25th anniversary rig - pt2 (planning)

[Brian Swerdfeger]

Rig Planning / Gear Selection

Before I ever start buying gear or soldering cable I first plan out the rig on paper. I still use Freehand on the Mac, but you could use anything that allows you to make little boxes and drag them around a page. Doing a signal flow diagram helps me determine how many loops and/or switching functions I will need, and how many switches my floorcontroller will need to control everything.


2011 Rig SIgnal Flow Diagram by ToneLounge


This particular rig is being designed to be Wet / Dry / Wet – and to use any of my amps that have an effects loop. Since it’s a stationary studio rig, I will not need switching between multiple amps, as I can swap amps to fit my fancy.

Amps I will be using are:
• Egnater Mod 50
• Suhr Badger 30
• Fryette Memphis 30
• MESA/Boogie Mark IIc+
• Vox AC30

The wet cabs will be powered by a Carver PM-300. This is a sleeper amp - it’s small, powerful, and great sounding for the effects cabs.
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As I stated in the first post, the gear selections in this rig are some of my all-time favs. It’s also being designed to do things my pedal boards and other rigs do not, and I’m not trying to duplicate what the pedalboards do, either.

So, let’s look at the front-end effects.

The first four loops of the Rack Gizmo are series and here’s what will be in those loops:
AnalogMan Compressor – this is the small box three knob version. It will sit on the pedal shelf and be in Loop 1 of the Rack Gizmo. I do not use compression as an “always on” effect, it’s more of “there when I need it for an effect” kind of thing.

Line 6 DM Pro – yes, I know this does not exist, but if it did I would use it for it’s cool collection of fuzzes and Octavia. I primarily use the amp for overdrive, but this will give me an interesting collection of “whacked” when I need it.

Line 6 Filter Pro and EH POG2 – I dig both of these boxes for the way they can fold/spindle/and mutilate my tone. The POG2 will be on the shelf and wired in series after the Filter Pro. Studio use means I can have them in the same loop and switch them manually as needed.

Line 6 MOD Pro – perfect for front-end sync’d tremolo, vibe, phaser, and old school chorus.

After the first four loops the signal will go to a Suhr Iso Boost mounted on the pedal shelf. I love the Suhr boost pedals and have a Koko Boost on both of my pedalboards. This is perfect for goosing the front of an amp, and for driving the cable run to the amp as well.

 

[Brian Swerdfeger]

Front-end effects defined and covered, now it’s time to hit the amp and do the post-amp processing.

All of the amps I mentioned have a buffered low-impedance line-level effects loop. This means there is plenty of signal and the proper impedance for me to drive the post processing and dry signal back to the center amp.

I’ve chosen three of my favorite effects to be in parallel with the dry tone, and a Line 6 Echo Pro to be in series with any/all via the Aux. Bus of the Rane mixer. Here’s how it will work:

The dry signal leaves the amp and goes to a low-impedance volume pedal. From there it is fed back to the rack and hits the input of Loops 5-8 of the Rack Gizmo.

Loop 5 is a “dry mute” – this will be used to turn off the dry signal when I’m using the RSP-550 for Leslie effects, or want the 80’s drama of wide stereo chorus or pitch detune.

Loop 6 feeds the Yamaha SPX 900 – I love this box for the micro-pitch shift and for it’s plate reverbs. 80’s flash back all the way, but nothing else does the +7/-9 cents pitch thing with 50ms delay as well.

Loop 7 feeds the Roland RSP-550 – my all-time favorite modulation box! I love the chorus, rotary, and modulated reverbs of this box. I can get all of the tri-stereo tones of huff / landau / luke and the throw-back leslie stuff of Frampton, too.

Loop 8 feeds the TC Electronic 2290 – my all-time favorite delay. It’s lo-fi goodness has been in every rig I ever owned personally. It’s my ultimate spatial and musical delay.

The dry signal and the output of all of the effects are sent to the inputs of the Rane SM82 mixer. This is my preferred mixer for tone, level matching, and convenience. It’s great to be able to grab a channel on the fly and raise or lower all of the presets of a particular box as needed. It also has a very usable Aux. Bus where I will patch a Line 6 Echo Pro in stereo. This will allow me to put delay in series with any of the parallel channels, and to do reverse delay and looping if desired.

The output of the mixer will then go to the stereo power amp, and then to the wet cabs.

 

[ACShreds]

sounds like a pretty epic rig. cant wait to see it all done.

 

[Brian Swerdfeger]

Now it’s time to load the case and start the wiring the AC power harness.


25th Anniversary Rig - AC Harness completed by ToneLounge, on Flickr

By the end of the rack craze heyday I had wired and programed over 200 rigs. I’ve seen every style, variation, and philosophy you can imagine, so I had a good idea of how I wanted to position the gear in the case. My general rule is to follow signal flow from top to bottom, making exceptions for certain harder-to-read displays and/or frequently tweaked processors. Utility pieces like the switcher and mixer can go lower, and the pedal shelf only needed to be high enough to allow for a rear panel.

Another factor in gear placement is heat. Some pieces generate a lot of heat and it’s best if they are not sandwiched in-between other high-heat devices. Luckily in my case, there are no major heat offenders and I was able to follow the general signal flow rule.

Before I started loading up the rack, I also planned for the AC Power requirements. The Furman PL-Plus has eight (8) outlets and it will supply the following:
1. Line 6 DM Pro
2. Line 6 Filter Pro
3. Line 6 Mod Pro
4. Line 6 Echo Pro
5. Roland RSP-550
6. Yamaha SPX 900
7. TC Electronic 2290
8. Voodoo Lab ISO 5 (powering the pedals on the shelf)

This means I still needed power for:
9. Rane SM82
10. RJM Music Rack Gizmo
11. Carver PM300 power amp
12. Furman PL-Plus

To solve this need, I’ve added a non-switched AC power strip that’s mounted to the rail supports near the bottom of the case. The Furman also plugs into the strip, and then the strip is hardwired to the rear panel. The AC adaptor for the Rack Gizmo gets an adhesive cable mount attached to it’s top and gets ty wrapped all the way around the strip and through the mount. This will keep it from working it’s way loose and coming unplugged.

The AC harness is next.
I like to cut the AC cables to length and run them along the left side of the case. This serves a couple of important purposes:
1. It keeps AC cables away from audio cables and helps prevent induced noise
2. It helps take the weight off, and reduces the strain on both ends of the cable

I replace the cut-off ends with Woodhead 5266 AC plugs. I like these plugs because they have “floating” blades and conform/lock to the AC outlet and do not wiggle their way out. I also like the fast-turn screws and wire capture inside of the plugs themselves.

You may notice on the SPX 900 the power cable comes out of the “wrong” side. In this case, I route the cable between boxes and then bring it up along the left side with the others. Once all AC cables are in place I label them for ease of identification or repair.

 

[roadifier]

hey Brian, what are you using that combo cab I sent you for? Is it for the mesa IIC+?

 

[Brian Swerdfeger]

I'm using the combo shell for a Boogie Mark III that was a rack mount - now a combo... thanks!

 

[Digital Jams]

Killer work and love the choices for the fx, I too love the 80s stuff and use a Roland SDE-3000, SDX-330, and H3000.


Love the thread, can't wait to see the final product!