Guitarists/bassist....what Does Your Rig Look Like? Technical Issues?

I was just going to post something about a technical issue and realized we don't really have a thread for that or one talking about our set-ups.

So what are you guys using?

Right now I'm going into my Roland GR-55 synth. I have a line out for the MIDI signal directly into input 1 on the amp and another line that runs to my board which is Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron envelope filter>Boss digital delay/reverb>Boss blues driver>Boss super phaser>input 2 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

I'm actually having some issues with the Fender so I'm using a different Fender right now but I hope to get my main one back in the mix soon. I was having a problem using the synth with the other pedals but I discovered today that my problem was that I was just an idiot.

Anyone know anything about amp issues?

 

I don't know much about modern boxes but the first thing I'm seeing is you should always (almost always,lol) have your driver pedal last. You generally don't want don't want to be sending a distorted signal to phasers, flangers 'n shit. Unless it sounds good, then whatever works right? lol

I used to use a wah pedal, phaser and an mxr distortion in my early days, then added delay and flange. It was always a battle to stay out front without the electronics fucking up your transient response. Ever notice on live broadcasts ( where the broadcast mix is compressing the piss out of everything) how the lead guitar is always too far back in the mix? It's Psycho-acoustics. You can keep turning up the guitar till it hurts, it's never going to stand in front unless those transient peaks are there, and effects boxes eat that up like crazy.

I use minimal effects now, only my amps onboard saturation and reverb. My guitar plugs directly into my amp with nothing inbetween. And my guitar has no tone control, only a single volume controlling a hot seymore humbucker in the back. With only 65 watts from my 112 combo, I can cut through the loudest onstage mix and get a very natural while still modern guitar sound. Most of my effects are in my fingers, lol

 

I don't have a rig... I've got gear.

 

I realized later that I didn't list that correctly. My driver is last. I just didn't have time to correct my post as I was loading gear earlier.

And...I did have one issue corrected tonight but I still have other volume issues that are pissing me off. I thought I had all of my levels set at home this afternoon. I got to the venue today, sound checked and was sure it was going to be fine. It sounded good. Then it was shitty for the entire first set. I couldn't hear the synth very well a lot of the time and it was almost cranked on my amp. I wasn't even getting it very well through the monitor which was about as loud as he could get me. I finally just switched out of it and played my normal pedals for the rest of the night. I guess the mains sounded fine so who knows? We'll get it figured out. We're working with a new sound system, I'm not a pro on the synth yet and it was a full house so I just decided to bail on the synth for the rest of the night. It's a little disappointing because you hate to be thinking about those things while playing. I've played some shows where it sounded perfect and others where this has happened. I'm not going to spend anymore time worrying about it tonight. We still played a pretty good show tonight....or so I was told.

 

You need two amps... one for the synth and one for the normal guitar channel. You get wicked phase cancellation trying to run both into the same amp, even if you use a mixer.

 

And on the pedal order thing... Dirt pedals always come first inline unless you have a vintage Wah that needs to see just pickups at the input.... All the psycho-acoustic stuff comes later... Delay should be in the FX loop of the amp in most cases, especially if you have a clean/dirty channel amp and you use both voices.


If you put a dirt pedal or booster last you are amplifying noise generated by the other pedals....

 

I can't necessarily disagree with that, but the only time I ran into noise problems is when I tried to use ac power adapters instead of battery's. I'm assuming modern pedals have taken care of noise issues with phantom power supplys. I'm very particular about my overdrive sound. I hate distortion boxes. When I used a driver pedal it was to over-drive the amps pre-stage with a hot, mostly clean signal. Plus If you don't play on stage you may not have had to deal with transparency issues during high volume play

 

I bet two amps would be the solution. Running the synth by itself is fine. It's when you use it and the other pedals that the sound becomes an issue. Maybe it's worked a few times in the past because I might not have needed as much volume on those nights. But as far as the pedal order....I've always had the driver at the end and have never had any issues. I could almost just get rid of it because I don't use it much at all. I usually play fairly clean. It's only been in the last 6 months or so that I've been playing around with different sounds and the synth, etc. But these kinds of things are really not my strong suit and I should have been learning more on the topic years ago. I was playing at a festival this summer and one of the guitar players in another band just blew my mind with his sound. I was talking to him after his set and he told me that he stopped trying to get better at guitar about 5 years ago and decided to just focus on his sound. So that's when I kind of started thinking....hmm....maybe I should do the same thing. I obviously still have a lot to learn.

 

Never stop trying to get better, but don't obsess about it either.

Anything you can eliminate in your signal path is a good thing. If you play primarily clean I would definitely think about getting rid of the drive pedal. Even though I use a solid state amp, the saturation circuitry allows me to roll off the volume on the guitar and clean up the sound, if I need to. Something I would have never thought possible with a SS amp in my tube amp purist days. Having a pickup that matches the amp well is one of my biggest revelations. That and understanding that loading the right speaker is important in getting good overdrive sound. I want that magnet to heat up to an extent. I once upgraded a rig with some really good JBL's (replacing the cheap Jensens) and ruined my sound! The JBL's would never heat up! Those old pressed frame Jensens are like gold now!

 

Guitar -> borrowed amp. Tweak knobs to desired settings. A poor man's gigging rig

Okay, okay, I'm actually assembling stuff and am raising money to complete my first actual gigging rig, I'll get back to you when it's done

 

I smoked a borrowed fender twin onstage once, flames and everything...there went my pay for the night, lol

 

Pyrotechnics...

 

Yeah, lol. I was running it full blast and I noticed my sound going a little crackly and the volume fluctuating, I looked back on the dark stage behind me, I could see the flicker of flames through the little gap where the faceplate meets the cabinet. I had to play straight through the P.A. for the rest of the night,*cringe*.

Fortunately back then you could get new transformers for a reasonable price.

 

I had an old mono-block amp that was 40's Navy issue. About 50-60 watt, 6L6 power tubes. I was cranking it one day and it really started sounding great. I glanced over and the plate on one of those 6L6's had a cherry red spot on it... Spot started growing and it was really raging now. It got to the point where I didn't need to use my picking hand anymore, just finger the notes and they were loud as hell and well defined, started sounding like a Hammond organ. It finally just went "Pifffft" and was no more.

I used to have a tape of it because I was recording everything in those days. Wish I still had that tape.



Separate note... I used to have a tape of "Drapes Blowing in the Breeze" song mentioned in the first song thread. That I really wish I still had.

 

Ha, yeah I used to smoked my 40 watt fender bandmaster on several occasions where the sound was getting awesome right before it went "piffft"
My repair guy really loved me, lol

In the 70's we used to buy those blackface bandmasters and twins used for 100-200 bucks every day of the week.
Now you're lucky if you can get one for under a grand.

I used to have a tape of an outdoor show where the wind blew my double 4-12 stack down, with the head hitting the ground first. It was an oh-so familiar 'clatter' All the voice coils of those jensen 12's clattering against the magnets. lol

 

And now the rest of us know why

 

This could go for a lot of old gear that wasn't worth much in the 70's and 80's (not because of Theprodu) We used to bastardize stuff back then that is now highly collectible.

It was cheaper to buy a Phase 45/90, Distortion+, or other MXR pedal than it was to buy a new Budd Box to put a home made circuit into... Original circuitboard hit the bin.

Old tube amps needed a Master Volume and a second gain stage... While in there the cabinet got hogged out to fit a 12" speaker.

You don't even want to know what we did to the guitars of that era... Seriously.


We fucked up a lot of shit back in the day.

 

I have an inkling. I'll never know fully but I've heard plenty from talking to various gearheads/former modders

 

Lol, remeber the old LPB-1 pre-amp box by electro-harmonix, "linear power booster" ? They advertised it would double your amps volume.



I wired one up with a 10 volt power supply instead of the 9 volt battery and plugged 'er in to my Bandmaster. it was a bit noisy from the wall socket, and I was probably risking accidental electrocution,lol. but man did that baby drive a tube! Yep, smoked another transformer eventually. Those old fenders sounded so good when you drove them to near meltdown...ha ha!

 

I asume your talking about the new GR-55 synth efx/modling deal. I have so many efx processors I just couldn't justidie that. But that black desk top the GR-100 I think could be useful in the studio. By the way-is there anything that new roland doesn't do??