About a week ago the Portland Chinatown History Museum and Foundation asked if any of the members of The Slants had equipment they'd like to donate to their upcoming exhibit "What's Worth the Fight: The History of The Slants." There's a chance that we will be performing at the exhibit in February 2025 but worst case, we'll just be making an appearance. Since the band officially retired, we've got stuff stashed all across the country at Wing Luke Museum (Seattle, Washington), Songbirds Museum (Chattanooga, Tennessee), and First Amendment Museum (Augusta, Maine). Normally it's mostly Simon's equipment spread out across the country, but now, I was asked specifically to donate something.
A love letter to a great pedal board: Why am I being so dramatic? First off, fuck you very much. Secondly, I come from the mentality that if you're going to loan something to someone--be willing to part with it. So on the off chance that somebody runs off with my pedalboard or it gets mangled in the great earthquake that causes the West Coast to plunge into the ocean (nice, Will)... then I want to have it documented that this was a very good pedalboard.
For those of you who don't know. Pedalboards are as much a part of the identity and sonic makeup of a musician as the guitars or amps they play. Nowadays some pedal boards don't even need amps, just the pedal board. Which is a statement in itself to say, "I don't need no stinkin' amp!" The Line 6 XT Pod. Nothing fancy here. I procured this pedal board because another one of my bandmates in Veritas didn't like it. Now most analog musicians will gravitate towards the Line 6 DL4. Why? Because of them sick delays baby. In my opinion, Line 6 makes the best delay pedal sounds. So when a broke musician gets the XT Pod version of it, most of the onboard amps, effects, and tones in it are pretty much garbage.
It has however saved me during a fly-out to the Middle East with The Adarna. A number of the amps the rental companies brought out during the tour were damaged by sand and voltage issues. So in a pinch, I played directly through the XT Pod.
Not only did I play it at all of The Slants shows but it made appearances on all of The Adarna's tours for one major reason. Echo. That delay is called a dotted 1/8th. Seems simple but it became the entire identity for one of my band's major singles. Technically, you can program this 1/8th note on any type of digital delay but this one would add a strange accent that I could not replicate with other pedals. And I have no clue why...check it out.
So as of now, you can look at the board in the Portland Chinatown Museum that makes that sweet delay sound and that's all I used it for. It was a heavy tough board and I loved it very much. So if I never see it again, thanks my friend for helping me make badass music.
