Building First Real Guitar Rig

[journeyman73]

So, I'm an unashamed child of the 80's.

I grew up loving the self-indulgent tones of many of the 80's hair bands - i dont apologize for this :0 victim of circumstance and sucker for a catchy guitar riff and searing leads! Lol

Ironically, ive never been big into fx for my own playing...BUT its time to live the dream and get into at least some chorus, delay, reverb, phasing, flange, harmonizing...your basic over the top, processed stuff.

My question is actually less about specific unit recommendation (im able to do plenty of basic research on lexicon pcm's, 2290's, h3000's)...

BUT - i was hoping for some clarification on something...i had always assumed when i saw these large, multi-unit racks that it was obviously because some inits might only have chorus fx, some only delay, etc....

It looks in reality, though, that many of these units that are so popular and that im researching are actually multi-fx units....so, why so many separates in the 'clasic' rack setups?

Is it because even though several of these units are capable of doing multiple things, its typical that a unit may do a particular effect better than anythng else, and so on and so...so you end up with dedicated fx usage even out of a multifx?

Hopefully, the question makes sense - just trying to figure out how to start thinking about assembling this first rig.

Thanks

 

[JerEvil]

You really don't need big racks in this day and age. Some of that stuff was effects specific, some were multi's.

You could go with something like a Splawn Quick Rod and Fractal FX8 and get all those wonderful tones we grew up on.

 

[petejt]

They had separate units because they became indulgent with all the cash advances thrown at them by the record companies. Or Bob Bradshaw was whispering in their ear...

 

[ghosty999]

I run 2 mini rack rigs, one 3u, the other 4u. I love the old Bradshaw towers but can't afford to buy all that gear plus lug it around. So I just condense it, run 1u preamps of the 80s with modern 1u multi FX and 1u power amps

 

[Racerxrated]

I would pm Zachman, I think he's got all those top of the line single fx units in his monstrous racks...

 

[rottingcorpse]

Is it because even though several of these units are capable of doing multiple things, its typical that a unit may do a particular effect better than anythng else, and so on and so...so you end up with dedicated fx usage even out of a multi unit?

Yes. The lexicons reverbs were the best. The 2290 delays were best, as were the chorus IMO. The eventide was your harmonizer. The Yamaha rev7 was a great reverb unit too. Yes,some of them could do what the others did....but it was the decade of excess. These were all top end studio gear that wound up in high end guitar racks...because we could and had the money.

And, IMO, a huge rack of these pieces is still the shit. But I don't move my gear around anymore.

 

[journeyman73]

I would pm Zachman, I think he's got all those top of the line single fx units in his monstrous racks...

 

[journeyman73]

Is it because even though several of these units are capable of doing multiple things, its typical that a unit may do a particular effect better than anythng else, and so on and so...so you end up with dedicated fx usage even out of a multi unit?

Yes. The lexicons reverbs were the best. The 2290 delays were best, as were the chorus IMO. The eventide was your harmonizer. The Yamaha rev7 was a great reverb unit too. Yes,some of them could do what the others did....but it was the decade of excess. These were all top end studio gear that wound up in high end guitar racks...because we could and had the money.

And, IMO, a huge rack of these pieces is still the shit. But I don't move my gear around anymore.

yeah, those seem to be the specific brands/units i see generally associated with those specific effects.

there is no doubt in my mind that today's multifx units are way more practical...but i really don't have 'practical' concerns - i don't need to bring the whole setup on the rare times i play out with friends - but i could rock the hell out of it at home!

I've tried some pretty nice multifx...and even though i didn't have a lot of the grail pieces in the day, i did have an odd unit here or there (sdd3000, yamaha for example) and though the multifx today are good - i still think there was something to the older units.

admittedly, i haven't tried the modern eventide units like eclipse/h7600/h8000 - so, don't know if that would be a different story

don't get me wrong, the axe stuff i tried sounded great - more than good enough....but still didn't quite seem the same

 

[JackTripper]

I own a multi-effect processor (Eventide Eclipse). I literally use it for about 10 effect presets that I REALLY like (it has like 900). I prefer Lexicon units for delays and reverbs. In fact I have double Lexicon delays to run in stereo. It’s overkill to some degree. It all depends on how picky you are with how you want your effects to sound.