Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

from guitar to amp:

30 year old DOD Analog Delay 680
DigiTech Whammy
Boss Digital Delay
Fender Blender fuzz
DigiTech Death Metal distortion
DOD Overdrive PLus
Danelectro Milkshake chorus

...on Bass.

you may laugh at some of these but i've probably spent less money on these than most other people with "good" equipment have on theirs.

from guitar to amp


Digitech Death Metal Distortion
Digitech Digital Delay
Effects Loop: MXR KFK 10 band EQ (though i selmd use it)


from bass to amp

Danelectro Black Paisley Liquid Metal Distortion

you may laugh at some of these but i've probably spent less money on these than most other people with "good" equipment have on theirs.

I'm the same way.

I have a Crate Powerblock with a Legion 2x12 cab, and use the Digitech Death Metal Distortion. I'm mainly straight up distortion, the digtech delay I use for plenty solos and almost all accoustic stuff I do.

It annoys me when people say its "toneless" or "bad". It's just a single channel head.

I dont need a $300+ head or amp with all these effects. I dont need tubes. As long as I get great sound with great distortion, I'm fine.

Also the Crate Powerblock gets really bassy with the cab that I use. the bass on the head is about 4/10, the distortion is about half to a little less than 3/4 of the way.

totaly, man. i have some expensive stuff that sounds really great, but i can totally get by with cheap stuff too. i have an SWR 4x10 and a Hartke 4x10. the SWR was $700 and the Hartke was $300 and the Hartke sounds just as good to me!

when it comes to pedals, i'm not paying more than $80 bucks for something i'm going to be stepping on, with some exeptions(i.e. Fender Blender, Whammy).

Exactly!


Ive a 2x12 cab (in which the Crate and the 2x12 is my first "quarterstack" though as powerful as a halfstack) it says that the power rating is 170 watts. it sounds real loud, and real good to me, though i dont turn it up past halfway.

the cab is also very, very dark sounding, very bassy. to me, its an all over amp.

I mainly play Heavy Black Metal, kinda slowish-groovy beats and guitars, theres barely any blastbeats that I use. Not the Norweigen black metal stuff like emperor and dimmu booger.

anyways totally out of the question



that cab cost me 130 bucks! I wanted to get a halfstack but I ony had like 140 at the time and the halfstack was, including shipping, like between 215 and 225. The best 140 I ever spent (other then my drum machine which cost 155, and the powerblock I got for my bday of '05)

Same with my 4 Track Analog recorder, The line out from my power block to the 4 track REALLY makes it sound like im playing through my amp mic'ed up.



It really pisses me off when people say that low priced guitars and basses are the worst cause of their low price, or that its not a "real" fender.

You seriously dont need the highest end equipment to be the best sounding guitarist/bassist/what have you, you can have the cheapest guitar,bass, vocal mic, you just need how to use em right, and low priced guitars and basses I really like cause I can upgrade their pick ups, tuners and just recently I repainted my BC Rich V to a flat black color.

also my most expensive pedals were the Digitech Digital Delay (I got a discount that came up to 81 bucks, thats INCLUDING a 6 foot cable though i forgot the price and a 25$ gift card) and the MXR KFK EQ, which was good cause it was on sale for $100 free shipping of music123 as opposed to like 140 (which is lame cause theyve the same pedal i believe for around $100, its only super high priced cause kerry king is a sellout, anything with anybodies name on it seems like IT SHOULD be overpriced.

i don't know ive you'v ever heard of the band Big Business. they are a bass/drum duo that plays basically metal stuff. anyways, i saw them with the Melvins last year and the bassist, Jared of Big Biz, was rocking two Squire jazz basses with no nobs and ugly paint jobs. i talked to him before the show and asked him what pedals he used and since i was right in front of him while they played i saw his Korg Toneworks bass processor which he only uses for distortion, and they cost about 40 bucks.

the point of this story is that he uses cheap basses and effects but sound f---ing HUGE! i'm talking massively destructive while still sounding very good, not incomprehensable. he played through Sunn O))) cabs and heads and he had an Orange cab and GK head, but still.

your right about the fact that cheaper guitars, amps, etc can sond great depending on how you play them.

my DOD Overdrive Plus was 30 bucks used just sitting inside of a cardboard box at a guitar shop for who knows how long and i love it! it sucks the low-end really badly and has a crap-load of gain so instead of using it contantly, i use it as a gain boost when i want more crunch from my fuzz. i play bass with a slide too so the intensely loud feedbacking cruchiness from the DOD sounds killer with steel slide!

i would love to get a really cheep bass and install new pickups and re-wire it and all that. it's way cheaper doing it to a less-expensive guitar and if you mess it up, at least you only spent $100 intead of $1000!

i've always wanted to get an Epiphone SG copy and fix it up like Mike Watt (Minutemen) did with his Gibson EB-3. he installed two active EMG humbuckers and a distorion nob! A DISTORTION NOB! it's just this huge nob that goes from 0-10, 0 being no distortion att all and 10 being really crunchy and fuzzed out. do that with an Epiphone, we're talking a total of maybe 400-500 bucks!

nah, i aint never heard of Big Business, though its very interesting that its only bass and drums, im intrigued. hell yeah that itll sound really good, ive seen those Sunn O))) bass cabs those things are really interestingly made. And thats real kick ass that its destructive sounding whilst being comprehensable.

and bass with slide?!

thats outrageously unique!!

you can get a cheap bass for at least $100, maybe even lower, get new pick ups, and maybe even install the pickups yourself. I've re-wired my guitar and my past guitars countlessly, I now only have a single volume and a 3 way switch. But Ive never re-wired a bass before, though it should be similar to a guitars wiring cause my brothers tone and blending knobs on his bass produce a real annoying buzz when both turned counter clockwise. If you know how to wire em, youll be fine, but you can spend like 10 to 30 bucks getting em installed by a guitar shop.

and that distortion knob, I probably wouldnt mind have THAT!

I LOVE OVER THE TOP DISTORTION
I LOVE BEING MUDDY
I LOVE TO HEAR MY SOLOS LOUD, CLEAR, AND LOADS OF SUSTAIN!!

I hate it so much when people are against total distortion, ESPECIALLY those faggots on the Ultimate-guitar forums.

If you ever on that site, All those kids ever talk about is how theyre new Gibson special edition sounds great with their new vintage Marshall. its f**k stupid, when Gibson has HUMBUCKERS WITH DISTORTION and MARSHALL IS KNOWN FOR THEIR DISTORTION AND THOSE KIDS HATE DISTORTION IN GENERAL!!

I was looking at their review of the Line6 Uber Metal (which is a real good pedal) SO MANY people said that "youre an idiot of the distortion is at its max",

I have the Dimarzio X2N I put in the bridge of my V (which is Dimarzios Highest Gain pickup), When I plug it into that particular pedal, the most gain it has is around 5-7 out of 10. Those dumbass kids dont know theyre electronics and specifications


Anyways totally out of place.

Its kick ass that youve very unique playing styles to your bassing abilities!!

well check out these bands. i promise you'll like them:

Lightning Bolt (bass and drum, really f--0ing loud!)

Big Business

the Melvins (they onces had a bassist who played qith a slide)

Sunn O))) (two guiatrists. that's it. drop A. SUPER HEAVY and slow. yes, named after the amps they use. ha ha ha. really.)

Harvey Milk (sh*t loads of distortion, real heavy

From guitar to amp


Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Boss TU 2 Tuner
Boss CE3 Stereo Chorus
Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Boss NS-2 Nois Suppresor
Marshall Echohead Delay

Amplification: Marshall JCM 800 2210 head & George Dennis Blue 4x12 cab
Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Classic, Peavey HP EXP signature fitted with SD JBs
and a 72 Fender Strat fitted at the bridge with a Kent Armstrong Hot blade

Guitar to Amp:

Rocktek Flanger
Danecho

then into my Spider III 75HD, which takes care of the distortion rather nicely.

Cab is an Ibanez 4X12.

I may not be shaking places to the foundations, but it gets the job done.

Guitars: Ibanez Artist 250, ESP LTD custom, Squire Bullet hardtail, cheap azzed walmart tele clone

For my guitars I've got - a Vox wah wah pedal, a Marshal Jackhammer, a Marshal Echohead and I borrow an MXR Phase 100 and a Watkins Copycat off my dad. I also use the Echohead on my theremin, and the phaser and Jackhammer on my basses.

Fender Jazz USA Deluxe 5 goes straight to a Genz Benz GBE750 head.

The GBE750 has two channels with individual effects loops.

FET channel loop: Send > Boss TU2 tuner > Digitech Bass Autowah > Digitech Bass Overdrive/Distortion > Digitech Bass Chorus > Digitech Digidelay > Digitech Digiverb > Bespeco volume pedal (nice for turning all fx off at once & blending) > Return.

I'm not endorsed by Digitech or anything, just figured all their pedals look nice together. Definitely in the market for a better distortion tho at least...

Tube channel loop sends to a Tech21 Bass Compressor & back. I like to have the tone of the guitar coming through, albeit with slight compression, as well as the effected signal. Keeps everything nice & solid when using effects that weaken your bottom end.

I use Genz Benz Live 4x10 & 1x15 for cabs. Again, not endorsed or anything, but I was offered a £2K rig for £1K...

All my effects are on a single board which comprises a little Behringer minimixer too. If playing thru someone else's rig, with less effect loops, I don't want to sacrifice that two signal sound. I hook the compressor into the second out on the TU2 to split the signal, then join them back up at the mixer, sending both to the amp. I can balance wet & dry signals with the mixer.

Quite a geeky set up but I love it, & it's always a conversation piece if nothing else...

I've been playing blues for over 35 years. My setup is:

Guitar: G&L Legacy strat

Effects (on pedalboard w/ OneSpot PS) from guitar>amp:

Crybaby classic wah

MXR DynaComp compressor

Rocktron Austin Gold overdrive

DOD FX-40B EQ

Boss TU-12H tuner

Rocktron Short Timer Delay (200-400ms)

Rocktron Tsunami Chorus/Ambient Delay

The stereo outs from the Rocktron Chorus/Delay feeds:

EDIT '67 Blackface Fender Princeton Reverb EDIT

I've switched from the Princeton (still have it) to using an all-tube mid-'80s era Seymour Duncan 84-40 1-12 combo with 4-EL84's in the output stage. Much better match both power and tone-wise, as the Duncan uses the same power tubes as the Stromberg. The Duncan has an overdrive channel, but I keep it on the clean channel where it sounds fantastic. The overdrive channel isn't all that great, but the clean channel overdriven with the Rocktron Austin Gold is awesome...very SRV-like tone. The reverb is ok, but has a very narrow sweet-spot.

AND

Modded (by me) Stromberg-Carlson Signet 22 (two EL84s cathode-biased w/tube rectifier) through a custom 2-12" cab.

This is one sweet small-medium club rig. I run the "wet" side of the chorus/delay into the Stromberg, since the Fender has (gasp) reverb!

The Stromberg is circuit-wise very similar to (even moreso after mods), and sounds much like a Marshall model 1974 18W combo, only with 2 12"s to push a bit more air for stage volume. The combination of the spanky Princeton and the more "brown"-sounding Stromberg sounds very sweet, fat with excellent definition and can be pushed hard enough to bring out the power-tube goodness without washing out the mix. Both amps are mic'ed onstage.

I generally use the FX-40B EQ pedal as a flat boost for either clean or dirty solos. The ability to roll off some lows or highs with the EQ lets me tailor the solo/boost EQ for the particular room acoustics, while keeping the rhythm EQ optimised.

Guitar (Les Paul, Strat, Charvel)

Crybaby Wah
Korg dt 1000 tuner

This goes into the input of my Boogie Lonestar so that i can use the amps tone pre effects. Then out the effects loop into a old digitech gsp 2101 rack mount processor used for chorus, flange, eq's, harmonising and whammy effects. Back to the return loop.

On occasion I'll run stereo using a 5150 by setting the Digitech to run in stereo and connecting the left channel to a 5150 and the right to the boogie's effects return.

Effects control is via a Behringer fc1010 controller which also controls the amps channel switching and boost.

I use this setup because the boogie has a much "sweeter" distortion than the digitech's pre amp. Plus, i can "dial in" my tones at home, save them into the processor memory and recall the sounds live with no effort.
I used to have a gaggle of stomp boxes, but got tired of doing a tap dance to get my tones. That and trying to turn those lil knobs in the dark is not easy for a 40 year old fat guy! (lol)

Vox Tonelab SE (does everything I need)
Boss Mt-2 Metal