I’ve played guitar for several years now. Each week I lead music and worship for our church’s youth group, and I play lead guitar and occasionally sing and lead worship in our church’s weekend worship service as well. In the past I have tried several pedal and processor options, but in the last few years I have honed in on an arrangement best suited for my style and venue. This is my current pedal setup. 

 

 

The first thing in my chain is the Diamond compressor. This is made in Canada. It is simple to use and operates very clean with minimal noise. The tri-color LED is a nice feature. You can visually setup your compression level by strumming and noticing the change in color from a greenish-yellow at low attack to a redish-orange with higher attack.

 

 

Next is my Vox wah. I used to have a Dunlop Cry Baby, but I traded it for the Vox. It looks sweet on my board and I dig the tone. It’s less harsh than the cry baby, especially in the higher range. Some people place it after overdrive and distortion pedals, but I prefer it before. It’s the only pedal running off a 9 volt, so I unplug the input when I’m finished playing. I usually go a few months before needing to change it. 

 

 

The Tonebone classic is another Canadian made pedal. Apparently some guy by the name of Eric Johnson also uses it. It has a 12ax7 tube in it for the preamp gain stage. I changed the stock tube for an Electro Harmonix and I like its tone. It took me several years to really love this pedal, but since the summer it’s been my main overdrive choice. 

 

 

This is an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer, but it has been moded to the 808 that Stevie Ray Vaughan used. Everybody seems to have one of these. I’ve been using it less as the Tonebone has been sounding better lately. It is very easy to use, and quicker than the TB Classic to get the tone you’re looking for.

 

 

You probably notice there are three different delay pedals on my board. I used to have a line 6 dl4, but I prefer this setup. The first is the Boss DD-3. It’s digital, and the other two are analog. The boss has a longer delay time and I often run it with the Memory Man for an intricate layered delay tone. This is a tone I would use for several songs such as, “Mighty to Save,” “Lead me to the cross,” and I tried it on “The Stand” the last few times we’ve played it at church. 

 

 

The Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man is a great pedal. It’s tone can be vary warm and there is a bit of variety. It’s one of my favorite pedals ever. I often keep a light vibrato on the feedback (repeats). I wouldn’t mind having a second one for playing live with a different delay setting prepared, or using them together. 

 

 

The Diamond Memory Lane was originally supposed to replace my Memory Man, but I like the EH Memory Man too much to sell it. The Memory Lane was very expensive and comes with tap tempo and an expression pedal input. I use the basic foot pedal on the left to control the amount of feedback (delayed repeats). The heel position gives only 1 repeat, and as you put the toe down it continues to add them until it oscillates out of control. You can always bring it back to the heel to stop the craziness. I don’t actually use the tap tempo, but I did test the Memory Man 2. It’s tap can be set for the dotted 8th note even while you are tapping a quarter note – very cool! That would make it easy to setup the U2 style rhythmic delay style. 

 

 

The Deltone pro-boost in a clean volume boost. It’s simply awesome. A college friend of mine, and former band-mate, Del Heiney, created and designed the pedal. It’s perfect to take your sound to ‘11′ or even overdrive the tubes a bit more. Thanks, Del!

 

 

What would a pedalboard be without a TU-2. You need to stay in tune and you need to cut your signal in a performance setting to tune up. Our church usually has 3 or more Boss TU-2’s on the stage, and some have more than that. Tons of amateurs and pros use them. They are simple and do their job. When I see bands live in a bar, church, stadium, or on DVD they often tune with the TU-2. When I saw U2 in Boston The Edge used one.

 

 

My Vox AC30 cc2 with the Celestion AlNiCo blue speakers is one of my greatest investments. Someday I would like to have more amps and A/B or A /B /Y my signal, but for now it does all I need it to do. I’m using a Sennheiser 609e to mic my amp. 

 

 

There you have it. I use George L cables, a few Planet Waves (only because they were easy to use), and Digiflex cables (with lifetime warranty, which has come in handy). The other items on and around my board include an extra tuner. I come out of the bypass on the TU-2 into a tuner I’ve always trusted, especially when adjusting the intonation on my Strat. I also keep a spare pack of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky’s (10’s), a screw driver, string cutters, Ebow, slide, in-ear foams, Ernie Ball Volume pedal, metronome, calculator, extra patch chords, and even some Fisherman’s Friend cough drops handy. It’s good to be prepared.