Simple set ups

[richard]

I decided to start this thread as a result of some of the response to my Nice Compliment thread - thank you for all your kind comments by the way.

So, who among us are guitar/amp players and who uses more complex set ups ? Explain your choice. Myself I go guitar straight to amp because I've never found any effects pedals that I liked. I've had flangers, chorus pedals, delay etc and I always end up detesting them very quickly. Apart from the fact that I start to find the effects themselves tiresome they always do something undesirable to the basic guitar tone. I don't like reverb.

I don't like channel switching amps because the channels are always voiced differently. If I had a channel switcher the channels would have to be identical so that I could add a little more gain and volume to one of the channels.

An added bonus of my effect phobia is that at gigs I'm set up and ready in about 5 minutes and there's not much to go wrong.

What about you ?

[Twinfan]

I have two main rigs:

Complicated: Bogner XTC Classic, rack mounted MIDI switching for amp/effects, chorus, overdrive, phaser, EQ, wah

Simple: 65 Amps Empire - wah, tuner, OD, delay

I use the Bogner live most of the time, as we play a wide variety of tunes and I like to be as authentic as I can be.  The XTC can do clean, through crunch to hard rock.

The '65 I use at home and for the odd small gig when we're playing more similar music e.g. a bunch of classic rock tracks and I don't need the tonal variety.

I also have a third rig for rehearsals - 65 Amps London Pro and a tuner.  Rehearsals are all about song structure and getting the groove right, so I only need a really basic setup.

I guess it's horses for courses, and if you're in a covers band how true to the original music you want to be.  It also depends on the style of music you're playing, as a blues or jazz rig is likely to be much simpler than a melodic prog metal dance indie combo  :lol:

[Frank666]

I'm very basic with mine, guitar into an overdrive into a wah into the amp. I'll use a delay sometimes

[Andrew W]

I do have a pedalboard with a wah, Deja-Vibe, Klonish and an El Capistan but since I got my DGT I have mostly been plugging straight into my Cornell Romany Plus with tone stack switched out. That means that the only non-guitar control I have is the volume on the amp. Can't get much simpler really, though it suits me 85% of the time.

[38thBeatle]

I like to think of my set up as simple though the bass player in my band would laugh at that. To him I have too many pedals but I consider it to be deceptive.
I have my Laney VC30 set clean  with an A/B switch so that I can swap guitars and not have to unplug then I have an eq pedal to allow for the fact that the amp might be set to favour one guitar over another -the eq being there to change settings. Then I have a T Trex tremster (for one song). A Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde and in the main, I just use the Jekyll side to create a "just breaking up " tone with just a touch of volume boost. I have a Visual Sound H20 for chorus (on one song)- I use the echo side rarely.Finally I have a Volt Amps smooth Blues driver which is used for a boost for solos. I tend to have just one pedal on at a time so in my view it is pretty much me and the amp most of the time.
As I say, the bass player is constantly going on at me for having too many. I refute that but to no avail.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

I tried basically everything one could possibly do with effects, trying straight into the amp to running a dozen pedals and a bypass switcher and all that cr@p. I found out I liked it somewhere in the middle. I just feel like a huge part of my tone is created from pedals (my Green Rhino and Sonic Stomp) and I feel there are a few I definitely need (mainly Noise Gate, Tuner) but other than that (Volume Pedal, Reverb) it's just a luxury.

I had a Marshall 6100, which is a 3 channel amp, for a while, but I felt it was just too much, and I was actually overwhelmed and quite intimidated by the features and channels, etc. I switched over to a Marshall JMP 2203, which is much more to my liking, very simple and easy and straightforward. Best crunch tones EVER. No question. The cleans are decent too if you can get the MV up enough as to where you don't need alot out of your Pre volume.

Setup isn't that difficult, just the amp and cab, pedalboard, and 2 guitars. Not very hard. I run wireless which is set up on my board, so other than patch cables, I'm only running 1 cable from the amp to the board. I love that more than anything, makes for basically no clutter or mess.

[_tom_]

I keep mine pretty simple. Guitar > wah > tuner > overdrive (not always used) > amp. Guitar volume knob to go from clean to dirty! If I'm playing with a band I'll have an EQ in the loop for lead boosts.

[Dmoney]

Simple setups are ace.

I find multichannel feature loaded amps only ever do one thing well. Never played one that has awesome clean, awesome crunch, and awesome high gain tones.

I can back having a single channel stripped down amp with reverb and tremolo built in. That is a classic. Then just a tuner maybe and straight into the front.

My current rig is a PRS CE22 with the tone control replaced with a coil tap toggle for the Nailbomb Bridge and Cold Sweat neck > Tuner > loopless SLO100. I try to get as many tones as I can from the guitar. Clean, Crunch or Drive.

Recently I've been playing with pedals but I haven't had them out the house. Current running a Phase 90, Maxon Envelope Filter, and a DD-3.

[bucketshred]

I use...

Gibson LP w/Mule > Tuner > Blues Driver > MXR Phaser > Delay pedal (never use it, just a splitter) > Marshall JCM800 & Orange Dual Terror. Both amps are set with gain on around 7.

I like the simplicity of the single channel amps (although the DT is two) for getting a cracking straight up rhythm sound and then lowering the neck pickup volume for clean sounds and the Blues Driver for pushing the amps into melt down. The phaser is just there for a bit of fun 'cos I like it.

I use two amps cos I like to be loud.

[Telerocker]

MXG Custom HSS-strat, Fender HSS-strat, Fender American Series telecaster, Saint Blues Mississippi Bluesmaster> Toadworks Dual Boost > Vox Wah > Emma Reezafratzitz distortion > Suhr Riot > Ibanez PT9 > Boss HF2 (used only as doubler) > Ibanez AD9 vintage > Carl Martin Trem-o-Vibe > Orange Rockerverb 50/2x12 cab.
Sometimes I use a Blues Junior > 2x12 cab.

[blue]

i have various pedals which i experiment with, but i only ever plug them in when i'm after a particular sound.  generally, even channel switching is too much for me!  so i normally use a guitar (at the minute a Les Paul)  either straight into a single channel Marshall, or with a treble booster.  with the guitar's volume controls and pickup switch, i can get pretty much anything i need.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

i have various pedals which i experiment with, but i only ever plug them in when i'm after a particular sound.  generally, even channel switching is too much for me!  so i normally use a guitar (at the minute a Les Paul)  either straight into a single channel Marshall, or with a treble booster.  with the guitar's volume controls and pickup switch, i can get pretty much anything i need.

+1, that's the way to do it!

[dave_mc]

I guess it's horses for courses, and if you're in a covers band how true to the original music you want to be.  It also depends on the style of music you're playing, as a blues or jazz rig is likely to be much simpler than a melodic prog metal dance indie combo  :lol:

exactly. It depends on what you need. I have both types of amp, and I can see the appeal and need for both types of amp. There's a reason why very few blues players use an Engl SE and very few metal players use a tweed deluxe. :D

Generally speaking I err on the side of simplicity when I'm playing heavier stuff- I can rarely be bothered changing channels and the like, i'd rather use the guitar controls (which, now i'm used to them, I find easier and more intuitive than kicking a switch)- but that doesn't go so far as using something unsuitable. So for example I like something like a laney gh50L (which, although single-channel, is still high gain), but I wouldn't use something like the aforementioned tweed deluxe because it only has three knobs, because it's completely unsuitable.

there's also something to be said for dmoney's point about supposedly super-versatile amps only doing one thing well- I'm not sure i'd be just as uncharitable as that, but I would agree that they rarely (if ever) do all those things anywhere near as well as an amp which is aimed squarely at those tones. Added to the fact that they're also often really expensive and (if you have room) you might be better off with 3 different amps...

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I use a pedal train 2 with loads of effects, even for small gigs, then into a vox VR30 amp that connects to an orange PPC112 cab. Anything bigger than a 1x12 is 01. too heavy and 02. too loud

[bucketshred]

I use a pedal train 2 with loads of effects, even for small gigs, then into a vox VR30 amp that connects to an orange PPC112 cab. Anything bigger than a 1x12 is 01. too heavy and 02. too loud

If it's too loud, yer too old ;)