First part of this post can be found here. In that post I got to end of pedal before amp. In this post I go through pedals in effects loop. To be honest as writing this I haven’t used effects loop setup yet. It has been easier to put everything before clean amp. One cable in patch bay is enough for that.
Before I get to pedal in effects loop little update about Giygas noise issue. Turns out Tone Corset was not the problem. It is noisy after Revv pedals even if Tone Corset is not on board. Don’t know why. I have to turn Manx Loaghtan’s sustain all the way up before it gets noisy in same position and it is not nearly as noisy even then. So Manx Loaghtan stays in board. Giygas will find its place on bass or synth pedalboard when ever I get that one. It has bass setting which make it usable with bass. I moved NS-2 after Lost Highway and put Tone Corset and dirt pedals into NS-2’s loop. Now board is really quiet even when I use pretty high gain. This concludes what has happened before amp pedals since first part. Now to effects loop pedals.
Polychrome comes first in effects loop. Already wrote post about Polychrome. Meris Polymoon is last pedal added to the board. I wanted digital delay to complement two analog delays. I was about to get Walrus Audio’s D1 but then I learned about analog dry through which D1 doesn’t have. I had few options. Polymoon wasn’t first option until I started to wonder do I need another delay doing basic delay. Polymoon demos tend to show full capabilities of the pedal. I wanted subtler delay with option to do more. Not just basic copies of some older units. When I found demos showing pedal can do subtler delay I took change with it. Feedback filter is rarely shown on demos but it is the reason why I wanted Polymoon.
Polymoon works well with Tonal Recall when you set Polymoon’s feedback filter right hand side and Tonal Recall’s tone down. I couldn’t make Tonal Recall and Rubberneck work this well when they were next to each other. After first impressions Polymoon was correct choice for digital delay. I haven’t even tried everything yet. Even using it as basic delay it feels worth it. I haven’t taken full advantage of Tonal Recall either. I have use it only as basic analog delay. I think Chase Bliss’ pedals’ UI has one fatal flaw. When you use ramp or expression pedal you set range from maximum or minimum to knobs current position. In Polymoon you select settings for expression pedals maximum and minimum settings. Other than ramp/expression flaw Tonal Recall is amazing analog delay.
Next comes my all time favorite pedal Surfybear Compact. It is real spring reverb with two selectable mix settings. It is big and requires own power supply but is absolutely worth it. Walrus R1 is there for situations when I want something other than spring reverb. I am bit tempted to replace R1 with Mercury 7 but I think I keep R1. It has interesting modes which could be useful in correct setting.
My goal was to have pedalboard which can do everything I want. So far I have been able to do that and some interesting sonic explorations I didn’t expect. It doesn’t fit to board but next on shopping list is dual expression pedal which can control both Polymoon and Tonal Recall. Board have some expensive pedals. I wanted to get pedals I don’t need to change anytime soon and which are versatile. It should be cheaper in long run.