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Looper's Delight
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Hey kids, If you're like me, you have a big swarm of strange cables running from your pedalboard to your rack. I don't mean the usual pedalboard action where the signal goes in one end and out the other, but the kind where you have footswitches and controllers for a bunch of rack gizmos. For example, I have three footswitches and a pedal for my Jamster & Vortex (side note-how long do you think it'll be before these suckers go up so much in price that I'll be afraid to take 'em to the gig, like a flametop Les Paul?) and a footswitch for a ProCo R2DU (two Rats in a 1 rack space box), in other words, four 1/4" stereo cables and 1 MIDI cable. I carry my crap around in a soft rack case, tossing the pedals and cables in the back, since all the devices are quite shallow. Needless to say, I had a considerable spaghetti problem. So, I decided to build my own snake. After a variety of tape/twist-tie configurations failed, I got $.50 of fabric at Ben Franklin and spent an afternoon sewing and listening to Paul Bley albums. I made a tube 7.5'x 1.5" and threaded my cables through it. Presto-quick and tidy setup and teardown. I suppose this little invention won't catch on because it's getting easier and easier to get one big controller that can run all your stuff or one gadget that does everything and then some (G-Force? Eventide? Powerbook with MAX?), but I figured I'd share my Martha Stewart moment with y'all. Oh yeah, under no circumstances read Mark Vail's Vintage Synthesizers book. It's worse than pornography. I was filled with an unstoppable violent lust for gear. Fortunately for my finances, the only used gear store in town is full of Samick guitars and Peavey amps cast off by frustrated post-grunge teenage boys... -- Jeff Schwartz jeffs@bgnet.bgsu.edu http://www.bgsu.edu/~jeffs/main.html