In the past two or three months, I’ve transitioned out two cover bands. Moving forward, most of my gigs (for the time being) will be the Lebowskis duo with vocalist John Laprarie. Playing in the duo for a couple of years, I’ve collected a consistent set of pedals I like to use for those gigs. Since I won’t be using my “rock gig” pedalboard for a while, it’s a good opportunity to do a teardown, clean & rebuild.

Here’s my old setup:

There’s a Boss digital delay (for long delay), a Boss DM-3 analog delay for short delay), a Boss volume pedal, Line-6 MM-4 (choruses, flange & tremolo) and a Peavey channel/boost pedal. These pedals cover a lot of ground, and work well with the Peavey Bandit I’ve been using for rock gigs.

This cleanup job was way overdue! I have other amps and pedals for my practice area, so my gig gear gets stowed in between jobs, and I rarely see this stuff in daylight. After some heavy work with the shop vac and a damp cloth, the case started to look a bit more respectable:

For my duo gigs, I’m using a Peavey Delta Blues amp (tube amp w/15 inch speaker). Instead of amp gain with this setup, I’ve been going for a bluesy overdrive sound for leads, using the Vox Ice-9. I kept the Boss DM-3 for short delay, and now use an MXR Carbon Copy for long delays (especially with the tube amp, the MXR has a warmer sound). Also in the mix are a Boss Super Octave, MXR Micro Amp (clean volume boost) and Boss Loop Station. With this new configuration, I couldn’t fit in a volume pedal, but where I want to use a volume pedal, it sits within easy reach off to the right side.

Here’s the new setup:

When we do gigs seated on high chairs, this board sits nicely on top of my toolbox for elevation. And, getting these pedals mounted really cut down setup and teardown time!