Who is using preamps / rack these days?

[1big1]

So, I take it you like it

I actually have not plugged into the X88r ... been working and skiiing. I may wait for the 2150 to arrive this Wednesday . And in the past 24 hours a few chrome VHT Classic power amps being presented to me too.
What a week of overindulgence and excess. All the while I've been noodling around and having a blast with my Fender Mustang IV head and other gear .


TMI

picked up a mustang v head a couple of months back. i needed a backup amp. i'm running it through my 1960a with 75's at home. not a tube amp for sure.. but for the money i've found some useable tones. takes pedals well too.
after trying my dsp 128 through the loop with the gap i've come to the conclusion that i need a better effects unit. there are a couple of decent presets.. but it just doesn't have the transparency i'm looking for for guitar.

 

[Shark Diver]

Fish, I forgot about those. I should probably have kept this one:

Why did you nix the FISH....?

Just wasn't using them. Bogner was suppose to make a power amp for me and a rack Shiva to go with them but never did. Those were nice units though. Cantrell mods and Brown channel mods. But like my Diezel rig, or Mesa Rig, it just sat there. I had an FX rack that I could use with any of them, so I could change up easy, but I just found I used the Soldano stuff all the time.

Then, divorce. I quit playing out for a few years, so it just seemed dumb to have so much gear.

 

[IntenseJim]

[
Then, divorce. I quit playing out for a few years, so it just seemed dumb to have so much gear.

I resemble that remark.

 

[racerevlon]

The Classic. I think someone already said it, but combination of rack and head with switching is where it's at.

 

[Shark Diver]

The Classic. I think someone already said it, but combination of rack and head with switching is where it's at.

You need a JFX -1 with that rig.

 

[1big1]

i also tried a dod spectrum in the loop. it's an old school 1u unit. it sounded a lot better to my ears.. buy doesn't have midi and isn't programmable. i did find a quadraverb and a midiverb III available locally for south of one bill. i may have to try them out. i think that between the two the quad would be the better unit. it also has more than 500 ms of delay.. which gets my nod.

 

[Special Overdrive]

peavey tube fx - 5150 in a rack preamp with effects and good harmonizer. only downfall was the battery would corrode and ruin traces on the pcb if you didn't get the newer battery upgrade from peavey.

peavey rockmaster - decent 5150 tone with more eq options. a little noisy at high gain levels like any all tube head/preamp. good preamp for cheap.
.

The Peavey rockmaster is based on the Ultra series (later xxx) and sound like one All the control functions and layout are like any Ultra series amp.

Tube FX was made before the 5150.

 

[GtarLover]

Fish, I forgot about those. I should probably have kept this one:

I think I have one of those Dave. I'm trying to sell my factory blue fish, but will keep the black and white one with the mods.

I really need to hook all my goodies up and see what can be done. They have been in different racks for a while and it's time to get them all together and rock.

I have always had a rack, usually with a head and cabs mixed in there as well. Right now my live rig is simple. Herbert, Axe FX Ultra for effects, wah and volume in front, and a wireless. It's midi and a fairly easy set-up. Amazing tones, yet not w/d/w, yet...

I want to be Zachman when I grow up

 

[Zachman]

Fish, I forgot about those. I should probably have kept this one:

I think I have one of those Dave. I'm trying to sell my factory blue fish, but will keep the black and white one with the mods.

I really need to hook all my goodies up and see what can be done. They have been in different racks for a while and it's time to get them all together and rock.

I have always had a rack, usually with a head and cabs mixed in there as well. Right now my live rig is simple. Herbert, Axe FX Ultra for effects, wah and volume in front, and a wireless. It's midi and a fairly easy set-up. Amazing tones, yet not w/d/w, yet...

I want to be Zachman when I grow up

 

[1big1]

i decided to do a bit of unorthodox experimenting with the gap. instead of using the gain from the pre amp i decided to try setting the pre clean and using it like a channel strip on a mixing desk to adjust the pedal tone. it works quite well that way imho. ymmv.

 

[paulyc]

Zachman...can you give a brief rundown of your basic sounds ? (What does what) eg...Atomica for dirty rhythm, Fender Super Reverb for clean, Mesa for solos, etc... I'd really like a rig like that, but I'd hate to give Bradshaw any money after the horror stories I've heard...Thanks

 

[Zachman]

Zachman...can you give a brief rundown of your basic sounds ? (What does what) eg...Atomica for dirty rhythm, Fender Super Reverb for clean, Mesa for solos, etc... I'd really like a rig like that, but I'd hate to give Bradshaw any money after the horror stories I've heard...Thanks

I use a Fender Super Reverb for cleans Rhythms and Leads. The Boogie MKIII Coliseum for 3 different sounds (Rhythm 2= Crunch like- Journey's Lights tone, OR w/ a Boost on the R2 channel for a pseudo Andy Timmons thing, and the Lead Drive channel for Solos). I use the Atomica for a VH, Nuno, Gary Moore thing-- rhythm and leads. and the 4th amp will vary (Depends on my mood-- could be JTM45/100, Cameron modded Marshall SLP, Vox etc...)

 

[rocknrolla]

Good god some of you guys have too much bloody money!!!

I used to play a Triaxis/2:90 rig with a G major II but I was tweaking tones more than I was playing and I rarely need more than 2-3 channels so I went with a head.

 

[paulyc]

Zach...which piece in your rack does the amp switching ? Is it CAE or something else ? I don't see any speaker simulators or load boxes in there anywhere...is there a cab for each head ? and then cabs for effects ? I know it would be a PITA, but could you give a detailed description of your setup and all the tones you cover ? Anyway to do that with an RSB18R and RSB18F ? Thanks !

 

[Mudder]

I dabble with a small rack setup to help abate amp gas. Juice goose, GSP1101 c63, Peavey classic 60/60. Nothing fancy, sounds great.

 

[Zachman]

Zach...which piece in your rack does the amp switching ? Is it CAE or something else ? I don't see any speaker simulators or load boxes in there anywhere...is there a cab for each head ? and then cabs for effects ? I know it would be a PITA, but could you give a detailed description of your setup and all the tones you cover ? Anyway to do that with an RSB18R and RSB18F ? Thanks !

The Amp Selector (CAE V.1), is on the very bottom of the rack, seated under the Switcher/Interface-- and provides a load on the UN-selected amps, w/ individual Line level controls for each amp. Each amp is routed to the same middle Dry cabinet, so ONLY 1 amp at a time can be active. If I want to run a stereo rig (No, middle Dry cab), then I connect a Hotplate between the Amp Selector and the DRY speaker cab, and set it to load.

The setup is a WD/D/WD setup, which allows me to choose to put the Dry signal into the wet cabs or not, allowing W/D/W, or if I only use 1 wet Cab, then it's W/D, and/or WD/D. I used (3) 4x12 cabs loaded w/ Celestion/Hellatone G12-H30's.

The the RSB18R (R=Rack) (F=Foot Controller) is only a switchable patchbay. To do what I'm doing, you'd need to add a CAE or similarly spec'd Amp Selector-- there are only a few manufacturers producing them. CAE, Skrydstrup R&D, Egnater used to make one, and I believe Mark L makes a similar one for up to 3 amps... (Not sure on that).

I tend to use tones ranging from Vintage Classic Rock 60's/70's, to 80's Metal, to Fusion Jazz, Funk, R&B, Pop and Blues tones, ranging from BB King to Gary Moore. I designed this rig the way I did, because I wanted to be free to use a variety of different amps for my core sounds, but have a way to utilize my preferred studio quality rack gear, and classic & preferred pedals with whichever amp I selected (in Real time), while not destroying the fundamental Core amp sound, UNLESS wanting to do so intentionally- for affect.

Hope that helps,

Zach

 

[Shark Diver]

Good god some of you guys have too much bloody money!!!

I used to play a Triaxis/2:90 rig with a G major II but I was tweaking tones more than I was playing and I rarely need more than 2-3 channels so I went with a head.

Even though I have more gear than sense - I find myself leaning toward one or two basic tones with a head and a boost pedal more and more.

 

[Zachman]

Good god some of you guys have too much bloody money!!!

I used to play a Triaxis/2:90 rig with a G major II but I was tweaking tones more than I was playing and I rarely need more than 2-3 channels so I went with a head.

In my case, I've accumulated gear over Many years-- working toward a goal, using most of the same stuff in various configurations-- leading up to the final frontier (for me). So, the amount of gear isn't reflective of having a bunch of, or too much (as if there were such a thing)-- money.

 

[IntenseJim]

Good god some of you guys have too much bloody money!!!

I used to play a Triaxis/2:90 rig with a G major II but I was tweaking tones more than I was playing and I rarely need more than 2-3 channels so I went with a head.

Even though I have more gear than sense - I find myself leaning toward one or two basic tones with a head and a boost pedal more and more.

I resemble that remark too. This is getting redundant.

Shark, the Soldano X88r into the VHT 2150 with the power amp voice switch pushed IN sounds like amazzzzzzzzzzing!!!

 

[Shark Diver]

Good god some of you guys have too much bloody money!!!

I used to play a Triaxis/2:90 rig with a G major II but I was tweaking tones more than I was playing and I rarely need more than 2-3 channels so I went with a head.

Even though I have more gear than sense - I find myself leaning toward one or two basic tones with a head and a boost pedal more and more.

I resemble that remark too. This is getting redundant.

Shark, the Soldano X88r into the VHT 2150 with the power amp voice switch pushed IN sounds like amazzzzzzzzzzing!!!

Yeah, that was hard to give up. I like(d) it much more than the X99s. Remember I have dibs,