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This is a walk through of a 2018 build. Most of this blog was written just before we packed up to relocate to Nashville (better late than never, right?).
This board was designed for a bass player.
Diving in
Here is an early signal chain which included a full-size Moog Cluster Flux, Ernie Ball volume, and Mission Engineering expression pedal.
A sweet compact loop-switcher
The rig is controlled by a five-loop OneControl Chamaeleo. It's shallow footprint gives easy access to the patch plugs, even on slim pedalboards. A division between loop 4 and loop 5 allows the option to divide pedal groups between pre-amp and effects-loop chains, which is exactly what we did for this pedalboard. The effects-loop chain is tracked with green arrows in the signal chain diagrams.
Pedal layout mock-ups
The original pedal collection would have required a cumbersome board size of around 48" long. The task became creating alternate layout ideas that would reduce the length to around 40" without loosing functionality.
We considered substituting full-size pedals for mini pedals and the possibility of patching in the Moog from off the board. Scale mock-ups are an invaluable tool for comparing ideas.
My client settled on a mini volume and mini expression pedal from AMT. I was not familiar with the brand at the time, but was impressed by their use of an optical sensor (similar to Hilton volumes) instead of a traditional pot. The build quality was good, and the small size allowed us to bring the Moog back on a board layout totaling 40" long.
Two-for-one Moog expression pedals
We needed to control multiple Moog jacks with one mini expression pedal. This turned out to be more challenging than I anticipated because the Moog TRS jacks send a DC voltage. In the end we needed to add trim pots to level out the voltage on the jack not in use.
The enclosure was screw-mounted to the back brace of the pedalboard. I keep discovering ways to utilize this helpful element on our OpenWing board design.
Here is a look at the special TRS switch box:
The final signal chain looked like this:
And a final mock-up of the 40" layout (showing the layers created by risers):
The output patchbay can switch the signal chain between an amp-with-effects-loop chain, and a straight-to-front-amp chain:
Here are some photos of the completed rig:
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