Just to break my stupid habits. Anyone with me?

[KaiserSoze]

Anyway, I got in a strange mood and sold my pedals, well, most of them anyway.
It really is a pedal-junkie thing. I've duplicated tones so many times it's ridiculous.
My inspiration was getting a J.Rockett Led Boots pedal and having an epiphany.  Although it's an outstanding pedal, it's not that it spoiled me for all others. It's just the one that made me realize that the chasing tone thing has gotten silly.
With this, a bluesbreaker clone, a delay and my tuner, I'm having a ton of fun and can do everything I want.
Thoreau said "Simplify, simplify." And was probably right.

 

[mayfly]

This was essentially my rig for years:  a ProCo Rat into a boss digital delay into a AC30 clone. 

Now I have an axe FX and my virtual rig is an overdrive into a delay into a trainwreck xpress clone.  Yes simple is better.

 

[Logrinn]

:toothy12: :toothy12: :toothy12:

 

[Cagey]

This was essentially my rig for years:  a ProCo Rat into a boss digital delay into a AC30 clone. 

Now I have an axe FX and my virtual rig is an overdrive into a delay into a trainwreck xpress clone.  Yes simple is better.

Sounds familiar. For years, mine was a Big Muff Pi into a Maestro Echoplex into a Fender Pro Reverb.

Now I have an axe FX and my virtual rig is an overdrive into a delay into a Friedman clone. Cost $4500 more, but it never needs batteries or eats tape and the virtual tubes last forever.

 

[mrpinter]

I'm doing a sort of simplifying my rig, but with a major twist. I'm using fewer pedals - at a time; but I choose from multiple smaller boards. A typical board of mine consists of a tuner, overdrive and modulation of some sort. But I'm not always in the mood for the same OD and modulation. So I have five different boards with different relatively simple combinations of pedals. For example: one is a TC Electronic Polytune > Earthquaker Devices The Warden compressor > EQD Talons OD > EQD Disaster Transport modulated delay (yes, I'm an Earthquaker Devices fan). Another board is simply a Polytune > EQD White Light OD > EQD Hummingbird tremolo. You get the idea. I'm loving this arrangement. I'm on board with "simpler is better", sort of, but I've got choices for different moods or music styles. Here is one of my Nano-boards:

 

[Pelagaard]

Big  :icon_thumright: on Earthquaker Devices!  I recently added the Levitation reverb and From the Depths optical vibe. I'm thinking either the Avalanche or Disaster Transport will be next.

 

[mrpinter]

Big  :icon_thumright: on Earthquaker Devices!  I recently added the Levitation reverb and From the Depths optical vibe. I'm thinking either the Avalanche or Disaster Transport will be next.

You'll love it - it has a very smoky-darkish tape echo sort of sound - not sharp or sterile like most digital delays (talking about the Disaster Transport). The Avalanche Run is no doubt wonderful, but is a much more complex pedal and we were talking about simplifying. But speaking of NOT simplifying, I just ordered a Disaster Transport Sr, now that should be a lot of fun (like The Edge in a box?).

 

[mrpinter]

My Disaster Transport Sr was delivered yesterday, along with a Nano+ pedalboard. l put the DT Sr on the board along with some other effects I have acquired for this board, including an Earthquaker Devices Dream Crusher I just got today. I'm loving it. When Frank Zappa was asked by an interviewer how he felt about the complexity and learning curve of his Synclavier, he replied "It makes me feel like dancing". I feel sort of like that about this board. It has practically everything - a real fuzz (made with NOS germanium chips just like the original fuzz face had), up and down octaves and a very convincing set of organ sounds; a great preamp pedal with, again, special NOS chips powering a "full" very bassy setting and a nice treble boost setting reminiscent of a Rangemaster. Next comes the DT Sr, and it is phenomenal - it has two separate delay engines that can be run individually, or both on but parallel (independent), or in series, or in series AND parallel with one bleeding into the other. This creates a huge wash of modulation (delay A has a vibrato modulation and delay B has a nice reverb). Here is the board:

 

[Cagey]

Very nice! The boys at Earthquaker Devices must let you sit in the comfy chair when you visit  :laughing7:

 

[mrpinter]

Ha! I have so many Earthquaker pedals it's almost embarrassing. They are just the most innovative, well made guitar effects out there right now, in my opinion. If other companies make anything like what EQD does, it ends up costing a lot more. And no, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just a very satisfied customer.

 

[Re-Pete]

This was essentially my rig for years:  a ProCo Rat into a boss digital delay into a AC30 clone. 

Now I have an axe FX and my virtual rig is an overdrive into a delay into a trainwreck xpress clone.  Yes simple is better.

Similar to me.

Had a RAT ran into analog chorus, delay then into an old HH amp. Then bought a  Fender 4 x 10 Blues Deluxe (I think that's what it was called....Could emulate a Bassman tone if you turned off all the modern tone adjustments).

All that's long gone, now have a Kemper but the Favourite amp profiles I chose are either Marshall 1987X, a EVH 5150 Mk3 & Fender Deluxe Reverb or Roland JC120 for cleans. And the front end pedal is (aside from the Kemper stuff which I tend to switch off) a Clinch EP+ (Echoplex preamp simulator).

I pare down as much as possible, the Kemper does have considerable output assignment features & I can run a fully 1980s styled rack rig stereo affair if I want to, but just the two inputs (or even one) into the DAW in a simulation of what the real amps do, is enough for me.

I recently relented and bought two vibe pedals, one from TC to emulate the Univibe & Chrorus effects & the other from Big Tone Brewery for the Magnatone vibe effect. I can either run them into the rear effects return section of the Kemper or straight into a Magnatone replica amp I have (Evil Robot). Going into the Return effects of the Kemper does have it's advantages as I have a Radial Eng. SB6 Isolator to balance the signal before it comes into the Kemper for more cleaner signal.

I have also been contemplating getting some OD/Distortion/Fuzz pedals.....The Kemper does have a decent profile of a Tubescreamer but some others miss the mark a bit. Thinking Thorpy FX Peacemaker, and a JRocket Archer Icon Gold. May also go a Fallout Cloud from ThorpyFX as it has the dual EQ adjustment to tone down the excessive bass muff you tend to get with Muff clones ( I do have a Little Big Muff from the late 1970s but it is just about useless with a limited tone capability).

But whatever I get, I do only home recording so I can re-rig my pedal section at each session anyway. Less is more if not for anything other than noise reduction.

 

[DustyCat]

I'm finding myself awakening to new degrees of frustration with my old (expensive) gear.

I've always been a fan of tube amps, and I believe in their even order harmonics (5ths, octaves etc.) yet I just can't seem to get that "liquid" smooth and airy HI-GAIN sound that sustains forever...like I can with solid state modelers (pre-amp/pedalboards with 1 12ax7), and at a much lower/useable volume at that!

I don't understand it.  :dontknow: :sad:

I'll give you an example. Here is my fleet of expensive tube amps I have accumulated over the decades trying to chase that sound: Rivera 55 12 Suprema, Marshall JCM 800 (the 2 channel head), Marshall Jubilee reissue, and recently the Jet City 20A.

1st of all, none of them can get "effortless" hi-gain sustain (like I was able to get out of a Vox Tone Lab amp Modeler or even a solid state zoom preamp no less). I think the JCM 800 is the only one that can get close. The closer I get to that effortless sustain, the higher the volume must be, "Howdy neighbors" and even then, string muting becomes a major headache and an absolute necessity. Not like the Mesa Boogie Rectoverb 25 combo that I played recently at the music store. The volume was manageable and did not have that sudden cliff of arena volume from 2-3 and the gain as liquid and smooth and the sustain effortless.  :toothy10:

What is really strange is that with the solid state preamp modeling pedals (of tube amps no less) not only can I get that airy, liquid effortless hi gain tone that sustains forever at barely a whisper, I can get that same sustain at any fret on the instrument. With these expensive tube amps, the high notes are fragile and fall off and get crushed by the bass response that wants to feed back the mids and the lows. FWIW Im at my wits end and I looked up a video of the Rivera, and the guy demoing it has the bass rolled off entirely, at 1. I thought I was going crazy with my bass control rolled down to 2 or 3.

 

[Cagey]

You're not alone. More and more people are saying things like "I like the modeled [insert famous amp here] in my AxeFx/Kemper/11Rack better than my real one." The real ones are inconsistent and often have problems. Maybe not severe enough problems to prohibit their use, but enough to make them unpredictable. Aged tubes, dried out caps, shorted windings in transformers, variable component values due to wild temperature fluctuations, manufacturing variations due to tolerance stackups, etc. A tube amp is an anxiety-inducing little rascal. Not that solid state gear doesn't fail - it does - but at least it doesn't actively work toward killing itself just by virtue of normal operation. Tube amps are doomed at birth, even if you don't turn them on. Those monstrous electrolytic power supply caps will dry up whether you use 'em or not. Turn 'em on and they heat up to injurious levels, develop lethally high voltages and vibrate hard enough to be measured on the Richter scale. It's a wonder they work at all.

Another thing that enters into it all is that something like a JCM800 has to be cranked to 11 to sound good because of physics, while creating that sound/behavior in the modeler is all about software and has nothing to do with being cranked. You create the sound, then set an output level that's suitable to the environment. Anything from a whisper to arena levels - the sound/behavior is always correct. Only the SPL changes.

In any event, why fight it? If your solid state gear does what you want it to do, sell the tube-base gear while there's still a viable market for it. That stuff weighs a ton and takes up a lotta room anyway.

 

[DustyCat]

You're not alone....
Another thing that enters into it all is that something like a JCM800 has to be cranked to 11 to sound good because of physics, while creating that sound/behavior in the modeler is all about software and has nothing to do with being cranked. You create the sound, then set an output level that's suitable to the environment. Anything from a whisper to arena levels - the sound/behavior is always correct. Only the SPL changes.

I've always liked that bold faced tone by many a rock guitar legend. When I was younger Id get that sustain by cranking the gain and concentrate more on how the amp/tone felt...rather than how it actually sounded. The two can be different.

Well, Im throwing in the towel because now that I finally realized, "hey wait a minute now that i really listen to the guitar part...again...it's actually pretty clear, and now that I think about it, there's really not all that much gain on there in the first place, they probably just doubled the part," like I read in an interview.

Maybe cranked the gain on certain key, strategic pinch harmonics. But the reason they get that sustain is probably because they recorded in these big fancy soundproof recording studio nuclear holocaust doomsday prepper bunkers in LA where they can dime out their double stacks.  :turtle:

 

[KaiserSoze]

Okay. My official gigging rig is now just a Led Boots, Barber Gain Changer, and a Keeley Monterey.
So far it's a great live rig with the Mesa express 5:25. I could probably get away with just the Gain Changer but I use the Led Boots for single coils, where it really shines. Just another day in Funland

 

[DustyCat]

hell yeah

 

[Cagey]

...now that I think about it, there's really not all that much gain on there in the first place, they probably just doubled the part," like I read in an interview.

Speaking of doubling, just for fun you might want to look into a new magic box from TC Electronics called the "Mimiq". Everybody's been trying to do what this thing does for years, and even on the AxeFx you can only get close. The demos are pretty convincing, and the device itself is relatively inexpensive ($129) as magic boxes go.

 

[DustyCat]

...now that I think about it, there's really not all that much gain on there in the first place, they probably just doubled the part," like I read in an interview.

Speaking of doubling, just for fun you might want to look into a new magic box from TC Electronics
The demos are pretty convincing, and the device itself is relatively inexpensive ($129) as magic boxes go.

Ooohh, me likes the magic boxes!
Cagey comes up big agaaaaaain!
:yourock:

 

[Cagey]

Hehe! Yeah, I ordered one myself. Should be fun.

 

[screamin_conure]

Walk into any well equipped outdoor sporting goods retailer that sells fishing equipment and you'll be overwhelmed with a dizzying array of lures and baits.  I've often likened effects pedals to fishing lures.  They're not so much designed to catch fish, as they are to catch fishermen.  :laughing7:

In looking at most everyone's rigs posted here, mine looks pretty much the same: 
Guitar --> Vox V847 --> Polytune2 --> Boss noise gate --> Wampler Delay --> DOD FX64 Stereo Chorus --> Amps
                                                                        ^
                                                                        |
                                                              Nobels ODR-1

Everything but the wah is mounted on a Pedaltrain Nano.  Small.  Simple.  Portable.  Sounds great.