Hey Blues Guys, Guitar-Cord-Amp

[Nonvintage]

Alright, just the essentials. Strat-George L-Super reverb. For blues really all u need.

 

[Mike Duncan]

Sounds about right to me.

 

[Flyin' Brian]

Tele > Cheap no name cord > Victoria Regal II

 

[ducatisteve]

Telecaster -> Pignose

 

[Russorama]

I can totally dig the straight guitar/cord/amp thing but for
me, I usually stick a pedal in there because I can't usually turn up
loud enough to get dirt/grit otherwise. So, for me, it's:
Guitar--monster cable--Fulltone OCD or Zendrive--RI 59 Bassman LTD.
With my strat or tele it's usually the OCD and with the 335 it's the Zendrive.
With the Epi gold-top LP (with Fralin P90's) it might be either.

 

[bluesjuke]

A guitar, a cord, and an amp, then only if electric.

Choose your weapon.

 

[Curly]

it's the gear page, so it's "good guitar/ good cord/ good amp"

 

[dalandan]

it's the gearpage so it's

$5000 guitar into $500 cord into $10,000 amp.

 

[yell03]

Gibson Les Paul or SG guitar strung with 0-42s (slinky bendability)
any old half decent cord
(maybe a wah pedal)
Amp with Reverb that has a decent smooth high gain channel for smooth wailing (I would go with my Egnater Rebel 30 1x12 combo)

I play my Blues with a Hard Gainy edge that people seem to like alot.

Last year I entered the GC King of Blues Contest

I tried to change my image to be what I thought people want.....

I went with my Gibson ES339 (Bluesy guitar) before it was set-up strung with 10-46s from the factory

I brought an Overdrive Pedal (I think by SD1)

I brought my wah pedal

I plugged in to a Fender Twin Reverb thinking it was a nice clean sounding amp with Great Reverb and that the SD1 would provide enough Overdrive

I started off Clean for about a minute and played some mellow riffs, then I went to the OD pedal and played some crunchy riffs for another two minutes, then I finished off with the wah pedal over crunch for about 30 seconds or so.
Definitely not my style, but I thought I did GREAT, although 1 guy with a Strat I felt was a little better.

Wrong, we both got knocked out.

Young kid who played HIGH GAIN (my style) well through a Metal Zone in to a Marshall took 2nd and then a guy with a Tele who ran through some Line 6 amp modeling pedal took 1st although I didn't see how?
I thought the Strat guy would win and then me or the kid would take 2nd

Afterwards a bunch of people came over to me and the guy with the Strat saying they were sure we'd won, but it was not to be.
Next year, let the gain flow.
I'll plug in to the Mesa Boogie.

They only give you a choice of 4 amps....
Fender Twin, Vox AC30, Marshall JCM800, or a Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier

The Moral is.....

Blues are simple and about FEELING....
BE YOURSELF and just play how YOU feel.

For me at home that would be:

Gibson Guitar - cord - High gain amp (many brands will do)

 

[Troubleman]

Does a tuner pedal count?
How about a channel-switch box for my amp...?
If not, I'll join the club...

jb

 

[blues junkie]

it's the gear page, so it's "good guitar/ good cord/ good amp"

No, It's Booteek guitar/Booteek cord/Booteek amp

And then fight about why lesser made equipment would never do.

 

[Steve_2020]

Re Gain
I jammed with my friend's blues(y) trio on NYE. We try to hook up whenever he plays in the area. They do 150+ one nighters and festival shows a year.

He has a couple color pedals (octave and chorus) to keep things a bit interesting duiring the 3 to 4 sets a night he typically does as a trio ..

But 90 % of the time it's basically a strat into a Mesa Rectoverb head set to vintage (med bluesy gain) into a 2X12 Mesa cab. He has a Les Paul he plays a bit, this time it was mainly the strat.

Great player, huge tone in a small-ish room. Crowd loved him. He always gets over very well, everywhere/everytime I see him. It's also a lesson for me watching and listening to him.

If you're looking for trad blues, not him. If you're looking for modern bluesy songs (including plenty of trad blues tunes played his way) with tone that has some EL34 grind that current audiences like: that's him.

When I sit in with him I use a similar rig, but I brought an overdrive pedal on NYE, cause I hadn't played out recently and wanted an option/security blanket (the old get into trouble: hit the pedald.... or conversely think you're doing good and want to do even better: hit the pedal). One of the hard lessons I've learned fro him is if your tone is happening at a cool volume, just go with it.

There's a solo boost on the Rectoverb but hs's schooled me to just live on one channel. We don't even hook up the channel footswitches. All gain control- clean to mean - is from the guitar.

I did ok. And I didn't need to hit the overdrive. Tone was right there this time.

So for me the other night, truly: Strat ->cable (some braided thing I've had for 15 years)-> Rectoverb head-> 1/4 stack (2X12 cab ).

Nothing against Supers, I gigged with one for 15 years. But I know I had better tone on NYE 2009/10.

My friend had great tone with his stuff as usual. I figure he's done over 1000 shows with that exact rig and knows the feel and tone of it inside and out. Every nuance. It's a part of him.

 

[johnjd52]

I plug my strat straight into my super reverb and turn up as much as possible.Sometimes I find I want more gain but if I add an OD pedal it just seems to muddy everything up. I play mostly blues and rootsy music so it's usually not a problem.I also feel straight into the amp I tend to play cleaner and choose my notes more carefully.

 

[Troubleman]

Telecaster -> Pignose

That was one KILLER Pignose, wasn't it....?
I've a 70s vintage Pig and a newer one with a Jensen MOD5 speaker.
Neither gets that killer tone...
Then again, neither has been down to the Crossroads...

jb

 

[yell03]

I plug my strat straight into my super reverb and turn up as much as possible.Sometimes I find I want more gain but if I add an OD pedal it just seems to muddy everything up. I play mostly blues and rootsy music so it's usually not a problem.I also feel straight into the amp I tend to play cleaner and choose my notes more carefully.

I don't like to turn up loud enough to get a Fender to break up, hence the need for a Higher gain amp.

I play at fairly low volumes.

 

[David Garner]

Telecaster -> Pignose

The GOAT


Okay, not really, but still......

 

[David Garner]

That was one KILLER Pignose, wasn't it....?
I've a 70s vintage Pig and a newer one with a Jensen MOD5 speaker.
Neither gets that killer tone...
Then again, neither has been down to the Crossroads...

jb

You should practice more.

I bet you can't even play neo-classical metal on a guitar set up for slide, either.

 

[soldersucker]

Blackface Super and a nice Strat......Ronnie cutting heads and taking names.

 

[OlAndrew]

Come down to it, a beat up Japanese dreadnought, that happens to be Brazilian Rosewood and very good spruce.

electric might be my Epiphone Riviera Deluxe or my Xaviere thinline tele sort of thing, through a 1950's Magnatone ( branded 'The Natural Music Guild', single ended 6v6 with an octal preamp (6SJ7) and the plate voltage dropped down to about 265. Sometimes a MotoGuzzi wrist pin gets involved, too.

Occasionally I'll run my 1965 Gibson/TelRAy oilcan delay.

 

[VaughnC]

I think most of my tone is in my old 1966 Radio Shack clone curly cable as that's one thing I haven't changed in my rig in all these years. Maybe its all the curly/swirly harmonics that come out of the end of the cable as my feeble playing winds its way through it. Strange thing is, if I reverse my curly cable, my playing seems to come out backwards....go figure. Maybe, after all these years, too many bad notes just got stuck in between the cable curls and couldn't find their way out. Every time I've tried a straight cable I lose that swirl and my playing sounds flat.....what's a guy to do ?