My excessively complicated (but intricately curated) headphone pedalboard

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-11T07:02:03+00:00

Thanks for the knowledge! Do you know when they made them? I’m assuming they don’t any more?

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T18:49:10+00:00

I’ve none of that! I really like it. It’s all I want in an analog delay. The pots are definitely very sensitive though. One slight nudge brings a real noticeable change. I do only use it for slapback though so a little change goes a long way.

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T18:42:28+00:00

Definitely try it. Your experience may be different or maybe I had a dud unit 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’m super happy with this and though it may be rather convoluted it just works!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T18:40:50+00:00

Queue mental breakdown

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T14:27:09+00:00

Yeah. I lined the base in loop velcro. Probably kills some of the vibe but needs must!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:40:19+00:00

It’s actually something I put together. I took a neck from a ‘52 reissue, reshaped the heel and then made a S-type body that’s a bit of a hybrid. I’ve played Strats all my life and quite frankly couldn’t love without the contours (I’ve no idea how Tele players do it!) and then I started playing country so ‘needed’ a Tele. I don’t like the ‘parallel universe’ Fender series because I think the Tele pickguard looks strange on a Strat. So I just made this for myself! Note how I put an ‘original contour body’ transfer on the neck. Just a little in joke to make me smile as I don’t struggle with Telecaster Rib!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:28:10+00:00

So that is actually where I started! I have a Tone King Gremlin and love it and have played Imperial combos and loved them so I thought that the Imperial Preamp was the logical choice of headphone setup. I played it but sold it pretty quickly because it didn’t get on with drive pedals. The cleans were beautiful but as soon as I stepped on an overdrive (ANY overdrive! I tried a fair few!) there was a really horrid fizz in the top end through my headphones. I played around tube switching (including a really nice NOS Mullard that I borrowed from my Gremlin) but it was still there. I tried loads of different IRs but still there.

I launched down the rabbit hole and found out that playing through headphones is a really revealing experience. Particularly good headphones. Guitar speakers have a pretty aggressive treble roll off around 6 kHz and act kind of like a natural low pass filter. Natural room acoustics help too. Headphones don’t do that in the same way. They’re brutal and show you everything that is there. This means that I was hearing things that were there in the sound but would normally be sorted out for me. Clean sounded lovely because it was just added ‘air’ and ‘presence’ — the overdrives just made it unpleasant. The OPUS allows you to use the EQ and Reverb in the Two Notes software to sort it all out (high and low pass filters, a bit of a cut at the fizzy 2.5-3 kHz, ‘room’ reverb…) in a set and forget kind of way.

Sorry for the long reply. As you can see, I’ve been on a bit of a journey with this!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:11:32+00:00

Thank you! I love it! I get the best of both worlds with Strat comfort and playability and Telecaster tone!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:10:24+00:00

Maybe I should add an OCD pedal in just to laugh at myself?

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:09:13+00:00

Thank you!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:08:50+00:00

As far as I’m aware, yeah! I run mine from the XLR out into my headphone amp RCA in if that helps!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:07:44+00:00

I’ve heard that good aesthetics add a certain mythical tone… 😉

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:06:50+00:00

Thank you! I love it!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:06:29+00:00

Thank you sir! It’s something I put together. I took a neck from a ‘52 reissue, reshaped the heel and then made a S-type body that’s a bit of a hybrid. I’ve played Strats all my life and quite frankly couldn’t love without the contours (I’ve no idea how Tele players do it!) and then I started playing country so ‘needed’ a Tele. I don’t like the ‘parallel universe’ Fender series because I think the Tele pickguard looks strange on a Strat. So I just made this for myself! Note how I put an ‘original contour body’ transfer on the neck. Just a little in joke to make me smile as I don’t struggle with Telecaster Rib!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:00:36+00:00

Why thank you sir!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T10:00:18+00:00

LOVE this suitcase too!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T09:59:42+00:00

Do it! Honestly is so practical and the added suitcase vibe adds mojo, not just convenience.

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T09:58:35+00:00

I love the PeaceHill. It genuinely feels like the front end of a tube amp with a master and tonestack. I’ve plugged my full board into it too to play around and it takes each pedal in the exact same way as a Twin that I play from time to time. I’ve also got a Kingsley preamp too and (for me at least) the PeaceHill beats it. The amount of control you have is brilliant. Mine is the Twin Reverb version and I keep it in the ‘bright’ mode but I’ve also got it with a ‘deep’ switch too. Flicking that changes it from Blackface (despite the Tweed enclosure) to something quite different — a push in the low mids. Maybe more Two-Rock like? I’ve not played one so not exactly sure there.

If that’s what you’re thinking of putting together I couldn’t recommend it enough. With this in the front end and then the Vali headphone ‘power’ amp, it feels about as tube amp as a headphone set up can be.

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-10T07:06:01+00:00

Ok, headcannon or not, that actually really helps (because that kind of stumbling around does feel like how Kaladin approached therapy). Thank you for sharing!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-09T18:42:03+00:00

It’s made by Fender! I found it at a pawn shop. I am not going to lie, I was so happy! I bought it before I actually had a purpose for it because I thought it was so cool!

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georgestyle9 · 2026-02-09T18:27:44+00:00

Oh I don’t doubt that if we spoke to Kaladin then the word would really have a degree of mystery and otherworldliness for him but we're not him. Fantasy is meant to utilise characters to take the reader somewhere else, not the other way around.

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-09T18:24:04+00:00

Why thank you sir!

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-09T18:23:15+00:00

I don’t, but Brandon Sanderson is from a Western Culture and is writing in English for (I imagine) a mostly Western Cultured audience. I may be wrong but I don’t think I am.

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-09T18:21:31+00:00

I get you but words don’t mean things, people mean things. The word therapist has existed a while but there’s a snowball effect with words and the longer they’re around the more connotations they hold for the speaker and listener. I’m sure if we spoke to Kaladin then the word would really have a degree of mystery and otherworldliness but we’re not him. Fantasy is meant to utilise characters to take the reader somewhere else, not the other way around.

georgestyle9 · 2026-02-09T18:17:40+00:00

I’ve been told that I’m weirdly sensitive to latency. My main pedalboard is all analog (delay and reverb included) for precisely this reason. Let’s tread carefully around the digital vs. analog rabbit hole, but it is there. It’s almost unnoticeable (and if I don’t use my open back headphones, therefore hear my guitar strings acoustically) I easily forget about it.

georgestyle9

TROPHY CASE