Saturday, May 24, 2008

Teppei's Pedals- Updated 8/9


Here's a list of pedals Teppei has in his pedalboard, with some background information on each:

Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler- Teppei seems to like the Line 6 pedals quite a bit. The delay modeler features 16 different delay models, mostly emulating vintage units (Deluxe Memory Man, Roland Space Echo, Ibanez AD9, etc.) but with a few other options like reverse delay and a 16 second loop sampler. The pedal allows 3 presets and has a tap tempo feature, which makes the pedal versatile and especially good for live performances. Delay is a big part of Teppei's spacy, airy clean tones. Listen to the Air album and "Of Dust and Nations" from Vheissu for delay magic.

Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler- This is another of those big Line 6 pedals. This one emulates numerous guitar synths and filters. It allows four presets and emulates the Moog, Arp, Korg and Roland synths as well as a few others. I'm slightly stumped as to where this is used. I can only assume it was used for more far-out Water sounds.

Line 6 MM4 Modulation Modeler- The last of his Line 6 pedals emulates tons of classic modulation pedals, like the Uni-Vibe, Phase 90, Boss CE-1, MXR Flanger, and many others. Teppei isn't typically a modulation fan, and usually opts for delays instead- for the Water album, however, there are TONS of modulated sounds. The best way to describe most of these sounds is "wet", so it's quite fitting. This one also features 4 presets, again helping for live performances.

ProCo Turbo RAT Distortion Pedal- The RAT distortion pedals are among the most versatile of their kind. While most pedals are limited to one trademark sound, the RATs seem to be able to sound great with a number of different settings. It's hard to say where this pedal is used, as Teppei has amp distortion as well in live settings and it can be assumed that that is what is used most of the time as far as recording (we know he used Marshall JCM800s for the Fire album's, well, fiery tone. The Turbo Rat is known for it's high gain tones that don't extinguish (no Fire related pun intended) harmonics and clarity.

Digitech Whammy IV- The Digitech Whammy pedal is used for pitch shifting. By using the expression pedal with your foot (like a wah), you can shift the pitch of the note you are playing up or down. The Whammy line also has a "dive bomb" effect, simulating a Floyd Rose tremolo system. The Whammy has a number of harmony effects for making your guitar sound like more than one instrument.

Boss Pitch Shifter/Delay- This is another digital delay pedal (further proving Teppei's love for delay). These pedals are similar to the more popular Boss DD series, but with some more interesting features. It has 2 seconds of delay and a chorus feature. The chorus can be dialed in to be quite thick and sounds nice. The Pitch Shifting is slightly off at times, but by no means unusable. The pedal is a nice, versatile delay with some noise-making capabilities. The Whammy is a much more precise pitch shifter though.

Boss TU-2 Tuner- Simply a Boss pedal tuner. It's always smart to have a tuner in your rig in a live situation.

Edit 8/9:
This was figured out a while ago and put in another post, but I'll put it here too so it's easier to find. The mysterious expression pedal is used with his DL-4 for even more control over his delay. It also looks like Teppei has began using an Ernie Ball volume pedal, and possibly added/switched other things too. I'll be searching for more recent pics to confirm this.

25 comments:

Christian said...

https://www.globalfulfillment.net/gfsnet/line6/10Expand.aspx?ProductCode=99%20EX1
I think it must be that one! ;-)
greets Christian

Christian said...

https://www.globalfulfillment.net/gfsnet/line6/10Expand.aspx?ProductCode=99%20EX1

Christian said...

Sry, the link post doesn´t worked!
I think it´s the Line 6 EX-1 Expression Pedal!

Mike said...

Thanks Christian! I'm working on my article on Eddie's board right now and I just discovered that the pedal is used as an expression pedal for the Line 6 delay. They certainly like having as many delay options as possible!

Anonymous said...

I have a Boss DD20 delay in my rig, and i was wondering, is there a reason why the Line 6 delay is preferred much over the others?

I hear it breaks very easily, but the sound a killer..

Im quite happy with my dd20, but just not seeing it enough it the live-music world, i wonder.

Mike said...

Hey Joe!

DD-20s are nice delays with a lot of the features of the Line 6s. I don't know that they're preferred that much over other delays... the Line 6 delays get a lot of complaints for doing a ton of tone coloring, and being easy to break (the poor enclosure hurts the bypass a bit too, I'm sure).

If you like the DD-20, stick with it! I don't think you'll find a Line 6 much better, if at all because like I said, they're very similar.

To compare them, Boss pedals are known for having not-the-best bypass in the world (but if you don't have an old fuzz or something in your rig it shouldn't be a big problem), but it's probably got better bypass than the Line 6. The Boss has pretty much the same features and has a much better enclosure. The screen is a plus, too.

Despite being a big Thrice fan, I'd really recommend the DD-20 over the Line 6.

Anonymous said...

Thanks man,
I've heard the DD20's have a true bypass signal, so I'm happy with that.
:)
thanks for your posts, appreciate them (thrice gear geek)

Anonymous said...

Well, you've already figured out but yeah. the black pedal is an Line 6 EX-1 expression pedal. It works for all the big line 6 modeling units. Through using it you can "morph" between two sounds as well as increase/decrease the volume.

Mike said...

Oh yeah? Thanks for that, I couldn't really figure out what it was for (like there aren't enough buttons/presets without it!) or when it gets used.

I can see how it'd help in a live situation though, as sound is definitely different from place to place and delay volume could seem too loud or too quiet on the same setting on any given night just from how the venue is.

The morphing is quite interesting though. I wonder if any of them (they all have/had the pedal) have used that? The possibilities are pretty limitless with the Line 6.

I must say though, that I couldn't be happier with my newest pedal, an MXR Carbon Copy analog delay. Beautiful warm delay, simple to use and great self oscillation. It's one of those pedals that you can just sit down and mess with and have a blast. Then again, I don't have a need for lots of presets like Teppei so I can definitely see the versatility and convenience perks to the Line 6.

Maybe I'll do some gear reviews from a Thrice aspect and post them here... hmm...

Sorry if that bored you, and I'm sure it did! But thanks for reading and thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

It certainly didn't bore me! I am also a pedalgeek! even thouhg playing is nowhere near as good as teppeis (then again, who's is?). permition to brag? I currently own the following:

Line 6 dm4, Line 6 dl4, Line 6 Ex-1, Boss tu-2, Boss ph-3, Boss bf-3, boss dd-6, boss rv-5, dunlop crybaby, boss ns-2, boss rc-2.

And uh, keep up the goow work!

Holy Tears said...

I'm more then sure that Teppei has changed his pedalboard setup. Looking at more recent pictures from when they played on Conan and seeing them more recently towards the end of May. Teppei is using a Stereo rig switching between two amps, the AC30 and a I suspect to be "home made" head with a mesa 2x12 cab. The assumption for the pedalboard is since Teppei has been building his own pedals and even wanted to build his own amp.

Mike said...

I'm pretty positive it was just a Fender '59 Bassman reissue amp on the Conan performance. I haven't seen many photos from the last tour of him (and I didn't see any shows due to my unfortunate geographical position! :P) but I'm going to do some digging right now.

It looked like the old pedal setup on Conan from what I could see, and he has been known to use multiple amps live (a Marshall JCM and Vox AC30 on the tours promoting TAI vols. I & II). This was before he got his Bassman though, which he has said has quickly become his favorite.

Thanks a lot for the comment!

Mike said...

Hey holy tears, I did my digging and found a decent shot of Teppei's pedalboard from the last tour (the show was Chicago in May). Looks like the one I described in this article but with the addition of an Ernie Ball volume pedal.

Holy Tears said...

Thanks! well if you check out the video for the Myspace Transmissions performance he actually moved around a few pedals, I'll pause the video for "Broken Lungs" cause I spotted the Ernie Ball Volume pedal and I spot more!

Mike said...

Can you take a screenshot of it possibly? I'm on dialup and it makes watching Youtube near impossible, so I haven't seen the Myspace Transmissions videos. :(

I'm going to sift through some pictures tonight though. I figured it was a matter of time before he added a volume pedal. It may even be Dustin's old one since he only uses his POD board now.

Holy Tears said...
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Holy Tears said...
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Holy Tears said...

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m22
/kenman_04/pedal.jpg


http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m22
/kenman_04/pedals2.jpg

Heres both of the pictures.

Mike said...

Thanks so much!!

You're definitely right. Looks like the whole thing's been reorganized and 2 of his big Line 6 pedals are gone.

Now to figure out what he replaced them with...

Holy Tears said...

Your welcome man, I'm more then positive some of them are his home-made pedals, and he even made a very nice tube head.

Anonymous said...

That looks more like a boss reverb more than a pitch shifter. Probably the RV3.

Anonymous said...

Tepei's had the fm4 for a while, it might be used for wah effects as well, which makes me think the expression pedal might be for it, seeing as it's compatible with all line 6 modelers. He might also use the mm4 for tremolo as heard on come all you weary, though if he has tube tremolo in his amp it might not matter. Is it certain that it's a delay/pitch shifter as well? It looks to me like the delay/reverb.

Anonymous said...

Any idea what amps they used to record Red Telephone? sounds a bit different then the ac30. Bassman maybe?