Re: Setup of the day

[MechaBulletBill]

yesterday, i just played my old tokai strat (pretty upgraded) straight through a black deville for some garagey surfy stuff and it sounded pretty flippin good for not-too-distorted sounds. i think i'd need to add a pedal to get more pleasant heavier sounds but i was impressed by what i have in my head as a very bland, stiff-sounding amp.

People always slate the Hot Rod amps but I've never failed to get a decent sound out of one with a bit of fiddling. Crank that clean channel up and their natural overdrive is pretty damn good. I have one at our rehearsal space as a backup, and take it to gigs sometimes, and it always sounds great once I've got the EQ set up nicely. Mines one of the 1st Gen USA-built ones and I paid £250 for it...that's a LOT of amp for not a lot of money. I'd happily tour with a couple and have no issues with how they sound.

Same! I've never played a show with one, but I've played so many pedals through them in shops, and they always sound good to me, occasionally needing a little tweaking as you said. Awesome little amps. It also doesn't hurt, that they were supposedly all over Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism album, which an all-time favorite.

my first gigging amp was an early tweed blues deville 4x10 and, while i liked that it was always more than loud enough, it never sounded great and had a few technical issues here and there. also, i am much better at dialling in amp EQs now than when i was a teenager. i'm not sure if this black one was a 2x12 or not but it could be that i prefer that configuration.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Same! I've never played a show with one, but I've played so many pedals through them in shops, and they always sound good to me, occasionally needing a little tweaking as you said. Awesome little amps. It also doesn't hurt, that they were supposedly all over Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism album, which an all-time favorite.

my first gigging amp was an early tweed blues deville 4x10 and, while i liked that it was always more than loud enough, it never sounded great and had a few technical issues here and there. also, i am much better at dialling in amp EQs now than when i was a teenager. i'm not sure if this black one was a 2x12 or not but it could be that i prefer that configuration.

That's interesting. My first real amp was a 2×12 (Peavey Classic 50) and the Hot Rods I always messed with that I liked were 4×10. I realized that for my own preferences, I prefer either single speaker or 4×, as I feel like 2× cabinets sound muddy. At least the 2× amps I had always did.

[Zork]

What I play around with at home at the moment: Ibanez Les Paul Custom, Silvertone lap steel, Fuzz Face, Tonebender, Memory Boy and Laney VC30 2x10".

And a fancy photo app.

[sal paradise]

What I play around with at home at the moment: Ibanez Les Paul Custom, Silvertone lap steel, Fuzz Face, Tonebender, Memory Boy and Laney VC30 2x10".

And a fancy photo app.

My first proper amp was a VC30 2x10, and I’ve had a couple of bolt-on Ibanez (Antoria) LP customs. Brilliant things all round

[Zork]

Thank you! Yes, it's a very nice amp. Got it for a steal.
I think I prefer the bolt on LPs over proper set neck ones. They are just a bit more snappy, I feel. More aggressive in a way. I f only the neck was a little less flexible. You look at it and it's out of tune...

[MrShake]

OK, OK... so, I realize I post periodically in this thread and things are only marginally different, but today, I think it's... settled. Like, I'm about DONE with this live board.

Until I write something that needs some special thing, damn it.



I got a good job recently and was finally able to spend a few bucks on pedals. Rat is the base tone, I can push it with the Feedbacker or explode it with the Super Fuzz or Muff. The flanger gives it some swirl and it's a purple variant or an EM-type. The delay is baked into my style and that's just the one for me.

The RV-2 was the final piece of the puzzle, and the new addition. I'd been fussing with reverbs in that spot and finally threw caution to the wind and got another RV-2. It's long been "my" reverb pedal, so I splurged. It's exactly what I've been trying to find a budget replacement for, and they're not getting any cheaper. But I have an overindulgent NPD post on that soon. So, this is:

Fuzzrite
TU-2 Tuner
DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion
Cuvave DigVerb
Rat (Ruetz and Turbo switchable)
Behringer Super Fuzz
Eno/EX "BF-2" Flanger
Donner Stylish Fuzz (Triangle Muff)
DD-5 Digital Delay
RV-2 Digital Reverb

And a tiny Sonicake "Rude Mouse" on standby over the Muff. So in case I get fussy about that "third" gain spot, I have a scoopy Muff and a honky Rat as options.

A nasty fuzz, a stunt Feedbacker, and a stunt reverb up front; two big scooped fuzzes, modulation, delay, and reverb to stack. Right now, the Fuzzrite isn't PERFECT for a few songs, but makes up for it, strangely, in versatility by covering well enough for all those songs. And so it's the current holder of the "nasty fuzz" crown, and the resistor-bypass "Modern" mode is pretty close to a Shin-Ei FY-2, that territory.

All through an overqualified pile of amps. The Crate's at about 6 and the Fender at 1.5. I'm going to build a splitter next week to be able to feed to 3+ amps at a time and get the ZT+extension involved. I miss my 15" cab thumping.

Got our first gig of 2023 booked, so having fun using weekend band practice as a way to blow off steam after work. Been productive.

[X-Ray Spex]

What I play around with at home at the moment: Ibanez Les Paul Custom, Silvertone lap steel, Fuzz Face, Tonebender, Memory Boy and Laney VC30 2x10".

And a fancy photo app.

What's the app?

[ziess]

Tommy.

[sal paradise]

Tommy.

Wowzers, that’s a lot of awesome gear in a single photo

[marqueemoon]

Wowzers, that’s a lot of awesome gear in a single photo

Agreed. I bet that sounds great.

[Zork]

What's the app?

Prisma. It does filtering in different art styles. It's free, but there are in-app purchases for more styles and the resolution of exported pictures is not very high.

[GreenKnee]

Tommy.

I've just added a Lehle volume pedal to my board, I opted for the 'S' version as its a bit smaller and easily replaced my old Vox volume pedal without having to rearrange the whole board.
This thing is smooooooth and sounds great, the preamp adds a little high end, but nothing ice picky, and so I just needed to turn down the treble on my KTR a tiny bit.
The S version has 4 presets: 0 dB, +5 dB or +10 dB. I've no idea what "the preset P4 is the chef’s speciality and remains an audiophile surprise" is though. I use it in 0dB mode, the boosts do sound good but I've got a treble booster working overtime already so surplus to my requirements.

Excuse the mess, in the middle of moving house:

[s_mcsleazy]

Tommy.

even though i've played some of these. i'm still jelly when i see em.

[ziess]

Yeah it’s a great sounding setup. The lehle and the OD855 mean it can get growly at any volume, which is handy when you’ve got young kids!


Tommy.

[MrShake]

Fiddling with my "B" rig this rainy Sunday. I have a common "main" setup at home and the practice space, so my usual setup is my usual setup.

This is my "postpunk/electric 12/Bass VI/bass" board. It works great for any of those. Close enough to my usual suspects to feel like my wheelhouse, but some different selections, different choices in the same category, etc... this and the unique character of the Mustang makes me play differently. And I've been listening to a lot of early New Order lately, so I'm in the zone.