To all you gear-heads out there:

I did it.
I pulled the trigger.
I made the switch.

Here’s the story. So, about 7 years about next month I was offered and took my first worship leading position. At the time I knew all of 3 chords on the guitar. I could barely remember my basic chords on the piano from the lessons I took as a kid. But, I could play bass. And, I had a little bit of passion. Honestly, it was a pretty risky move for the church that hired me to give me the job.

So, I bought an acoustic guitar. Angie hasn’t ever admitted to this next thing I’m going to say, but it’s her fault that I got so addicted to music & gear. After I accepted that job, we made the circuit of all the guitar stores in Indy. She told me I needed to get a good acoustic if I was going to be using it for my job. I argued with her (that’s the part she doesn’t remember) and tried to tell her I could borrow one from a friend for awhile. But, she insisted (she doesn’t remember that either). So, WE (key word) bought my Takamine. She’s a beaut! Stil have her. Still lover her! (Angie & the guitar).

Two more years passed and I started wanting to play electric. So, I borrow a friends old Strat and another friend’s old multi effect board. I fell in love with the multi effect, but the Strat wasn’t for me. So, when the time came I bought a Boss GT-8 multi effect and a Les Paul. I thought I was set! And, I was for a few years.

Two more years passed and I realized that I could loop in external effects pedals into my effects chain. So, I added delays, overdrives, distortions, and modulators to the loop over the next 3 years.

Now 7 years later, I’ve realized the sound loss from the multi effect. I began having issues with a few of the knobs and one of the switches on the multi and I wasn’t sure I could trust it long term anymore.

So I did it…
I pulled the trigger…
I made the move…
To individual stomobox effects.

So, I give you the current addiction.

The new rig.

In order of chain:

A – Line6 Variax DI for Variax 700 Acoustic
B – 1: Amp Tremelo control. 2: Amp Reverb control.
C – T.C. Electronics PolyTune (connected via tuner out from Volume Pedal so it’s on all the time)
D – The Ebow. (straight awesomeness.)
E – A glass jar that once contained blueberry syrup from Cracker Barrel that hold my slide.
1 – T1M mini A/B to split 2 guitars or keys & guitar to one signal
2 – Boss CS2 Compressor
3 – Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster (for clean boost)
4 – Cry Baby 535 Q Wah
5 – Fulltone Full Drive 2 Mosfet
6 – Ibanex TS9
7 – Rat 2
8 – Micro POG
9 – Ernie Ball Mono Volume Pedal Jr.
10 – Line6 MM4
11 – T.C. Electronics Nova Delay (ND1)
12 – Line6 DL4
12b – T1M Mini Peep (photosensor expression control to DL4)
13 – Line6 Verbzilla (if you haven’t heard this… check out the demos on YouTube. The Octo, Cave & 63 Spring settings are EPIC)
14  – Boss LS2 splits signal to separate amp channels

Hopefully this was informative.

Enjoy & go create!

+PJT