Show Me Your Pedalboard: Ben

Today’s Show Me Your Pedalboard entry comes from Ben, all the way from North London! Ben plays in an “alternative” band called LTNT (Lieutenant). Ben really kicks out the jams with his band, and it’s definitely evident when you see what he’s got on his board. Let’s take a look at what Ben is rocking out with:

First things first, bass into a BOSS tuner into an MXR Bass DI straight into a Radial BigShot ABY Bypass Switcher. These switches are great if you’re playing with multiple amps, or if you like keeping your effects loops separate from everything else. In this case Ben separates his signal into two amps – one clean, one dirty and distorted.

Photo credit: Premier Guitar

From the switcher into the dirty side of things - Ben’s rocking a Mantic Vitriol, an amazing distortion made by awesome dudes they've got you covered when it comes to distortion/fuzz. Check out their Isaiah Delay too! Up next is a Hotone Harmony Pitch Shifter/Harmonist, Hotone’s motto is awesome functionality in a very tiny package, you can’t go wrong with Hotone and no back breakers either! I love my Hotone Looper. Keeping with the real estate friendly theme is the new Dunlop CryBaby Mini Wah, into an EHX Freeze and a TC Electronics Ditto Looper X2 to loop all the madness.  I’m torn between the Ditto Loopers and the Line 6 DL4, there are so many things Line 6 could do to improve on it but it’s definitely old faithful at this point. I'll have to dig in some more with the Ditto stuff. 

Photo credit: Jim Dunlop

On the clean end of the split Ben’s rocking an MXR Bass Chorus Deluxe, one of my favorite pedals of 2013. MXR has created a chorus that, when in X-Over Mode, the modulation in the lower frequencies is decreased at 100Hz.  Why would this be important?  It’s ideal when you’re playing upper register chords, harmonics, melodies or basslines while keeping the low end in tune.  Play a bass line or melody past the twelfth fret while pedaling your low E string and you will see what I mean.  Your E is in tune but your melody has that musical chorus to make your line sound full and rich. To make things better, MXR put in a flanging component in this pedal as well. Awesome pick Ben!

Seems like you could do without the DI, maybe get a compressor or a graphic EQ instead? Since things are split at the switcher, the DI isn’t going to have as great a difference as you would adding pedals to either side of the split. Everyone’s got different ears, and that’s  just my two cents.

Great stuff Ben, thanks for sending in your board! If you haven’t sent in your board you can do so at juan@pedalsandeffects.com and it could end up right here on Pedals And Effects!