Amp & FX switching question

[RichMinerva]

Hey guys

so i just joined a band a little like poison the well / DSHS

and had a couple of questions. basically i use a block letter 5150 and want to do a number of different clean / low gain delayed type leads and i know the 5150's cleans arnt amazing. nor do i want to be switching about 4 pedals at once id rather switch once and haeve it already there.

what can anyone recommend? is it worth having a pod and just use the power section of the 5150 or?

hope you guys can come up with some ideas haha

 

[Vinny]

Just get a cheap Blackstar tube amp and get a line selector to switch between the two.
They work great for live stuff.

 

[RichMinerva]

Just get a cheap Blackstar tube amp and get a line selector to switch between the two.
They work great for live stuff.

Thanks man,

actually never thought of that

 

[TheWinterSnow]

GCX + Ground Control. Hell you could use that to change amps, get an amp that has good cleans and switch between the two...then with a midi foot controller you can save presets so you can have a combination of pedals by presing only one button. It may not be the cheapest solution BUT it would be the best solution.

Cheap solution, POD + Line 6 foot controller into the 5150.

 

[Damage, Inc.]

Don't ruin your 5150 with a POD. What's wrong with the clean channel? It's got a great range of tones from crystal clear to really dirty. If you have a Tube Screamer or something like that, you can use it for a boost on either channel, and you'll have four tones to choose from. When you start wanting to add delays and mods, it gets much trickier. If you want to stick with pedals instead of rack effects, use something like the Rocktron Patchmate or the Voodoo Labs pedal switcher. These will allow you to switch channels and turn any combination of pedals on and off for instant tone switchinng.

 

[Mago]

5150 has ZERO headroom, and the clean channel is anything but clear, because it looses a lot of power when trying to turn down the gain imo
in studio you may be able to dial in something usable, but for live it just doesn't do the job good enough (for me at least).
So +1 to what Vinny said, if you want to use pedals.
You can also get some kind of multieffect unit + pedal that can control the 5150 via relay if you want to stick with it....set the gain ton the green channel to be somewhat clean, use red for the rest

 

[Wolfeman]

Do what I'm doing, SansAmp straight to the board for cleans. Just use an a/b box to switch between your 5150 and the direct box.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

5150s clean is garbage. Actually the 5150 doesn't have cleans, the rhythm is a high gain channel and doesn't have enough sensitivity to be considered a clean channel. A POD in the FX loop and switched with a GCX would allow you to use the high gain of the 5150 but also have the cleans of modeling. And with a mid controller you could also save presets in the POD and control its parameters as well as setup physical wiring of the entire rig and have presets of those as well.

 

[BLUElightCory]

With the right guitar, you can still get some decent clean tones out of a 5150. I play in a progressive rock project (think Oceansize, Cave In, Failure, Mogwai) and I've used a Tele/6505 with my pedals in the FX Loop and using the guitar's volume control to roll back the gain for clean tones. There is still a little bit of grit but if you've got a decent guitar with fresh strings it can sound good (and a small amount of breakup can sound nice for clean tones).

 

[Mago]

Clean + a little bit of grit isn't "CLEAN" imo
and thewintersnow is right about the clean channel of the peaveys

 

[TheWinterSnow]

With the right guitar, you can still get some decent clean tones out of a 5150. I play in a progressive rock project (think Oceansize, Cave In, Failure, Mogwai) and I've used a Tele/6505 with my pedals in the FX Loop and using the guitar's volume control to roll back the gain for clean tones. There is still a little bit of grit but if you've got a decent guitar with fresh strings it can sound good (and a small amount of breakup can sound nice for clean tones).

yeah but what happens when you want CLEAN, no breakup, great compression and sustain. Even with the right guitar a 5150 still sounds very dry and lacks sustain and can only really give...clean with slight breakup.

 

[thedeadnormality]

You should take a look at this http://www.glab.com.pl/gsc_en

Glab's Guitar System Controller, amp channel switching, midi control, stompbox loops, gain control all in one.

 

[RichMinerva]

I was thinking maybe something like a Hayden mini mofo or orange tiny terror with my effects on then just use a line selector to switch between the two? But I do like line 6 modelling, I'd prefer to just have the line 6 effect the clean channel of the 5150 and just use the red channel with my ts etc, I just don't have any idea how to do that.

 

[RichMinerva]

Do what I'm doing, SansAmp straight to the board for cleans. Just use an a/b box to switch between your 5150 and the direct box.

By direct to the board how do you mean

 

[Tommy Gun]

Do what I'm doing, SansAmp straight to the board for cleans. Just use an a/b box to switch between your 5150 and the direct box.

This.

The SansAmp has an XLR out, so the sound guy can plug right into it. So you'll go from guitar to A/B box. A to amp, B to SansAmp box. Of course, if you play a house show or something without a sound man, you can just run the SansAmp into the vocal P.A. you're using, as long as you can dedicate a channel to it.

 

[Vinny]

I still vote for two separate amps
And you can have your clean effects on all of the time so you don't have to worry about turning on delay or chorus when switching to clean,
But you won't be able to use those with your 5150, but I never use anything expect a TS and noisegate for my distortion channel.

 

[drew_drummer]

You should take a look at this http://www.glab.com.pl/gsc_en

Glab's Guitar System Controller, amp channel switching, midi control, stompbox loops, gain control all in one.

Those things aren't very good. I had one, sent it back for a refund. Dropouts when switching the presets, which just totally fucks the feel imho.

 

[greyskull]

Those things aren't very good. I had one, sent it back for a refund. Dropouts when switching the presets, which just totally fucks the feel imho.

Mine works fine... but i know you had issues.

 

[drew_drummer]

Mine works fine... but i know you had issues.

The designer himself confirmed the issue - it is present in all of the GSC-2's and 3's. Although he did release a firmware to improve it last year.

But I dunno. The whole experience put me off.

I've had good experiences with Voodoo Labs...

Here is my rig currently:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/630473/Gear/DSCF1766.JPG

It's quite a bulky setup, but it does work. I'm trying to move away from it though, to a smaller yet more capable setup.

I'm thinking of replacing the pedal switchers with two RJM Music Mini Effect Gizmo's. Then coupling those with my Voodoo Labs Control Switcher. Then replacing my amp channel switcher and the Commander with a RJM Mastermind.

This will give me proper single switch changes, and each preset has an alternate setting too - which allows me to switch the effects without switching my amp, or switch the amp without switching my effects.

 

[RichMinerva]

Judging by that dude I think I'll just crack a pod on the clean channel of my 5150 cheap and effective haha!

Now the problem is which unit to choose, would anyone recommend the hd series! Maybe a 300? As I don't need loadssss but I would prefer better emulation