Annie Clark of St. Vincent recently came into the shop with a list of criteria for a new pedalboard system.
1. Fly as checked luggage, doing lots of fly gigs this year with a new record coming out.
2. End the tap dancing routine and focus on playing guitar, singing and interacting with audience.
3. Must Sound Great
4. Be easy to set up, no full time guitar tech on tour.

A week later Annie picked up her new rig comprised of a Z Vex Mastotron, Death By Audio Interstellar Overdrive, Boss Super Shifter, Eventide PitchFactor & an Eventide Space. The effects are wired in True Bypass Series, Routing via a RJM Music Mini Effects Gizmo, controlled by a RJM Music MasterMind. Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Power Supply. Custom System Interface, Silent Tuning Option & Tap Tempo Switch by Nice Rack NYC. Annie re-purposed a Moog Expression Pedal that she liked the feel of.

With St. Vincent using an Ableton Live Rig to playback ambient sound effects and percussion, I was able to take inbound PC messages from Ableton into the MasterMind. Making the pedalboard respond to incoming preset messages freed Annie to focus on playing and singing while letting go of the memorized & stressful pedalboard tap dance routines for each song.

The entire rig is set up in under 3 minutes requiring only 5 patch points.

Sonic quality is a obviously of concern when your effects are either premium hi-fi like the Eventides or Boutique Unique devices by Z Vex & Death By Audio. The RJM Music Mini Effects Gizmo not only handles your audio well, it sounds damn good too.

Packed into a Pelican 1720 Rifle Case with wheels makes Fly Dates and New York City living easy. This rig will go to the 4th floor of a walk up, ride in the trunk of a cab and handle a TSA molestation with no difficulties at all.

Annie commented that having a pedalboard like this would increase the efficiency and artistic quality of each St. Vincent performance. When you see a St. Vincent live show that you enjoy, remember a part of that quality came from Nice Rack NYC being able to interpret the unique needs of the player, the music and the logistics.

Nice Rack NYC
Custom Cables, Racks & Pedalboards
WEB: http://www.NiceRackNYC.com
EMAIL: info@NiceRackNYC.com

Very nice! I like how it turned out - seems as space efficient as it could be, and you always seem to get the most out of our products (sometimes more than I've even imagined was possible!)

So, is the Loonie on there a signature of sorts? Or for good luck? (Or improved tone? )

Thanks for the kind words. Size & Weight were super important on this build, which made for tighter confines than I would have liked in some spaces, I was able to make it work fine.

Without the MEG & MM there is no way this rig would be all that it is in such a small space.

The Loonie is a multiple purpose accessory
1. It's a "signature" I put in all rigs I've built since 2002.
2. It's a good luck piece; see this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie#The_lucky_loonie
3. It's an oxymoron, it's a symbol of Canadian Imperialism.