In praise of simplicity

monquixote

This was the entirety of my rig last night:

and it was pretty cool.

Just the Amplifire into the desk 3 sounds (compressed funky clean, slightly pushed tweed, plexi on fire with delay) and that did the gig. No tap dancing, no complexity. 

I asked someone who watches our band quite a bit if it sounded any different and he said it sounded pretty similar to him, we got rebooked and the landlady paid us extra because she really enjoyed the set. 

So why would I bother dragging a head and cab and a massive pedalboard to a gig again?

I'm sure it's a phase, but I'm really seriously thinking about selling off all my gear and buying either a Helix or a Kemper.

simonk

Nice! As much as anything I think it's good to mix things up a bit from time to time. Glad it worked out.

Sporky

monquixote said:

I'm sure it's a phase, but I'm really seriously thinking about selling off all my gear and buying either a Helix or a Kemper.

Why not stick with the Amplifire if it's working for you?

Drew_TNBD

monquixote said:

So why would I bother dragging a head and cab and a massive pedalboard to a gig again?

Coz it sounds better

Teetonetal

Sporky said:

monquixote said:

I'm sure it's a phase, but I'm really seriously thinking about selling off all my gear and buying either a Helix or a Kemper.

Why not stick with the Amplifire if it's working for you?

Gotta say - if it worked, sounded good and made you happy - why change? At least stick with this for a few gigs, to see if any issues present themselves. Then you can buy accordingly. 

stickyfiddle

As they said, if it ain't broke... (get a spare!)

Punters don't care. And if I'm honest, neither do most of us. I was at a wedding with a really good funk/soul band the other week. Guitarist played a US Standard Strat throughout, through an HRD. Couple of pedals that I couldn't tell when they were on or off (assuming compressor and low-gain dirt, certainly nothing extreme).  

Honestly, he played great, his basic tone was perfect for the material and nothing else mattered.

monquixote

Sporky;1058312" said:

monquixote said:



I'm sure it's a phase, but I'm really seriously thinking about selling off all my gear and buying either a Helix or a Kemper.





Why not stick with the Amplifire if it's working for you?

You are right but that's not how gas works

Sporky

monquixote said:

You are right but that's not how gas works

Fair point!

johnonguitar

Sounding great out front is one thing


But if I don't like what I'm hearing and FEELING coming back to me then I'm going to play worse and become fatigued quickly

monquixote

Teetonetal said:

Sporky said:

monquixote said:

I'm sure it's a phase, but I'm really seriously thinking about selling off all my gear and buying either a Helix or a Kemper.

Why not stick with the Amplifire if it's working for you?

Gotta say - if it worked, sounded good and made you happy - why change? At least stick with this for a few gigs, to see if any issues present themselves. Then you can buy accordingly. 

Yeah my plan is to try it for a while and see how I get on. 

I think a power amp is probably my next move because at the moment I don't have the ability to play gigs where we aren't doing the PA. 

I do need to sort out a couple of things as I could do with a dedicated tuner, a wah and some kind of boost for moments when I need a bit more of the same. 

The Helix appeals as I could also use it as a pedalboard with a traditional amp if required. 

dindude

stickyfiddle said:

As they said, if it ain't broke... (get a spare!)

Punters don't care. And if I'm honest, neither do most of us. I was at a wedding with a really good funk/soul band the other week. Guitarist played a US Standard Strat throughout, through an HRD. Couple of pedals that I couldn't tell when they were on or off (assuming compressor and low-gain dirt, certainly nothing extreme).  

Honestly, he played great, his basic tone was perfect for the material and nothing else mattered.

Thing is, a US Strat into a HRD is a great set up so no wonder it sounded good (with a good player behind it of course). A CS Strat into a boutique fender style amp would be only small percentage improvements on this theme.

Now if he played a cheap Strat copy into a crap solid state amp, I wonder if he would have sounded so good.

I think it doesn't matter after a certain level (then maybe you're in it for your own pleasure / inspiration) but I think punters are smarter and care more than you suggest.

Drew_TNBD

johnonguitar said:

Sounding great out front is one thing


But if I don't like what I'm hearing and FEELING coming back to me then I'm going to play worse and become fatigued quickly

I don't know why people LOL'd this. He's exactly right.

monquixote

I use in ears so it sounded good to me. 

The only slight issue was that the lack of acoustic coupling reduced the sustain a bit, but I had a bit of compression in the patches so it was fine. 

cbellanga

I've been using a pedal train nano + a tech21 blonde due to the limitations to bring gear on the train and for this specific band it's sounding much better!

timmysoft

I was doing some pedalboard modification this weekend but just for a laugh I went straight in to the amp. Result, pedals all being sold, life better.

joeyowen

I've been lured by the idea of a kemper or helix for a long time

If I got a helix, I'd have to leave this site, too gas inducing!

Kemper is still very much in the radar, and I can keep my pedal board!

John_A

I gigged for 6 months using an AMT SS11-A and a delay pedal, gone back to a head, cab and pretty big pedal board. Does it sound any better? Probably not but its fn to have a change! Thinking about a Helix too

johnonguitar

Drew_fx;1059433" said:

johnonguitar said:

Sounding great out front is one thing





But if I don't like what I'm hearing and FEELING coming back to me then I'm going to play worse and become fatigued quickly





I don't know why people LOL'd this. He's exactly right.

Lmao did I get 2 lols for that?

I bet they're Squier owners...

johnonguitar

cbellanga;1059458" said:

I've been using a pedal train nano + a tech21 blonde due to the limitations to bring gear on the train and for this specific band it's sounding much better!

The Blonde is a great sounding pedal

stickyfiddle

dindude said:

stickyfiddle said:

As they said, if it ain't broke... (get a spare!)

Punters don't care. And if I'm honest, neither do most of us. I was at a wedding with a really good funk/soul band the other week. Guitarist played a US Standard Strat throughout, through an HRD. Couple of pedals that I couldn't tell when they were on or off (assuming compressor and low-gain dirt, certainly nothing extreme).  

Honestly, he played great, his basic tone was perfect for the material and nothing else mattered.

Thing is, a US Strat into a HRD is a great set up so no wonder it sounded good (with a good player behind it of course). A CS Strat into a boutique fender style amp would be only small percentage improvements on this theme.

Now if he played a cheap Strat copy into a crap solid state amp, I wonder if he would have sounded so good.

I think it doesn't matter after a certain level (then maybe you're in it for your own pleasure / inspiration) but I think punters are smarter and care more than you suggest.

Of course. I don't disagree that a CS into a DRRI might have sounded better and a Squier into a big Mustang might've sounds slightly less good. Just that it *really* didn't matter what specific pedals or rig he was using in the context of the band as long as it was the right style and - mostly importantly - his playing was spot on.

Having said that I'm happy to add this is true for a 6-piece funk/soul band with horns FAR more than it might be for a 3-piece blues trio.