Guitar Rigs

[AciDBatH666]

This guitarist for this other band I was sharing a practice space with has this HUGE pedalboard. It's like 5-6 feet wide. He's got way too much crap on there. They play Southern Rock, so it's not like he needs to really have a wide array of sounds. I never understood why he didn't just get a processor and run that shit out of it. Hell, I had a Korg G-1 Distortion processor that had some decent effects with it. Dial in your distortion right, and add some banks that have the effects you want. Bam... Floor space? maybe 1 square foot. No need for all that other bullshit to lug around. Oh yeah, and with a noise gate.

If you're looking to get your distortion or sound from a pedal, just get any decent combo amp and use it as a power amp. That's what a lot of metal guys do.

[NoLifeLeft]

If you're looking to get your distortion or sound from a pedal, just get any decent combo amp and use it as a power amp. That's what a lot of metal guys do.

Yeah, I have a simple combo that is ok for that sort of use. This purchase will just be for those times when I'm longing for some warm clean tone or a little bluesy drive at most. My solid state combo isn't cutting it for that.

[Itchy]

a little bluesy drive

That's exactly what I was looking for when I got the Champ. When it got to me it was nice, but when I put the Rubys in it, it was perfect!

[Amateur]

Only disc golfers will try to minimalize their rig.

I play bass so minimalization went out the window, until I got my SansAmp. Now I heart my soundguy, and I get away with just bringing 2 cases to the show. I do bring my practice combo if the mains suck though. I still have a pretty beefy rig for practice, but good luck fitting that into my car.

Bass is so much easier to find a good tone than guitar. Even if you have great/terrible bass tone people won't notice. Thankfully my SansAmp sounds like an slightly overdriven SVT3.

[AciDBatH666]

I found it harder to get a GREAT bass tone than on guitar. On my old school guitar setup, I ran a Seymore Duncan Live wire and had a Korg G-1 Distortion processor. Damn thing was a wall of death.
With my bass setup, it took me a while to discover the Sansamp BDDI to give me a nice boosted gritty sound. I've got the Sansamp RBI in my rack, and I sold my Sansamp pedal since I'm running the rack setup now. The DI is awesome tho.
Only pedal I'm running now is an MXR M-80. That thing is pure nasty. It gives the gritty distortion that I can't get out of the Sansamp. It's very Meshuggah sounding.

I like both, but it took me several years to find that deep, ballsy, grinding distortion. It took a bit to get that mellow Fender Precision type of sound, but I managed to get it on my Charvel that I rebuilt when I added the EMG P/J setup.

[NoLifeLeft]

Only the financially challenged will try to minimalize their rig.

FTFY.

The only reason I'm not spending money hand over fist on my toys is that I just don't have it right now.

[jubuttib]

Only the financially challenged will try to minimalize their rig.

FTFY.

The only reason I'm not spending money hand over fist on my toys is that I just don't have it right now.

Very true. I have a shopping cart full of stuff waiting on Thomann.de all the time. JTV-89, GR-55GK, DT50 212, HD500 (around 3 843 € total), with an option for a VG-99 and a DT50 412 cab. That'd take care of my recording and messing around rig, then would come the Egnater, the custom shop Amfisound, the Ruokangas Hellcat (5 110 €) and Duke (8 200 €) for just playing...

One can dream.

[AciDBatH666]

If I wasn't spending money on my new motorcycle, I'd prolly be buying and trading bass gear.

[Amateur]

I found it harder to get a GREAT bass tone than on guitar.

IMO The hardest part about a great bass tone is cutting through the mix, which is never a problem for guitar.

[AciDBatH666]

Boost your mids. And more wattage never hurts. I've never had a problem with it.
But a lot of people scoop their mids when they play solo and it needs to be the opposite when you're with a guitarist.

[jubuttib]

Speaking of bass tone, how does one achieve that clangy, metallic, but not distorted sound heard on many metal albums? Is it more from the instrument or the amplifier?

[AciDBatH666]

A lot of that "clank" comes from having low action and pushing down really hard when you hit each note. It hits the frets and rebounds back. Cliff Burton was known for a lot of that. If you turn up your "Presence" (depending on the amp) it'll highlight those clanks and push them more towards the front of your sound.

[Amateur]

Or you can play with high action and a pick and just pick really hard. And boost your mids a lil.

[AciDBatH666]

Or you can play with high action and a pick and just pick really hard. And boost your mids a lil.

Lol. That's never going to give you the "Steve Harris" clank man. Not sure what you're thinking about, but that's like, a COMPLETE 180 from how to go about it. You need LOW LOW action and if you'd like to get rid of some of the buzz you need to get some flat wounds.
If you raise the action, the strings will rarely ever touch the fretboard on the downstroke. Which is where the clank comes from.

Once again, low action, and a hard attack from the fingers going downwards hitting the frets on your push.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f16/best- ... so-418592/

Any flat will clank with low action, and "proper" tenique. Chromes are pretty bright and Rotos are too.

+1 , low action will get you that clank, Rotos or Chromes are probably your best bet for that type of sound and get a set in a light gauge as this will help as well. I know what you mean about flats , they have a different type of clank to rounds

There's a lot more info in there. Just search for Metal, clank, steve harris, or any other cluster of terms and you're bound to find tons of info on it.

[jubuttib]

Low action suits me just fine, coming from a guitar background, and it is pretty low as it is, but I'm going to have to stick to using a pick unless the band takes a hiatus of about 4 years (might be just enough time to learn fast enough finger technique ).

Flatwounds eh? My current strings are 4 (or maybe 6...) years old already, maybe it's time for a new set... =)

Though I seem to remember a gig where in one song the clank was there, and in the next one it was totally gone. The player didn't change gear between songs, just fiddled with the knobs somewhat.

Eh, might as well start fiddling around with my gear more...