The goal behind continuously building and reforming my guitar rig has always boiled down to this goal of being able to make a guitar sound as many different ways as possible.
With the addition of my latest components, I'm finding it harder to feel the need for "something else". The sonic possibilities are getting more expansive, and finding the edges of this expanse of tone creation options is becoming increasingly difficult.
The latest iteration of my guitar rig, now includes five different guitar preamps, two compressors, a graphic EQ, six signal processors, and three 12" speakers, each with a pair of octal-base vacuum tubes powering them.
Drive Components
- Bogner Ecstasy Blue. Used as either booster for the tube preamps, or for mid-gain scooped overdrive on it's own.
- A/DA MP2. High tech controls over a two 12AX7 tubes. 4-band passive and 9-band graphic. Incredible tone from Vox and Fender cleans to ridiculous high-gain.
- Soldano SP77. Two channels of pristine tone. Cleans have an amazing brightness and attack. Lead channel has more gain than one could ever need, amazing definition all the way into searing high gain territory.
- Rex 601 Preamp
- Lexicon MPX-G2 Analog Gain Stage.
Dynamics Components
- dbx 166XL
- Diamond Compressor pedal
- DOD 15-channel graphic EQ
Digital Processors & Analog Effects
- Lexicon MPX-G2. Guitar is plugged into a Lexicon MPX-G2. Any number of effects within the G2 can be added to the signal and then fed into the G2 gain circuit (Various types of solid-state gain or boosting is applied optionally).
- TC Electronics G-Major 2.
- Lexicon Vortex. More elaborate chorus and delay processing.
- Strymon TimeLine Digital Delay. More elaborate delay and echo effects.
- Lexicon MPX-550 Digital Reverb
- Empress Phaser Pedal. Analog phaser with various options for expression pedal control.
Signal Routing and Switching
- Radial TwinCity ABY pedal.
- Rocktron Patchmate (1991). MIDI-controlled Switcher with 9 Stereo configurable loops.
- Behringer 16-Channel Stereo line mixer
Amplification
- VHT 2/50/2, producing 62 watts of power per channel in stereo
- Mesa/Celestion V30 speakers located left and right and a Mesa/Celestion C90 speaker in the center.
Performance Control
Controlling this system is done through MIDI control from a Lexicon MPX-R1 foot controller, and switching via the Rocktron Patchmate.
Here is a list of controls:
- Compressor, Bogner Blue, Empress Phaser Loop,Selection of ADA or Solano preamp are all done via switching loops in and out via the Patchmate.
- Soldano SP77 channel via a Patchmate loop used as a latched switch
- ADA Patch Selection: MIDI
- MPX-G2:
- Patch selection: MIDI
- Effect Bypassing: MIDI. Bypass CC#s are programmable.
- All other effects are set to 100% mix, and have a split input feed after the preamps and MPX-G2. They are switched on and off via Patchmate send switching:
- TC GMajor2
- Strymon TimeLine
- Patch Control: MIDI
- Bypass: MIDI CC102
- Issues: Effects parameters use a very large amount of Continuous Controllers which require the TimeLine to be on it's own MIDI channel, however this does not allow it to read MIDI time clock from the MPX-G2.
- Lexicon Vortex. No patch selection.
- Lexicon MPX550:
- Patch Control: MIDI
- Issues: All user patches start at 250, so you cannot change patches to match the patch numbers of other devices.
- The outputs of the main signal path and each effects processor are all mixed in the Behringer mixer and output to the stereo mix. Using the Aux send on the mixer allows you to create a specific dry center channel for the "dry" output.
Results
The finished product of this monster rack is basically limitless guitar tone creation. The first challenge is to avoid adding to much effects in to the mix, as you can quickly overpower the original guitar tone with the multitude of modulation, delay and reverb processes. I have quickly discovered that regardless of the ability to automate and control everything, the time it takes to create a patch across the system can be overwhelming.
Another criticism is that while many of the effects are amazing individually, once mixed into a larger soundscape, they lose their nuances. For example, the amazing tape delays from the Strymon Timeline lose all coherence once you mix in the subtle modulated delays of the Vortex. The other aspect is that I quickly discovered that units like the Gmajor2 duplicate so much of what the other gear does, and in my opinion - doesn't do it as well, so I ended up finding that it was sitting there never getting used (I guess I just a Lexicon guy).
While a lot of the processors duplicated each other, it was very quickly determined which ones were really "my sound"; which ones were very cool - but not easy to get results with; and which ones were just not my thing.
The Soldano quickly became my favourite for gain. The ADA just takes too much time to get the tone I'm looking for, and stacking the Bogner Blue in front of it made enough versatility to go anywhere.
The Lexicon MPX-G2 pretty much covers all of the other territory. It was lacking in two areas - processing power (when you want to add more than one modulation with delay), and the capabilities of the effects are not as powerful as many things found in the others - Strymon with delays, Vortex with modulations, and the MPX550 with reverbs.
If I were to transpose this into a functional live performance system, I would simplify tremendously. Stereo, not Wet-Dry-Wet. I'd boil it down to the Soldano and the MPX-G2, with the Rocktron Patchmate to switch out the Compressor, Phaser and Bogner Blue. Including the VHT amp, a pedal drawer and a rack power conditioner, it would be about 10U of rackspace, neatly organized into one unit on wheels with a 2x12" cabinet.
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