“I had an existential crisis with my pedalboard after leaving the Smashing Pumpkins”: Jeff Schroeder reveals his epic post-Pumpkins pedal rig, inspired by Rival Sons’ Scott Holiday

“I had an existential crisis with my pedalboard after leaving the Smashing Pumpkins. I had nothing else besides my touring rig based on my Revv Generator 120s and Line 6 Helix. My ’board is a work in progress, but here’s what I’ve been using lately.

“I took a modular approach using one main ’board and one satellite. I wanted it to be malleable without sacrificing tone. In the summer of ’23, the Smashing Pumpkins toured with Rival Sons, and I spent a lot of time with their guitarist, Scott Holiday. Although simplified, the ’board I put together is inspired by what he’s doing.

“My ’board’s heart is the Line 6 Helix. I use it in many ways: straight into the PA using a combination of pedal and amp models, the Helix preamps into a power amp and cabinet, or strictly as an effects unit running into standalone amps.

“I could easily use the Helix alone, but I like incorporating other pedals, hence the hybrid nature. The signal chain is: guitar into Helix; the output of the Helix into a PA or mixing console, into amps, or both.

“Connected to the Helix are three separate pedal chains, two mono and one stereo. Effects Loop one contains a Mid-Fi Electronics Demo Tape Fuzz, an EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker and an Analog Man-modded Boss DS-1.

“Effects Loop two contains three EarthQuaker Devices pedals: the Aurelius [Tri-Voice Chorus], Rainbow Machine and the Afterneath [V2 Reverb]. Effects Loop three and four are combined in stereo.

“Here are the pedals on the satellite ’board: an EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run, Line 6 HX One, Eventide H90, Vongon Polyphrase and Vongon Ultrasheer [Pitch Vibrato and Reverb]. The secondary board is mainly for solo guitar playing.

“The wonderful thing about using Helix as the heart of the ’board is I can insert combinations of loops into the signal chain. I have many signal chains within my Helix presets that combine the effects within Helix itself and the pedals. There are endless possibilities, and it’s easy to bypass everything and go straight into a real or modeled amp.”

If I had to choose only one pedal for a full show

“I’d use my EarthQuaker Special Cranker. It’s somewhere between distortion and fuzz, with enough gain to play leads, and it has a switch between germanium and silicon diodes. I can roll my volume down for clean, overdriven tones in the Germanium mode, even with the ‘More’ control set high.”