stripped down rig

[mrfjones]

a couple days ago I sold the majority of my pedals, most of which I really loved but never used anymore. So of you guys are going to think I am nuts for this but i am left with a pedal board that has a clean boost (zvex sho) and a tuner peal and thats it. the tuner pedal isn't really in the line, just the sho. (it has two outputs so i can send one to the tuner and one to the amp) I have to say I am happier with my tone right now than I have been in the past couple years. I can play so clean and then so distorted with a couple single channel amps. that boost is the only thing i couldn't give up, it gives such a nice clean drive to the amps.

Who else has stripped their rigs down? did you regret it? did you love it?

I feel like i can just play guitar now.

by the way the current setup is an old guild bluesbird and an old tele into the sho and then into a very old champ and a route 66

[Miles]

I love it. I sold every single one of my pedals. I now run my guitar straight into a genz benz black pearl, which is a single channel + gain boost amp. So all I have on the floor is the amp's boost pedal. That's it.

Honestly, it's bliss, and I rely only on my hands and my instruments. I have a lot to learn as a player, but it freed up my creativity and helped me to only rely on the basics. My songs have become stronger, I spend less time worrying about gear, if any, and having little to work with forces you to be more creative with the guitar, not where or what you're stepping on.

Anyone can stomp on a pedal. I like to use textures and different pickup/volume/tone variations to create new tones for me.

[dave251]

I just run straight into a modern Fender Deluxe Reverb( I'm going to change out the reverb tank for one with a longer decay)....and an amp I had built for me, based on a pair of EL34's for the output. I do run a digital reverb into the front of my "eC" amp, as it has no reverb circuit. VERY SIMPLE.

I use the Deluxe for the electric country stuff, and the eC amp for "acoustic" work.

[mrfjones]

I'm sure my neighbors love this, I can't put my guitars down, I have been playing for an hour and half this morning and I really have the z cranked up much louder than it should be cause it is shaking the rest of the house, (gotta do this while me wife is at work)

[hitchcockblonde]

Yup. Not that I was ever a pedal slut but the reliability thing live... cables and power supplies and knobs... I'm now going this way:

Guild Bluesbird or Gibson Melody Maker > Boss TU-2 > Victoria Vibrolux.

Change pickups, knobs on the guitar, where ya hold the pick, how you play the part... you can accomplish a lot!

[HHB]

I've been doing the tuner and Barber Direct Drive into a dual el84 amp thang, pretty stripped down and very versatile w/ my PAF clones. I could stand a touch of clean headroom once or twice a night, but I just figure it's a rawer live tone, I'm using an acoustic for anything thats really clean anyway

[todd richman]

I run various Historic Les Pauls into a Marshall 100 watt Super Lead 4 inputter, channels jumped with occastional wah wah and that is it. I went through a period of time where I had to try every dirt pedal out there and also did a Bradshaw rack rig too and the tone of a good set of repro PAF type pickups (my favs are Wolfetone and Voodoo) into the amp is toneful and sonic bliss. I am able to capture all the classic rock, southern rock and blues tone I could ever need. I think a lot of the dirt pedals are meant primarily for a smaller amp or a clean amp. With the Marshall running around half I am able to dial in so many cool tones with use of the volume and tone pots. It makes things so much easier to not have to worry about a board full of circuits, cables, power supplies and batteries!

[alvagoldbook]

yeh I used to use tons of distortion boxes, delays, choruses, etc. then I realized one day I could get rid of them all so long as I had a decent amp. So I got rid of all of them (I kept my delay just in case), and bought a Marshall 30th anniversary head. Once I put new tubes in it, my setup went to:

Guitar --->Wire----->Amp.

My guitar tone never sounded better

[gkoelling]

I never was too into pedals. I used chorus at one time and about once a year would pull it out and think how great it sounded. I'd then toss it back in the closet and forget about it for several months.

For quite a while now I have run guitar, cord, amp but do use the amps reverb.

Think of all the great players who used nothing more than reverb. Roy Buchanan, Albert Collins, Albert, BB, Freddie, etc.

Pedals are ok and there are many who get great sounds using them. They're just not for me.

[bluesmain]

min. pedal here as well

[Telecaster62]

+1 for Miles. That's me, guitar + boost + amp. Never been happier.

[Cotton]

As some of ya'll know, I'm getting pretty naked and cold... I'm working towards a small pedalboard, say 18 by 24... but on it will still be a comp, 2 boost/od's, para eq, delay, tuner.... 6 pedals.... can I make it 4? Don't know....

Still thinning amps... Will end up with a '98 Dr Z Rx surrounded by British Royalty and Fullerton Cats... Maybe a Tejas breed in there somewhere...

Good luck! Cotton

[TonyBony]

I have a t.c. electronics booster and a Boss reverb pedal and that's it.

[ASATClassic]

For my situation (church player, here) I find that my bare minimum rig is:

tuner od dist delay

That's pretty stripped down for me. Sometimes I throw in a phaser or wah, but I don't think it's really needed. In fact, I think effects (mod effects especially) can get annoying.

[axepilot]

I've never understood 2 acre pedal boards. How on earth do you run them? Watching a guitar player do the single foot "watusi" just to get a sound makes me shake my head................

I run a chorus, reverb, and compressor with my Germino, and that's it. Clean and simple.