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I figured you people would be interested. My band Fools Faith played at The Legends Rock Bar this past Saturday. There were 3 bands. The gig was great but thats another story. I want to talk about the guitar rigs and how they sounded.
1st up was a guy with a B52 head and 4 x 12 cabinet. He was running a Zoom G7 MFX through the effects return from his amp. His guitar was an Epi Les paul.
He had outstanding clean tone. His high gain tone was very Godsmack sounding. A little too much ice pick. It almost hurt my ears. It did sound good though and if you are looking for that kind of tone you could get it with that combination. The Zoom handled everything from his wah to his solo boost. The B52 just powered it. It did a fine job and I was pretty impressed. It sounded like a modeler though but that wasn't a bad thing. He was mic'd with 1 SM57.
One thing I noticed about his overall tone was he had a fantastic tone for palm muting. You could feel it in your chest. I believe he was in drop d all night. And again.. he had an extremely good clean tone. I don't know if it was a factory Zoom preset or one that he built himself but I will tell you it was really good.
Next up was a guy with the craziest set up I have seen live to date. Lets figure this out...
Fender Rockpro 1000 head sitting on top of a
Vox 2 x 12 cabinet that was sitting on top of a
Carvin 4 x 12 cabinet
Next to that was a Peavey 2 x 12 combo turned up on its side (it looked like an old school Renown). Both the Carvin and the Peavey were mic'd.
This entire rig was plugged into a pedal board that took 2 guys to carry in.
The pedal board had a POD XT Live (could have been a POD X3 Live), he had 3 large Erney Ball volume pedals mounted next to it along with a Morley Bad Horsie. There was also a large power supply and another large box which I think might have been a Harmonic Converger. He as playing a really nice Music Man guitar with that Wolfgang 4 x 2 headstock . His tone was fantastic. He hardly tap danced at all and controlled most of his tone through his guitar volume and pickup selector.
He used the wah for almost every solo and fill but very tasteful.
This rig was able to go from crystal clean to a mild blues to a rock crunch to an all out shred fest gain with nothing but the guitar volume control. His overally tone was extremely balanced, very toneful and extremely easy to listen to all night long. When I saw all the mix of guitar gear when the band first got there I thought.. jeez.. this is gonna sound like canned ass. I also thought it would take him an hour to set it up. Wrong on both counts. He set up in 15 minutes and it sounded really good.
I played a Carvin Legacy thru a Marshall bottom loaded with T75's. For effects I had a delay, chorus and volume pedal in the loop and a stock Crybaby out in front. I dial the gain on the Legacy back to around 7 with the rest of the EQ set on basic settings. I use very little delay, I only use the chorus for 2 songs and I use the Lil Alligator volume pedal for solo boost. Its a basic rig and it sounds really good. I consider it a solid sound. I never had the amp above 3.5.
It just goes to show you.. there is room for all kinds of live guitar rigs.
If I had to choose a guitar tone winner.. I would give it to the guy with the POD although my band got the overwhelming response from the crowd and most people there (including the other bands) treated me like I was some kind of guitar hero. I attribute that to the fact that I am old enough to be their father and I am still fighting the good fight.
If you ever get a chance.. check out White Rose Confession. They were one of the bands we played with. They are a very good 3 piece original act. The bass player can sing his ass off. The guitar player is the one with that crazy rig I talked about. The band that opened the night was Name In Vain. They had a heavy Godsmack influence and were a great bunch of guys.
1st up was a guy with a B52 head and 4 x 12 cabinet. He was running a Zoom G7 MFX through the effects return from his amp. His guitar was an Epi Les paul.
He had outstanding clean tone. His high gain tone was very Godsmack sounding. A little too much ice pick. It almost hurt my ears. It did sound good though and if you are looking for that kind of tone you could get it with that combination. The Zoom handled everything from his wah to his solo boost. The B52 just powered it. It did a fine job and I was pretty impressed. It sounded like a modeler though but that wasn't a bad thing. He was mic'd with 1 SM57.
One thing I noticed about his overall tone was he had a fantastic tone for palm muting. You could feel it in your chest. I believe he was in drop d all night. And again.. he had an extremely good clean tone. I don't know if it was a factory Zoom preset or one that he built himself but I will tell you it was really good.
Next up was a guy with the craziest set up I have seen live to date. Lets figure this out...
Fender Rockpro 1000 head sitting on top of a
Vox 2 x 12 cabinet that was sitting on top of a
Carvin 4 x 12 cabinet
Next to that was a Peavey 2 x 12 combo turned up on its side (it looked like an old school Renown). Both the Carvin and the Peavey were mic'd.
This entire rig was plugged into a pedal board that took 2 guys to carry in.
The pedal board had a POD XT Live (could have been a POD X3 Live), he had 3 large Erney Ball volume pedals mounted next to it along with a Morley Bad Horsie. There was also a large power supply and another large box which I think might have been a Harmonic Converger. He as playing a really nice Music Man guitar with that Wolfgang 4 x 2 headstock . His tone was fantastic. He hardly tap danced at all and controlled most of his tone through his guitar volume and pickup selector.
He used the wah for almost every solo and fill but very tasteful.
This rig was able to go from crystal clean to a mild blues to a rock crunch to an all out shred fest gain with nothing but the guitar volume control. His overally tone was extremely balanced, very toneful and extremely easy to listen to all night long. When I saw all the mix of guitar gear when the band first got there I thought.. jeez.. this is gonna sound like canned ass. I also thought it would take him an hour to set it up. Wrong on both counts. He set up in 15 minutes and it sounded really good.
I played a Carvin Legacy thru a Marshall bottom loaded with T75's. For effects I had a delay, chorus and volume pedal in the loop and a stock Crybaby out in front. I dial the gain on the Legacy back to around 7 with the rest of the EQ set on basic settings. I use very little delay, I only use the chorus for 2 songs and I use the Lil Alligator volume pedal for solo boost. Its a basic rig and it sounds really good. I consider it a solid sound. I never had the amp above 3.5.
It just goes to show you.. there is room for all kinds of live guitar rigs.
If I had to choose a guitar tone winner.. I would give it to the guy with the POD although my band got the overwhelming response from the crowd and most people there (including the other bands) treated me like I was some kind of guitar hero. I attribute that to the fact that I am old enough to be their father and I am still fighting the good fight.
If you ever get a chance.. check out White Rose Confession. They were one of the bands we played with. They are a very good 3 piece original act. The bass player can sing his ass off. The guitar player is the one with that crazy rig I talked about. The band that opened the night was Name In Vain. They had a heavy Godsmack influence and were a great bunch of guys.
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