. Thankfully at least it hasn’t cut out completely even though its still giving me a little grief. When I power it up, everything is getting power. It just sounds not as clean signal wise as I’d like. When we get the chance, I’ll probably try switching out a few more pedals at a music store. If I get lucky they’ll have some bargain or a good trade policy. Who knows.

Taking the positives though where I can find them. Guitar is working. Amp is working. Grateful for that.

Thanks for tuning in and wishing y’all well. Talk to you soon ~ J