Show Me Your Rig!
Posted on 09 May 2008 at 12:40 pm Under: Guitar
This post is going to be pretty guitar geek specific.
First a little help, if you will. Since I have started gigging again, over the last year, I have been using a Fender Hot Rod DeVille Amp with 4 10’s. I’ve started to notice the first signs of tube wear. So, I am looking at new tubes here in the near future. The amp came with Groove Tube 6L6s. I have talked to guys before that prefer using 5881s and I have toyed with the idea. So, I would like to know if any of you guys have any input on using the 5881s and if anybody has used them in this particular amp, I would love some input.
Now, the next part should be fun. I want to know about your rig. Here’s the thing; If you are a regular, you know I’ve been at this a while. I have run the gear gamut and gone full circle a couple of times. I played gigs for a lot of years with no effects, just a tube amp. I went through a period of where I had to replace amps a lot and so, one day I went the total opposite direction and bought a Line6. I tried it for a few years and decided to go back to tube amps. But, I found that I rather enjoyed having some effect options. My next thing was trying some multi-effects units and, I never found anything I was real happy with. Lately I’ve been using some stomp boxes. No power supplies, I carry a bunch of 9 volts in the gear box. The one thing I have never really tried is using a pedal board/stomp box/power supply.
I want to know what your rig is. I want to know the signal path. I want to know if you are happy with your set up. I want to know what your ideal rig would be.
Here is what I’m using.
Reissue Fender Wallpaper Telecaster with maple neck.
Joe Barden Pick ups.
Ernie Ball Power Slinkys Gauges 11-14-18-28-38-48.
Crybaby Wah Wah-old, real vintage
MXR Dyna Comp
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 410
For overdrive, I’m using the channel switching on the amp. With the DeVille, I’m able to set up a clean sound and an overdrive and then there is a “more drive” setting and all three can be controlled with the foot pedal. I have heard guys say they hate the dirty sounds on the DeVille and they prefer using a pedal for overdrive. I find that I am able to manipulate the overdrive sounds on the DeVille fairly well, easily usable for what I’m doing. I think that the Barden pick ups have a lot to do with this. There is an amazing array of tonal capability with them, once you get used to them.
I am not unhappy with this set up for the gigs I’ve been playing. Basically, I need to be able to get a good clean sound and a good overdrive sound.
The Crybaby comes in handy for a couple of songs that I play with Thirst N’ Howl like, “Let’s Get It On”, I don’t use it a lot.
I use the compressor a couple of different ways. If I am doing a gig with Roy Decker, I use it on the country stuff and especially for the modern country type songs. In this kind of setting I only use it on clean sounds. With TNH or the Rogues, I set the compressor up more as a boost. I don’t put much squash on it and I will use it on clean sounds and the less overdriven sound occasionally. It’s pretty good that way for some of the ’80s rock sort of things.
The delay, I use more than I thought I would. In TNH we some things like the Jouney tune “Don’t Stop Beleivin’” and, you know that intro part, stuff like that. But, other than the real big, obvious delay things like that, I use a more subtle, shorter, maybe two repeat thing on a few leads.
What would my ideal set up be? Well, I’m real stoked with the Barden pick ups. I would love to have a high end amp like maybe a Matchless or Fargen, something with real good channel switching. I think that with this guitar and the ability to get so many sounds out of it, that an amp like that would really release the full potential. If I had such an amp, I don’t see going with more effects. I would probably keep the delay or, some type of delay handy because I’ve grown fond of it.
So, tell me about your rig. Go on and on about it, if you like. I’d love to hear about it. Also, I’d love to see pictures. Send them to me at jackpribek@gmail.com and I will post them and link to you if you like. A lot of the readers here are not guitar players but, I think that they would get a kick out of seeing what lengths guitar players go to for the sake of tone. Everybody likes to look at gizmos. We might even do a contest, let the non-guitar playing readers pick their favorite rig based on the photos. That might be fun.
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Don’t have pics yet, but that is a good idea for a post on my own blog.
The front end is pretty much shown on my “Hug Your Guitar” post. The only two guitars I ever plug in are my Tele and my Dread. My Tele’s had some cosmetic modification (as well as several strap-button redrills) but for hardware it’s a stock late 80s MIJ Tele. If I ever had a #2 Tele and some money for new electronics, I’d do something with it, but I’m not that guy.
I like heavy strings, and the set previous to the current set were Not Even Slinkys (.12 .16 .24P .32 .42 .56). I found I could not do first-finger country bends while holding notes with the other strings, like I’ve seen Junior Brown do, so I switched to Super Slinkys (.09 .11 .16 .24 .32 .42). The Tele roars less, and when I get a second guitar, this one goes back to .12s.
I don’t at this moment remember how I string my acoustic. I do know that they’re GHS strings, and when the electric had Not Evens on, it was strung heavier than the acoustic. It’s a Fender DC20CE, a cutaway with a Fishman piezo bridge.
My gig is church, and for the most part, that gig is me being Mr Strum, as I mentioned. If I was in a bluegrass band, I’d play to a mic. At church, I plug in. They like to keep a quiet stage, so everything except drums gets a DI box and everyone has in-ear monitors. I use a ToneWorks AX1500G multieffects unit, a Boss CS-3 Compressor, and a Cry-Baby Wah, which plugs into a DI box and then the church’s PA. No, wait. Guitar, compressor, wah, effects, DI. I have pre-sets on the pedal board for the acoustic that don’t amplify but just give me reverb and chorus. I hardly use the compression, as I haven’t figured out how to use it to good effect yet, but I know it’s a big part of the country picker thing. I think I use the wah more Zappa style, leaving it on a setting as a weird tone controller rather than rocking it, although I do sometimes.
I like the effects unit, but I know it’s a bit of a toy. The #1 benefit is that I get some amount of boost and amp emulation in an environment where otherwise I’d get nothing. I do get some usable sounds from it. For example, I have one preset that’s fairly close to the “Born on the Bayou” tremelo bit.
At home, I usually go Tele to Frontman 25R. Sometimes I’ll put the compressor in there, too, to figure it out more.
Pictures will come. Sometime.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..He Likes To Make A Livin’ Runnin’ ‘Round
laney info and my rig soon come
Gary Grainger’s last blog post..Harpejji