Clean to Mean Rack Tones 12/27/25

[mentoneman]

Fred is one of the best jazz fusion guitar players to come out of Hawaii. was a legend when i was still in high school. played with my other friend Dean in Hiroshima.
hung out with him at a Landau gig at Tone Merchants way back when and his band opened the NAMM after party where Guthrie jammed with Marco and Bryan live for the first time, which culminated in the Aristocrats.

check it at 5:20

 

[mentoneman]

my next wdw rig

the stereo wet rack rig

and the dry middle

 

[mentoneman]

ever since discovering this short lived company at NAMM 15 yrs ago and purchasing one of these “tube devices” (which i loved but which was in an amp i let my friend borrow and was stolen)





i’ve been hoping for this tech to resurface and develop.

looks promising…

 

[mentoneman]

 

[mentoneman]

was having a banner tone day until my 2290 went belly up. sweet. i now have the holy grail of 80s rack fx—2290, H3k and PCM 70–sitting dead on my couch

thankfully the rig still sounds fine but it is definitely not as cool without the king of delays working its magic. another soldier to send out for repair$$$.

after trying different configs i went back to the mark III half stack as middle dry amp/cab driving my rack preamps. the vht 2/90/2 & 1x12s for wets sound better in my rig for more precise volume control and dry to stereo balance. i might even entertain a pair of barefaced 1x10s vs. traditional 1x12s…

played some cool amps yesterday—carr rambler and red plate allen hinds, running strats and teles loaded with ellis sc pickups. not bad at all. my beater indo tele into my rig doesn’t suck and the headstrong combo i played last week sets the recent new-to-me clean combo benchmark.

also spent quality time with the tonex pedal into peacemaker half stack. with some tweaking of the standalone VH pedal presets (lower pedal gain, treble, fx + balance mojave treble and power) i’m getting great results that just get better as the power tubes get hit harder.
and if i minimize the pedal verb/delay which are lame imo and run external verb/delay into a separate wet rig it’s better yet.

 

[Code001]

What is the problem with the 2290? No longer powers up? Lost signal while playing?

 

[Shask]

Definitely an issue with this old stuff these days. Hopefully it can still be fixed.

I have been making a ton of ToneX captures of my amps recently. Definitely the way to get the best sounds.

 

[mentoneman]

What is the problem with the 2290? No longer powers up? Lost signal while playing?

in the middle of playing the sound and display died. pulled it out of the rack, checked fuses, looked inside for anything burnt/out of the ordinary and didn’t see anything obvious.

 

[ChurchHill]

in the middle of playing the sound and display died. pulled it out of the rack, checked fuses, looked inside for anything burnt/out of the ordinary and didn’t see anything obvious.

Yikes! I have that fear every time I flip the power switch on mine. Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle.

Could it be the power supply? Possible that it gave up the ghost. Might be an easy fix.

Slightly off topic, but what do you think of the Ellis single coils? Were they Strats or Teles or both? They caught my attention a few years ago but haven't been able to justify the cost. Just curious if they live up to the hype and expense.

 

[mentoneman]

Yikes! I have that fear every time I flip the power switch on mine. Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle.

Could it be the power supply? Possible that it gave up the ghost. Might be an easy fix.

Slightly off topic, but what do you think of the Ellis single coils? Were they Strats or Teles or both? They caught my attention a few years ago but haven't been able to justify the cost. Just curious if they live up to the hype and expense.

i was thinking power supply too. i don’t mind having it evaluated and properly serviced.

the Ellis pickups sounded great. it’s a little difficult to describe the single coils i played in the shop’s unfamiliar tele and strat setup and string gauges but basically well suited for clean clear sparkle like fralins but still worked well when overdriven ala dumble type tone.

i played the signature humbucker previously and thought it sounded really impressive. i’ve been totally devoted to the clarity of my Holmes 450 PAF style humbucker in my Tyler for 20 years. the only other newer pickup that caught my eye a few years ago was the Tone Specific stuff after playing my friend’s jem before/after installing the TS 57/61 set which transformed it into the best sounding jem i’ve ever heard or played:

https://www.tonespecific.com/collec...uxe-p-a-f-humbuckers-best-paf-style-humbucker

i ended up buying the TS 1974 Randy Rhoads set to install in my PRS and love those too.

The Ellis has a similar characteristic with a bit more output. It was installed in my friend’s Les Paul being played on this JEL/Jose iphone clip

 

[ChurchHill]

Nice! Thought the Ellis was a little bright/sharp through the JEL, but through that Jose... DAMN. I've been considering a set for a while. And yeah, Holmes... there's a 450/455 set near me that I've been thinking about.

I'm not too familiar with TS but will check them out. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[mentoneman]

Nice! Thought the Ellis was a little bright/sharp through the JEL, but through that Jose... DAMN. I've been considering a set for a while. And yeah, Holmes... there's a 450/455 set near me that I've been thinking about.

I'm not too familiar with TS but will check them out. Thanks for the recommendation!

some of that brightness you hear may have been the JEL 20.

this was the clip that initially caught my ear re: the Tone Specifics and triggered my friend to buy them



i bought my RR 74 set through an ebay auction

it replaced my stock PRS pickups which were hotter one trick ponies with zero clean tone options-


into a gtr tone i prefer more in a dynamic Les Paul kinda way (and totally useable cleans)-

 

[mentoneman]

 

[Little B]

^^^^ it's a great watch if you got the time.Cant wait for part 2.A while ago I commended Bob on his accomplishments and suggested someone should do a full blown documentary on him and cae.no 5 minute tictoc vids.I can only hope he,as well as say ( other earth shakers like) Tom Sholtz will pass on thier talents to someone who can carry on someday.

 

[Code001]

Surprised to hear that list minute info with Lukather... Would be great if they could partner again like the old times, even if it's just a pedal setup.

 

[mentoneman]

what would really be a hit is if Bob could convince Mike L. to discuss their early rack adventures and discoveries with live sound examples.
Moikey N. and Bobby B. could definitely have a cool little YT series ala Tone Talk with BB breaking down specific celebrity rig builds.

But please 6 lb 8 oz baby Jesus do not allow videos longer than an hour per episode!

 

[Dave L]

I can´t really remember when Luke ditched his last Bradshaw rig for the Bogners and pedals, but I think he was out of his angry wino phase at that point and I don´t recall any mudslinging... so maybe it was a pretty amicable split, as these things go.

 

[mentoneman]

I can´t really remember when Luke ditched his last Bradshaw rig for the Bogners and pedals, but I think he was out of his angry wino phase at that point and I don´t recall any mudslinging... so maybe it was a pretty amicable split, as these things go.

the ultimate would be Luke and Landau chatting with Bob and dissecting the early rigs through the golden rack era, particularly Tales from the Bulge…how the TSC became a thing, evolution of Eventide gear in the rigs, fave lexicon and yamaha presets and how they determined fxs combinations. always wondered if Bob did any of the fx preset programming or was that all the player?
highlights and horror stories…

 

[Little B]

^^^ Ditto to all of what you guys just said.Even tho theyre long,pt 1&2 are just scratching the surface if you're really into this stuff.Im ready for pt 3,4,5,etc.......

 

[mentoneman]

plus he’s got piles of concert video and photos.
i’d like him to start re-releasing his RST instructional videos for us owners!