Notes about interesting combinations of gear. This is more about specific chains of gear than personal setups. Feel free to add new combinations and notes about them to this list.
eg: Guitar setup → Effect setup → Effect 2 → Amp setup = Result, and any additional notes
Note: All amps assumed to be cranked unless otherwise noted.
The good
Brehaut’s Ibanez CN-200 → Cranked Orange Tiny Terror → Mesa EV12L 1x12 cab → close miked SM57 = ROAR (great for rhythm work - tons of grunt without having so much gain that it gets muddy)
Diplomat Tele → Diamond Fireburst → Diamond Memory Lane (high feedback, low level, ~400ms, a little bit of modulation) → Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive → Cranked Matchless Spitfire → Close miked SM57 plus a condenser about a metre away = SQUEAL (loves pinch harmonics and slow bends)
Ibanez CN-200 → Volume (Used a proel, too hissy to be the optimal choice) → Russion Big Muff (moderate level, high saturation and just under 12 for tone) → Memory Man (big slow analog delay. Must be mushy) → Sovtek Mig-50 (Cranked to the edge of breaking up) = Large slow wailing bends. Lean into a note with the volume pedal to get it to build nicely for ornamental leads.
- Presumably a Diamond rather than EHX configuration could be produced with a Fireburst and Memory Lane, however i havent had a chance to try it yet – brehaut
Ibanez CN-200 → Maxon OD-9 (Light OD, tone at about 10 o’clock) → Red Witch Trem (fairly quick trem on just crossing into moderate depth → Orange Tiny Terror (cranked of course) = A nice slightly dirty, tremed rhythm sound.
Epiphone SG400 → Crybaby classic wah → Mesa F50 on clean channel with gain and mids cranked, master down enough to retain hearing = Awesome crunch rock sound, which can be pulled back to sweet threshold clean by winding back the volume on the guitar.
- The wah seems a bit superfluous here…? — greg
The bad
The metal zone
Epiphone Les Paul copy → DOD Grunge Pedal → some honking huge solidstate marshall = NOTHING BUT EAR-DESTROYING GREY NOISE.
- Could be abstracted to X → DOD Grunge Pedal → Y = NOTHING BUT EAR-DESTROYING GREY NOISE.
- Or perhaps .* DOD .* = NOTHING BUT EAR-DESTROYING (GREY|WHITE|PINK) NOISE.
- { Pink noise is good noise, and therefore not applicable. White is also, I think, a little benevolent, and black has too much tone for this pedal. Hence, grey. â mattw }
- { I think you missed the regexps; various DOD pedals produce different colors of noise. the grunge pedal specialises in grey, others do other colors – brehaut }
Random guitar → zoom multi effects unit with flanger set to dominating → Fender Deville 410 = absolutely hideous run and hide from the flanger pain.
- { I had the misfortune of hearing a band use this set up in the quad at uni for an entire set. It was one of the more painful things I’ve endured â stephen }
Squier Strat → Boss Metalzone → Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier → Home-made cab containing car subs = FLIES IN A JAR (as played by Getafix at various gigs around Canterbury Uni. This rig also has the dubious honour of having the most unbalanced value distribution I’ve ever seen — greg)
