#ful stop

Radiohead's upcoming tour is fast approaching, and preparations are well under way! Last week, Daniel Steinhardt from TheGigRig shared details of Colin's new pedalboard! The board features all the classics, plus several cool additions! (Is that too many exclamation marks? It's hard not to use them with all this exciting news!)

Read our full analysis with details and history on each pedal, or skip to the end for a list of everything...

Colin's latest pedalboard! Photo shared by Daniel Steinhardton Sep 19.

Last month, we made a full analysis of Ed's board for the upcoming tour. That board was shared on the main TheGigRig account, but Colin's board was posted on Dan's personal Instagram account. Dan seems to have really enjoyed building a board for Colin, saying:

"Amidst all the stress of running a business, looking after staff, planning, designing, imagineering, and the day to day grind, I do need to remind myself, I get to do some really cool stuff. Building this board has been so much fun and such an honour 🤓🙏"

Returning Giants

The mainstays of Colin's pedalboard are back! Most prominent is the bright orange Lovetone Big Cheese. Acquired in circa-1999, it's responsible for the fuzzy tone on live versions of The National Anthem, Packt like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box, and Myxomatosis. Partly hidden beneath the Cheese is Colin's other fuzz pedal: the Shin-ei FY-2 he acquired in the mid-1990s. Colin uses its huge, scooped sound sparingly, saving it for a gut-punch at the end of Exit Music (for a film). Both fuzz pedals were part of Colin's setup before he even had a pedalboard. Instead, they sat on top of his rack setup.

At the fore of the board is Colin's SansAmp Programmable Bass Driver DI. He's used the Sansamp since circa-2005, when he abandoned rack preamps and Gallien-Krueger heads in favor of Ampeg SVT heads. Colin uses the SansAmp for an overdriven tone on live performances of Ful Stop, and probably a few others too.

A big-box Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth appeared in a couple Radiohead gear photos over the years. It eventually landed on Colin's touring pedalboard for the A Moon Shaped Pool era. This time, he's using the more recent Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth XO, which is a lot more micro than the original!

The Boss TU2 tuner is certainly less dramatic than the other returning favorites, but it makes up for that in its huge reputation as a standard on touring pedalboards. The paler orange color and the circular LEDs on the display show that it is indeed a TU2, not the more recent TU3. Colin has used a Boss tuner pedal since circa-2005, when he abandoned his massive Korg ToneWorks rack tuner.

A closeup of the SansAmp. Note the "FULSTOP" label under the LED for the SansAmp's preset #1. Since the pedal uses presets, the knob positions can be ignored.

New Kids

Probably the most interesting new pedal on Colin's board is an Origin Effects Bassrig '64. The Bassrig is an amp-in-a-box, replicating the circuit of vintage Fenders using transistors instead of tubes. It blends those with some bass-oriented features, like filters for the main output and a a dry blend control. It covers a lot of ground with Colin's SansAmp, but perhaps the pedals cover different. Colin has the black panel version of the Bassrig, which is internally identical to the regular silver version.

The Origin Effects Cali76 Bass isn't too much of a surprise—even Colin's Boss-loving brother is using one of the boutique compressors on his The Smile board! And it makes sense: the Cali76 is based on the vintage UREI 1176 rack compressor that Nigel's used countless times on Radiohead recordings. Colin's Cali76 replaces the Diamond Compressor that he used during the A Moon Shaped Pool era. It's a funny contrast with Ed, who went back to a Diamond after using a Cali76 on his Earth touring board. Like the Bassrig, Colin has the black panel version, which is internally identical to the regular silver version.

The Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor might seem pretty innocuous, but it's an a pretty interesting addition! Not only is it the first time Colin's had a noise gate on his pedalboard, it's the first time any member of Radiohead has had one! In the past, a noise gate was doubtless applied to Colin's mic'd and DI signals at the FOH mixer. However, using a pedal reduces the noise at the source, meaning there's less need to process all of the later signals as heavily. Removing the noise before Colin's amp also means that there's less noise on stage. However, it's also possible that the NS-2 is only being used in combination with one particularly noisy pedal, perhaps the Shin-ei fuzz.

A closeup of Colin's board, from a video shared by Dan, highlighting the QMX-2 switcher. Note patchbay on the right edge of the board.

True Bypass Switchers

Another new addition for Colin are true bypass loops. These keep the extra cables for each pedal out of the signal chain when not needed. They also just make it easier to turn pedals on and off. Each pedal gets a dedicated footswitch, in contrast to the controllers used by Ed (where each footswitch can be programmed to switch multiple loops simultaneously).

Colin is using a pair of TheGigRig's Quartermaster bypass switchers. The one at the front of the board is a four-channel Quartermaster QMX-4. The smaller one, hidden under the riser, is a two-channel Quartermaster QMX-2.

A closeup of Colin's board, from a video shared by Dan, highlighting the QMX-4 switcher. Note the individual labels for each effect.

More about the Board

All pedals are powered by a TheGigRig GENX14 DC power supply, which is mounted to the underside of the riser to keep it out of the way!

In a reply to his post, Dan also stated that the board itself is one of TheGigRig's Large Single Tier boards.

Although most of the details of the board were shared on Dan's personal page, one photo was stealthily shared on the main account too. The post only talks about the customizable rear panels on TheGigRig's boards, but Colin's Lovetone Meatball and the knobs of his Shin-ei Fuzz make it clear that this could be no one else's board!

A photo of the back of Colin's board, shared to the TheGigRig page on Sep 22. None of the pedals have a power cable connected, so this photo must've been taken partway through the build.

You might've noticed a stray, unplugged XLR cable in the other photos. It goes to the XLR connector on the back of the board. It's a little surprising that the cable isn't connected to the SansAmp, given how close together they are. But there's also a couple of unplugged 1/4" cables too. Perhaps the Radiohead crew are planning to stick a DI box in there?

The cables are all custom made for the build, each kept as short as possible. The right angle 1/4" connectors are Eminence x TheGigRig Tiny Plugs. The straight 1/4" connectors are Squareplug SPS connectors in black.

With the riser lifted up, we can see the GENX14 velcro'd to its underside (in the upper left corner of this image).

Pedal chain:

TheGigRig Patchbay

Boss TU2

Origin Effects Cali76 (QMX-4 #1)

Lovetone Big Cheese (QMX-4 #2)

Shin-ei FY-2 (QMX-4 #3)

Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth (QMX-4 #4)

Boss NS-2

SansAmp Programmable Bass Driver DI (QMX-2 #2)

Origin Effects Bassrig '64 (QMX-2 #2)

why should i be good if you're not?

this is a foul tasting medicine

a foul tasting medicine

Inktober Day 2 - Radiohead - Ful Stop