Basic Live setup............

Dioxide

Dioxide

New member
I'm looking at getting a whole new live set up, cab, head, rack effects, the whole deal. I play a lead / rythm (ie Tool, Deftones) but dont really use many effects, (if any) maybe a bit of delay. What products would you suggest as a solid yet basic setup for a live setup. All i have now is just a crappy head and half stack w/ a mt2 dist pedal, and would like to break out of the whole garageband setup onstage, theres just not enough clarity to my sound. Any help would be appreciated THANX
 
I use Ibanez guitars. And I like to spend as less as possible but i'm not looking for the bottom of the barrel products.
 
One option is to go to a Line 6 POD effects unit. It can feed an existing guitar amp, or a more standard power amp/speaker cab setup. Generaly the amp/cab works better.

You could get a floor controller like a Behringer FCB1010, and have all control at your feet for both vol, wah, and effects.

Ed
 
well as far a getting a good powerfull sound some one had mentioned getting a bbe sonic maximizer, worth it or no??? I dont think i want to get a head w/ a bunch of crap built in but rather would like to have a rack system that can really go the extra mile.
 
I'd say that all you need is a Peavey 5150II head and a Marshall 4X12. All you need is a good Tube Amp and maybe a reverb pedal to give you a bit more depth. I've been from setup to setup and my current one is the best, it consists of what i have above, a 5150II and a Marshall 4X12 with a Holier Grail in the FX loop. Simple setups are the key to live sound. I used to have a huge rack box with a Compressor, a dual 31 band EQ, a Psychoacoustic enhancer and all other pointless crap. All it does is add noise to your signal and makes trouble shooting when something goes wrong even longer. The only other thing im contemplating getting is a Marshall EL34 100/100 Power amp to slave the 5150II preamp output with.
 
Are there any rack processors out there that have a decent cab simulation to them? I'd like to use that for scratch tracks instead of just using a line out, it distorts way too much for even the drummer to hear.
 
Pod Pro is pretty much your best bet. ALthough modern day day Preamp out's are decent enough to use for a guide track.
 
Whats the opinion w/ Carvins products. Checked em out on the web and they seem reasonably priced. My rythm guitarist uses their tube amp and I like the sound he gets. But im looking at more of the solid state heads equiped with tube emulators. (because im a cheap ass and cant afford to buy replacement tubes.)
 
Out of the nine guitars I currently own my fav are my two ibanezes. They rock! As far as effects goes I still really like my quadaverb gt. Its given me years of great service although I think there are now better reverbs out there but the chours, flange, and delay are great. You do have to tweak it. As far as playing live goes...still working on that myself... I like my ampeg ss150 solid state but it's not 100% of the sound I'm looking for. It has a great clean channel and a good dist/overdrive sound but I'm (was now drifting toward more jazzy stuff) looking for a polished even overdriven 80's sound.
 
i really love the huge sound of my setup

i play gibson sg thru a marshall jmp-1 preamp
i use overdrive 1 on it, little eq to taste...
then i run that in stereo to a mesa boogie 50/50 power amp

then i run that out, two channels, into one marshall 4x12 1960a cabinet

so that 50 watts are pushing thru 2 spakers
then 50 more thru the other two
sounds tremendous
 
I guess I should ask if there was anything That would be a must have in a rack what would it be and why? I've never bought any rack equipment so I'm just venturing into this. Like I've said before I use Ibanez Guitars and play a somewhat heavy style in music , basicly I'm looking for a really gutteral sound.
 
Don´t know about FX and all, but the most important question is:how big venues are you going to play at? I know some people think that there is no such thing as "too big", but a 100w head and 4x12 is going to be a pain in the butt in all but the largest arenas. You won´t be able to crank it up "properly" in small clubs. You´ll just get constant nagging from all sound guys and your bandmates and you´ll break your back hauling your gear around to boot.

And while that "gutteral" sound may be impressive when you play alone, it may not be at all appropriate in live situations. In my experience (both onstage and behind the mixing desk) it´s better to leave the low stuff to the bass.

Just my 2 cents.
 
By gutteral i don't really need all the bass but I more or less am looking for a sound that s more or less like chewing on rocks, Ie Slipknot , Meshuggah, and I cant believe i'm even saying it, Korn (ok now I feel dirty) I carry around a head and cab already wich is no big deal to me, cause some of these places don't ever throw the guitar into the monitors for my drummer so we put it more or less back by him. Im just trying to tighten that sound up & make it a little more clarified and not just a slew of strings that no one can tell what your playing.
 
I would definitely not recommend Carvin. We use a Carvin PA, and our bass player has 2 Carvin bass amps. One of them just up & blew itself up (power amp & speakers) for no reason. Carvin was no help. I'm not crazy about the sound quality of PA or amps. PA picks up tons of RFI. Great guitars, but stay away from the electronics.
 
So pretty much just stick w/ good ol' Marshall, I have a Crate right now and you don't have to tell me how much it sucks ass, but when you don't have much money and it's on sale at the pawn shop you don't just pass it up i've had it for like 6 years now. I'm not saying it hasn't been good to me but its about had it's time, lets just move on. I'd rather buy a new system, than sink money into repairs. Which is pretty much why I started this thread in the first place.
 
One trick you don't hear mentioned too often is the use of a pitch transposer down an octave on electric guitar.

This is useful for making a distorted single coil guitar (say Fender stratocaster) sound more like a humbucker (say Gibson Les Paul), and makes a humbucker sound thunderous.

The Lexicon MPX series has such a pitch transposer - so guitar into distortion pedal into Lexicon MPX550 (with transpose set an octave down) into any decent amp would be worth exploring.

I've digitally recorded guitar (minus amp) this way, and it sounds great for metal / punk etc.
 
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