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Pedal Board Vs. Effects Rack


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Heck, if you want to, you can sequence the entire show, and have MIDI do all the lighting scene changes, your guitar patches for each song / section, etc. etc. Of course, if you're into pedals, there are MIDI switchers that will allow you to control them too. I'm currently sitting at my studio's desk, and am surrounded by racks of gear, but I'm an equal opportunity guy - I have tons of pedals (and three pedalboards) in the next room too... and I like / use it all. :)

 

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Always been a rack guy, starting with an full stereo ADA guitar rack in the 80's which I still have. Going into the 90's I moved over to keyboards and did a lot of sequencing, which also controlled lighting and patch changes for all the instruments. I got our guitarists to move over to rack gear for the automation, and we looked friggin' slick for a couple of years and even got accused of playing to CDs on occasion because the guitarist tone would change when he was no where near his midi footswitch. Eventually he started bringing pedals back into his system and once again we had a guitarist who was glued to his pedals and spent the better part of the evening holding a note, hunched over them and make adjustments that nobody else could hear.

 

I'm mostly playing bass these days and I'm still a rack guy. As I mentioned in another thread, I can roll my bass cab and rack in and have it plugged in and working in less than two minutes. Then I get to spend the next hour watching the guitarist and drummer setting up. Actually that's not entirely true. I usually have to spend half of that hour setting up an entire PA system. Which is also in racks and sets up rather easily.

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I much prefer my rack system over any rig I've had to date. My rack system is a Line 6 HD Pro , a power conditioner, Digital Wireless Line 6, and a 1U power amp (Carvin) and a single full range speaker. The things I like about this system is the rack isn't much bigger than an amp head all the controls are easily accessible, plus the foot controller is connected by 1 wire a very thin ethernet cable. The rack is a gator bag case and sits on top of the speaker like an amp head. Everything is in the rack, the system sets up in seconds and just works. All of my setups for songs are right there I don't have to adjust anything except volume. I have my patches arranged by set and named by song. I do have to take the time and program the patches using a laptop, but the time saved is well worth it.

 

There are 2 guitarists in my band the other guitarist has cables on the floor going from guitar to amp, amp to petal board and is constantly reaching down adjusting things chorus, delay overdrive etc. It takes him longer to setup and his amp weighs a lot. My system is light and I can put other things through it. I can also play keyboard and an acoustic guitar through it. I don't need a separate amp chain, plus the rack can connect to FOH so for some gigs, I can connect using the line out. The other guitarist has to mic his amp.

 

I've owned many amps mostly tube and pedals over the years. I have also owned several multi-effects pedals and amp simulators etc. I have not owned anything that has been as hassle free and versatile as the setup I currently have.

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