The official Wet/Dry Rig thead - Configuration and Setup

Doing a real wet/dry rig pretty much preculdes the "ease of setup" requirement (depending on what "ease" means to you), particularly if you're doing wet in stereo.

 

Yeah, Leon is a nutcase that way, God bless him!

 

I have a friend who builds fancy stereo rigs for players, they sound great but it would be a pain in the arse to drag all that junk to a gig at the local VFW or s**thole bar.

 

Hey guys,

The W/D/W thing is not that complicated!

I've assembled just about all of the gear I need for my W/D/W rig, and it only requires a 7-space rack.

I use a Naylor SD-60 head as my main crunch tone.

I also have an Alembic F-2 single rackspace preamp that I use for my fenderesque clean tone. I switch this preamp in/out with the Naylor's preamp via an Asess Electronics RX-1 switcher.

If I used a 2-channel amp, I wouln't even need the Alembic, and I could get the whole rig into a 6-space rack!

In the rack are:

Egnater rackmount power suply
Eventide Eclipse processor - for delays and stereo modulation
Alembic F-2B preamp
2-space sliding pedal tray
Axess Electronics RX-1 rack switcher
Carvin DCM150 stereo power amp

I take the speaker output from the Naylor and run it to a line-out box before going to the dry 4x12 cabinet. The line-out box takes a tap of poer from the amp's speaker output and that signal is fed to the Eventide processor. The processor's outputs go to the Carvin SS power amp, and then to 2 1x12 cabinets for the "wet" stereo effects.

It's very simple really!.....

 

Mine is setup as follows:

Drz Carmen Ghia to THD Hotplate

Hotplate speaker out to 2 x 12 Boogie Cabinet

Hotplate line out to EH Holy Grail + Digitech X-series delay

Digitech delay to effects return of a Tech 21 TM60

Sounds good to me.

 

Do you need a preamp of some sort after a stereo effect, like say the eventide? Or, can you just run the output of the effect to a poweramp and then out to the speakers?

 

I always use my w/d/w rig. It is not complicated at all, very compact, and sets up in no time!

In my small 2 space rack is a TC G Major and a Furman voltage regulator. I run the amps line out/loop send to the rack. The rack does not return to the amp but to 2 Tech21 Powerengine 1X12 monitors. These are self powered 60 watt pieces. Small and easy to carry.

That is it! Huge tone and no need for a rack bigger than 1 or 2 spaces!!!!

Scott

 

No, the preamp would be before the processor (as a stand-alone preamp, por the preamp section in your amp head).

The processor's outputs go to the power amp, and then to the 2 "wet" cabinets.

If you are using a tube amp head, then there is NO reason in my mind to use a tube stereo power amp! I prefer the smaller SS Carvin DCM150 power amp.....it's onl 1 rackspace, no tube maintenance required, and it's light!

You have "tube" tone in your dry cabinet anyway coming from the amp head.....the effects can be run through the SS power amp, and they will still sound great! Remember that the "wet" cabinets are typically 100% wet.....there's no dry in there!

 

I used to run wet/dry.....recently changed to wet/wet for reasons of my own (I prefer the sound of dual parallel delays set to different rates).

Anyway, the wet/dry config I used was similar to this except both delays were in series and the left (blue) channel ran strait to the power amp.




Like I mentioned above, I've switched to a dual parallel delay setup (like in the picture) and I'm currently using an EHX Memory Man for slapback and a DD-20 for long trails (will have the Maxon next month ).

Also, since this drawing was made I've started using an A/B-Y box as the splitter. It lets me A/B the two channels to quickly get the balance to where I like it and it lets me listen to just one channel at a time when I want to tweek the delays.

 

Ian, is the DCM150 load enough to gig with in your rig? Are you running it bridged?
Riscchip, how about the TM60 is it giggable?
I'm planning on going this route also and am hunting power amps.

 

Hey Roodboy,

Yes, the Carvin DCM150 is PLENTY loud enough for live! In fact, Bob Bradshaw was the guy who recommended it to me in the first place.

I have a frind who uses his live all the time, and uses it with a Bogner ecstacy, and it covers large and slamm venues, no problem!

Mike Landau is a big user of the W/D/W rig, and his Valvestate Marshall power amp is only like 80 watts too!

Remember the thing about W/D/W is that you want to focus on the "dry" tone mainly. You will find that the "wet" cabinets only need to be about 25% of what the "dry" is! It really is plenty of effect at 25% of the dry tone.

I use a Naylor SD60, into an Egnater 4x12 with Greenbacks wired at 16 ohms. That is my dry tone. The "wet" stuff uses the Carvin DCM150 along with two 1x12 cabinets with Vintage 30 speakers.

The DCM150 is about $225 US, and that is CHEAP!

If you want to go larger, the 2-space power amps start at about $290 I think......but you really don't need to go that big!

Hope this helps!

 

Geez....it really ain't as big of a deal as some make it out to be. I did this for years and loved the result:

Guitar to amp head (Marshall SL, later a JMP 50 finally a Komet 60)
Amp to attenuator with a line out
Attenuator line out to rack effect unit
Rack effect mono out to rack power amp (single space preferably)
Power amp to a 1x12 Mesa cab
Attenuator speaker out to my 4x12
Mix to taste

One issue is in some venues if miking is required, you need to mike both dry and wet cabs and hope the sound guy understands what you are doing. On stage it sounds glorious. To do it in stereo would just mean an extra 1x12 but I'm sure that sounds even more glorious! I always had a 4 space rack with effect unit and power amp, and, stuffed the attenuator in the back. Run a cable to the attenuator from the amp and cables to 4x12 and 1x12 and go...

Rawk on....uhhhh....or something...

Beavis

 

Thanks Ian, I was thinking I could get away with it in a wet/dry setup but probably not if I was running a preamp like an ada/mp1 and just the dcm150.
BTW the dcm150 is onsale for $199 now.
Thanks again.

 

Wow, this would sound huge!

So could I got from say the effects loop out of my amp to my effects processor and then to say a stereo poweramp, and have that feed to other speakers? Dang, that would sound awesome.

 

I've got a simple, yet effective and powerful w/d/w setup, using the tc G Major and Carvin DCM150.

My Kingsley Deluxe 32 has a direct line out (with level control) after the power amp - not an fx loop after the preamp. That eliminates the need for an attenuator. The direct line out goes mono into the G Major, then stereo out into the Carvin.

I've got a Bob Burt Twin 1012V, with 2 x 10"s and 2 x 12"s. I can use any one or two speakers for my dry sound (the Kingsley has Main & Ext speaker outs), and the remaining two are for the stereo fx, which are always 100% wet.

It sounds really nice and is quite simple. It's not as wide a spread as two separate 1-12 cabinets, but with the 'V' front, it's big and bold. I've got the cabinet, which is a bit smaller than a 4-12, a 2 space rack with the G Major and DCM150, and the Kingsley head. I've also got floor pedals too - mainly ODs and boosts. Not complicated and very flexible.

 

I have an Egnater TOL100 that also has a line-out jack with a level control. This is a direct tap off the speaker output too, so you get the preamp/power section vibe from the head goin into the rack.

It's very convenient way of doing the W/D/W thing, and you are right.....you don't need a separate line-out box!

Keep in mind that a lot of guys use a "Hot Plate" for this purpose, but the Hot Plate does more things that aren't necessary for a W/D/W setup. The only function that you need for a W/D/W setup with a standard-type amp head (i.e., an amp without a line-out jack and level control) is a dedicated "line-out" box. The Hot Plate has a line-out function on it, as well as other stuff that you on't need. You can have a dedicated line-out box built in a box a little bigger than a Phase 90-type pedal.

W/D/W sounds GREAT!

Rock on.....

 

An "extra" speaker out on an amp can be converted to line out very easily if want to eliminate the attenuator/line out box component.

 

Question to all doing the W/D thang- I know the problem of tone loss when returning an fx signal that still contains some direct signal component (dg stomp wont output 100% wet) into an amp's parallel loop. If you instead only run this signal into a wet amp/cab in close proximity to the dry amp, will the same negative impact on the total sound occur? I can't try it yet myself.

gb