frequently i find myself checking ebay and craigslist looking for deals on gear. it's so much fun but it's an exercise in futility because i always catch myself looking at things i can't afford. news flash people. just because you play in a band doesn't mean you're rich. i've had a few people approach me about investment opportunities before. one time a guy wanted me to invest $100,000 into a business. i'm like, good lord, what kind of money do you think i make???? anyway, a few days ago i posted a gear blog. today we played a show with Third Day and i saw some gear i wanted. well, not the exact gear. i'd use some different pedals, rack FX and maybe a different switching system. but the idea is good. their guitar setup is some next level stuff and i can't wait till i get there. so basically i'm drooling over stuff i can't have yet. here's the details:
here's the rack. they're on a custom switching system made by Bradshaw. if you don't know what those are, here's a quick tutorial: pedals sound good, but there's no easy way to hit one button to switch them all or to change settings. you could get one of those digital multieffects units, but the quality of the effects usually sucks. distortion is an analog phenomenon that digital just hasn't gotten right yet. the whole point of the switch system is to have a central unit that you plug each individual effect into and then a foot controller pedalboard. you can program the pedalboard however you want so that one push of a button can change every effect. it looks like this:
the buttons on that pedalboard are extremely versatile. you can program it with multiple "scenes" that change some or all of the pedals with one click. there are a few points in our set where i have to hit two or three pedals very quickly in order to get set for the next part of the song. there are also dedicated buttons for each pedal just in case you want to turn one pedal off on the fly.
their system has a true audio send and return for the volume pedal and two tap-tempo switchs for real time tempo adjustments on the effects if needed. and of course a tuner output. this whole system is designed to give the best of both worlds - the true tone and tactile surface of analog pedals with the power and convenience of digital switching. and it can do more than that...
at the top of the rack are the effects processors for delays, echoes, tremolo, mod FX, etc... the green one is the expanded rack version of the same pedal i have, the Line 6 DL-4. the blue one is the line 6 unit that has all the modulation effects. also notice the echoplex module at the top. all of these have lots of banks to store settings. they can be changed by what's called MIDI program changes. i won't go into what that entails, but what's cool is that the switching system is capable of sending those program changes. so basically a single push will change which pedals are on/off, and send program changes to MIDI devices. imagine having the perfect delay time and setting for each section of each song.
at the bottom of the rack we have the actual switching units. the pedalboard unit connects to this. they juggle multiple audio loops that you can turn on and off and route at will. they support multiple amp outputs so that you can run one or many amps at the same time. they will event send polarity switching signals to change the channel on the amp. so basically, you can have your cake and eat it too. the best of both worlds. you can use the pedals you love and have the flexibility to recall hundreds of settings at the touch of a button.
could i afford this? well, maybe. VooDoo labs has their GCX switcher and Ground Control Pro. Rocktron has their Patchmate and All Access control board and both aren't terribly expensive. the problem is in the logistics. we still do a LOT of fly dates and it would just cost too much to bring all this stuff on the plane. a lot of the headliners will send all their gear in a box truck or semi even when they do fly dates. eventually when we get to that point i'll be able to get the rig i want. more toys. of course by then i'm sure there's probably going to be something way cooler that i want. it's never enough, so i try to be content with what i have. for now my pedalboard is fairly simple. i only have three delay settings so i have to approximate the right delay times so it will work with multiple songs. and of course i still have to do some pedal dancing. blah. ok, that's enough salivating for now. i'm going to go watch third day's set. bye.
here's the rack. they're on a custom switching system made by Bradshaw. if you don't know what those are, here's a quick tutorial: pedals sound good, but there's no easy way to hit one button to switch them all or to change settings. you could get one of those digital multieffects units, but the quality of the effects usually sucks. distortion is an analog phenomenon that digital just hasn't gotten right yet. the whole point of the switch system is to have a central unit that you plug each individual effect into and then a foot controller pedalboard. you can program the pedalboard however you want so that one push of a button can change every effect. it looks like this:
the buttons on that pedalboard are extremely versatile. you can program it with multiple "scenes" that change some or all of the pedals with one click. there are a few points in our set where i have to hit two or three pedals very quickly in order to get set for the next part of the song. there are also dedicated buttons for each pedal just in case you want to turn one pedal off on the fly.
their system has a true audio send and return for the volume pedal and two tap-tempo switchs for real time tempo adjustments on the effects if needed. and of course a tuner output. this whole system is designed to give the best of both worlds - the true tone and tactile surface of analog pedals with the power and convenience of digital switching. and it can do more than that...
at the top of the rack are the effects processors for delays, echoes, tremolo, mod FX, etc... the green one is the expanded rack version of the same pedal i have, the Line 6 DL-4. the blue one is the line 6 unit that has all the modulation effects. also notice the echoplex module at the top. all of these have lots of banks to store settings. they can be changed by what's called MIDI program changes. i won't go into what that entails, but what's cool is that the switching system is capable of sending those program changes. so basically a single push will change which pedals are on/off, and send program changes to MIDI devices. imagine having the perfect delay time and setting for each section of each song.
at the bottom of the rack we have the actual switching units. the pedalboard unit connects to this. they juggle multiple audio loops that you can turn on and off and route at will. they support multiple amp outputs so that you can run one or many amps at the same time. they will event send polarity switching signals to change the channel on the amp. so basically, you can have your cake and eat it too. the best of both worlds. you can use the pedals you love and have the flexibility to recall hundreds of settings at the touch of a button.
could i afford this? well, maybe. VooDoo labs has their GCX switcher and Ground Control Pro. Rocktron has their Patchmate and All Access control board and both aren't terribly expensive. the problem is in the logistics. we still do a LOT of fly dates and it would just cost too much to bring all this stuff on the plane. a lot of the headliners will send all their gear in a box truck or semi even when they do fly dates. eventually when we get to that point i'll be able to get the rig i want. more toys. of course by then i'm sure there's probably going to be something way cooler that i want. it's never enough, so i try to be content with what i have. for now my pedalboard is fairly simple. i only have three delay settings so i have to approximate the right delay times so it will work with multiple songs. and of course i still have to do some pedal dancing. blah. ok, that's enough salivating for now. i'm going to go watch third day's set. bye.
2 comments:
I must say, you are a guitarist after my own heart haha. I really do want to know what your take on the Diezel Einstein is? How versatile is it, how dependent are you with it's standard sound or is that what your pedals are for, etc. A blog explaining this would be cool ;)
well maybe not a blog, but i hope this is an answer to your question. i recently switched from a marshall jcm 900 to the diezel einstein. the einstein is a great head. really good quality distortion. you really hear the difference in the high mid range..somewhere around 5k. the low end is a bit touchy i always find myself juggling between the low knob and the deep knob. anyway, if you're going to buy a high end head, why use a pedal for distortion?? i have yet to find a distortion pedal that sounds better than actual distortion from a good quality tube head. although i will say that putting some sort of very light distortion in front of the head can really beef up the tone. but this isn't because of the distortion. it mainly has to do with the fact that you're hitting the front of the amp really hard. that's why i use that fulltone pedal. the gain setting is all the way down. i just use it to pump the level up and it adds some low end to the tone. a tube screamer with a very light distortion setting is good for this. also, try a blues driver. both work very well when you use them sparingly and in conjunction with a good head.
the diezel head has a very good clean tone. and i would probably use it, but it makes things a lot easier for our front of house mixer to have the separate amp. that way he can EQ the clean and the dirty separately and have their levels mixed separately. so even though i could use the clean tone, i don't. by using the fulltone pedal with it i have 2 levels of distortion. most of the time i have the fulltone on, but sometimes in the verse of a song if i need a milder distortion i'll turn it off....i do that in forward motion and phenomenon. and whenever we play what do we know and breathe you in, i only use the mild distortion because that's what the song calls for.
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