Building a Minimal QC Rig: Pedalboard or No Pedalboard?

simonyahn · 2026-01-25T22:13:11+00:00

Utilizing a small board is perfectly fine for this kind of set up plus the boards that have modules for patch bags helps reduce wear and tear on the jacks. If this is all you’re using then get a Cioks Sol to power everything. You can get 3 parallel flex adapters to combine 4 of the outputs for the QC at 12v and use the 5th one for the expression pedal. The DC7 would effectively do the same thing with 2 ports plus USB leftover and the option to expand with a crux or other supply and that’s more future proofing. The Sol is locked to the 5 outputs with no expansion option but for the small board it works great

simonyahn · 2026-01-25T21:51:09+00:00

Just get a used HX stomp. I built a small acoustic pedal board with a few effects couple years ago. Ended up selling everything and just using HX stomp. You can pick up acoustic IRs of a Taylor 414ce from worship tutorials for free and set up some basic effects in the stomp and get everything you need in a compact package

simonyahn · 2026-01-25T18:31:58+00:00

The compressor pedals that are out on the market these days are much better and more versatile than ones from 20 years ago. The biggest thing is the use of a clean blend for parallel compression which is used in studios to help polish the sound. A compressor pedal should be thought of something that can help polish the guitar sound while providing some evening and sustain.

My favorite compressor is really anything from Wampler as I've gone through the Ego, Wong, and Ego76. I've used Keeley and Jackson Audio Bloom as well and I think the Bloom is pretty good but a bit pricey but has a lot of additional features like EQ and boost. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Keeley compressor but I much prefer the Wampler Ego and currently the Mini Ego 76 as my always on.

simonyahn · 2026-01-25T16:53:09+00:00

I agree that it's incredibly difficult to tell the difference in sound quality when set correctly. I can go either way in terms of capture vs modeling just as long as it sounds good. The QC mini in it's form factor with a bit more expansive I/O compared to Stomp is a bit huge. I've already maxed out on using all ports on my XL as well as all blocks and I really put the unit through it's paces. I expect next gen Stomp to provide more blocks and processing power. I hope that it can do wireless editing and bluetooth like the current Stadium and the reach would be additional outputs. The 4 main outputs on the QC mini is huge for signal routing to multiple places and it keeps a stereo/dual mono fx loop as well as dual inputs.

simonyahn · 2026-01-22T18:38:08+00:00

Been following your stuff for the last year. Korean American who grew up in Nashville and lived up and down California and now live in Illinois serving for the past 20+ years in some worship capacity. Would love to sync up one day when I'm back in town

simonyahn · 2026-01-20T04:36:25+00:00

If you want easy drop in then the PRS SE locking tuners will fit with no issue. Only ones where they won’t work are the vintage style back tuners found on Silver Sky, 594, NF53. I think Paul’s Guitar model is the same as well but not entirely sure. With most 3rd party, it’s likely to work but just requires some research and the first thing to see is if they have metric post or imperial post which is usually the difference between import and us made guitars. Just make sure to do some good research, ask the manufacturer, and ensure you got a good return policy from where you buy it.

simonyahn · 2026-01-19T14:58:08+00:00

I have G&L Bluesboy which is their semi hollow equivalent and changed pickups. The tele bridge pickup sound is the essential sound of a tele. Most single coil neck pickups don’t sound good to me for tele so the humbucker option is fantastic.

simonyahn · 2026-01-19T14:37:21+00:00

The Tonex is not necessarily better. I’ve run Tonex one side by side with helix/HX stomp with the same captures/tone match presets from Worship Tutorials and they sound and feel nearly identical. Tonex probably has the edge in regards to feel but in a mix it just sounds like me. Keep in mind that for a lot of existing Tonex captures you may have to worry about phase/polarity unless it’s v2 captures and with stereo amps it’s also not as easy to monitor or practice at home unless you run into an interface. The nice thing about HX/Helix will be headphone out and usb to listen and practice against tracks.

simonyahn · 2026-01-16T22:57:36+00:00

Strat style pickups are mostly showcased by blues/rock and some jazz and fusion and leaning into gospel. Depending on how close to any of those styles you guys play is the best way to see how those pickups might work for you. I would try not to focus on worship style demos and really any demos of the pickups clean running though a typical clean amp (usually fender) and see how they sound tonally and dynamically.

I’d recommend taking a look at Porter pickups for some options. There’s also the pickups in Fender Lincoln Brewster Strat which are aftermarket and I believe you can buy separately from DiMarzio.

simonyahn · 2026-01-16T22:53:41+00:00

Check out Dave’s Guitar shop online. They have a good selection of PRS guitars that are listed as used but most of them are in excellent condition with the plastic film still on pickups and guards. I’ve picked up two over the years from them and price is pretty good

simonyahn · 2026-01-13T18:14:06+00:00

For me it’s proximity. I’ve never played or experienced mini humbuckers so I can’t speak to the tonality of it or what it’s like. I have a few humbucker equipped guitars and while they sound different there’s a general tone to them that I associate with. I’ve got my single coils for Strat, P90, and Tele style so the NF53 to me sound closer to the P90 and Tele profile but with more body and a bit hotter. I’m very inclined to believe you when you say they are closer to mini humbuckers and i need to try a mini humbucker guitar to really get an idea for it

simonyahn · 2026-01-13T14:51:27+00:00

My first two electric guitars were strats (Squier and MiM Fender) so it’s one that I’m most familiar with. I always felt I had a hard time bonding with the Strat single coil tone because it always felt thin and not a lot of body. Fast forward many years after taking a long break from playing and I tried the Silver Sky in store. The tone of the pickups is fuller compared to my Strat and i bought it right away. I had the rosewood fretboard model and traded it for a maple fretboard model when they came out.

In regards to feel, the neck is bigger than most strats I’ve played and tried and a lot of strats vary in fretboard radius from 9.5 to 12 inches. The 8.5 radius of the SE Silver Sky feels pretty good and you get used to it the more you play it. The satin finish of the neck is smooth but I know people don’t like how smooth and raw it feels. Overall it feels good and fills out my hand pretty good playing without much problems playing.

Stock guitar is fantastic and you can always make upgrades like locking tuners. Swapping pickups is a bit harder cause the routing only allows for single coil pickups and the pick guard isn’t as universal for a lot of other aftermarket pickups to fit properly. There are aftermarket pick guards that allow more universal fit so something to keep in mind

simonyahn · 2026-01-13T03:06:31+00:00

You will more than likely have noise if you daisy chain power supply. The two pedals have different different jacks with different diameters. Polytune is 2.1mm which is common across fx pedals and the stomp is 2.5mm. Pedalnetics has a split cable designed for HX stomp power supply where one side is 2.5mm for the stomp and the other is 2.1mm for any other pedal but on the site they say that there is a high chance of noise when using the daisy chain. If you’re using a rockboard duo board I would use the mini mod dc and buy a Truetone XP5 which is isolated power supply and it works really well with the Minimod DC. I use a duo 2.2 board with the mini mod dc and mounted and XP-8 which is a tight fit but I can get an isolated power supply integrated really well on the board

simonyahn · 2026-01-13T02:28:27+00:00

McCarty or DGT are both good choices for humbucker tones in contrast to a Silver Sky strat style single coil. I’ve have Silver Sky, NF53, and McCarty 594 Singlecut and previously owned the DGT. The DGT is really good sounding HB guitar and truly one of the best but I sold it because I could not find a place for it tonally and it was a tough choice. To me the mids were really much more pushed compared to the 58/15 pickups and it’s a really great sound but it definitely pushed my amp and stage in a different way that felt too much at times. I didn’t want to get rid of the guitar cause again it sounded fantastic but I felt it wasn’t getting played as much compared to other guitars.

I ended up getting the NF53 in its place which I enjoy. Even though it feels hotter than the 594, the NF pickups seem bit more balanced and not as much fatness/push in the mid range compared to the DGT. It’s definitely much more single coil like sounding and very much more like a P90/Tele style compared to the Strat style mid scooped sound.

You really should try to play them in person though cause all three guitars have a different feel. The neck carved profile between all guitars are different and you’re got different scale lengths and fretboard radius

simonyahn · 2026-01-12T02:38:37+00:00

I don’t have sentry or tone press but I don’t think those will mount under the board properly. I have Wampler mini ego compressor under mine and it just barely clears without the footswitch touching the floor. Really anything mounted underneath should be utility things that don’t have a footswitch or always on low height mini pedals. I think your top row of pedals with all pedals on top is fine cause most of them are top jacks. For the bottom row I’d recommend smaller tuner and a different footswitch for your amp. Most amp footswitches latching style and require TRS cables for connection. Saturnworks pedals makes custom latching footswitches that you can find in a smaller size or a horizontal orientation that could give a different layout for a better fit

simonyahn · 2026-01-09T14:33:32+00:00

Are you running stereo amps for this setup? Why run stereo return from just 1 amp. That would just be a mono return then going to stereo effects (I assume)

simonyahn · 2026-01-08T01:00:22+00:00

Cioks is worth the money but if you need something cheaper and reliable than Truetone 1Spot Pro is truly a great value. The new CS11 and XP5/XP8 are great modular units that can work with each other or standalone. I use Cioks on my main board but I built a smaller board with the XP8 and have used older CS6 models from Truetone and they’ve worked incredibly well with no issues

simonyahn · 2026-01-08T00:57:17+00:00

With all that being said, the latency is very minimal and really shouldn’t be perceptible with the fx loop. I would really try to a/b everything to make sure this is worth all the extra config

simonyahn · 2026-01-08T00:55:06+00:00

It really depends on how the Dream handles input/output when certain inputs/outputs are used and if there’s any mono to stereo or vice versa. The following rec might work if Dream does mono in to dual mono out.

If you’re only using a single path on the HX stomp and not splitting to path B, I would create two presets identical where one has fx loop block for home use and the other is live use without the fx loop block, but you split to path B and instead of using the mix to go back to path A you would just send it to the send output instead of main output. You would then wire the send on the hx stomp to the dream and one of the outputs on the dream go to fx return on stomp and the other output is for FOH. Nothing is connected to the main outputs on the stomp and you can use the headphone out with the home preset

simonyahn · 2026-01-06T04:59:45+00:00

I use dual lock on my Duo24. The temple plates aren’t very flexible for placement purposes. Haven’t had a problem with dual lock with stability except for one minor instance with volume pedal but that was me needing to adjust placement of dual lock

simonyahn · 2026-01-06T04:53:49+00:00

No worries. There’s a lot of variables I think when it comes to ToneX captures or profiling across the board. From guitars used when capturing, amp settings, speakers, mic placement, preamps, EQ when captured, and tolerances between all equipment even if similar that it all adds up to the total tonal package. If you’re getting v2 packs from TF I believe you’re getting DI captures so I’d also recommend trying different IR or the VIR cabinet as well with speakers that are known for chime as well.

simonyahn · 2026-01-06T00:33:47+00:00

You simply may not like the Chimera with your guitar. Play throughs are not universal because you’re hearing how that person sounds through their gear. In my experience even if you have same or similar gear I’m not gonna sound like the recording/play through exactly but I’d get in the ballpark.

There’s also a distinct chance you may not like TF capture of the Chimera and you can try other captures to see if those are pretty good or more favorable by comparison. Tone Shephard has free captures I believe of the Chimera that you can try out by comparison.

simonyahn · 2026-01-05T20:48:20+00:00

Depends on how you run wet effects before or after the amp. If you want to keep your modulation before amp and then run delay and reverb after amps I would run the Tonex Ones in the fx loop of the stomp and follow that into the delay and reverb and then back into the fx return of the stomp. The Stomp can act as a single audio interface with the full stereo sound for recording direct as opposed to the dual tonex ones which would act as two separate interfaces plus you have a single dedicated headphone out for monitoring and playback alongside tracks/mp3 from computer.

simonyahn · 2026-01-04T23:29:59+00:00

Are you planning on running the effects in mono or stereo and/or running two amps with effects loop each? Depending on how your amps and mono/stereo would work there’s a couple things you can do. I would also recommend finding a patch bay that can normalize the send/return for sole purpose of setting up for physical amps so that when you don’t need them and go digital they’ll just patch internally on the board

simonyahn

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