Clean to Mean Rack Tones 12/27/25

[mentoneman]

Thanks. It’s been a long time I haven’t had all those in the same place, lots of setup / recomissionning remaining. Including some power supply / proper grounding work.

Yes, experimenting and combining different amps is IMHO when it really starts to get fun and unique.
Going beyond 2 different « kinds of amps » on at the same time starts to be a lot to manage though in my experience, and you can feel like you start to reach a kind of « diminishing return »; managing the balance between each « sound », both from an EQ / freq space and volume / stereo imaging point of view, and the phase, and how well that matches / integrates / interfaces with what you may have in front etc..

On the other hand, mixing 2 different types of amps, and/or multiple of each if you feel like it, has always been source of treasure tones to me. You gotta be careful about phase and grounding, and take time to balance things well, but still manageable and sounds huge.
For ex I like:
2 Marshall (closed 4x12) + 1 Vox (open back) in the center; get the juicy big crunch from the Marshalls and let the Vox blend in for the clearer open shimery thing. Put the «wetter » time effects on the Vox.
Any down-sized version of that with 2 amps / one of each.
« Inverted » version if you want the stereo ambiance effects (honestly overkill live) : 1 main big Marshall (closed 4x12) in the center and a pair of open backs on the sides, with the « wetter » effects; thats basically the model behind my long time main w/d/w rig I posted before.
And when I want to go all in: 4 amps, either of the same type or 2x2; used in a « w/d/d/w » kind of fashion. Usually use again open backs where the really « wet » effects are, I like how that helps diffuse the ambiance in the room. You can play with different physical arrangements of that, including stacking cabs/amps.

4 AC30 that way next to each others is the Brian May 80’s rig.
4 1x12 amps arranged in 2 mini compact stacks is how I had my latest live rig setup up until covid times; made for a big sounding yet very compact & portable setup. Here's a snapshot of it:

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With a small 4U rack for post-amp effects:

View attachment 444066

And a small pedalboard in front:

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what i see when i look at your various setups is that we took similar paths on our quests for high quality sounding rigs that were also built to be portable and tight for stage footprint and cartage considerations.

but i also had the luxury of storing my rack and speaker cabs in an equipment room where i played to just roll on and off stage.

various configurations and experiments over the years from
1) w/d with a tone tubbies 2x12 dry/Tech 21 power engine (with scumback replacement speaker) wet
2) bogner 4x12 dry/T21 wet
3) DI in ears rig with no speakers
4) wdw rig with bigner 4x12 middle dry, T21 left wet, and EV frfr powered right wet speaker.

 

[Anje]

Yes, I remember your Church rigs, nice
I love studio work, but I've always been mainly about playing live; up until covid at least. Unfortunately days of being able to move around 4x12s had already been mostly long gone for at least a decade even back then. After that I've always looked for multi-amp rigs that can be compact and still sound big/great.
There's no real substitute for bigger amps to me though, and I've actually sold most of my smaller ones now.

 

[ChurchHill]

the tricky part for me is folding a new to me fx unit into an existing set of presets i’ve already established and developed with gear i’ve used for years.
but i think that’s also fun challenging part like solving a puzzle as i learn the new unit’s strengths and weaknesses.

plus just acquiring some of these legendary grail devices for an old audio gear nerd like me is a bucket list kinda thing!

Yep, exactly, that's the fun part!

Me, too. When I started playing, I wouldn't have dreamed that I'd actually have some of the things I do now but definitely dreamed about it. Absolutely a bucket list thing for me.