Jack's Pedal Board

Everything in Stripes
I Ate The Walrus
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Jack's Pedal Board

Post by I Ate The Walrus »

Hey guys, I love the white stripes and of course I'd like to get my guitar to sound like Jack. I've got a basic setup:

les paul
fender hot rod
digitech whammy pedal (got it about a month ago, barely used it)

Just wanted to know if anyone had any tips regarding how he uses his pedals? In particular the whammy pedal. I know he uses a boost pedal and some others for certain songs but any information would be fantastic.
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hsp88
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by hsp88 »

I Ate The Walrus wrote:Hey guys, I love the white stripes and of course I'd like to get my guitar to sound like Jack. I've got a basic setup:

les paul
fender hot rod
digitech whammy pedal (got it about a month ago, barely used it)

Just wanted to know if anyone had any tips regarding how he uses his pedals? In particular the whammy pedal. I know he uses a boost pedal and some others for certain songs but any information would be fantastic.
get a electro harmonix big muff pi, give you jacks distorted sound also turn your amp to 10
I Ate The Walrus
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by I Ate The Walrus »

That is a good start, but when he jumps on the whammy its terribly confusing. I've seen plenty of live footage where he doesn't even turn his whammy pedal on, he just jumps straight into it. Does anybody here know if Jack has a modified whammy pedal?
Moller72
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by Moller72 »

I Ate The Walrus wrote:That is a good start, but when he jumps on the whammy its terribly confusing. I've seen plenty of live footage where he doesn't even turn his whammy pedal on, he just jumps straight into it. Does anybody here know if Jack has a modified whammy pedal?
Well if toe is up pedal is not engaged in most settings so you don't have to turn it on just start using the pedal my question is does he ever use two whammies when he goes from one octave down to one octave up.
I Ate The Walrus
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by I Ate The Walrus »

I have discovered something that might be quite helpful to people who use/want to use this pedal...

Beneath the pedal are two rubber caps, this stops the whammy pedal from pushing all the way down to the base. For ages I have been using two feet to use it the way Jack does (I foot on the pedal, the other on the on/off switch). I thought for a while that Jack must have incredibly quick feet, but its much simpler. I was able to remove these caps with my fingers (no screwdrivers, hammers nails...I'm not stuffing around with something so pricey).

I can't find a perfect example, but basically when Jack is playing on some songs he just leaves the pedal on, saves him from having to turn it on/off. Check out around the 40 second mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAdkA9hPGT0

I'm not sure if this is a problem for all pedals (maybe mine is made differently), but this was a BIG problem for me when it came to using the pedal. Hopefully this helps someone out there.

Back to the pedal board discussion, I have found some neat pics on google:

http://www.digitalburn.org/wp-content/u ... lboard.jpg

Any thoughts on the board in that pic?
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hsp88
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by hsp88 »

Hmm interesting, Still though you probably have a newer model whammy than what jack uses. His is from the mid 90's and they have made changes and updates to it since then. Those original whammys fetch a heftier price on the resale market
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plantersman
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by plantersman »

I Ate The Walrus wrote:I have discovered something that might be quite helpful to people who use/want to use this pedal...

Beneath the pedal are two rubber caps, this stops the whammy pedal from pushing all the way down to the base. For ages I have been using two feet to use it the way Jack does (I foot on the pedal, the other on the on/off switch). I thought for a while that Jack must have incredibly quick feet, but its much simpler. I was able to remove these caps with my fingers (no screwdrivers, hammers nails...I'm not stuffing around with something so pricey).

I can't find a perfect example, but basically when Jack is playing on some songs he just leaves the pedal on, saves him from having to turn it on/off. Check out around the 40 second mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAdkA9hPGT0

I'm not sure if this is a problem for all pedals (maybe mine is made differently), but this was a BIG problem for me when it came to using the pedal. Hopefully this helps someone out there.

Back to the pedal board discussion, I have found some neat pics on google:

http://www.digitalburn.org/wp-content/u ... lboard.jpg

Any thoughts on the board in that pic?

i think i'm missing something here. why would he need to turn the whammy pedal off... ever? when the pedal is in the up position, it shouldn't be doing anything at all to the signal. please enlighten me.
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plantersman
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by plantersman »

hsp88 wrote:Hmm interesting, Still though you probably have a newer model whammy than what jack uses. His is from the mid 90's and they have made changes and updates to it since then. Those original whammys fetch a heftier price on the resale market
No, Jack uses the most recent version of the Digitech Whammy. The casing/styling and the actual foot pedal of the "vintage" Whammy's look different than the recent version. Look at any picture of any of Jack's pedal boards and you can see that he uses the current version.
I Ate The Walrus
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by I Ate The Walrus »

plantersman, when the pedal is switched on in 'up' position it does effect the signal, for me anyway at least. give me some time and i'll find some videos of jack playing live, you can definately hear a sound change. do you use a whammy pedal? any more info is appreciated

i know that jack uses a boost pedal (i've read before that he keeps this on all the time) and that probably compensates for the whammy. looking at some pictures of his pedal board he has quite a long chain, so he'd definately be using a boost.

anyway the main discovery for me here is the two rubber caps underneath the pedal, im just happy i can switch between rhythm and soloing as smoothly as jack does now.
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plantersman
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by plantersman »

I Ate The Walrus wrote:plantersman, when the pedal is switched on in 'up' position it does effect the signal, for me anyway at least. give me some time and i'll find some videos of jack playing live, you can definately hear a sound change. do you use a whammy pedal? any more info is appreciated

i know that jack uses a boost pedal (i've read before that he keeps this on all the time) and that probably compensates for the whammy. looking at some pictures of his pedal board he has quite a long chain, so he'd definately be using a boost.

anyway the main discovery for me here is the two rubber caps underneath the pedal, im just happy i can switch between rhythm and soloing as smoothly as jack does now.

Gotcha. Yeah, I guess having the whammy in the mix does suck a little bit of tone and a little bit of gain, but like you said...i'm using a boost pedal in front of it, so it doesn't bother me so much.

I'm still not sure about the rubber caps under the pedal though. how does removing them help you be smoother with the transition? thanks for the clarification.
I Ate The Walrus
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by I Ate The Walrus »

as i said earlier, my pedal might just be different, but basically i couldn't just turn the thing on and get a seamless sound. i'm not referring to the tone or gain with this part, just turning on the pedal in 'down' position would raise any note i played by by 3-4 tones (playing the note E, turning the pedal on would change it to an A).

when jack plays live the pedal is down, whether its on or off doesn't matter because its still playing the same notes. so say in ball and biscuit during the solo, when he goes to play the chords throughout, he just lowers the pedal down then up again to solo. on my pedal that would be impossible unless you removed the caps, it would sound completely wrong.

i'll have to put up a demo so you can see what i'm talking about, i can't really put it in to words properly.
Moller72
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by Moller72 »

I Ate The Walrus wrote:as i said earlier, my pedal might just be different, but basically i couldn't just turn the thing on and get a seamless sound. i'm not referring to the tone or gain with this part, just turning on the pedal in 'down' position would raise any note i played by by 3-4 tones (playing the note E, turning the pedal on would change it to an A).

when jack plays live the pedal is down, whether its on or off doesn't matter because its still playing the same notes. so say in ball and biscuit during the solo, when he goes to play the chords throughout, he just lowers the pedal down then up again to solo. on my pedal that would be impossible unless you removed the caps, it would sound completely wrong.

i'll have to put up a demo so you can see what i'm talking about, i can't really put it in to words properly.
My whammy has no effect until you start to step toe up or down depending on what setting your pedal could be off just a little bit.
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plantersman
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by plantersman »

I Ate The Walrus wrote:as i said earlier, my pedal might just be different, but basically i couldn't just turn the thing on and get a seamless sound. i'm not referring to the tone or gain with this part, just turning on the pedal in 'down' position would raise any note i played by by 3-4 tones (playing the note E, turning the pedal on would change it to an A).

when jack plays live the pedal is down, whether its on or off doesn't matter because its still playing the same notes. so say in ball and biscuit during the solo, when he goes to play the chords throughout, he just lowers the pedal down then up again to solo. on my pedal that would be impossible unless you removed the caps, it would sound completely wrong.

i'll have to put up a demo so you can see what i'm talking about, i can't really put it in to words properly.


oooh i get it now. you're pedal just needs to be recalibrated!


• What is the reset and pedal calibration for the Whammy 4?

Disconnect power.
Press and hold the silver footswitch.
Connect power.
Wait until the light blinks several times.
Let go of footswitch.
Move the pedal all the way through it's full range of motion.
Press and release the silver footswitch again.
I Ate The Walrus
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by I Ate The Walrus »

Yeah I have tried resetting my pedal before but it remained the same. It came that way out of the box, I got the idea for removing the caps because I saw plenty of footage of Jack's pedal lowering all the way down to the base while mine couldn't. I'll take it to the store to see if there is a problem with it.
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texascyclone
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Re: Jack's Pedal Board

Post by texascyclone »

I have close up pics of jacks board from the wanda jackson show message me with an email and I will send you some of them if you want.
I am the gear junky and always try and get a look or a pic at what is being used amps guitars and pedals etc.
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