Rack Guitar Amp??'s

[slappymcfinkles]

I've been dragging my heavy old Fender Twin (reefer) and/or Marshall Super Lead & 4x12 cab around with my big old heavy pedalboard of stuff for years and I'm toying with the idea of racking all that stuff and tossing it on my old Marshall cab and going sans pedalboard/amp.

 

My band sat in with another band and the guitar rig was pretty cool ~ all racked gear with a controller on the floor and a tube driven power amp. The sound was great and went from super clean to blistering distortion. Needless to say I was impressed. I love the tone of my ptp amps but for ease of set up and overall function I could see parking the old amps in the corner and going all rack/midi.

 

The problem is I don't really have a clue how to set up a rack guitar amp/rig. I know I need an amp, pre-amp and some sort of effects along with a controller etc. I'm all old school and analog effects so it's a completely new direction.

 

If anyone out there with some experience could point me in the right direction or if anyone already has a thread with the same questions and could point me there it would be awesome.

[Sixtonoize]

The simplest rack amp setup would be guitar -> preamp -> power amp -> speakers.

 

From there, you can make it as complicated as you want. Obviously, the more tonal and switching options you want, the more complicated it will be.

[slappymcfinkles]

what kind of power amp would I need? Is it similar to the same ones I run for the PA or is it a bit different?

[Sixtonoize]

It kind of depends on the preamp you choose, overall budget, and personal preference. I have a Carvin T-100 that's great. If you're running a modeler like the AxeFX for a preamp or want a ton of clean power, get a SS power amp.

 

If you need maximum versatility, get an AxeFx.

If you only need one killer tone, check out the Mesa Studio Pre.

 

There are really too many options out there to make blanket generalizations, though.

 

What things are important to you?

[DracoAran]

Look into the Randall/Egnater modular preamps.

 

You have pretty straight forward knob twiddling operation on 4 modules, from super clean to heavy.

 

I honestly think it should be everyone's very first preamp, besides maybe a Mesa Studio Preamp (which does not have MIDI).

 

The cool thing about it is that I can turn down the bass on my rhythm module for example, and it is right there in front of me, no menus to scroll, no patches to reconfigure.

 

And if you want to use your regular effect boxes, look into a MIDI looper like a GCX Switcher or Rocktron Patchmate.

 

Or you can always use a single rack space effect processor.

 

For a power amp, VHT is just about the best you can get. Mesas are also very nice. Marshall Dual Monoblocks sound great but are way too heavy to be even practical.

[slappymcfinkles]

As for Pre-amps I'm looking at the JMP-1's and the Mesas but I haven't tried any yet.

With my current rig I can go from glass clean to pretty deep distortion with the pedals or just running the Twin clean. I'm a bit of a tone snob so I'm not sure how the whole thing will pan out but I like the ease and versitility of leaving some of the analog stuff behind.

[The Anomaly]

Well, you COULD run a PA power amp, but there are MANY good choices of guitar power amps out there by Mesa/Boogie, VHT/Fryette, Carvin, and Peavey, and there were more choices that were made years ago that you could find on ebay.

Just a warning, a rack setup with a tube power amp will be heavy, probably heavier than a head.

You can also get a switching system that uses analog pedals instead of a digital rack FX unit, and it would be able to switch whatever effect (or effects) that you want at any time.

[slappymcfinkles]

I don't like playing with menus too much ~ I get kind of bored and like to turn knobs ~ everything on the twin goes to about 7 (except the volume) and that's the sweet spot. The more like an old tube amp the better when it comes to a pre-amp.

[DracoAran]

Straight forward preamps with no menus:

 

Egnater M4 / Randall RM4

Mesa Recto preamp

Mesa Studio preamp

Mesa Quad

Mesa Formula

Mesa V-Twin

ENGL E 580, E 570, E 530

VHT Valvulator preamp

Bogner Fish

Soldano SP-77, X88R, X99

Peavey Rockmaster

[mparsons]

If you like Marshall tones, the JMP-1 will get you there no sweat. And I'm not just saying this because I'm selling one

 

The menu/knob system is really easy on the JMP-1... go to your patch, click on Bass/Treble/etc., and use the knob to edit the patch. Not quite as easy as having all the knobs in front of you, but having two different clean tones and two different dirty tones, and a huge amount of programmable channels, is worth it in my opinion.

 

I do recommend a tube power amp to go with it. If you want it to be extremely tight and loud, VHT 2/90/2 is the best option. For a bit more tube breakup, the VHT 2/50/2 is good. If you don't need much clean headroom, the Marshall or Mesa 20/20 amps would get a lot of tube drive without destroying your ears.