Several months ago, Maury bought a bunch of PA equipment for our band to use for shows. It’s good stuff – Crown power amps, JBL speakers and subs, etc. Anyway, our drummer at the time left before we could play a show, so all this stuff just sat unused for months. FYI: our band is once again fully staffed (welcome Doug!), so we should be getting back into the swing of things very soon.
Anyway, our church band was asked to play for an event this evening, so we’re going to use Maury’s PA setup rather than disassemble the church stuff and then have to reassemble it before Sunday. We’re also going to bring our personal amps (Maury’s Triple Rectifier and my Sig:X) rather than bring the church stuff.
It’s going to be a lot of work, but it should be fun. I’m excited to hear how the PA sounds, and I’m really looking forward to using our amps on stage in a big room. I’m afraid that it might be really loud in there, but hopefully it’ll sound good. I also hope that it doesn’t rain on us while we’re loading/unloading stuff.
My new speaker cab showed up yesterday via FedEx, and they didn’t even wait until 9:30 pm to deliver it this time. Anyway, the box was huge and it took me about 30 minutes to unpack it. It was very carefully packed, and I didn’t want to get styrofoam peanuts everywhere. I really hate those little things.
I got a used VHT Deliverance 412 from a guy on The Gear Page. I initially wanted a 2×12, but they never show up on the used market and a new 2×12 costs more than a used 4×12. This one is loaded with the stock Fryette-designed Eminence P50E speakers, and they are intended to be played with VHT/Fryette amps.
Anyway, I got the cab set up and played through it for about 5 minutes. That’s not really enough time to make much of a first impression, but I can at least say that it doesn’t seem to be louder than my old 2×12, which is a good thing. It definitely has more oomph, though.
This cab is built like a tank, and it is completely sealed. A lot of closed-back cabs are rear loaded with a removable back panel. This amp is front-loaded, and there is no back panel, which means that no air can accidentally escape through the cracks. The result of this is a very tight low end response.
I will certainly have more to say about the cab over the next few weeks as I have more opportunities to use it. For now, I’ll just share this pic of the new happy family.
First of all, I have not lost my job. As far as I know, I am in no danger of losing my position. I didn’t want anyone to get wrong ideas about my occupational situation based upon the title of this post. No, I received my new, smaller, lighter pedalboard this week and it is now fully assembled and ready to go. It is pretty much a perfect fit for my M13 and 2 FV-500H pedals. I’m not using the MXR EQ anymore – I’m only using the EQs in the M13.
Over the last few months, I have made some major changes to my guitar setup, and there are more changes coming. I think that it will be simpler to operate when I’m done, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be simple to look at.
For one, I have gone through quite a few amps. I started out with a Stulce – a relatively simple ~8 watt tube amp. It was designed to get maximum tube saturation without getting unbearably loud. It was nice, but it didn’t have enough clean headroom. I traded that for a Genz-Benz Black Pearl, which is a 30 watt amp similar in nature to a VOX AC30. It was really jangly and chimey, and it got pretty rude when you cranked the gains, but it never really got seriously crunchy. I also acquired a 1970 Fender Bassman. It had great cleans and it was really loud, but it needed some work (new filter caps, pots, etc) and I didn’t really want to drop any more cash into it. I decided to sell both of them and buy a VHT Sig:X. The Sig:X is a monstrous 100 watt 3-channel amp that can do pretty much everything. I have talked about this amp ad nauseum here, so I won’t continue to do so.
My pedalboard used to be 36″ wide with a wah, a volume pedal, a bunch of analog overdrive/distortion/boost pedals, and a giant green delay pedal with a huge midi controller. It is now 24″ wide with one of these and two of these. I’m still figuring out some of the intricacies of the M13, but I’m really liking it so far.
The next change is going to be my speaker cabinet. I had an Avatar Vintage 2×12, but it was kinda cheaply made, and it didn’t have a very tight sound. I sold it, and I will soon be the proud owner of a Fryette Deliverance 4×12 that will match my Sig:X. A 4×12 is a really big speaker cab, and it’s going to be awesome. I have never had a half stack before, but I have a feeling that it’s gonna be pretty rock and roll. I was initially planning to buy the 2×12 version, but I happened to find a really good deal on the bigger one. The used 4×12 ended up being significantly less expensive than a new 2×12 so I decided to go for it.
The other little gadget that I’m planning to add to my setup in the near future is the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo. This thing looks pretty awesome. It allows you to control a modern multi-channel amp (including models by VHT/Fryette, Mesa, Bogner, Egnater, etc) with a MIDI device like the Line 6 M13. Basically, I can run a MIDI cable from the M13 to the Amp Gizmo to my amp. The M13 will send information to the Amp Gizmo, allowing me to use the M13 as my amp’s footswitch. I can assign a different amp setting (channel/boost/effects loop) to each scene on the M13. Rather than using distortion patches on the M13, I can use the clean/rhythm/lead channels on the amp. Here’s a little video that demonstrates how it works.
It’s going to be kind of a pain to get it all set up, but it will be super easy to operate once it’s done. I really don’t want to have to stomp all the time – I would much rather just focus on playing.
I spent a while dialing in some tones on the M13 last night. In doing so, I discovered the importance of using EQ. There are several EQ models that are geared towards different purposes, but I spent most of my time using the graphic EQ model.
I had the most success using the EQ after overdrive/distortion. I was able to change a sloppy rhythm tone into crisp, Marshally tone just by slightly boosting the bass/treble frequencies and slightly cutting the mids. By “slightly,” I mean that my adjustments were less than 1 dB in any direction – any more made the tone really harsh and fake-sounding. I found that the key is to make small adjustments.
However, I found that the biggest challenge is in balancing the tones with each other. Tweaking the rhythm tone caused some of my other scenes to be really lackluster in comparison. As a result, I spent about an hour EQing my other favorite scenes so that they are all somewhat compatible with each other. In other words, I don’t want to go from a clean tone to an overdriven tone and sound like a completely different setup (unless it’s intentional). Anyway, my tones are much more sparkly now. It’s amazing what a little EQ can accomplish. Of course, I’ll have to make some adjustments when playing with a band, but I’ll cross that bridge later…
Unfortunately, I’m having a really hard time dialing in a good lead tone with the M13. Everything that I have come up with just ends up sounding fake. Maybe I have just grown accustomed to the amazing natural tube saturation that my Sig:X gives me. Whatever the reason, I may have to keep an analog distortion in the M13’s effects loop.
I would like to be able to run the M13 without any external pedals for simplicity’s sake, but I haven’t quite figured out how to do that yet. Fortunately, running a pedal in the FX loop doesn’t necessarily add another stomp to the effects switching thing, since you can set up the effects loop to be on or off in individual scenes. I can leave the distortion pedal on all the time, but if my “clean” scene doesn’t use the FX loop, then it will just bypass it.
I need to record another video when I get the chance. Of course, that will have to wait until I get my new speaker cab. I sold the Avatar 2×12 that I have been using, and I’ll be ordering a new Fryette cab in the next couple of days. It should be awesome. I’m probably going to get another 2×12, but I’m toying with the idea of a 4×12. I can get a used 4×12 for cheaper than a new 2×12, and I can’t find a used 2×12 anywhere. However, the 4×12 is (obviously) significantly bigger and heavier that a 2×12. It’ll have casters, but still…
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