Ok... those of you who know me know how I get when I'm on a mission.
About 6 months ago I embarked on a journey of "tonal discovery". I'd been playing Mesa amps exclusively (Triaxis/2:90 & Mark IV) for several years. When fiddling around with my fiancee's Deluxe Reverb one day, I had a "What have I been missing?" moment, whereupon I decided to redirect the effort I had been putting into collecting guitars into trying out different amps instead.
My goal was simple... get a diverse collection of amps for recording and gigging. Each amp had to be tonally unique and (hopefully) relatively flexible. Everything had to interface with my pedalboard, not only for FX (Boss GT-6), but also for switching purposes. I only wanted combo amps... at the end of the day, I needed the freedom to be able to throw the amp in the car for a jam session and not have to worry about racks, cabs, MIDI controllers, etc. And, of course, the more tubes the better.
So I started out by "borrowing" the Deluxe Reverb for a while. Then an Egnater TOL100 went up for sale locally, so I picked that up. A couple weeks later a
Marshall TSL went up for sale locally, then a Mesa Rectoverb, and then a
Roland Jazz Chorus (yeah, I know... no tubes there). Pretty much out of space, now, the last (& probably final) purchase was a Crate VC508 (a 5 watt tube amp with an 8" speaker).
Here's what the assembled collection looks like:
What's most important to me, though, is the pedalboard, which allows me to use any of the amps in a "plug & play" fashion. The GT-6 controls via MIDI a Nobels MS-4 relay switcher and Nobels A/B switch. Here's what it looks like:
Here are some of the setups I've been using:
- Mark IV on its own, switching channels with the MS-4
TSL on its own, switching channels with the MS-4 (had to build my own cable for this one!)
TOL100 on its own, switching channels directly with MIDI
Rectoverb & JC120 together, switching channels with the MS-4, switching amps with the A/B
Deluxe Reverb with V-Twin preamp out front, switching the V-Twin with the MS-4
I'm pretty happy with the end result... I've been rotating through amps every couple of weeks in my band, just for some variety. I took the Mark IV to one gig, then turned around and took the Egnater to the next. (I want to take the Rectoverb/JC120 combination to the next gig, but it's difficult since we've been playing really short sets!) I can pick whatever amp I'm in the mood for (or whatever amp best fits the venue), get it hooked up in just a couple minutes, and control everything via the Boss without having to put too much thought into it.
Anyway, just wanted to share the results of my "project". The biggest reco I have... the Nobels boxes (if you can find them) are extremely cost effective for MIDI-fying an amp, switching FX loops, there's even a module for controlling volume levels via MIDI.
Comments, questions, suggestions always welcome!
--B
