Amp Du Jour and the Effects We Use To Make It Through the Gig

[stevejamsecono]

Sadly lost from the internet unless you know to look for it with Wayback Machine, Nel Cline's entertaining 'Amp Du Jour!' travelogue has become something of a mantra text to me as I've lived out my own version of this gigging in Brooklyn these past ten (!?) years. No matter where I play, there is always a weird amp to be dealt with and knowing how to combat that with a trim, carefully stocked pedalboard a regular part of my musical life. Is it possible to parachute into these situations and manage to have a satisfying playing experience with what I can bring in on foot? As Nels opines... maybe.

For those who haven't read it: https://web.archive.org/web/20150408212 ... p-du-jour!

I'm currently on a bit of a gain pedal quest right now to find the right combination to suit this while I sort out a more permanent (and hand truck friendly) amp solution. 'Cramped Grandpa', my PT Nano currently has an Xotic SP Compressor and Nobels ODR Mini that seem to suit my Tele nice, but out of curiosity I just added a Mooer Black Secret and a Wampler Tumnus to the running to see what might work out for me in the long run. I have a feeling that I may swap them around in various combinations depending on my mood.

So! To all of you -- In the spirit of Amp Du Jour and for those who gig on backline amps regularly, what are your 'life saver' pedals and how are you using them?

[marqueemoon]

I rarely have to use backline amps, but…

On the board I use for my 3 piece I have Catalinbread Talisman which has a healthy amount of boost, so if I’m stuck with a high headroom amp I can at least smash the front of it (and have my preferred reverb sound).

My 4 piece board has an Archer Icon as I’ve found that’s the most consistent light drive for my purposes. Also a Rat (clone) as I been using one forever and it just works. I really just prefer to go with what I know for live use.

[jorri]

I just avoid it after learning a slight lesson the hard way BUT my whole fallback is a second amp sim channel. Also works in favour of persuading an engineer not to mic my amp, it sounds better than most live mic situations to be honest.

I have not found the house amps can take my pedals well for sure. My amp is middy solid state, the sim is a scooped vox and ive often ended up getting those switched around if i borrow. Sometimes a band lending a twin was ok in past. At least my fallback makes it half consistent (and adds cool stereo width.)
Tube amps are too dirty. Solid states tend to be the contemporary crap...basically.

Then there is our bassist who almost always borrows and almost always borrows an ashdown, which are absolute shite imo (why are these the go-to?, not even cheap!) so i am trying to convince him to buy and carry even a small cab!

[marqueemoon]

Then there is our bassist who almost always borrows and almost always borrows an ashdown, which are absolute shite imo (why are these the go-to?, not even cheap!) so i am trying to convince him to buy and carry even a small cab!

Oh, yeah. Of all my setups my bass board is most optimized for use with shitty backline amps. It has an always-on boost hitting an always-on compressor and a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes which I usually use as an overdrive, but I can just leave it on if the amp is super sterile sounding.

I’ve never encountered a backline amp I couldn’t get a usable sound out of with this.

[fuzzjunkie]

Back in the day a Roland GP-16 was my break-in-case-of-emergency unit. It had preamps, noise suppression, EQ, and cabinet simulation that I had set up to mimic my 2 main amps, a Vox AC-30 and a Fender Bassman. It had line outs that could go straight to a mixer, so more robust than a Sans Amp pedal.

My Vox was known to blow up or shut down mid set, so it was more for protection against it, or a pedal on my board dying, than as a back line replacement though.

Nowadays I have looked into the Strymon amp sim pedal and a few more options. I have an old desktop Vox Tonelab that’s bulky and more inline with the GP-16 that could work. I tried a Line 6 Pod once before I had the Tonelab. It was a disaster. Those would both be work arounds to the mixer and not making lower quality amps sound good.

My go to pedal for a lot of things would work though. A Throbak Overdrive/Boost. Very versatile and dynamic like an amp, but not cheap. I use it to add Marshall crunch to my current Vox amps and as a level matching device when switching guitars. It can also be a first or last in line booster or a low gain fuzz. It is pretty good at Tweed amp overdrive too. It is advertised as being useful as an amp simulation or amp improvement pedal for that reason.

Other possible options are the Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop, or anything with a CMOS or JFET circuit tends to sound tube-ish. Red Llama, Box of Rock. Fulltone and a few others make amp sim pedals, Sans Amp is still around. Then there’s the UAD amp box. I always thought the zVex one watt amp could make a good portable preamp.

[panoramic]

I've only ever used my rat in this context but I have made a lifetime out of avoiding backline amps.
If you're being pushed in that direction often I would use something that gives you continuity regardless of the amp so think "amp in the box" type of pedals. I've been very into some of the sounds i've heard from the zvex distortron as it dials in an easy to clean up jtm sound, the sl drive sounds cool and is cheap, the dod250 might be a good option for you too. I guess it really depends on what you are going for.

I am also on a "dirt" quest as of late, I picked up an eqd plumes and i am loving that pedal, i also picked up a rat 2 for a back up to my 85 rat. I've watched so many videos on these things it's kind of hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEhgSLQccU (zvex distortron)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olNg9SkzG4c&t=1s (enjoy the turtle neck rocker with his plumes with a tele)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHeIFCe1Xtc (SL Drive)

[stevejamsecono]

The OCD was kind of my go-to with this for awhile but at the end of the day I just didn't really like how that pedal sounded that much to begin with. Its saving grace was that it turned every amp into an OCD which was at least predictable, albeit in a very mediocre sense of the word.

For awhile I did portable heads (Avatar 18, Boogie Rectoverb 25) am going to do start doing this again sooner rather than later once I get the chance to try out a few of the offerings from Victory as it seems like they may have what I'm after.

[jorri]

Then there is our bassist who almost always borrows and almost always borrows an ashdown, which are absolute shite imo (why are these the go-to?, not even cheap!) so i am trying to convince him to buy and carry even a small cab!

Oh, yeah. Of all my setups my bass board is most optimized for use with shitty backline amps. It has an always-on boost hitting an always-on compressor and a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes which I usually use as an overdrive, but I can just leave it on if the amp is super sterile sounding.

I’ve never encountered a backline amp I couldn’t get a usable sound out of with this.

Ashdowns are so weird though like they take out the sub and dump it in low mids, then some add an octave circuit to compensate! It usually works fine but how can deep subby things come from something incapable of it-? like e.g. the lowest end Ampeg would do the job! Or some old HH.

One trick is he does use an octave pedal with bass vi and that can retain a lot of the deep when needed

[panoramic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nELtik6Ebbs

this Dunes v2 pedal is also pretty killer

[marqueemoon]

Then there is our bassist who almost always borrows and almost always borrows an ashdown, which are absolute shite imo (why are these the go-to?, not even cheap!) so i am trying to convince him to buy and carry even a small cab!

Oh, yeah. Of all my setups my bass board is most optimized for use with shitty backline amps. It has an always-on boost hitting an always-on compressor and a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes which I usually use as an overdrive, but I can just leave it on if the amp is super sterile sounding.

I’ve never encountered a backline amp I couldn’t get a usable sound out of with this.

Ashdowns are so weird though like they take out the sub and dump it in low mids, then some add an octave circuit to compensate! It usually works fine but how can deep subby things come from something incapable of it-? like e.g. the lowest end Ampeg would do the job! Or some old HH.

One trick is he does use an octave pedal with bass vi and that can retain a lot of the deep when needed

I view any bass cabinet primarily as a monitor, so I’m not expecting any real deep bass. Decisions about the true low end are best left to the person running sound anyway if the place is big enough that I’m getting a DI.

I don’t think I’ve ever used an Ashdown amp as a backline thing. Tried a few in stores. Other than the pointless VU meter they seemed ok, but a little fragile.

Backline for bass has been lots of ss Ampegs and weird things brought by other bands. The worst I remember was a Markbass setup. Just completely devoid of character.

[s_mcsleazy]

so when i was primarily a bass player, it was easier to just use a pre-amp pedal. most sound guys would look at you funny if you bought your own bass amp anyway. if there was a bass amp, it was always a half broken ashdown (i don't hate ashdown amps, i think they sound fine. but most venues had ones that were mostly broken) basically my board for a while was the mxr bass DI because you never knew what you'd get. saying that, i did have one sound guy who took offense when he seen it saying "WOT M8, YOU THINK I DUNNO HOW TO DO MY JOB?" fun fact, fucker didn't even push up my fader. petty wanker.

as a guitar player primarily nowadays, i kinda know what i'm going to get as a backline. most venues tend to have either a fender hotrod deluxe or a blackstar club. neither are amps i'm really into BUT i can kinda make work for me. i'm quite lucky in that if i can get KINDA in the ballpark for my clean tone, i can just tweak the pedals to get the rest of it. but i'd still rather bring my own amps if i can help it.

there's a venue in glasgow that doesn't let you use an amp and asks guitar players and bass players to go into the desk, it's a shame because it's a cool venue but they're real sticklers for that rule, even recommending you buy something like a line 6 helix.

[Shadoweclipse13]

there's a venue in glasgow that doesn't let you use an amp and asks guitar players and bass players to go into the desk, it's a shame because it's a cool venue but they're real sticklers for that rule, even recommending you buy something like a line 6 helix.

Sounds to me like a venue that has a shit sound guy who doesn't know what they're doing, and they know it.

[marqueemoon]

Lol. Yes I’ll totally buy a Helix just so I can play a particular venue. How many shows will it take to pay that off?

[jorri]

so when i was primarily a bass player, it was easier to just use a pre-amp pedal. most sound guys would look at you funny if you bought your own bass amp anyway.

I think its the opposite now. They look at me funny if i don't bring a vocal mic and often borrow one of the other band's bass amp, or when i explain my DI setup (but they like it after using that because no mic hassle yet the stage get's an amp monitor).

On that, it can eat up headroom from the PA, eats up vocals or can't really push the kind of dBs for a heavy band- depends on the venue really...some engineers have refused bass DI and on a night when the venue failed to provide after promising we had to call and pick up, and probably agree with them as there were no amp sim tools around.

there's a venue in glasgow that doesn't let you use an amp and asks guitar players and bass players to go into the desk, it's a shame because it's a cool venue but they're real sticklers for that rule, even recommending you buy something like a line 6 helix.

Sounds to me like a venue that has a shit sound guy who doesn't know what they're doing, and they know it.

I can imagine a cafe doing this- somewhere hindered by council noise restrictions, but is this seriously a real venue?

I think a lot of different genres are more flexible- of course, some will really want that amp interaction, like i couldn't imagine a Fugazi-like band thinking going straight in is a good thing...not even with bass, like the bass has an ampy driven quality- other genres bass is a deep fundamental, not many harmonics.

[s_mcsleazy]

there's a venue in glasgow that doesn't let you use an amp and asks guitar players and bass players to go into the desk, it's a shame because it's a cool venue but they're real sticklers for that rule, even recommending you buy something like a line 6 helix.

Sounds to me like a venue that has a shit sound guy who doesn't know what they're doing, and they know it.

I can imagine a cafe doing this- somewhere hindered by council noise restrictions, but is this seriously a real venue?

I think a lot of different genres are more flexible- of course, some will really want that amp interaction, like i couldn't imagine a Fugazi-like band thinking going straight in is a good thing...not even with bass, like the bass has an ampy driven quality- other genres bass is a deep fundamental, not many harmonics.

nah it's a venue on a boat. they mostly hold cover bands tbh.