So yesterday I dug out my Boss RC1 Looper pedal and my Morley Bad Horsie Wah pedal. I’ve connected them up and had some fun with them 🙂 The Boss ME90 already has a Looper and Wah but I want to play with looping and I have a dedicated pedal so better to be used than stuck in a box, and the Wah on the ME90 is engaged by pushing hard on the pedal (as are most Wahs, Cry Baby, Vox etc.) the problem is I struggle doing that due to nerve damage in my hands and feet caused by Chemo. The Morley Wah is brilliant as it is engaged just by using the pedal and disengaged as soon as it runs to its rest position.
On a side note, this Morley Wah is my third identical one, the previous ones were sold when I decided I didn’t want them, only to be bought again a few months later when I changed my mind. Like an idiot, I did this twice lol. Suffice to say, I now sell very little and the boxes in the garage and spare room are testament to that 🙂
I’ve put the Looper in the Send / Return (more on that later) on the ME90 and I had to find the setting on the ME90 that allows you to set the S / R to either Pre or Post. Post was the option I needed as I wanted the Looper to retain it’s recorded settings and not change them when I changed to a different patch on my ME90. This means that I can play a rhythm with a low gain setting and then change to a lead patch with Delay, Reverb etc. to play over the top of it. Luckily the ME90 allows you to do this via either your computer or phone using a USB cable or Bluetooth respectively.
Coming back to the Send / Return, instead of connecting the Return back to the ME90 i’ve cabled it into a free channel on my mixer which gives me better control over the volume of the recorded track on the Looper. I am now down to one free input on my mixer, i’ve already been looking at 12 channel mixers instead of the 8 I currently have.
One of the good things about the ME90 is that it only needs a standard 9V power supply so I was able to utilise (rescue from the garage!) my 10 way 9V PSU to power the ME90, the Wah and the Looper. Works well, the PSU sits out of site under the futon in my Office / Mancave / Studio making quite a neat setup.
I have ordered a couple of new patch cables for the Wah and Looper as I want them a metre or so long, right angled at one end and straight at the other end. Yeh, I know, did I mention I’m a bit OCD about some things?
Something else I found in the garage which i’d forgotten i’d got, some long guitar cables with magnetic ends, so you can choose between right angle or straight and the end just snaps on. Also good I suppose if playing on stage and the cable gets caught, better to break away (like the Magsafe connectors on a MacBook) than yank you or the instrument, potentially being a nasty or expensive experience.