Pedals or Rack Effects for playing live?

[rlcramer]

I used to be a rack addict back in the early 90's - I loved having separate preamps, poweramps and multi-effects units in a nice tidy rack. But nowadays it seems like most people (everyone?) use heads instead of racks, so I wanted to know what type of effects you guys use for the times when you play live or even when you practice.

Right now, I have an overdrive pedal (Maxon OD820) and a Wah (Original Crybaby) but was thinking about branching out and picking up a few more effects. So I wanted to know if you guys would recommend pedals or a rack unit. I'm actually leaning towards pedals, since they are most likely much easier to use (I love knobs - HATE menu's), and I really only need a delay, and maybe reverb and some type of modulation (chorus, flanger, etc).

Any opinions or recommendations on pedals or rack units?

Bobby

 

[AHChris]

I have a G-Major 1 and a G-Major 2 and love both of them^^
This + a Tubescreamer is everything I need. (+Amp and Guitar of course^^)

 

[drew_drummer]

Pedals for me. Just so much more hands on than rack shit.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Never ran any rack gear when I played live.

 

[Melb_shredder]

I'm all rack! Saves me time! I go to the gig, plug in to power, plug speaker cable in... And I have it alll there at the flick of a switch and the press of a button

 

[Wolfeman]

Both. Time based effects in the loop in the rack, and things like wah, tubescreamers/boosts, compression etc. out front on a pedal board.

 

[greyskull]

pedals into a glab gsc 2. best of both worlds.

 

[AudioPhile777]

pedals into a glab gsc 2. best of both worlds.

what is this thing you mention?

 

[Flat Fifth Fury]

Depends on what you need. I've run a midi controlled rig for the longest time and that works for me. My songs use a lot of different sounds so being able to program all my pedals and the rack processors along with amps or amp channels to all change with one button push was life changing. But if all you need is a wah and a boost pedal then go that way.

 

[drew_drummer]

Ernie Ball VPJ
Budda Wah
Voodoo Labs Pedal Switcher x2
Voodoo Labs Commander
Boss TU-2
Boss SD-2
EHX Small Stone (Nano)
Fulltone OCD
ISP Decimator
Line 6 DL-4
Malekko E300
Malekko E600
Digitech RV-7

 

[Skinny Viking]

Depends on what you need. I've run a midi controlled rig for the longest time and that works for me. My songs use a lot of different sounds so being able to program all my pedals and the rack processors along with amps or amp channels to all change with one button push was life changing. But if all you need is a wah and a boost pedal then go that way.

Same here ... midi rig handles everything but I have a seperate wah off to the side

 

[slashvanyoung]

I've been constantly downsizing my rig throughout the last years, now I only bring my TS and the Rev Jr. Not even a noisegate or my wireless unit, not to speak of all the other gadgets... The TS might even stay at home next time, too.

Edit: Then I might suddenly change to a huge MIDI rig, you never know.

 

[ahjteam]

If talking about pure convenience, reliability and troubleshoot/issue minimizing, you can't beat a multifx (pod x3 live or similiar) + amp with a good sounding clean and distorted channel. I would take that setup anyday over the snafu drew_drummer has there ^

 

[drew_drummer]

If talking about pure convenience, reliability and troubleshoot/issue minimizing, you can't beat a multifx (pod x3 live or similiar) + amp with a good sounding clean and distorted channel. I would take that setup anyday over the snafu drew_drummer has there ^

Snafu? Every pedal on my board is there for a specific reason, and are all components of my sound. I've used Pod's live before, and they don't make me feel like jizzing into a cup and throwing it at the nearest mother.

And my setup is very reliable, and never has any problems. Then again... I know what the fuck I'm doing, and most guitarists don't.

 

[greyskull]

what is this thing you mention?

watch me Um and ahh you through it.

Btw the click you hear in changing channels is a noisy 25 year old marshall. not the pedal.

 

[Notuern]

Im not a tap-dancer, so rack-effects for me plz.

 

[Wolfeman]

Hmmm I much prefer my Ground Control/GCX setup

 

[Mago]

Since I got the 6505+, live & practice its
ME - ESP - KORGDT10 - PEAVEY - CAB

used to have some pedals that included the use of a noisegate because it was noisy like hell, bouth live and in practice...HATED the whole cable-connection fuckaround uke:

a lot easier now
But I'm not that much in a need of effects tbh...I'm a fan of chorus sometimes, but I dont need it in my music....just to fool around

 

[AudioPhile777]

watch me Um and ahh you through it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdtKmtB7Xc

Btw the click you hear in changing channels is a noisy 25 year old marshall. not the pedal.

I can't figure out a way to get this thing in the US...

 

[mburton21]

My setup is incredibly simple, bare minimum.

Guitar -> 5150 -> FX loop (Boss NS-2, Boss GE-7, Maxon OD808) -> Marshall 1960 /w Greenbacks

When we have a set with one of our clean songs in it I'll have a CE-5 chorus ensemble in front of the amp to aid the 5150's "clean" channel. It actually sounds pretty damn good with the right settings.