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I've flirted with Sansamp pedals in the past and find them passable rather than excellent, but reliable and predictable over a wide volume range.
I have found a couple of convincing Flyrig demos in a style I can relate to, so we'll see.
After my exeriences over the last year I'm not falling for any more digital bullshit in the foreseeable anyway!
Anyway, the Flyrig 5 Brit turned up 20 minutes before last night's rehearsal and it was just plug and play. It sounded good immediately, and responded to guitar input exactly like an amp. In fact the other guitar player ordered himself one as soon as he got home last night.
It's first gig is at 6pm today. I'll have an amp on stage ready to go just in case, but it's an analogue joy after endless guesswork with software editors.
Interestingly, it doesn't have any of those unpleasant background frequencies that both @ICBM and I have noticed and disliked in Tech 21 gear in the past - the speaker sim seems very natural.
I guess the point is that in an emergency you could do a gig in most styles with just a guitar and the Flyrig, but as part of a more planned rig you're going to want some extra FX, a tuner, some sort of master volume control and/or boost.
I've just set up a pedalboard with the Flyrig, a Polytune a G10 wireless and a Zoom G3 with expression pedal. It's a very versatile setup, with dozens of FX, an XLR out and a programmable volume pedal set for 65-100%, far more useful than the usual on/off.
By my standards that's a big board, but it's not as big as a pair of 1x12 valve combos!
My problem is that I also own and run the PA and my wife is the drummer, which means I need portability from everything.
We use an Arbiter Flats drum kit, a pair of JBL Eon ones and a small Yamaha mixer for the PA, so it seems ridiculous to fill half the car with guitar amps.
All I need is a pedal which sounds more or less like the slightly overdriven sound I get from my combos and which responds realistically as I use the volume pot on the guitar.
My amps are cheap, my speakers are run of the mill Celestion and I use a 38 quid Superlux cab mic.
I've spent many hundreds in the last year trying to find a portable digital version of this one simple sound and despite the claims made throughout the industry about the brightest and best modellers we're not even close.
I know the answer is simply to buy a big van, but an average pub gig is a gruelling 5 hour shift for me involving load in and out and pretty much all the gear setting up, and I'm old and tired.
We do three hour sets and I'd really like to just be able to plonk the PA down, plug in the mixer and play. I'm hoping the Flyrig will be at least passable at today's gig, I'm not even taking an amp so I have to make it work!
Given its current low price I wouldn't have hesitated to spend another few quid for those two features.
Looking forward to hearing how you feel after a few more gigs.
I need to spend a bit of time juggling gain structures and EQ now I've heard it at gig volume, but I'll try headphones at the same time.
Glad and it’s working out so far, I think I’m in the same camp as you in that I just can’t get digital gear to work for me, although it clearly works for a lot of others. Something about the feel and ease of use of anolog that works better for me, so interested in this one.
This afternoon I dropped the Drive level on the Sansamp section until it was almost totally clean, then upped the drive on the Brit section to arrive at a similar gain level to where I started and everything just came together. It's articulate without brittleness, and it backs off into a natural sounding country tone without getting too thin. I can strum chords on the neck pickup with the volume down like it's an electro acoustic then get a Blackmore-ish lead when it's on full.
I'm looking forward to this weekend's gigs a lot more now.
@dindude I only have 32 ohm headphones to hand at home, JVC and Superlux, and even with everything maxed on the Fly Rig it was too quiet. It sounded ok, but if I were practising with headphones I'd be inclined to run the Fly Rig and backing tracks or whatever into a small mixer to give you both ears and plenty of power.