Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

[Aceman]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

My dream Rack of Doom is fairly simple:

Marshall JMP-1
Yamaha SPX 90
Lexicon of some sort
BBE rack mount Sonic Maximizer

100 Watts of any power and a Marshall 1960 cab on wheels

Line 6 M9 for front of amp effects, and I'll stick with my Morley Wah

 

[rbc]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Here's mine:

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Triaxis, power amp and a couple effects have been fine for me since 1995.

Around 2010 I downgraded the amp to a 20/20, much lighter and still plenty of power for today's stage levels.
My Intellifex is only used for its 8-voice stereo chorus these days, but it's not going anywhere. Best chorus ever.
Lexicon G2 takes care of delays, tone shaping & occasional other stuff.

Used to have a Zoom 9030 and a Boss ROD-10 in the rack too, but they hardly ever got used. Thinking about putting a MoFEX in as a space filler with lights. Before the Triaxis when I used the rack just for effects running into my old warhorse Boogie head, I had an old two space realtime analyzer in there just for the looks. But I gave that away to a bandmate when I switched to the preamp.

I run a pedalboard for rehearsals, that can approximate a handful of favorite tones from the rack.
I have another board for jams etc.

 

[devastone]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

I had my "dream" rack about 15 years ago (still late in the rack game) and it made quite glorious sounds, 6 space with a Kasha Rockmod II preamp (seriously, best preamp I've ever heard) thru a Rocktron Replifex and Intellifex, into a MosValve MV-962 and out through two Avatar 2-12s with Eminence Red Coats (don't remember which ones specifically). Of course, I had a small pedalboard with a MIDI controller and the stuff that needs to be in front, a wah, Phase 90, Shaky Jimi (great vibe thing), SD-1 (or similar), maybe an micro flanger, and of course a tuner (Boss TU-2 IIRC). It sounded great and no one thing was overly heavy, but it was still quite a bit to haul in and out.

For pedal boards I had a board built around an AMT SS-11B with TC reverb and delay, a phase, wah, tuner, the usual suspects and it sounded great too, but I usually used it direct, so didn't have the magnificent feel of real air moving as with the rack setup. Keep thinking I might go back to that, I do like my GT-1000, and it sounds good, but it's honestly too much and any time I start editing I can kiss a couple hours goodbye. I do get some amazing Twin clean sounds though, have made some good gain sounds on it, but nothing that makes me go THAT'S IT! I think the gain tone is in knobs, real potentiometers, not the digital thingies...

 

[rbc]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Here's mine:

View attachment 104395

I'll add that this rig incorporates a compressor, gate, two channels, chorus and delay. That's all provided by the Rockman Sustainor and Chorus/Delay. The rest supports the Rockman gear, providing EQ, balanced interfaces to the board and power.

 

[devastone]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

That old Rockman stuff was great! From when it was pro quality stuff!

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Well guys, I can say two things.

That massive Petrucci/Hetfield rack isn’t going to happen....
I quite enjoy the discussion thus far!

 

[devastone]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

That massive Petrucci/Hetfield rack isn’t going to happen....

Yes, makes my hyena act up just thinking about it.

https://youtu.be/JyJBz7Z2EWE?t=44

 

[Mincer]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

It's all good until you find out you have to carry your stuff up a narrow flight of stairs to get in the back door of the club, and the 200W of stereo tube power is way to much for the 50 seat room. Granted, don't want to turn over all the control of my sound to the PA by going direct either, there's a happy medium somewhere, mine is my GT-1000 thru an ISP Stealth power amp (or SD Powerstage) to a 1-12 cab, and I can also give a direct line to the board.

Do I miss my 6 space rack and running stereo through a couple of 2-12 cabs, well, yeah, that was the best sound I ever had, but am I going to carry all that now, no, at least not for what I'm doing now.

BTW, if you decide to go all in with a stereo rack, don't ruin it by trying to run everything thru one cabinet, get 2 cabs so you have have some separation, two 2-12 cabs will be much better than one stereo 4-12. I mean, you've come that far!

Or up a fire escape or in a freight elevator meant for food carts. I am all for the rack if you aren't moving it. It becomes furniture after all.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Here's mine:

View attachment 104395

Can you tell me about your graphic EQ use? do you us it to notch out specific modal frequency buildup for the venue you play? or tone shaping or both?

 

[rbc]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Can you tell me about your graphic EQ use? do you us it to notch out specific modal frequency buildup for the venue you play? or tone shaping or both?

It's been all about tone shaping. The picture doesn't show anything, because that was taken right after I had put it together. I've been experimenting with using the two EQs, one before, the other after the distortion. Some of the frequencies I've boosted before the distortion and cut after the distortion to bring out the harmonics. So far it's been mostly between 250hz and 1k, though that is a work in progress. I'll have to add a third EQ for clean. That's not there yet. That's with an Epiphone Les Paul with the bridge and neck pickup mixed together.

Previously, I was only using pre-EQ for both distortion and clean. For distortion, I was cutting frequencies between 100 and 1k. For clean I was cutting between 250 and 1k. Above and below those frequencies, it's been mostly unity gain or I've been boosting those frequencies. That was with a Peavey Riptide, a telecaster style guitar mostly using both the neck and bridge pickups together.

 

[Nsatke81]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

For reference:

 

[Sirion]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

I would suggest the following: go for a rack if it, in your situation, is simpler than a pedalboard. I have a 4U rack rig (pre-amp, G-System, power amp) that can give pretty much any pedalboard a run for its money, and still not weigh significantly more than an amp head. It still needs the dedicated board, so it is not that much lighter, but to me there are fewer headaches this way. I have still hidden a couple of pedals within the rig, but I'd be happy to be rid of them once an equally practical unit can do them well.

In general, if you like stereo or w/d(/w) rigs, that is a serious argument in favour of a rack rig. Pedalboards and heads/combos are rarely good solutions for that. The same goes for if you need controllable effects in the loop, since you can reduce the cable clutter across the stage significantly by going rack.

 

[rbc]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

I think a key point is keep the analog signal cables short. If you spread your rig between a pedalboard, amp and rack, that can get complicated. There are a lot of interesting pedalboard amps to use these days. Doing everything on the pedalboard is pretty doable. On the other hand, you can also skip the amp altogether and use DI solutions. The SansAmp comes to mind. There are plenty of other options.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Man, this rack stuff is hefty. Even the much more scaled down version below tips the scales around 75lbs.

(Removed the tuner, wah, wireless, one preamp, combined the processor/switcher, got rid of the second switcher and drawer, downsized to the 20W EL84 amp...)

It still seems super versatile and a lot of fun...

 

[Sirion]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

I think a key point is keep the analog signal cables short. If you spread your rig between a pedalboard, amp and rack, that can get complicated. There are a lot of interesting pedalboard amps to use these days. Doing everything on the pedalboard is pretty doable. On the other hand, you can also skip the amp altogether and use DI solutions. The SansAmp comes to mind. There are plenty of other options.

It is interesting that you put this in this manner, and it gives me the opportunity to vent about one of my pet peeves on the subject If one wants to limit analog signal cables, both in length and number, rack units will always beat pedalboards, virtually no matter what. It has other disadvantages, but there is just no way one can argue that pedalboards reduce the amount of signal cabling required. The exception is, as you say, if one goes for a pedalboard amp, but this comes with a number of compromises of its own. As far as a rig using a conventional amp, rack gear will always beat pedals in this field, and knock them out in the first round if you want effects both in front of the amp and in the loop.

 

[Sirion]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Man, this rack stuff is hefty. Even the much more scaled down version below tips the scales around 75lbs.

(Removed the tuner, wah, wireless, one preamp, combined the processor/switcher, got rid of the second switcher and drawer, downsized to the 20W EL84 amp...)

It still seems super versatile and a lot of fun...

This looks like a very sensible rig to me. If you should ever want to make it stereo, you only need another cab and you'll be good to go!

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

This looks like a very sensible rig to me. If you should ever want to make it stereo, you only need another cab and you'll be good to go!

The 2x12 can be wired stereo as well. Could do a half back with different speakers on either side for a tonal blend as well.

 

[LLL]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

Man, this rack stuff is hefty. Even the much more scaled down version below tips the scales around 75lbs.

(Removed the tuner, wah, wireless, one preamp, combined the processor/switcher, got rid of the second switcher and drawer, downsized to the 20W EL84 amp...)

It still seems super versatile and a lot of fun...

Dump the tube power amp for an SS and that should get rid of some weight.

 

[rbc]

Re: Which Guitar Rig would you prefer? (rack vs pedalboard)

If one wants to limit analog signal cables, both in length and number, rack units will always beat pedalboards, virtually no matter what. It has other disadvantages, but there is just no way one can argue that pedalboards reduce the amount of signal cabling required. The exception is, as you say, if one goes for a pedalboard amp, but this comes with a number of compromises of its own. As far as a rig using a conventional amp, rack gear will always beat pedals in this field, and knock them out in the first round if you want effects both in front of the amp and in the loop.

I agree. I'll add that I'm definitely leaning toward DI with some kind of amp simulation. I like analog, largely because I know how to repair it and you don't have to worry about latency. On the other hand, when there are a bunch of patches with a lot of effects, digital starts to look really good. My only hang with digital is the number of round trips between the analog and digital domains. I prefer as few as possible. When I go digital, I prefer to stay there until it's time to come back out of a speaker.