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So I've got the Malekko tremolo in the tiny case (Hammond 1590a) and I'm in love. If you were going to make a tiny pedalboard with only these 1590a-sized pedals, what would you put on it?

Here's my list from what I could find online and liked:
Boost: Catalinbread Serrano Picoso. Runner-up: Cheeseblock Small Wonder boost.
OD: Lovepedal AMP 50.
Distortion: Catalinbread Hyperpak
Fuzz: Malekko Omicron fuzz. Seriously sounds killer. Runner-up: JHS Effects Pedals Mini Foot Fuzz.
Octave fuzz: Catalinbread Ottava
Delay: Lovepedal Echo Baby. I didn't know about this thing, but it turns out to be killer. 760ms of delay and a second "Dynamic Modulation Mode" if you hold down the switch. More features than a Carbon Copy!
Chorus: Malekko Chorus
Trem: Malekko trem, because I already own it. Runner-up and probably more features: Catalinbread Valcoder, if you can find it.
Vibrato: Malekko vibrato
Univibe: Lovepedal Pickle
Reverb: Malekko Spring Chicklet
Power Supply: RhythmandDetonation ROAD RAGE PSU. http://www.rhythmanddetonation.com/?p=708 because Mike is awesome!

I figure with this setup I can use a Pedaltrain Nano with one rows of effects and breathing room. I only need half the board height of the Pedaltrain Nano though! I guess you could have a second row of mini pedals on the Pedaltrain nano, but good luck stomping on that second row!

Let me know about pedals I missed or haven't heard about before! Share your own dream nano pedalboard.

the Piggy FX Schweinefleisch is a delightful MK II Tone Bender type that i've been thinking about for awhile; Cheeseblocks makes the Phoenix, which is a Fuzz Face in a mini box. Lovepedal makes a mini trem which i think sounds better than the Malekko, but i find the mini trems problematic because they have necessary adjustments hidden inside the boxes on trim pots.

dubkitty wrote:the Piggy FX Schweinefleisch is a delightful MK II Tone Bender type that i've been thinking about for awhile; Cheeseblocks makes the Phoenix, which is a Fuzz Face in a mini box. Lovepedal makes a mini trem which i think sounds better than the Malekko, but i find the mini trems problematic because they have necessary adjustments hidden inside the boxes on trim pots.

I'm not picky about my trem, and in fact, I like one-knob pedals, it turns out (I thought I was a knob tweaker kinda guy..)

Less knobs = less thinking = more playing! Just as long as all the tones sound good in the range of the knob, it is fine.

I'm set with my Malekko Trem for those reasons, though the repeat percussion-based Catalinbread Valcoder is interesting. (And I may eventually end up with an EQD Hummingbird if I can trade for one.)

my thing with tremolos it that i HAVE to be able to adjust speed, depth, and wave shape square vs. triangle. i forget which is which, but with one of the mini trems you can't adjust the wave shape without opening up the box, and with the other you can't adjust the depth.

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dubkitty wrote:my thing with tremolos it that i HAVE to be able to adjust speed, depth, and wave shape square vs. triangle. i forget which is which, but with one of the mini trems you can't adjust the wave shape without opening up the box, and with the other you can't adjust the depth.

I don't think there is an adjustment for wave shape on the Malekko trem at all. The only internal trimpot is for gain, which I need to turn down, because it bumps up my volume a notch when I kick it in. When I'm playing into the attenuator and trying to be as quiet as possible, this is not ideal.

my mistake. that's what made the Malekko not work for me, the single wave shape. it's the Lovepedal that you can't adjust the depth on without opening the box.

And I could go with the speed being the only knob, with a square/sine switch, and leave the depth inside since I set it and forget it. I don't want over-the-top trem depth, just enough to be considered good for spaghetti-western riffs.

well, that's just me...i need to be able to do Pops Staples AND fake synth.

I like mine to go choppy choppy. I'd make an exception if anyone gave me a tweed Tremolux or Vibrolux, though.

dubkitty wrote:well, that's just me...i need to be able to do Pops Staples AND fake synth.

My complaint with the Malekko is that the speed knob isn't quite usable for me. The bottom quarter of the turn (0% to 25% speed) are unnoticeable because they're so slow. The speed finally starts getting really fast at like 95% turn and at 100% turn it is sorta doing the synth thing, but not quite. I could use another tiny increment of speed past that, eliminate the lower quarter of a turn by adjusting the pot value, and I'd be able to dial in a speed a lot easier because it'd give me more fine-grained control over the speed. It gets really fast in that last 5% to, which makes me wonder whether it is an log pot (audio taper) when it really should be a linear pot.

Actually now this thread reminded me that I wanted to email the Malekko folks to ask how much it'd cost to get that speed knob modded. If they won't do it, I will eventually build up the courage to open it up, and play with pot values. Just gotta wait for the new pedal pricetag-effect to wear off.

Gone Fission wrote:I like mine to go choppy choppy. I'd make an exception if anyone gave me a tweed Tremolux or Vibrolux, though.

That's why I like the Repeat Percussion-based pedals. That's my sound too

Thread revive. Saw this on Pedaltrain's site:



Also found someone made a wah out of 1590a cases:

Threads:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/i ... =64752.660
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/i ... ic=90862.0

That wah rules. Though, it would rule harder if it was actually a ring mod.

theavondon wrote:That wah rules. Though, it would rule harder if it was actually a ring mod.

Tune-able mini-rocker-pedal ring mod? You're on! After I finish 4 other projects... and I probably won't build it into a 1590a case, just a regular MXR-sized enclosure.

I honestly don't understand the obsession with 1590a pedals. As a guy who builds a lot of pedals, I appreciate the challenge of cramming a lot of shit in there. But I also don't like the extreme restrictions that the size imposes on circuit selection or possible controls (as Dubkitty points out). I also don't like offset in/out jacks.

Honestly, I think the 1590a stuff is more of a "Look Ma, no hands!" kind of phenomenon.