Gamechanger Plus - based sidecar drone board? Layout and gear suggestions?

[Standalone]

I want to make a separate sidecar pedalboard built around my GC Plus sustain pedal.

Mainly I need suggestions for a pedal board that is flat or has a flat section with good low access to the piano-style pedal, light, enough room for the tallish pedal, quick to set up, and of course not spendy. I don’t need tour level hardiness, but something that can handle frequent on the road gigging.

I play in an originals jam band and we take occasional single chord drone excursions or simple chord solo builds.

I don’t think I’d bring it to smaller gigs or afternoon single set slots at summer festivals. But I want to be able to drop a second board on stage to the right of my main board for two set club gigs or late night festival sets.

The Plus has its send/return loop on the right, so it would have to be placed on the left or center of the board.

My current Pedalboard:
OC2
Korg Pitchblack
MXR BOD
Donner Harmonizer
SA C4
MXR Bass Env Filter
SA Aftershock
Joyo Chorus
MXR Phase 90
MXR Carbon Copy
Boss Digital Delay

videos:
https://youtube.com/shorts/dfvZA4Pc3jQ?si=YFPbLkMnmCEhypa_

https://youtube.com/shorts/-or1S3Vp6Mg?si=VE3Zfmizfc8q9_kb
https://youtube.com/shorts/dfvZA4Pc3jQ?si=YFPbLkMnmCEhypa_

Stuff I have to play with at the moment for a sidecar:
GC Plus. Spare BOD. EHX Hot Tubes. DOD stereo flanger. Behringer reverb. Alesis Nanoverb. Maybe pull the harmonizer off my board since I only use it to be silly on stage.

I think I’m going for a big texture sound, something with a deep bass drop with distortion and maybe high harmonies and chorusy shimmer fading in. The thing to do is probably find a perfect pedal or two that combines these things. I saw the Big Ears Albie yesterday and that got me thinking. Maybe a POG 2 and some modulation. But the Plus was spendy, and I have plenty to tinker with.

I also have a Digitech SDrum and some Jam man express loopers. But that’s probably a story for another sidecar.

 

[wavemaker]

I think you’re well on your way, a POG2 would be almost ideal for that in my eyes.

Almost my whole board exists to build textures and loops underneath my bass playing. I kind of integrated your idea in a scaled-back form by feeding the send of my EHX Superego into a Zoom MS70CDR (and then going out of the Zoom in stereo instead of using the EHX’s return).

If you want to go all in, I‘d highly recommend going full midi, getting a solid pitchshifter (ideally something programmable from Eventide, otherwise I’d recommend Digitech) as well as some kind of effect to change the timbre of your instrument (Generation Loss, in my case), a Digitech Ricochet, and a great stereo delay (I have a personal preference for the Volante).

If you want to go nuts beyond that, take a look at Hologram Electronics and enjoy the rabbit hole!

 

[Standalone]

I think you’re well on your way, a POG2 would be almost ideal for that in my eyes.

Almost my whole board exists to build textures and loops underneath my bass playing. I kind of integrated your idea in a scaled-back form by feeding the send of my EHX Superego into a Zoom MS70CDR (and then going out of the Zoom in stereo instead of using the EHX’s return).

If you want to go all in, I‘d highly recommend going full midi, getting a solid pitchshifter (ideally something programmable from Eventide, otherwise I’d recommend Digitech) as well as some kind of effect to change the timbre of your instrument (Generation Loss, in my case), a Digitech Ricochet, and a great stereo delay (I have a personal preference for the Volante).

If you want to go nuts beyond that, take a look at Hologram Electronics and enjoy the rabbit hole!

Those are good suggestions. Stereo isn’t really in the cards with our PA rig and the varying sizes of places we play — the larger ones are festivals where changeovers are important and I need to just give a DI.

I was having fun with the little cheap Donner harmonizer on +2 this morning. Full dry and full wet with the envelope filter downstream, I was getting an expressive dip down into the bass frequencies with plucking variations.

I need to start hunting through the Plus+ threads to see what kinds of boards folks are mounting their pedals to.

 

[Standalone]

The board is built, but the BOD in the loop isn't quite taking the tone where I want it to go. I had an overdrive ready to also go in the loop but ran out of 9v supply -- I have physical room for two pedals, but only power for one.

I'm still looking for suggestions for pedals to place in the sustainer's loop. But at least now I can experiment conveniently. The POG was a great suggestion, but a nano POG is $240 and I have already sort of spent the budget on my PLUS and my EQD Astral Destiny (which was originally going to go in the loop but proved too versatile and expressive to relegate to just the sustain.