Feedback: Andy Liszt of LSD and the Search for God

Welcome to the latest edition of Feedback, a look (down) at the pedal boards and equipment of some of our favorite musicians. Today, KEXP's Owen Murphy talks to Andy Liszt of California-based psych-gaze band LSD and the Search for God.

LSD and the Search for God are playing Tuesday, April 30th at the Loving Cup in Reno, Wednesday, May 1st at the Blue Lamp in Sacramento, and Thursday, May 2nd at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. If you missed last week's four-hour celebration of the genre on The Morning Show on KEXP, you can still listen via KEXP's Two-Week Streaming Archive [stream expires: 5/9/19], and check out previous editions of Feedback for more gear geekery. 

The Boss LS-2 Line Selector — which provides no sound manipulation at all — is a life saver. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to gig with my Marshall Shredmaster distortion pedal. My Shreadmaster sounds great but it’s old and finicky and doesn’t always respond when the on/off button is pressed. Additionally, in order to get my desired tone from the pedal I set the knobs in a way that makes the overall guitar volume significantly and undesirably louder when the Shredmaster is turned on. Both problems are solved by setting up the Line Selector to act as a remote control for the Shredmaster.

To make sure the Shredmaster turns on and off when I want and to protect it from further wear and tear, I keep it on for the whole set and virtually bring it in and out of the signal chain by stepping on the Line Selector instead of the Shredmaster. And to fix the volume problem without sacrificing tone, I set the Shredmaster knobs exactly how I want and then adjust the overall volume of the pedal with the Line Selector. Using the Boss Line Selector to trigger the Shredmaster allows me to keep it on my pedal board and use it live, not just the studio.