A Rig that works for you?

[leevc5]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

Marshall ATV50, old Fender Champ 1 6L6...
Work in progress: building 5F1 1 6V6... plus 40 Watt solid state, plan to put them in one cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 12. Getting old wanna have one relatively light amp I can grab and be ready for most any of the venues I usually find myself in.

[mantrasky]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

That is an awesome setup!

I'm still evolving... But so is my target tone.

PFDarkside, I have had such a love for tube amps that I'm always looking for something cool. "Thank You" regarding my gear! I'm not much of a gear collector (way to much to mention) I use them as tools but this setup really covers a lot of territory, I'm kind of "Old-School" about amps, it's funny my son has heard me play SLO's for over a decade and when he was thinking of awesome amps, that was what he wanted (continuing the tradition) so I had to get that for him.

[mantrasky]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

Marshall ATV50, old Fender Champ 1 6L6...
Work in progress: building 5F1 1 6V6... plus 40 Watt solid state, plan to put them in one cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 12. Getting old wanna have one relatively light amp I can grab and be ready for most any of the venues I usually find myself in.

Leevc5, "I've been searching" a lot of years for equipment, but from your list you can cover a lot!!! I'm currently working on a new CD project so I'm looking for more gear, mostly studio stuff. The different bands I jam with do recordings & play out "Show Case".

[mantrasky]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

I used to be a total metalhead, so i always approached everything as "What sounds better for metal." Now I'm approaching everything from the standpoint of "What is a more versatile setup?" because I play a bit of everything. I went from being a 4x12 half stack only guy with pedals to loving smaller amps and pedals to being a full on modeling junkie. When I start recording school in the fall I'm gonna get a Line 6 Helix unit and a Mission Engineering 2x12 cab with a built in power amp and I'm going to sell my current Line 6 Pod HD500 and small Vox amp to a friend of mine who's already called dibs on it.

Johnny, at one time when I was on the road I had as many as five full stacks of Marshall's, all modified and sounded killer! but I also love Classical, Jazz, Fusion, Pop (I really love hard rock), I've had my AxEfx II for a couple of years, its a good device but "Tube Amps" just do it for me. The Modelers sound great and very convenient. I also have a Line6 HD Desktop it's very cool, not in the same class as the AxEfx but it's also easy to deal with, I can carry that into a club, plug it through the "House System" sounds awesome!

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

Johnny, at one time when I was on the road I had as many as five full stacks of Marshall's, all modified and sounded killer! but I also love Classical, Jazz, Fusion, Pop (I really love hard rock), I've had my AxEfx II for a couple of years, its a good device but "Tube Amps" just do it for me. The Modelers sound great and very convenient. I also have a Line6 HD Desktop it's very cool, not in the same class as the AxEfx but it's also easy to deal with, I can carry that into a club, plug it through the "House System" sounds awesome!

And I'm glad that they work for you. Tube amps should definitely be used if they're what inspire you to play. For me, I look at a high quality modeler as a better investment because it allows me be play a more versatile setup without having a different amp for every style of music that I play. But I'm glad that you've found the rig that works for you man. That Bogner and Friedman combo looks sexy.

[PFDarkside]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

PFDarkside, I have had such a love for tube amps that I'm always looking for something cool. "Thank You" regarding my gear! I'm not much of a gear collector (way to much to mention) I use them as tools but this setup really covers a lot of territory, I'm kind of "Old-School" about amps, it's funny my son has heard me play SLO's for over a decade and when he was thinking of awesome amps, that was what he wanted (continuing the tradition) so I had to get that for him.

For a long time I was using a big board (with some Analogman stuff ) two stereo amps (Splawn and Mesa) and a combo of a Les Paul and Charvel style guitars.

Lately its been my Strat and Princeton Reverb with a much more modest pedalboard. I still love the other rig, but this one has a simplicity that allows me to just "play".

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

My "rig" really depends on the situation I'm in. In rehearsals I'll usually use my low wattage smaller amps. For gigging it depends on the size of the gig and venue. For unmiked or larger stages I'll bring my 59 Bassman or Vibro King. Smaller stages where things are miked I might bring my 5E3 Deluxe. I use the same pedalboard regardless.

[Boogie Bill]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

Boogie. I have eight of them for various venues, from my Mark V:25 mini-stack to the 200-watt Mark III half-stack; the Maverick 212 or the DC-3 112 combos; or the Mark III, IV and V combos on top of Thiele cabs. Using Boogies since about 1995, and couldn't be happier.

Bill

[DeadandBuried]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

I've predominantly been a half stack user, since acquiring a Marshall JCM2000 in 2010, before that it'd be sharing backline with other bands or 50 watt combo amps provided on the night.

Over the years as I've played in venues across the country I've found that rarely can I turn my amp up and really let it sing. The last gig I played however I got to really crank it. I've seen players with smaller amps who can really turn it up and get a great sound as the amp is really cooking. And I've also considered the digital route too, Kemper, etc. Its usually been a "less-is-more" type rig too, keeping the smallest amount of pedals between the guitar and the amp. I'm not a massive effects user, if anything its just tuners and noise gates really, and an overdrive of some sort. Main guitar has always been a humbucker type one. One main and one back up.

This is all for originals bands, but if I were to be in a functions band I'd probably have to invest in a good quality combo amp that won't annoy soundmen or others in pubs. Wahs' choruses, compressors, delays and tremolos will come into play here I think. Add to that 2 types of guitars (single coil and a humbucker) to cover a range of sounds.

[Mincer]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

I like a light setup that requires 1 trip from the car...

A light, balanced guitar
Fractal AX8 direct to the board
In ear monitors

Sounds amazing every time.

[mantrasky]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

I like a light setup that requires 1 trip from the car...

A light, balanced guitar
Fractal AX8 direct to the board
In ear monitors

Sounds amazing every time.

That's great! But my amps sound better than my Fractal AxEfx II, in every situation but weight. "Nothing beats True Tube Tone!" When I do sessions, tube amps all the way. The AxEfx is not bad as a simulator, they don't sound as "Real" and when I record or live, the best tone wins. Simulators sound great, here and there but Not the main focus!

[Gearjoneser]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

Mine is either the white chassis XTC 101B/212 for rock, or the 74 blackfaced Pro Reverb for anything where rock tone isn't the focus.

Over the years, I've tried to hang onto my favorite amps. Some come and go, but not the cream of the crop mint condition classics. I'm too passionate about those.

[Matt42]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

I'm getting closer to finding a rig that works for me. For a long time I was using cheap stuff, or borrowing stuff, totally unsure of what I was after. For a while I had a Mesa Lonestar, which was sweet, but too large for my needs at the time. I wish I had kept it, but alas. I had decided I wanted a smaller clean amp to use with OD pedals and ended up with an HRDiii. I ditched that pretty quickly and borrowed amps for about two years.

Now I've got a Super Sonic Twin (would rather have my Lonestar back), and a hand built 20 watt combo that breaks up so sweetly. It's a nice mixture, the Twin is a great big clean amp, and I use it mostly for Pedal Steel at this point. The 41st Bayonet (the hand built amp) is just amazing, it's exactly what I've always wanted in an amp, tbh.

I'm still working on my pedal setup, getting it all ironed out with the new amp (I just got the 41st a few weeks ago). I've got two pedals that wont be going anywhere (Carbon Copy and a Mooer Trem), but my ODs and my Phaser will be changing before the end of the year.

My guitars are a Telecaster FMT HH, a Squier VM HSS, and an MIM Strat. I want to add an Epi Dot and probably another more traditional Tele at some point, but the FMT Telecaster honestly does pretty much everything I want.

I'd post a family photo, but the Twin is getting surgery.

[chadd]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

Mesa Road King into a 2x12 with greenbacks. There's nothing I want to do that the amp doesn't do incredibly well.

[That90'sGuy]

Re: A Rig that works for you?

I've been through way more gear than I'd care to admit. I'm also not afraid to admit I've gone in circles on some things.

Guitars are a pretty simple thing these days. I like bigger guitars and I like the tonality of hollow body and semi-hollow guitars with Filtertrons or DynaSonics. There's a vibe that I get from Gretsch that I haven't found in any PRS, Gibson or Fender I've owned (and I've owned a lot including some good custom shop pieces). I've been through a few acoustics, but my Collings OM is a game changer and that's probably the guitar I'll be buried with.

Amps has been one wild rollercoaster. I was passed down a Vibrolux Reverb when I was only playing for a year or so, but it needed work (cap and resistor changes) to get sounding good which I didn't understand until I became much more experienced with gear and electronics. For years I was into heavier music and tried every pedal under the sun at that time to make the amp work, but it didn't so it got shelved. I needed more versatility.

I tried a few channel switchers like a Bad Cat Hot Cat 30, Crate V32 Palomino, Fargen Epic 30 DC, Hughes & Kettner Duotone and Triamps and several Bogner Shivas because I hated doing the pedal thing. After a while, I kept revisiting my tone and when I'd compared the Shiva (which was the best out of the list above) to the shelved Vibrolux and realized the Vibrolux was more organic sounding and responded much better. I had an epiphany, "THAT'S why people use single channel amps and push them with pedals".

After selling the last Shiva, I went back to using amps with pedals. I had my head set on Vox because I wanted more of a semi-dirty thing and was pretty successful using a Vox AC15H1TV for a little while, but missed the Fender thing so I fixed up the Vibrolux and was so happy with it I ended up buying more Fender-ish things with the intent of a backup, namely a vintage Super Reverb and a Swart AST Pro. I found a few pedals that actually sound good for dirt and these made me happy for a while, but I still missed having a channel switcher around because even the best pedals just don't sound as good as an amp with a dedicated distortion channel (at least from my experiences). The Super Reverb just didn't compare to the others so it got sold with no regrets.

I opened up my mind to revisiting Mesa and the things I didn't care about before (the stiffness, the uncompromising reaction to your pick attack) didn't discourage me anymore (probably due to my confidence as a player and the way I dig into the instrument) and I picked up a Mesa Royal Atlantic. That's probably the amp I use the most these days with the Swart. They both have their own thing and I appreciate each one for what it does. If I'm gigging, I'm picking the Mesa though.... it's just so darn versatile and has such a wide range of volume in which you can dial it in exactly how you need it thanks to the MultiWatt circuitry. They're both really inspiring and due to the AST and Vibrolux covering so much of the same territory, I'll likely be selling the Vibrolux.