Cover band guitar players: Your setup please

[Nobody Told Me]

I use a variety of cheap guitars (Agile, Nelsonic, Schecter, Ibanez - I like 'em all) into a POD plugged into the PA. I control the POD with a Line 6 floorboard. My other guitarist plays good guitars (PRS, Parker, Steinberger) through a POD Pro/floorboard.

 

Soundmen absoultely LOVE us! We each have our own monitor mix with whatever we want in it, and the soundman can control the FOH mix however he wants without having to fight the wash of noise from a backline of 4x12 cabs.

 

Only the musician types in the crowd can tell that we're using PODs. (and most of them can only tell because of the absence of cabs onstage) Everyone else is busy telling us how awesome our mix is. They don't know or care about modelling, they just want to dance/drink/flirt. And we give them what they want.

 

Works for us.

 

PM if you want details.

 

More > Than > This

[Preacher Will]

Originally posted by Nobody Told Me I use a variety of cheap guitars (Agile, Nelsonic, Schecter, Ibanez - I like 'em all) into a POD plugged into the PA. I control the POD with a Line 6 floorboard. My other guitarist plays good guitars (PRS, Parker, Steinberger) through a POD Pro/floorboard. Soundmen absoultely LOVE us! We each have our own monitor mix with whatever we want in it, and the soundman can control the FOH mix however he wants without having to fight the wash of noise from a backline of 4x12 cabs. Only the musician types in the crowd can tell that we're using PODs. (and most of them can only tell because of the absence of cabs onstage) Everyone else is busy telling us how awesome our mix is. They don't know or care about modelling, they just want to dance/drink/flirt. And we give them what they want. Works for us. PM if you want details. More > Than > This

 

i'm another POD fan. Here's my rig:

[RupertB]

We play classic rock, pop and a few "modern rock" tunes. Safe to say that I'm not a stickler for getting "exactly that tone". My rig is simple but gets a pretty wide variety of sounds.

 

McInturff Empress > TS808 > Digiverb > homebrew Matchless Lightning clone or occasionally a 5E3 tweed Deluxe clone. The Digiverb gets used infrequently. My Volume & Tone pots get a lot of use.

[SSJMP]

Fender Stratocaster, BC Rich Mockingbird, Italia Modulo, Daisy Rock- Rock Candy, Dean Cadillac, and an ESP Horizon through a Bogner Uberschall with a Marshall 4X12 vintage 30 loaded. Boss dd3 delay, Rocktron Bad Cat Wah, Boss Blues Driver (adds a edge sound to the overly-sanitary clean side of the Uber) and a Zinky Master Blaster pedal for solo boosts ran through the effects loop. Fairly simple set-up, most guitar tones controlled with volume knob position on guitar. I bring 3-4 guitars to each show. You really need only two but I like to switch guitars for tones and the show...

[plastic]

Fender Strats (91 Floyd Rose Classic, 97 Strat Plus)

Jackson SL3

 

into a Line 6 Flextone III plus combo with a Marshall 1936 2x12.

 

in the flextone loop I have a TC Electronic G Major for added FX. I don't use it much because the flextone has most of the FX I need in it.

 

This works great for my cover band since we don't have to turn up too loud. I tried it with my loud obnoxious original band and it just didn't perform very well in a loud situation. For that I continue to use my goold 'ol tube amps.

[Bruther_Bill72]

I like to keep it simple:

 

Fender American Deluxe Telecaster (stock, it has the "vintage noiseless p/u's with s-1 swithing that toggles the bridge and neck p/u's from series to parallel.)

 

Tuner/Vox Wah

 

Marshall DSL 401

 

I personally love my set up and get compliments on my tone all the time. The Marshall DSL gets a bad rap, and with EL-84's it's not going to deliver over-the-top distortion without a pedal. But because it's a smaller all-tube amp with only 40 watts, it lets me really goose those power tubes (2-4 o'clock master volume) in all but the smallest places we play. Between the three channels in the amp and the controls on my guitar, I can cover everything from Beatles to Beasties. Most of the time I use the crunchy channel and roll back for the cleans. The simple tone really sits well in the mix, too.

 

I can also set up and tear down in 5 minutes

 

--BB

[caveman]

I've been playing in cover bands since the 60's and for most of that time I used a Twin Reverb and many of the stomp boxes that have come down the pike. These days I use a 50 watt Ampeg 212 ReverbRocket, a Dunlop Wah, an old Ratt and some kind of little Korg for chorus, tremolo, octaves and other such effects. Here are the guitars.

 

[Shark]

My Rig at the moment:D

 

American Strat WCR Pups or Gibson LP

 

Peterson Strobostomp Fulldrive2

 

50w Tophat Emplexador

 

Oversized Bogner 2x12 with V-30s

 

Simple but very affective.

[Shellpink]

Guitars:

 

Fender '63 Strat or 60's Relic Strat

Gibson '68 Les Paul or '93 LP Standard Birdseye (modded with Gibson 57s, TBR Bridge and aluminium tailpiece)

Fender Lone Star Strat (initially the spare guitar, but I play it most of the time, I'm lazy )

 

Big Rig:

 

Steavens Poundcake 100

'72 Marshall 4x12, w/greenbacks

Rocktron Intellifex

Rocktron Patchmate

Rocktron Midimate

Korg DT-1Pro Tuner

 

Small Rig:

 

Fender '94 Custom Vibrolux

Boss Blues Driver

Boss CH-1

Boss CS-3

Boss TU-2

Boss LS-2

Boss DD-3

Marshall Blues Breaker 2 (2x)

Roger Mayer modded Dunlop Cry Baby

 

Most of the time I use the small rig.

[mstreck]

We play anything and everything. My obsessive side wanted enough guitars and effects to match all of the possibilites. Turns out that I didn't really need them. Go figure.

 

So after ditching my Fender Cyber-Twin and Digitech GNX3, here's what I now use:

 

GUITARS:

Epiphone Les Paul w/Burstbucker Pro pickups (my primary guitar - great for rock)

Fender Fat Strat (S-S-H) w/ Seymour Duncan pickups - SSL-4 Quarter-Pound Flat, SVR-1 Vintage Rails, George Lynch Screamin' Demon (this would be my primary guitar if the FR trem wasn't such a bitch to keep in tune)

Fender American Highway One Telecaster (for the twangy stuff)

Wechter "Pathmaker" Acoustic (Piezo + Microphone + Magnetic Pickup)

 

AMP:

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

 

PEDALS:

Marshall Shredmaster

BOSS DD-5 Digital Delay

BOSS Acoustic Simulator

Ibanez Dual Chorus

Dunlop Volume Pedal

 

And, of course, the same BOSS tuner that everyone and their brother has in their collection.

 

Mike

[madjack]

We play covers from 60s through 90s but heavy on the 70s and 80s. For guitars I change from week to week. Electrics are a 65 SG special w/soapbars; a 72 335 w/trapeze tail; a custom-made tele I built myself w/fralin pups; and a stock Squire tele. Samson Airline wireless to Mesa Mark IV w/ev 12". I use the three channels for various rhythm sounds and use the eq for lead boost. Effects loop runs a Marshall chorus pedal. Best sounds are from the sg and 335 (doh!). The custom tele sounds great on the neck pup but a little screechy on the bridge pup. (Anybody have a suggestion for an extremely warm tele bridge pup?)

Acoustics are a Takemine active and a Yamaha w/Seymour woody pup through an Airline wireless to an Ibanez Troubador w/no effects but onboard spring reverb. All are mic'ed through foh.

[Fendercaster]

I play in a couple of country/classic rock/oldies bands, and have been using the same setup for years. I've been playing in stereo for over 20 years, I use two Peavey Special 112's and an old Roland GP8 effects processor. I have a Behringer V-Amp Pro, but haven't been playing that out yet. My main guitar is a '61 Strat, though sometimes I'll take my Tele or ES355.

[zekmoe]

I have kind of a fancy rig, but I can't bring myself to settle for a Pod or other modeling thing. I have a Vox Valvetronix that I use in my office when noodling, but it doesn't inspire me. And saying the crowd could care less doesn't mean anything. They take what they are given.

Matchless DC/30

Mesa Stiletto

Mesa 2-12 recto.

Recto on the floor, Matchless on top and Stiletto head on top of that. Takes up little floor space.

Pedalboard with Kendrick Amp Switcher and Fulltone Dual Looper f/x loop switch

Variety of floor f/x

Any guitar that I feel like bringing. Usually a Ric 360 and a PRS Custom 24.

I know I could do it with less, but why bother?

[GWS5987]

Hey Men,

 

That's some very interesting setups! Thanks for taking the time. It's insightful for me.

 

I play in an old fart R&R cover band 3 out of 4 weekends a month (we're a co-house band).

 

I won't attempt to kid anyone .... I'm effects stupid.

 

I plug my guitar into my amp and play. My pedal changes channels and has boosts. I have no effects, but I do want/need a few.

 

I'm going to start with some type of delay. Can you recommend a delay that I can simply turn on at a moderate pace, leave it on, and it does not change my basic amp sound that much?

 

Also, for those that use a chorus, do you leave it on most of the time, or just for certain parts? What the hell does a chorus do?

 

We're going to do White Room, and I need a Wah. Can you recommend one that sounds good and has true by-pass.

 

Lastly, a little rant.

 

We didn't play last night, so the keyboard player and myself went a listened to a local trio we had heard about, but not actually seen.

 

Well, they are a good young group of musicians. But, my God the guitar was sooooo overprocessed that it drove the two of us out of the room. It didn't matter if he changed guitars or not, it all sounded the same. I know that were old farts and just used to hearing a good tube amp with a clean and dirty channel, but, life goes on.

 

George

[CAC]

I didn't post yet, but I use two Godin guitars into a Mesa F-50. I also use a classic crybaby wah, small clone chorus, and Guyatone MD-3 delay. We mostly play classic rock and blues influenced rock from the 60's through today. GW, I would recommend each of those three pedals to you. The classic crybaby is true bypass and does not have any extra knobs. Just plug in and play. The Small Clone has only one knob, and a deep sounding lush thick tone. If you familiar with the clean tone on "Thank You" by ZZ Top, that is what I use to nail that tone. The delay is the most "difficult" to use of the three, but only has three knobs and a switch that sets three different delay settings so you can easily go from slap back echo to longer delays lasting several seconds long, although I usually use it for a rockabilly kind of slap back. I would also recommend checking out the Visual Sound H2O which is a 2 in 1 pedal containing both chorus and delay. But the delay is really more of an echo pedal, but if you are after more vintagy type slap back and echo effect it is very good. Good luck. I started out with just and amp and guitar like you, but once we got into covering a wide range of songs I found myself wanting a few pedals. I have probably tried around 20 different ones in the past couple of years, but the ones I use now are all keepers.

[babyfrank]

A fairly basic setup - I do lead vocals too, so anything too complex would just put me off doing that;

 

Guitars - Varies, but generally Fender Tele Special, Aria TA65 Semi-acoustic, plus Fenix electro-acoustic.

 

Effects; Line6 POD V1.4. controlled by a Behringer FCB1010 Midi footswitch. This is set up to give me access to my basic sounds on the bottom row of pedals; Clean, Crunch, Metal, Solo and Acoustic (which routes automatically to the PA via some cabling jiggery-pokery controlled by the footswitch). The top row can switch in Delay, Chorus, Rotary, Trem, all of which are only used to complement the basic sounds.

 

Amp; Marshall 100W Valvestate 1x12 Combo, straight into the clean channel, using the EQ to adjust for overall room sound. This also acts as a backup in case anything should happen to POD or footswitch (nothing in 6 years of gigging with POD, fingers crossed).

 

That gives me access to the sounds I need for a fairly varied bunch of covers - but I'm not being overly picky about whether I sound exactly like the original.

 

Cheers

 

BabyFrank

[Mr 5150]

Main gigging gear

 

Guitars:

 

Tobaccoburst Wolfgang

Ibanez JS100

 

Effects:

 

TS9

 

Amps (for bigger venues):

 

Splawn modded JCM800 2204

JCM800 2205

5150

 

Vox Tonelab SE for smaller venues...

[Edward]

Originally posted by Nobody Told Me I use a variety of cheap guitars (Agile, Nelsonic, Schecter, Ibanez - I like 'em all) into a POD plugged into the PA. I control the POD with a Line 6 floorboard. My other guitarist plays good guitars (PRS, Parker, Steinberger) through a POD Pro/floorboard. Soundmen absoultely LOVE us! We each have our own monitor mix with whatever we want in it, and the soundman can control the FOH mix however he wants without having to fight the wash of noise from a backline of 4x12 cabs. Only the musician types in the crowd can tell that we're using PODs. (and most of them can only tell because of the absence of cabs onstage) Everyone else is busy telling us how awesome our mix is. They don't know or care about modelling, they just want to dance/drink/flirt. And we give them what they want. Works for us. PM if you want details. More > Than > This

 

If I was gigging regularly, I'd be tempted to buy a Tonelab SE to use in that way... actually, if i had any project going where my AD120VT wouldn't fit with the overall thing (e.g. my dream 50s-via-punk psychobilly outfit...), I'd probably use a tonelab SE for the sounds, and have a dummy tweed sitting behind me....

 

IIRC, the London West End Summer Holiday production of a few years ago had all the guitarists in the band with dummy Vox AC30s in stage, but actually playing via Pods plugged straight to the house pa.

[Ripping Rudy]

My band plays mostly top 40 type rock songs and some classic stuff.

 

Guitars:

2 x Ibanez RG-421 w/ Bill Lawrence L500XL pickups in the bridge.

 

Amp: Peavey 5150 II, Peavey XXL - Both heads, Vintage Randall RG-50 1x12 combo.

 

Cabs: Marshall 4x12 and Peavey XXX 2x12.

 

Effects: Bad Horsie Wah, Digitech Whammy, Boss Chorus, Boss Phaser, DOD delay, Boss TU-2

 

Here is my current set up that I've played with for the last year: Guitar>Whammy>Wah>TU2>5150II>XXX cabinet.

 

I only use the Marshall for big gigs and I'm too lazy to hook up all those pedals so they rot on a shelf. The real sleeper of the group is the old Randall RG50 combo. It {censored}ing smokes! Sounds like a hot rodded JCM 800.

[slugball]

Fender HR Deville 4x10 -- G&L F-100 -- Line 6 delay -- sometimes an OD pedal. Versatile as can be...

[spdolan]

Hi - seems im coming in on the tail end of this thread, but here's my setup - we cover a lot of Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and Dylan, throw in some country and some Ray Charles tunes as well

 

Epi Casino -> Morley Wah -> Route 66 OD/Comp -> Ross Phaser -> Vox passive volume pedal.

 

probably going to add a delay pedal, maybe a chorus, not sure yet.

 

Dolan

[Chris501]

Tokai Strats (I've got Fenders, but the Tokai's are better),TU2, a couple of overdrive pedals (which change regularly) Vox wah, Boss chorus, Mesa Rectoverb MkI.

I got a Line 6 XTL for home. Tried it at a gig once...................never, ever again!

Occasionally I'll take my Gordon Smith GS1, just to keep me on my toes!

[troyri]

VHT Pittbull 45

Boss GT6

Wolfgang

Parker

Genz Benz 2x12

 

Hard Rock!

 

Works very well.

[Protek]

I used a rack system for my last two bands ideal for the Floyd tribute a bit of overkill for the country rock pic to big for site checkout lead guitar on www.quebec.me.uk if you have time oh yes the 78 tele's for sale

[one4rich]

I use a rack rig and 6 guitars. You can see everything in my site in my sig. Here's a pic of the rack(s), and you can check out the site for the rest.

 

We play classic and current rock/metal. The rack lets me cover everything easily. With just one touch of a midi footpedal, I can go from clean/chorus/delay to metal solo boost with delay. No turn this on, then turn that off, and switch this too...one step changes everything, and it's consistent as hell. The tone/volume is perfect every time.