NPD/ Rig Rundown - Boss OC-5
Hello everyone - I recently acquired a Boss Oc-5 and figured this was a good opportunity to update you all on the state of the board and ramble.
Signal Chain
Polytune mini noir 3
Ditto Pooper
Boss OC5
MXR Bass Envelope Filter
Vox Wah
EQD Hoof Reaper
EHX Soul Food
Stomp Under Foot - Skinner Box (Rat)
Boss GE-7 EQ
WA ARP-87
Neunaber Immerse
EHX Oceans 11
Dito X4
Vox AC15
Everything is connected with the EBS flat cables. Everything is powered with two different 1-spot PSUs.
Pedalboard is a Pedaltrain NOVO 24 - which came with a really sturdy metal carrying case.
First I'll talk about the new pedal - Boss OC-5 Octave Pedal
First impressions - Really fun pedal, the poly setting has a function where it can add bass to a range of notes, which allows you to play chords and only put the extra bass on the lower notes. I bought this pedal for Live looping, and for a song my band is playing where we need bass, but our bass/keys player is playing keys. I bought this one specifically for the octave up function (my hoofreaper wasn't cutting it, will elaborate later) and the *blend* knob. This brings a lot of *oomf* to riffs and lead lines, it gets pretty whacky when paired with some of the other effects. It creates an organ effect really easily, you almost have to be careful to avoid that when doing octave up and down together. Now that it's dialed how I like it (picture is before setup) it is very versatile for my electric playing, and does well with acoustic. It does sound a little dark - especially with chords- so you have to be intentional with where you use it and what your tone is to cut through a mix.
I always wanted the octave + fuzz sound, which is why I bought the hoof reaper. I think it's where I had it in the signal chain, it wasn't tracking very well and I was generally underwhelmed with the pedal as a whole. I was about to sell it but I think it's user error. The pedal is now an absolute beast and all 3 buttons are great to press.
Rig Rundown/ thoughts on each pedal.
Polytune - I don't know why everyone doesn't get this tuner. It's amazing, it takes up no space, it's bright enough to see, acts as a mute, the strum setting is great for quickly checking strings in between songs. I recommend this to everyone.
Ditto X4 + the standard - The Ditto X4 I bought right before COVID so I could practice solos and scales to a backing track. It completely changed the game for me. I do a lot of solo shows now with just myself and improvising with this thing. The smaller looper at the front of the chain I bought so that I could change effects of loops as I'm playing. This has an added (and invaluable) benefit as well of being able to dial in settings on pedals down the chain and see how they interact without having to play. The Ditto X4 doesn't get a lot of love on this subreddit, I read reports that it has issues with power. In the past, it did used to shut off and reset once every hundred hours or so; however, this has never happened since I upgraded from a daisy chain to an actual power supply. The X4 is great for mid-complexity loops, but I am starting to feel limited by it and want to upgrade to a Boss RC-600 soon. If anyone has experience with either/ both please chime in!
Boss OC-5 - just talked about this. Still learning but it's great.
MXR Bass Envelope Filter - I almost just took this off the board. I use it for exactly one song in our cover setlist. It doesn't do a whole lot to a guitar. I keep it on the board for now because A) I have the space and B) I do record bass and it is phenomenal for that. It was given as a gift from my BIL and so for now it stays.
VOX Wah - I'll be honest, I don't know which model this is, I think it's the regular one (not hand wired). I bought this like 10-13 years ago in high school and it serves its purpose. I think I will replace this with the Union Jack one because my wife is British.
EQD Hoof Reaper - I didn't have a fuzz. I didn't have an octave. I wanted options and got this after some research. I was underwhelmed at first with this - It didn't have a lot of use cases for my playing. However, I think I just had it in the wrong spot. This was set up before my wah and looper/ tuner for some fucking reason. The octave part (I think the tentacle is the standalone pedal name) didn't track very well and the fuzz was just too damn muddy for anything other than solos in specific settings. Now I have managed to tame the beast and the two fuzzes are distinct sounding and have a lot of different settings. The thing is *big* and tall. The knobs are also tall. I find that every time I open the case they are not where I left them. The buttons are really easy to press and make it so I can put a pedal right up next to them and not accidentally press both effects. Discontinued but I do recommend it if you can find one.
EHX Soul Food - This was also bought like 10-15 years ago, as part of my first pedal purchase so I'm biased. This thing is almost never turned off when I play. It adds that little bit of drive that I just love. I have used other overdrives, but honestly never owned any or felt the need to replace. Would love any recommendations for other overdrives, the EAE lineup has always caught my eye if someone wants to sell me on one of those.
This stacks really nicely with the other distortions I have in the my chain. The Skinner Box + Soul Food is my go too heavy sound, especially for songs with powerchords instead of just riffs.
Stomp Under Foot Skinner Box - This was described to me in the shop as a Rat Clone, as they didn't have a Rat. It is boutique, a little more expensive than I meant to spend at the time. But god damn does this thing SING. It is incredibly versatile. The lowest end of it just adds a fun little spice and crunch while it gets into fuzzy territory with everything dimed. It also looks cool and I'm a psychology nerd.
Boss GE-7 Equalizer - I also hear on here that this pedal is noisy. I don't really notice it on my current amp (Though I should probably invest in a noise gate anyway). I bought this with the Soul Food as a sophomore in highschool, it's stood up very well and is very reliable. This pedal is great for a couple things. If I'm doing a live looping session, I will change the EQ of different layers to give them slightly different tones to stand out more. It's main function for me is with the volume a little bit up, and the mids boosted / treble slightly cut. When it's time to solo, I press the button and cut through the mix a bit better. It's a fantastic "go button".
Walrus Audio ARP-87 - Fucking love this thing. It can get so weird, it can be so tasteful. The 4 different settings are very different and it does classic delay and really weird artsy gazey delay very well. The tap function to dial in the rate is incredibly useful when using it for different songs throughout a set. No Notes.
Neunaber Immerse - Another absolutely amazing pedal. I particularly like the hall setting and keep it pretty much always on on a low setting for our live shows. This thing is very very versatile though. It can get really reverby and just throw you to the back of a mix, and it just has so many options to really dial in however you want your reverb to sound. I know reverb is a very personal setting for people in this community, I fully believe this thing is a swiss army knife and can please everyone.
EHX Oceans 11 - Another pedal I just can't seem to throw off the board. It usually stays on the weirder settings for fun solo tones, or on the shimmer function low for specific songs. It has a *really* nice shimmer, I like it more than the immerse honestly.
All of this goes into a VOX AC-15. The reverb and trem no longer work but I bought it at a steep discount and it's been my main gigging amp for 4 years now. Curious to try a Fender Super Reverb, if anyone has played with both.
I know this is a bit rambly, but I figured if anyone is looking for info about any of these pedals then this post will be helpful.