Jonnys Pedal Board

[isaac]

You need to figure it out yourself.

 

The quality of the guitar, or acoustic or electric really don't matter at first, it's just playing that really makes the different, learning scales and simple songs to keep you occupied, learning chords and then musical theory.

 

Then in time you'll start to appreciate the difference and be able to pick your preference.

 

Pedals are great, since you're into simple stuff and one guitar kind of bands, they're what make guitarists like Edge or Buckland able to fill songs without another guitarist, especially delay which in some cases makes it seem like two guitars over one. :)

[babo]

...jst wat i was about to say :lol: :P

[chlorofit]

well i did finished elementary school and two higher classes.so i kinda know the theory and the scales. i already play oboe, clarinet and piano, so guitar is one of the final challanges for me (i plan on playing the bass after).

so pedals just make weirder sounds and nothing more, are there pedals for acustic guitars?

 

oh..i'm from croatia, but from a small town that's really in the middle of nowhere.

[isaac]

Pedals don't just make weirder sounds, so much of guitar is getting a mix between a good guitar and good pedals, because without them you miss out on a lot of opportunities

 

And yes there are effects pedals but they're usually useless and sometimes you'll try something like distortion on electric and it sounds like shit.

 

Plus, as you're not really understanding all of the ideas behind pedals, it's probably best to just get an acoustic and roll with that. :)

[chlorofit]

yeah..for starters? :cool:

[chlorofit]

so..i've just got a guitar from a friend for starting, so if it goes good a new one is coming..

 

anyway..it's KUAN guitar? anyone has a clue?

[chlorofit]

so..friend of mine gave me a guitar for starting so if it goes well i'll buy new one..

 

this guitar i've got is kuan..any clue?

[babo]

no :D

[Lance]

Here are some more pictures of Johnny's pedal board. These are screenshots taken from Coldplay at Maida Vale 22 December 2005.

 

 

 

[babo]

...

[Zooropa1310]

Here are some more pictures of Johnny's pedal board. These are screenshots taken from Coldplay at Maida Vale 22 December 2005.

 

So... here it is basically.

 

The pedal he has his foot on is a Line 6 delay (name not important, just what it does). It gives you that echo you hear in Everything's Not Lost, Talk, and most others.

 

Then that little orang one about is a Phaser (I think). It gives you that wash sound that sounds really spaced out (the new live If God Put A Smile, when they go crazy at the end).

 

Then the little white one to the right is a tuner, self explanatory.

 

The other white one next to the orange phaser is another delay pedal.

 

And I am guessing that the pedal all the way to the left, the little white one is another phaser.

 

The one next to it looks like a standard grunge distortion pedal, gives you that scratchy famous rock sound.

 

That's all I can really pick out.

 

And all of the little pedal buttons below all that are selectors. One may be labeled Square One Chorus, Square One Verse, Talk Intro, God Put A Smile On You Outro. With the press of one of those, it will turn on some pedals and turn off others to give you the sound you need.

 

 

You could pay $30 for a minimal distortion pedal, but if you are a tone nut, you may pay up to $250 for high end sound. High quality delay pedals are pretty expensive, the green one he has his foot on runs about $200-$250, the little white one about $150.

 

 

His rig is pretty minimal compared to most, I'm surprised their isn't a wah pedal on there.... Maybe he keeps it elsewhere. Someone should post a picture of The Edge's rig from the Vertigo Tour... My God. And he may have a shimmer set up going on, which is the combination of a pitch shift (converting the guitar sound to a higher octave) and a reverb (making it sound spaced out). I couldn't ID any reverb pedal in particular, but it's on there. (Almost a necessity).

 

 

And if you have the money, I reccomend single effects pedals, rather multi set ups. Single ones have much more quality, and though you pay a lot more, you'll get your moneys worth in the sound.

 

 

 

I just registered today, I saw Colplay at Arco last night, so I thought I'd join the forum. My name's Alex. :) .

[LouisC]

good post alex and welcome to the forum! I'm very interested in building my own pedal board. this is awesome. very interested in that selector too. It's a cool idea eh :)

Hope you enjoyed the Arco gig last night!

[Zooropa1310]

good post alex and welcome to the forum! I'm very interested in building my own pedal board. this is awesome. very interested in that selector too. It's a cool idea eh :)

Hope you enjoyed the Arco gig last night!

 

Well, maybe I could help you out. What sounds are you interested in? (Give me some artist names, guitarists). I could get you started there.

 

And the Arco gig was great... I did good by staying away from the forums as to avoid spoilers for stage performance (I had to take a peek at setlist though :embarrased: ) I absoloutely loved the intro, with the giant stopwatch. Although they did cut my girlfriends favorite song (Kingdom Come :( ) ........Green Eyes completely made up for it. By the way, do you have AIM?

[chlorofit]

:kiss: :kiss: :kiss: for explaining...

 

and welcome! :)

[Placebo88]

The white pedal far left is an MXR Micro amp. Provides gain, as used on Politik and Fix you. Next to the white Boss DD-5 is the Vintage Rat, another different type of distortion, as used on White Shadows and Swallowed in the sea.

They're the only ones i can pick out for sure. The orange pedal is an MXR phaser

[athalon]

a

 

i hope i can help here. sorry if they've all been named already, but i'll name them anyway.

 

the directions i use are assuming you're looking at the first picture (the one from above jon) and that you are facing towards the pedals as if you were going to use them as jonny does.

 

starting from left:

 

MXR Micro Amp

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/MXR/Micro_Amp-01.html

 

This pedal is just for gain, also known as volume. As the guy somewhere above me said, a great example of this pedal in use is politik, also fix you. This pedal can give a distorting effect, but that's generally not its intended use.

 

 

Colorsound Tonebender

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1970s-Sola-Sound-Colorsound-Tone-bender-fuzz-70_W0QQitemZ7388539396QQcategoryZ22669QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

This is a fuzzy distortion pedal. I imagine that this pedal probably costs up to 200 GDP if it is in the highest quality. I don't know for sure if these are still being made; most are either refurbished or kept from around 1975. I am fairly sure that this pedal is used in God Put A Smile Upon Your Face for that fuzzy tone in the lead. Other than that, I don't know what songs he uses it for. Maybe X&Y and Speed of Sound, but the distortion in those songs can also be matched with a vintage rat pedal that I will mention later.

 

 

Boss RV-? (possibly 5)

http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/RV-5/

 

This pedal is used for reverb, or the sound you would achieve if you played a guitar without effects in a large empty room. You could call it an echo but that would be more of a delay pedal. I can't think of another boss pedal that is dark grey like this one is, so I am assuming that it is a reverb pedal. (besides, i don't see another reverb pedal on his board at all.) I think he uses reverb and delay for basically all his lead parts. I guess it's sort of his trademark sound to have lots of delay and reverb.

 

 

Boss DD-? (probably 3 or 6)

http://www.bossus.com/index.asp?pg=1&tmp=118

 

This pedal is used in conjunction with his two line6 delay pedals and his reverb pedal to achieve the tone he uses for almost all of his leads. A delay pedal will echo the signal passed through it differently based on the settings the user has. Take Talk (LIVE) for example. He has multiple delays, but you can clearly hear one delay that has fairly long intervals between each echo. Or take God Put A Smile Upon You Face. During his lead solo, there is a fairly short delay.

 

 

MXR Phase 90

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/MXR/Phase_90-01.html

 

A phase pedal is very difficult to describe to someone who hasn't played guitar or heard of a phase pedal, so here are some sound clips from musiciansfriend.com that will help you understand what it does.

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Guitar/Effects?sku=151100

(scroll to the bottom)

 

I know this pedal is used in square one during the end of the song when Jon is "rocking out." I think he has it on a very slow speed at that point to achieve a neat effect with the delay pedals.

 

 

Proco Vintage Rat Distortion

http://www.zzounds.com/item--PRCVINTRAT

 

This is another distortion pedal that has a bit sharper and cleaner tone. I think this pedal is used in tracks such as Yellow, Fix You, White Shadows, and Don't Panic to name a few. This pedal has a capability of very distorted tones, but Jon only turns the distortion up to 1 or so. This achieves a very light distortion and a greater attack when playing leads.

 

 

Boss TU-2

http://www.bossus.com/index.asp?pg=1&tmp=60

 

This is a standard tuning pedal; nothing special.

 

 

Line 6 DL4

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Line_6/DL4_Delay_Modeler-01.html

 

There are two large green pedals that are on Jon's pedal board (well one isn't on it.) and they are both the Line 6 DL4. This is another delay pedal that has a few different options than the Boss DD-?. I know the most obvious use other than the ambient echo Jon uses is the auto volume feature for Square One. You might notice that Jon usually doesn't do a volume swell in Square One even though the noise would have you believe differently. Ths DL4 has an auto volume feature that performs a volume swell. Other than the auto volume, he just has lots and lots of delay, and the best way to hear how much delay he has is in Talk (LIVE) at the beginning.

 

 

I believe the two pedals at the top are for an acoustic guitar since they are seperate from the pedal board line and are very sparse. There is what appears to be another Boss TU-2 with some tape to show that it is for acoustic rather than Electric. I cannot tell what the blue pedal is, or if it's even a pedal. It might just be a box to take the signal straight to the PA system, I don't know.

 

 

Well, I hope I have been correct in my guesses.[/b]

[Placebo88]

Is the Colorsound Tonebender used on yellow for Johnny's main part?

[athalon012]

a

 

yeah, i think he might use the colorsound tonebender on yellow, but perhaps this will give you a really good idea of what he uses on what song.

 

[rsgathman]

cool. In those notes, what does the CH stand for? I can't figure out which pedal that would be.

Also, do you think he uses that Tonebender in alot of songs? I really want one of those. I have a MJM Britbender, but that is very high gain, pretty harsh.

[athalon]

i haven't figured out for sure what ch is, but i think it's just a channel switch on his amp; however, i cannot find a footswitch for his amp on his pedalboard. (i don't think that big group of buttons are channel switching buttons.) it would make sense to change channels on his amp because all of those songs have a tighter and raised highs, almost like a compressor. if anyone has a better idea of what ch could be, please tell, i'm all out of ideas. also, his setlists aren't always full and he doesn't mention the tonebender, that doesn't mean he doesn't use it.

[moss]

ch has to mean chorus right

[rsgathman]

Chorus is a good guess, but I don't see a chorus pedal on the board. That Tonebender is what I raelly want to know about. If that is the pedal getting the very distorted sound that he uses at the end of some of the songs. I imagine it is an original pedal, not a reissue. Who can ask Jonny about it?? Are there any forums that they ever participate in?

[Silverspira]

Thanx everyone for telling all of Jonnys pedals, useful facts :)

Does anyone know what amp Jonny uses?:\

[Placebo88]

Doesn't Johnny use Fender Hotrod DeVille amps?

[frostbitepanda]

^ Yep.