The Watering Hole

I know many of us have heard of this little device that is a pedalboard router/patchbay device from England called the Gigrig.  I made a sweet trade for a used one over at The Gear Page from a guy in Mississippi.  

I've got everything on the board and hooked up.  Right now it isn't pretty (this is a very temporary wiring job; nothing has been velcroed down either), but it gets the job done for now.    

Here is a pic of the work in progress.



Here is where things get tricky in the config.  Obviously, I would like to run my delays through the loop.  If I wire the delays like the rest of the pedals, they all run into the front of the amp.  As many of you know, delays running into the front of the amp can sound like ass (especially if you use a high-gain lead channel like the one on my Boogie).  The guys at Gigrig had a 'solution' that doesn't entirely solve things.  The Gigrig guys have you run your effects out on the amp into the return of one Gigrig Loop (I'm running it in on loop 10 on the left side), then run the send from the Gigrig Loop to the first pedal in the loop, then run from the last pedal to the return on the amp.  This does allow the loop and pedals to sound perfect.  But here are the caveats: if I have loop 10 On on a given patch on the Gigrig I have to have the loop turned On on the amp.  That's fine.  Switch to a patch that doesn't use the loop, the amp makes no sound until I shut off the loop manually.  

The gigrig is able to control 2 amp functions via 1/4" jacks; that means I can use it to change the amps channels or functions, but I can ONLY control 2.  I currently have it set to activate channels 1 & 4 on the Boogie (the 2 channels I use the most) meaning the loop has to be activated seperatly.  I 'could' unplug the one to Channel 4 and sent it to the effects loop control, but that leaves me with the problem of how to switch on channel 4 without making an extra click.  

The other option is to leave the loop on all the time and activated for each patch, and turn the delay on/off manually.  Or run the delays in through the front and ONLY use them with the clean channel and distortion pedals (forgetting about the lead channel of the Boogie).  This last option isn't really cool.  I love my lead channel.    

Any ideas?  

Get another Gigrig and use one before the amp and the other after?  ;)

Craig's instinctive  "Buy more stuff to store it in my museum" solution should work.

Craig's suggestion would work IF I wanted to spend lots more money (they are linkable and will interlink).  That ain't gonna happen.   :D

(Sheesh, you try to help some people, but what do you get in return??! ;) )

Bwahahahaha!! :D

Hey Chris (Ya LUCKY bastarge.....). That'a a piece of kit I've wanted since it first came out.

I saw it at the London Guitar Show at the launch and spent some time talking to Dan Stienhardt who desighned the thing and is a mine of information on effects and how they work, what makes them good/bad etc.

I suggest you send him an email either at Gigrig's site or at the Guitar Buyer website as he is a staffer for that magazine.

What you want to do IS possible, I just don't have a definitive answer as to how to set the DIP switches/mode switches to allow you to achieve what you want.

Dan is so passionate about his gear that I'll bet one of Craigs unused guitars and several of Howie's 'as new' mics that you'll get an answer sooner rather than later.

Good news.  I found a schematic on how to hook everything up properly and it works FLAWLESSLY.  The Gigrig manual tells you how to do it, but it is actually incorrect.  I found a proper schematic at The Gear Page (ironically in a link from Gigrig).  It wasn't so much a setting in the dipswitches as it was the manual leaving out a couple of things more that needed to be done with the wiring.  

Now that everything is working perfect, I can say this thing ROCKS!!  One click and your patch is rolling.  Ahhhhhhhhhh......bliss!!!  

Now to velcro, get proper cabling, and tidy up.  


Here's the diagram I found.

yeah, Andy beat me too it.  I was going to look at this, but would not have figured that out without way more info on the Gigrig.

I'm going to eventually do my own redneck version of that.  Aka, a multi loop looper pedal.   ;D

OMG, I don't know what the humdinger thing is, but that is the answer I was going to give you, but didn't think I had enough info on the Gigrig to be sure it would work that way!  I was thinking that if you added an inline switch or loop just that way, you could do what you wanted.  

Actually, I didn't need the humdinger.  The directions in the manual, when followed, didn't look like the config  in the picture at all.  It was a matter of wiring it like this diagram and disregarding the manual.  

I think you can get a humdinger from that Asian girl Dearth knows for Fy Dolla...  ;) :D

I had the same idea as well

LMAO!  

fingers — Jan 08, 2009I had the same idea as well

Looks like my gig bag after a Friday night.....!!! :o ::) ;D

That looks complimicated

The Gigrig or Fingers box o crap?  

The Gigrig is, actually, pretty straight-forward.  Each pedal plugs into a loop.  The signal path of the loops on the gigrig runs right to left across the top.  I did have to do the routing mod from the pic to get the loop involved (which is the trickiest part), but it's easy to make it look like the picture.

Programming is simple.  Dip switches numbered 1-10 are the switches for the different loops.  Flip up the ones you want engaged for a given patch then engage that patch tu turn on all those loops.  In switches 1-6 (the second set) you can control the output (whether you want sound coming out Output 1, 2, or both for dual-amp rigs), if you want function 1 or 2 engaged (these can do function/channel switching on the amp), and if you want a pre or post boost.  

It eliminates tap dancing if you use several pedals and does what it does VERY well.  

Chris, I think Johnny was "funnin' with ya  

Sorry, my subtlety detector was out of commission recently... ;D