April Birthdays 
My relationship with effects is … well … complicated. If all I ever played were Fender Deluxe Reverb amps, I wouldn’t really need effects pedals, because I tend to be satisfied with reverb, and the occasional tremolo.
But I play several different amps, and most of them don’t even have reverb, so I must use either a tank, or at least one pedal. If you have a pedal, you need to power it, and if you are going to have a power supply, you might as well add some other pedals, so that reverb pedal doesn’t suffer from isolation syndrome and require psychotherapy. 
A couple of kilo-bux later, you end up with a big pedalboard, which I called my “Swiss Army Board”.
The problem is, the 24” X 12.5” Swiss Army Board was a bit large for living room use, and I wanted a board that would allow me ready access to the effects I actually use, as opposed to the effects I use only on rare occasion.
So I went to Temple Audio’s site, and used their pedalboard planner. I found that a Temple Audio Duo 17 would give me what I wanted, without consuming too much floor space. Most importantly, I wanted to have my Stanley FX Blue Nebula available at all times. Beyond that, I want to have reverbs and delays that I can switch in and out on an ad-hoc basis, and absolutely, I have to have the Surfy Industries Blossom Point at the end of the chain. The Blossom Point is the coolest thing I’ve ever used.
So my Practical Board v1.0 turned out like this.
As I mentioned, the board is a Temple Audio Duo 17, which means that it employs Temple’s Quick Release system, which uses mounting plates that attach to the pedals with a durable adhesive and mount to the board using thumbscrews. I like this much better than Velcro, and they are truly a quick release design, which has come in very handy, already.
Temple boards have the ability to mount various accessories on the end panels, and one of these is a bespoke Cioks power distribution module known as the Hi-5. These are very compact units which don’t intrude very far into the mounting area of the board, and allow each port to be set for 9, 12, 15, or 18 VDC. There is an AC adaptor that mounts to the end panel, and the Hi-5 units can be daisy chained, so I have power available for 10 devices. It wasn’t the cheapest route, but it definitely works well and keeps the bottom of the board neat and clean. I actually was able to use 15 cm cables for several of the pedals, with no hassle, whatsoever. I have used Truetone power supplies for years, and still use them on smaller boards, but I have to say that Cioks units have made a good showing for themselves.
The logic of Practical Board 1.0 is as follows. The first pedal in the signal path is a Nobels ODR-1, which serves as the input buffer. The Nobels is a transparent and natural sounding overdrive, and truly my favorite. I don’t use overdrive often, but the Nobels has won my heart. At low Drive settings, it serves to take the edge off, without sounding too overdriven.
Next is a Boss TR-2 Tremolo, which is simple and does as it is asked, without complaint. Older TR-2s had a volume loss issue (which I understand can be addressed with an internal trim pot), but the newer TR-2s seem fine, right out of the box.
The MXR Phase 95 is probably the least used pedal on the board, but I have to say that it’s a good-sounding Phase Shifter, with a lot of options, for not a lot of bucks.
The Boss CE-2W is an excellent repro of the early Boss Chorus, and can be switched to sound like the earlier Boss CE-1, itself, a direct derivative of the chorus effect in the Roland Jazz Chorus, an amplifier that fate denied my owning, during its heyday. The CE-2W can also be used as a pure Vibrato, at the flip of a switch. Vibrato, literally, makes me seasick, but used in moderation, it has its place.
Next in line is the piece de resistance, the Stanley Blue Nebula. It has the best Plate Reverb emulation I have ever heard, a plethora of classic Delay emulations (including presets for many of Hank Marvin’s classic Shadows tunes), a Reverb + Tremolo effect, a Dual Chorus and a world class preamp that is designed to give you a nice, harmonic-rich, signal. The Echoplex and RE-201 emulations, alone, are enough to justify the relatively modest cost of the pedal.
Obviously, there is some overlap between the Blue Nebula and the other pedals on the board, but there is some logic to it all. The Blue Nebula can be used interactively, just like any other pedal, but it also has 128 programmable presets, which can be selected via foot switch. These presets can be named as you see fit, allowing you to create a set-list on the board, with presets corresponding to each song. If you want to use other pedals on certain songs, that is a simple matter of programming a preset that is preamp only, and using other pedals for the desired sound.
I will also add that the Abbey Road Plate Reverb emulation in the Blue Nebula is a prize in its own right. It will drip when pushed, and also sounds great when used together with a Spring Reverb emulation. I can’t say enough good about this pedal.
Next is an Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master, which is basically a Hall Reverb and a Digital Delay. I call it my Chet Atkins In A Box pedal. It’s not really Surf oriented, but it comes in very handy for a moderate Reverb plus Delay sound.
The Catalinbread Topanga is a decent digital emulation of a 6G15, and has a great clean boost preamp. It can be set to unbuffered bypass, or buffered bypass, the latter leaving the preamp always engaged. I won’t argue that it’s as good as a vintage 6G15, but as spring reverb pedals go, it’s pretty decent.
The final stop in the signal path is the absolutely amazing Blossom Point by Surfy Industries. The idea is to bring a bit of the ‘62 Showman/Bandmaster’s character to any amp. I usually play through a Winfield Tremor, which is basically a ‘62 Princeton, with some minor improvements. Surfy Industries state that this is not an effect, but instead, is an amp enhancer. I’ve used it with the aforementioned Tremor, an AC-15 clone and a mid ‘60s Pro Reverb clone. It brings something good to every amp I’ve tried it with. Beyond the obvious value for a Surf sound, it’s perfect for an understated Fusion sound. (Think Larry Carlton.) Because this pedal is on over 99% of the time, I have no need of an output buffer, the Blossom Point providing a nice, low impedance signal for the final run to the amp’s input. Even with the Blossom Point bypassed, there’s no signal degradation. I have the impression that the bypass circuit of the Blossom Point is a nice, low-capacitance circuit, which keeps everything kosher.
Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with this board, and absolutely promise to never change anything about it … until the FedEx guy shows up, with my most recent purchase. I had seriously planned not to touch the board, but one no-name cable decided to make trouble, and as long as I have disrupted matters, I may end up a v2.0 in the foreseeable future.
In the immortal words of Johnny Carson; more to come.
—The artist formerly known as: Synchro
When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.
