
Problem is, the board didn't grow organically one pedal at a time, so it's a steep learning curve for me seeing if/how these all work together and with my gear. I've already moved a couple on since that post. The Beta's gone as it was too dark for my Jazz with flatwounds, the Meatbox and Saturnworks pedal order switcher are on the bench for now and there's a CAL Grizzly on the way. I have always been curious about the IE Oxide too.
The two comp plan was Diamond up front for light comp and general tone enhancement, and Empress at the end post fx for either more gentle comp or limiting if needed. This seems to generally work ok, but problems come up eg. the Zeus (which I love) doesn't seem to play as well with comp either before OR after it, so I need to try and work out if they can live together somehow. The Zeus and other octave/fuzz combos into the Xero is awesome once you dial in the the Xero's sweet spot, but then my clean signal is nowhere near strong enough to trigger the Xero's envelope at that setting. So now I've got a John K Agent 00Funk on the way for clean filter early on and the Xero further down the line for a synth fuzz filter.
The You're Doom, Zeus and CW are completely different beasts. CW is a great muff clone which I think sounds even ballsier with some clean via the Mosquite blender. I'm still working the YD out, but there are some cool and unusual synthy textures to be had in there. The Zeus's gated fuzz with the octave down just sounds so good! The octave sound is a similar analog square wave kind of relative to the OC2, similar but not the same. I've had problems getting the Zeus's fuzz and octave volumes right while changing pedal chain order due to them being internal trim pots. I'm just getting the trim pots changed to more user friendly external knobs, which will make it easier to adjust and maybe more flexible for dialling up different sounds on the run.
I haven't gotten into the expressionators or Infinity in any great depth yet. I haven't let myself even look at extra new pedals like the POG since I've already run out of room on this board! As for the top jacks & wiring, the EBS gold patch cables are awesome and really make a significant difference, at least over the width of this board!