The Board

This board for Ben Howard came in with quite a complex list of requirements. Fortunately I've been Ben's guitar tech for the last year so have seen several iterations of his pedalboard and understand how he uses his effects.

A midi-capable delay was necessary for ensuring consistency of tempos. The Strymon Timeline was chosen for its stereo options since the board runs out to a Left/Right pair of amps.

The MusicomLab EFX Mk IV was chosen to control the board for its midi compatibility, stereo loops and clear song/patch programming. Each song has its own patch on the MusicomLab EFX with presets for Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo and Outro. Each of these recalls tempo, loop and volume settings to guarantee consistency on every show.

Several of the pedals are between loops 5 and 6 on the MusicomLab EFX so they can be switched on and off at any point, regardless of presets.

Ben's monitor engineer wanted to use an EQ on the guitar signal before it hit the effects so a send/return to the Klark Technik DN3600 had to be incorporated.

After the tuner, the signal goes into a Radial JDI to send it to monitors via the stage line system. The signal is returned via a Radial JCR re-amp box and linked directly into the J48 DI which is a clean (pre-effects) DI and from there into the effects.

Pedalboard power comes from a pair of Cioks DC10, chosen for 110/240v input voltage switching capabilities and the ability to power the Radial SGIs in addition to all the effects pedals.

The output of the board is sent into a stereo pair of Radial SGIs to run the 20 metre looms to the offstage amps. An offstage stereo isolation cab was also designed to minimise spill into other mics and feedback when using acoustic guitars through the amps.

A duplicate spare board was built after initial testing of the main board. After 9 months of heavy touring, the spare hasn't been used.