NELS CLINE
"Pedal Board Spiel (2005)"
OK, people. You all seem fixated, I dare say HYPNOTIZED, by all my damn effects boxes. So here you go: all about my NEW PEDAL BOARD, being used with Wilco and anything else I can find to drag all 75 pounds of it (including swanky road case) to! I confess that it is a bit irritating to me that people seem so fixated on HOW MANY pedals I have. This is because there seems to be something double-edged about it: a kind of fascination mixed with feelings of skepticism and/or disgust, as though it's somehow amazing that I can keep track of it all and at the same time I must be some kind of charlatan to NEED so many pedals! Well, what can I say? I didn't always use them (for quite a while I played mostly acoustic guitar), but I seem to have an aptitude for using them, and I think they're a lot of fun! Seriously, there is way too much emphasis placed on gear in general (read the rest of this column if you haven't already for further amplification of this point), and effects pedals are just another tool, another way to get color into one's life. With Wilco, I have been using more distortion devices than ever (fuzz, overdrive, distortion - sticklers!). This is because I enjoy tailoring my sound very specifically for certain songs. And as I said previously, you can't own too many fuzzboxes in my book! We are living in a time of vast choices in this area - boutique items galore. It wasn't always like this. The 80s were a dark time for a young person looking to get that nasal fuzz sound evident on songs like "Psychotic Reaction" or "Pushin' Too Hard". Everything was all creamy, soaring... Dare I say it, MIDI-controlled, pre-fab hell! At least for me... So take a look at this bunch of colorful crap. It breaks down into 2 areas: the BOARD, and what I call my SCIENCE PROJECT, which is a bunch more stuff elevated on a road case to my right.
THE BOARD:
1) Boss tuner
2) Voodoo Lab Pedal Power II
3) Fulltone Deja Vibe the little one, non-stereo)
4) Digitech Whammy Pedal (the original model)
5) Z-Vex Fuzz Factory
6) Ernie Ball volume pedal (I've managed to break 5 of these things over the years, but still I persist...)
7) Crowther Audio Hot Cake overdrive
Boss CS3 Compressor
9) Boss Vibrato Pedal
10) Fulltone '69 Fuzz
11) Klon Centaur overdrive
12) ProCo Rat distortion (modified)
13) Boss DD-2 digital delay
* floating on and off the pedal planet:
Cry Baby wah-wah (not pictured)
14) Electro Harmonix The POG
15) Block of wood: custom made (for my foot during lap steel moments)
THE SCIENCE PROJECT:
1) Electro Harmonix 16 Second Digital Delay (the original one, not the re-issue - I've had this for 19 years...!!!)
2) Korg Kaos Pad (next to the springs, bottlenecks, egg whisk, and battery-powered drink stirrer)
3) Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb
4) Mid-Fi Electronics Glitch Computer
The black box that's lurking/loitering nearby is an Alan Yee (of Memphis) The Fuzzy Nuts distortion pedal. Alan hand makes a few of these, plus a clean boost called The Last Temptaton of Boost that has majorly infiltrated the Wilco pile o' pedals. And a treble boost...
OK, a few words about some (not all) of these devices:
Why the original Whammy Pedal? I've had this one for years, ever since Woody Aplanalp gave it to me. It's the only one I can really MOVE on, and I think it sounds best.
What's up with the Fuzz Factory? I bought this in San Francisco many years ago when, after a Scarnella gig, a guy walked up to me and couldn't believe I didn't know about Z-Vex products. It was only later on that I realized that Henry Kaiser had showed me the Fuzz Factory (only one of many sick Z-Vex creations) while we were making the "Yo, Miles!" CD. Anyway, I went and checked this out and the rest is history. it's not, as some will tell you, "out of control". It is wild. it's on everything I've done since I got the thing. Marvelous. Sick. Classic.
Hot Cake: Scott Amendola gave me this little beauty from New Zealand. When I joined Wilco, I made sure to put this on my board IN ADDITION to my cherished Klon Centaur Overdrive because I wanted to sculpt many overdriven subtleties. Little did I realize that the Marshall JTM 45 I would use with Wilco would fall in LOVE with the Hot Cake! Together, they rule! The Hot Cake works less well with high-wattage amps like a Twin Reverb. It actually sounds like crap. But with that Marshall...!!!
Boss Vibrato Pedal - PLEASE RE-ISSUE THIS! They're rare as hen's teeth, I LOVE the sound (I like wiggly, what can I say?), and mine took some serious blows in flight. Help!
Fulltone '69 fuzz - When I started playing with Wilco, I went through the many pedals lying around the Wilco loft looking for EVEN MORE DISTORTION SOURCES. Jeff Tweedy had this, an early '69, and he let me have it. One of the things I look for in any distortion device is MASSIVE GAIN. I need stuff that won't get QUIETER when you hit it, and frankly a shocking number of fuzzboxes and the like are super wimpy in this regard. The '69 (new one pictured here - Jeff's broke, and I need it because this new one sounds different...) just makes the grade. Check my Wilco setting: EVERYTHING ALL THE WAY UP.
ProCo Rat has been modified for a little extra poop. The LED is now yellow. The sound is not as fabulous as my old Marshall Guv'nor, but I'm adjusting. Note: Why, when these companies "reissue" things (like the Guv'nor) are they NOTHING like the original??!?!?!??!
Boss DD-2 delay: Because when I turn the thing off I don't want it to trail off (like subsequent Boss delays)! I want it OFF! It works...
Why the Klon Centaur? Henry Kaiser turned me on to this when we did "Yo, Miles!". I've written about it before. It's an amp in a box. No more worries in the world of AMP DU JOUR about overdrive tone. It will always be OK. The Centaur will take care of it. Consumers: It's worth the wait to get one. I've had this thing for years now. What did I ever do without it?
What's a Mid-Fi Glitch Computer? My roommate Bobb turned me on to this little company, which seems to basically be a guy in Massachusetts named Doug and his raw, loud, and SICK creations. Bobb's Glitch Computer is different from mine, but at least mine does what I had hoped for: it makes things sound like they're blowing up. Warning: These boxes (he makes distortion of various types) have so much gain it would be easy to blow up your gear! Start at low gain...
What's The POG? It's multiple-octave harmonizer box that can track exceedingly well and make your guitar sound like an organ. Yes, complex chord voicings confuse it - what did you expect?! But it has possibilities for the guitarist who wants to add some orchestral, non-guitar-specific color to his or her life. And the octaves really track superbly.
OK that's all the geekdom I can handle right now. Remember: These are just MY choices. They may have no relation to your world whatsoever. It's all a matter of personal choices, imagination, And remember: It's YOUR vision. Don't take any shit! We don't have to follow in the steps of others if we don't want to. This is really my only message. It took me forever to figure it out! It's when we stray and find our own way that we move forward and show who we are. There's already enough stale crap out there.
Go ahead: Be yourself! Make my day!
lemgement lemg
