Amp rig Vs. Pedalboard rig....

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Joeytpg

Joeytpg

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How would you rather have your rig setup around?

as time goes by and I get more and more into pedals, I'm starting to prefer the Pedalboard + whatever amp that has a great clean channel than a specific amp + Fx unit.

It seems to me that it'd be easier and way more accurate to have a nice pedalboard with you (even when you need to tour) and just ask for a nice Fender. At least in my case and the type of music that I play.

obviously if you're a nice gigging musician iwth roadies and plenty of money, a nice rig with your own amps is the best way..... but for most of us that just play bars/clubs and a few medium/large venues, pedalboard seems like the best option....

what do you think?
 
id choose amplifiers over effects anyday of the week.

the tone should be made in the amplifier, and the effects enhance it.

just my .02
 
Toss the pedal board in the junk pile.....

guitar---> cord----> amp----> play
 
Amps, no question. My pedalboard was growing for a moment, but I played without effects for quite some time. IMHO they should be embellishments, not foundations.

Having said that, I've worked for a couple of pro dudes who have pedal boards designed to take around a be able to get a consistent sound out of rented gear. As longs as there were two JCM-800 or 900 stacks, they could do the gig. Not their ideal, or recording rigs by any means, more for the fly-out gig convenience factor.
 
and, not or...
That said if I could have only one...give me a couplea pedals and a loaner amp.
 
There's two ways to look at this. One is afore mentioned and many prefer, the other is to use a warm sounding tube amp as the foundation of your tone and pedals for the effects. After all distortion is an effect wether you get it from a tube or a discreet analog circut. Personally I would use a tube in this situation but the point i'm trying to make is some use strictly pedals and have a tube combo or head as a platform get really good results. I have a buddy of mine that uses a Dr z Maz 38 combo, he shows up to a gig with that and a board with 2K worth of boutique pedals on it and he's happy.

I think it's more of a personal choice, I used to have a board full of pedals and I didn't like it but that's me. I would chose a really good amp that covered a lot of tonal ground... a wah, great delay and call it done.
 
I'm not really into pedals at all. Though I've heard some guys with monster tone going the pedal route. I prefer finding the flavor of an amp I like and just letting that get me were I want. I find pedals color that too much. YMMV
 
amp all the way. i use effects very sparingly. so the amps tones are the most important. and as always...you can always add effects to a great amp...you cant add great tone to a shit amp!! :D
 
If you know which amp I'm playing, then it's no suprise a pedalboard won't cut it for me :rock:
 
So what is the debate here? Are we talking amp distortion versus pedal distortion or what? I don't get what an amp rig is, does that mean going straight in with no effects?

I think I know what you are asking, so I will respond here. Just wanted to clear up a few things with the intent of this thread. :)

For me, even using multichannel amps, I use a pedalboard of some sort. Basically the more channels and gain options the amp has the less dirt pedals I put on my board. But I do like to have a nice delay, phasor, chorus, wah, etc on my pedalboard. As far as pedals versus amp distortion, I generally prefer amp distortion. As the gain goes up, there are less and less pedals I like. However, for low to medium gain, there are alot of nice pedals out there. I am just generally not thrilled with the 'high gain/metal' options available in the pedal world.

Lately I have been getting more into effects and trying to listen more closely as to where they are used. I have started using my phase 90, univibe, and fuzz pedals alot more. I wanted to learn David Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' and noticed it sounded like he was using a fuzz. I tried it and I think I was right. In the past I would have just used an overdrive pedal and overlooked that it was a fuzz....
 
I agree that for highgain, I would prefer amp distortion. I`ve never heard a highgain Pedal that worked better than a good distorted amp.

BUT, for me the best is to combine a very light crunchy amp sound with some low-gain pedals. For me this is perfect but I noticed that my pedals do not sound good with every crunched amp. So I am not able to take just my pedalboard and go into every amp. Of course I can get a sound that works, but the difference between amp/pedal combination are very high in my opinion.

Anyway, I do not use high-gain sounds and one of the best sounds I ever heard live is the sound of Keith Urban when playing his Hiwatts with a few pedals.

Few years ago I only worked with ampsounds + delay but when trying out few pedals, a new world of soundoptions came up to my mind :thumbsup:
 
I think having a great amp is the foundation. However also having a great pedal board is a must as well if you play places where you may not get to use your amp. A good pedal board with pedals that you are comfortable with can plug into most any good clean amp in this situation. Also a rack with this is the best of all as you can have some rack effects and a power amp to drive a W/D/W when the venue is right for it.

So to summarize amps, pedalboards and racks all have their place. Each persons situation will be different. I prefer a good amp (Wizard) but I also have a cool pedal board for coloring and in situations where I may not be able to bring my amp and Rack for a W/D.

Two of this or three of that, to each his own. :rock:
 
Depends. For metal, there's no replacing the amp. If you're more in the vein of David Gilmour, then you can get all your tones from pedals and just find a nice clean amp to plug into.
 
I like all my tone to start and end with my amp. I use a few pedals, like a boost, noise gate and a tuner. But I like to keep them up and out of the way since I'm never stompin on them.
 
I would always choose an amp for my sig tone vs using pedals...when possible. If you are in a situation where you are forced to use house amps or rentals, then I think a pedalboard as your main tone source is the way to go.
 
i don't think there's a right or wrong answer to the question. it's a matter of personal preference.
i prefer to use the amp to get my tones if possible. for me the shortest path is the best. i like the "less is more" approach. fewer items in the signal chain means fewer connections that could go bad and less signal loss and noise.
if i were going to go the pedalboard route the amp would have to do a decent clean though.
 
I need both. It just depends on the gig or the mood I'm in. Half the time I just want my amp's drive with a boost and sometimes I like to get lost in a sea of delay and modulation pedals through my amp's clean channel.
 
Joeytpg":27kv6mwl said:
How would you rather have your rig setup around?

as time goes by and I get more and more into pedals, I'm starting to prefer the Pedalboard + whatever amp that has a great clean channel than a specific amp + Fx unit.

It seems to me that it'd be easier and way more accurate to have a nice pedalboard with you (even when you need to tour) and just ask for a nice Fender. At least in my case and the type of music that I play.

obviously if you're a nice gigging musician iwth roadies and plenty of money, a nice rig with your own amps is the best way..... but for most of us that just play bars/clubs and a few medium/large venues, pedalboard seems like the best option....

what do you think?
Click to expand...

I prefer having my amp provide the tone foundation, and if needed-- use effects as icing on the cake.
 
Zachman":sj9auqvf said:
Joeytpg":sj9auqvf said:
How would you rather have your rig setup around?

as time goes by and I get more and more into pedals, I'm starting to prefer the Pedalboard + whatever amp that has a great clean channel than a specific amp + Fx unit.

It seems to me that it'd be easier and way more accurate to have a nice pedalboard with you (even when you need to tour) and just ask for a nice Fender. At least in my case and the type of music that I play.

obviously if you're a nice gigging musician iwth roadies and plenty of money, a nice rig with your own amps is the best way..... but for most of us that just play bars/clubs and a few medium/large venues, pedalboard seems like the best option....

what do you think?
Click to expand...

I prefer having my amp provide the tone foundation, and if needed-- use effects as icing on the cake.
Click to expand...

You have a lot of icing to choose for your cake..... :thumbsup:
 
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