My name is JP, nice to meet you all! I would like to first off thank you all for the ‘obscene’ amount of knowledge posted on these boards! I would have been up the creek, no paddle in hand without this forum! I have learned SO much from reading posts and respectively of course Mr. William’s white paper. So I thank you all again for the amount of 'leg work', hours, ear bleeding and sweat contributed . I am an old school guitar player that even in the 80's was a minimalist… so this ‘trek’ to get "back in the game" for me has been exciting! BUT unfortunately at times quite a bit frustrating as well, I have to be honest there! I have been in the M.I. industry for 25 years, my most recent stint being the ‘vice president’ @ Schecter Guitars (for the past 13 plus years). I got so engulfed in ‘career’ that "playing" sadly fell to the waist-side. Well happily a new chapter was upon me. Then many $$$'s lighter in my wallet the below is what I have found myself acquiring. “The dilemma”, so this project kind of has become. I started this initial spark to start playing again after building a custom shop set-neck Tele while I was @ Schecter. This followed with me purchasing one of my favorite amps (that I once owned through the years), a Bogner XTC 101b. Next the infamous G-Sys and finally many-many articles of early morning reading… Then came many youtube videos of ‘pedal porn’ for research on what fun toys I wanted to connect to it. I built my own pedal board from scratch and then this ‘mind puzzle’ began for me in figuring out how to hook all this up without catching myself on fire or accidentally transporting myself to another dimension! ☺ It was a bit overwhelming at times, I am not going to lie…Having said all that, I kindly ask that I run by you G - guru’s my rig’s ‘mapping', with hopes that it is close and possibly even maybe correct. I would love to know that I am FINALLY close to the actual 'programming' of all the cool new tones I will have at my feet with a one-click switch!
Ok, deep breath… here goes. My signal flow is as follows, Guitar (High quality Mogami 20 ft instrument cable) > Lehle Sunday Driver (set on 'drive' mode) > Fulltone Clyde Dlx > TC Mini Poly Tuner > DEC G - String > G-Sys gtr in. G- loops- Loop One- RJM Mini effects gizmo (not using the buffer input, using the 'normal' in), output of effect Giz I am using the ‘CS’ output (this supposed to reduce pedal popping noise but there is also a standard output as well), Loop 2- Fulltone Secret Freq. (overdrive-dist. pedal), Loop 3- Source Audio midi EQ pedal, Loop 4- Dec G- String. On the RJM Loop switcher, Loop one- Wampler Pinacle Dlx (Dist.), Loop 2- MXR Slash Fuzz Octave, Loop 3- Mojo Hand FX Iron Bell (fuzz), Loop 4- Skinpimp 30D (overdrive), Loop 5- Earthquaker devices Organizer. This leaves one pedal with no home that I do want to use… this being an Electroharmonix Hog2. I was thinking of maybe running this in front of the G Sys after the Tuner (before the Dec G-string) in the initial gtr signal flow into the G Sys input..? Not sure on this one... As for the output stage, this is how I currently have the ‘flow’… G send TRS/TS cable to an EbTech hum eliminator > short patch cable into Bogner gtr input. Return of the G Sys to an EBT Hum E > short patch to XTC Send. Left Out of G Sys > Strymon Mobius > out to Strymon Time Line > to EBT hum e, short patch to XTC return. Right output to Strymon Mobius > out to Strymon Time Line > in EBT Hum E to an Electroharmonix Magnum 44 (power amp pedal) this ends into a Bogner 1x12 cab. The XTC head speaker out is running (8 ohms) into a Rivera Rock Crusher Attenuator to a oversized 2x12 Bogner cab. Yes… that was all very painful to type! My head hurts now, again… and I hope that hopefully made sense and was not all over the place in how I explained. Ok a couple things to mention before you all make my world come crumbling down.... 
I am running 25-foot cables from the pedal board to the amp (I know you won't all won’t like this length), I do need the distance for some big stages here in Los Angeles (this is utilizing the 4cm method, well, 5 if you include the stereo side). These cables are>. gtr head input > send > and return for the amp’s loop and finally > the right out to the power amp pedal (there is also a 25-foot midi cable that runs into an RJM Mini amp gizmo). ALL my cables are custom-made Mogami cables and are the shortest length possible. For the power source I have a monster cable floor power conditioner that plugs through an EbTech Hum-X to a wall outlet. Plugged into monster strip/cond. I have the XTC amp, a very thick gauge monster power supply cable (this runs through a same gauge - or close - extension cable to reach 25 foot length). This is the main pwr supply to the pedalboard, amp gizmo and lastly the 44 magnum pwr amp pedal. From underneath the pedal board, the main pwr (from the monster pwr strip/cond.) runs into a small pwr conditioner (with ground circuit and breaker), this powers a Voodoo Lab Pedal Pwr 4x4. There is also a One-Spot adapter (but this only powers the Hog2, w/ no daisy chain). I am utilizing all of the pwr outs of the G Sys and from the 4x4… they are all tapped (using the correct headroom per Milla-amp requirement of ea. pedal). Ok… so here is the kicker, drum roll please…. the rig is dead QUIET! So I guess the research on this forum has paid off! With the nosiest gain setting and/or pedal turned on, between the Dec G string and G Sys internal gate (if even needed to run both), I can kill any noise (and maintain tone)! Even from my Bill Nash Tele Lollar single coils! But maybe that is partly contributed from the custom wound of those Lollar's (amazing pick-ups and guitar I must add)! My main guitar is that set neck custom shop tele which is equipped with a Gibson 500-T (bridge) and Dimazio Dlx Plus soapbar (neck). The gate(s) have been off most of the time in my initial testing, it seems to only needed on the super high gain and/or noisy fuzz – dist. type pedals.
Some side notes, I “A/B'ed” both the Lehle Sunday Driver along with the VHT Valvulator (I remember reading that Laird prefers the VHT for his rig). I did like the ‘coloring’ warmth that the Valvulator produced… but this was before I had all the pedals running. I am sure it may be a different story now with all that cable that has since been added… But in my results I found myself picking the Sunday Driver due to it sounding more ‘transparent’. BUT… now I am baffled a bit of the fact that I have the Lehle set around 9 o'clock (1/4 up) and am sometimes still clipping red at a minus 6 db setting on the G Sys input!?! I find this kind of strange how I went from like a plus 6 db to a minus 6 on the DB on the G Sys with that SD unit… My Gibson pick is hot but there are for sure higher output PU’s…. So I am not sure on that situation as well... Any input (no pun) or suggestions would really help me! Or maybe it is just ok where it is currently set at… In any event, it is right below red on the input but @ minus 6db seems a bit suspect. Especially since the SD barely has the input turned up. It says that it is 9-18 volt (I think), is it maybe because I am using the 12V 400 MA output of the 4x4? I don’t think that is the why because I recall also using a 9v 100 MA as well. I am thinking of maybe now going back to the VHT due to the SD being too boosted… What do you guys think? This will also let me lose the one-spot since the VHT has isolated pwr outs. Also, I have read that you need to run Fuzz pedals before a wah, or something of the sort...? My Fulltone wah does have an input knob and a buffer level knob, I currently have the input very low on the wah and the buffer is set to match volume output when the wah is turned on. Not sure how the fuzz pedals work in this puzzle as well and could really use your knowledge, if it is not too much trouble. Lastly, I purchased the Magnum 44 pedal and Bogner 1x12 so I could achieve stereo separation (in an easy and light way!). I battled a lot on how to do this for some time because I originally wanted to run a Zinky combo for stereo, but later realized that this would have been a bit overkill adding a/b switchers line splitters, more cables, blah blah.. You know…Well, actually you are maybe already all muttering to yourself, this is already overkill dude! ☺ I still do need to buy an expression pedal and I think I am going with the Rocktron Hex… Last purchase!!! I had the Pigtronix Dual EXP but I felt it was made poorly made so I recently returned it. So there you have my scenario…. ☺
I truly hope I got ‘most’ of it right… But any input any of you could throw my way, and/or point out any mishaps I may have made. And lastly anyway to possibly run more efficiently, would be highly appreciated! ☺
Thanks for taking the time to read “my new rig” and thank you for letting me ramble about it!!! I will hopefully post some pics by the end of the week! God willing…
Best Regards,
JP