Scott Peterson
09-18-2006, 10:34 AM
I had a 3 set night at a festival last Friday and needed to travel light.
So I recluctently decided to try and run with just my Melancon - cord - Roland Cube 60. No pedals. Nothing else. No channel switching. Just naked out there with a modeling amp.
The gig was three sets, the first was rock/country; the second two sets were my main country/pop/rock. We had no keyboards this time out, and had two other guitarists. Usually we run with two guitars anymore; but we ran it two electrics and one on acoustic. I played electric all night and carry about 50% of the lead work through out.
It was interesting to try this, I have been rehearsing in lots of situations (ranging from rock covers to funk to country) with this setup; easy to carry and setup/teardown is simple as pie. It sounds good, and I like it. But anyone that has known me for any length of time knows I like my fancy amps and my fancy pedals a lot. A WHOLE lot.
I was worried about a) volume (can a solid state amp on an extension cab keep up with tube amps? (*My old Trademark 60 failed this test more than a few times)); b) can I get a range of tones I need with the Cube's "Dyna-Amp" setting and old school knob twirling when needed on the fly?; c) with such a line up - three guitars - will the tones work? and d) will my leads cut?
Here's my take on it:
Logistics sorta forced my hand, I couldn't drag out my "A" rig for this show. But my ego (hey, I paid for the nice stuff I have and I sure like using it!) really had me second guessing this all the way. I mean, my backup to this thing is the Crate Powerblock. (And I brought my BB Preamp *just* in case). :D So first up - volume.
I lugged my Tone Tools 212 out, it's a sealed back front ported 212 with Guytron speakers in it. I love this cab. I ran the powered out on the Roland Cube 60 to the cab and then plugged in the guitar. I had my old Peterson VS-1 for tuning if I had to, but didn't run it in-line. Question A? It was LOUD. Really loud, like crazy loud. I started at 1/2 the way up and was just stunned at how much sheer volume was coming out of it. (The stock 112 in the actual amp still works when you plug in the extension cab). So I hit some hard drop-d distortion stuff to see if the amp would choke on it pushing it's own speaker *and* the 212. Hmmm, no issue at all. In fact it sounded so much better than it does on its own, I felt very relieved suddenly. It was gonna be okay. Maybe.
Range of tones? I've been rehearsing this little thing for a while now and found a nice setting using the "Dyna-Amp" with the gain at 9 o'clock that works great with both my Melancon guitars. Both the Mel's are S/S/H so by clicking up to the singles and rolling the volume slightly I can get a very good clean; just click to the humbucker and rock city. At volume it worked exceptionally well, like most amps. More volume equals fatter tones. I use a touch of reverb to fatten it up slightly (though you really can't hear it very much as an effect) and that's it. By working the guitar's volume pot I was getting all the nuance I needed.
So did this thing cut through the wash of 3 guitars? The cats in this lineup were all good players, we all arranged the parts somewhat intelligently so that we weren't playing the same parts the same way or in the same positions; these guys have ears and can adjust on the fly. The Roland did great honestly. I was very impressed with this part of it, I really have always felt - even though I really do like this amp - that modelers in general have sort of a 2D tone, it sounds right, but lacks "depth" for lack of a better description. In the mix, it was very easy to hear what I was doing and - best of all - it "felt" right. I play the guitar through playing the sound from the amp, if that makes any sense. And this was a fun night.
Now the stickiest thing I was worried about were leads; because of the show and the songs, I can't be running back to the amp to turn up for solos. So I *had* to rely on the guitar's volume pot and my dynamics playing-wise to get the pop I needed for my solos. Folks that were there told me of all the guys, my solos and parts were easiest to pick out and hear and that they sounded good. On stage, it sure felt right and sounded good to me.
We have one extended solo spot during a breakdown where I did go back and roll up the gain to noon, but I didn't touch the volume. Worked great, got back and rolled it down when the next guy did his bit. I used a different model for one song that called for a heavier tone, and used the Dual Rect setting with the gain up to noon too. Sounded great.
Overall, I am extremely impressed. I dearly love the utter power and depth of subtle nuance you can craft from a good tube amp and the colors you can add with different pedals. Nothing is going up on the block, nor was any of this some sort of ephiphany in any way.
I was just very happy to find out that you can indeed make it work utterly bare bones - I mean my extension cab was 2X more expensive than my amp for goodness sakes! - and be happy with it.
One thing I did find is that with less setup/teardown and just simply "LESS" stuff to setup and check, tweak, what-have-you - that my focus was easier to get into the actual playing of the show and enjoying it.
The BB Preamp stayed in the bag and the Powerblock never got touched (thank goodness :D).
So there you are. :D
So I recluctently decided to try and run with just my Melancon - cord - Roland Cube 60. No pedals. Nothing else. No channel switching. Just naked out there with a modeling amp.
The gig was three sets, the first was rock/country; the second two sets were my main country/pop/rock. We had no keyboards this time out, and had two other guitarists. Usually we run with two guitars anymore; but we ran it two electrics and one on acoustic. I played electric all night and carry about 50% of the lead work through out.
It was interesting to try this, I have been rehearsing in lots of situations (ranging from rock covers to funk to country) with this setup; easy to carry and setup/teardown is simple as pie. It sounds good, and I like it. But anyone that has known me for any length of time knows I like my fancy amps and my fancy pedals a lot. A WHOLE lot.
I was worried about a) volume (can a solid state amp on an extension cab keep up with tube amps? (*My old Trademark 60 failed this test more than a few times)); b) can I get a range of tones I need with the Cube's "Dyna-Amp" setting and old school knob twirling when needed on the fly?; c) with such a line up - three guitars - will the tones work? and d) will my leads cut?
Here's my take on it:
Logistics sorta forced my hand, I couldn't drag out my "A" rig for this show. But my ego (hey, I paid for the nice stuff I have and I sure like using it!) really had me second guessing this all the way. I mean, my backup to this thing is the Crate Powerblock. (And I brought my BB Preamp *just* in case). :D So first up - volume.
I lugged my Tone Tools 212 out, it's a sealed back front ported 212 with Guytron speakers in it. I love this cab. I ran the powered out on the Roland Cube 60 to the cab and then plugged in the guitar. I had my old Peterson VS-1 for tuning if I had to, but didn't run it in-line. Question A? It was LOUD. Really loud, like crazy loud. I started at 1/2 the way up and was just stunned at how much sheer volume was coming out of it. (The stock 112 in the actual amp still works when you plug in the extension cab). So I hit some hard drop-d distortion stuff to see if the amp would choke on it pushing it's own speaker *and* the 212. Hmmm, no issue at all. In fact it sounded so much better than it does on its own, I felt very relieved suddenly. It was gonna be okay. Maybe.
Range of tones? I've been rehearsing this little thing for a while now and found a nice setting using the "Dyna-Amp" with the gain at 9 o'clock that works great with both my Melancon guitars. Both the Mel's are S/S/H so by clicking up to the singles and rolling the volume slightly I can get a very good clean; just click to the humbucker and rock city. At volume it worked exceptionally well, like most amps. More volume equals fatter tones. I use a touch of reverb to fatten it up slightly (though you really can't hear it very much as an effect) and that's it. By working the guitar's volume pot I was getting all the nuance I needed.
So did this thing cut through the wash of 3 guitars? The cats in this lineup were all good players, we all arranged the parts somewhat intelligently so that we weren't playing the same parts the same way or in the same positions; these guys have ears and can adjust on the fly. The Roland did great honestly. I was very impressed with this part of it, I really have always felt - even though I really do like this amp - that modelers in general have sort of a 2D tone, it sounds right, but lacks "depth" for lack of a better description. In the mix, it was very easy to hear what I was doing and - best of all - it "felt" right. I play the guitar through playing the sound from the amp, if that makes any sense. And this was a fun night.
Now the stickiest thing I was worried about were leads; because of the show and the songs, I can't be running back to the amp to turn up for solos. So I *had* to rely on the guitar's volume pot and my dynamics playing-wise to get the pop I needed for my solos. Folks that were there told me of all the guys, my solos and parts were easiest to pick out and hear and that they sounded good. On stage, it sure felt right and sounded good to me.
We have one extended solo spot during a breakdown where I did go back and roll up the gain to noon, but I didn't touch the volume. Worked great, got back and rolled it down when the next guy did his bit. I used a different model for one song that called for a heavier tone, and used the Dual Rect setting with the gain up to noon too. Sounded great.
Overall, I am extremely impressed. I dearly love the utter power and depth of subtle nuance you can craft from a good tube amp and the colors you can add with different pedals. Nothing is going up on the block, nor was any of this some sort of ephiphany in any way.
I was just very happy to find out that you can indeed make it work utterly bare bones - I mean my extension cab was 2X more expensive than my amp for goodness sakes! - and be happy with it.
One thing I did find is that with less setup/teardown and just simply "LESS" stuff to setup and check, tweak, what-have-you - that my focus was easier to get into the actual playing of the show and enjoying it.
The BB Preamp stayed in the bag and the Powerblock never got touched (thank goodness :D).
So there you are. :D