My doomsday rig...

So I MIDIed up, but went with a lot of discreet TC components because of the way they pass your dry signal. All my drive and boost features are analog from the Nova series (Nova system and Nova drive). Modulation, some delay, pitch shift and all that fun horseshit is coming off the Nova system as is OD and distortion to my AC30s. Modelled tape delay is coming off the TC Flashback X4 with my own custom toneprints loaded up for a subtle slap, saturated tape delay and a kinda broken-sounding space echo setting that I managed to get sounding like my old Roland CHorus echo when the tape was worn out and motors were malfunctioning. I am incorporating the 60s Traynor 50 watter I bought for cleans sharing my closed back 2x12 with the Matchless. Rig is an unbalanced stereo affair. Now I need to debug the routing a bit and pedalboard it. The Nova System is the main controller and commands preset changes across all effects as well as setting tempo via its tap switch....

everything is happening in front of the amps except for "channel switching" via the Traynor and Matchless on a weber 2 Head amp switcher controlled via (you guessed it) MIDI-to-relay thanks to the wonderful MIDI Solutions 1 channel relay gadget. They both get signal all the time, but the Weber and MIDI Solutions combo allows me to decide which one is going to the cab on any given patch. The other one sits on a 100 watt dummy load until the next patch change.

I am playng with routing and how "stereo I want things to be so I can make a pedal board layout and put the whole thing together in the cleanest, smallest and most efficient way possible...

the great thing is I have an extra stereo output from the nova system so I can run the vintage AC30 too if I ever play anywhere that will tolerate 3 amps at once all the time!

It feels kind of weird hearing from you talking about all these stereo effects going on, considering you're, at least in my opinion, more of a Les paul into one overdrive straight to Vox amp.

On a side note, have your tried splitting stereo and having two different delay settings on each side? So much fun, so confusing at times LOL

The rig has 2 dry patches already. More or less. There's crunch with a few cents detune on one side as well as the same with some pedal distortion added out front but nothing else. Theres a lit of 3Dness just from having mismatched soeakers in both cabs, plus one is a combo with an h30 and blue alnico whereas the other is a deep closed back with a vintage celestion and cts alnico and is way more 70s rock in tone.

2 different delays? Thats exactly what this rig does. Different delay rhythm and voicing oneach side. My main patchesi am building are straight in with a touch of tape slap on one side and detune and a smidgen of longer delay, spring or plate reverb on the other. The B side gets some rat for heavier stuff and rat/boost/lpf/octave upfor solos whereas the other side switches heads and just gets a slightly dirty ts9 kinda boost for solos... One side is the color side with the ac30 run kinda dirty all the other time. The other side is more about core tones like i would typically play in mono.

So far i am going subtle. I am sure i will make some more insane patches when i have a few basic ones i love.

This sounds pretty damn cool. I'd love to give a midi set up a go one day but I'm too lazy to try working my head around setting it all up how I would want it.

I admit I am a bit ovetwhelmed with routing. Nothing I do sounds bad per se, but there are a lot of options as far as what amps can get what effects as well as where to engage buffering in the chain....

I am sticking to 1 rule so far: I hit the radial aby 1st to dial in the proper reactive load on my pickups with the drag knob... Otherwise everything seems to work.

I haven't gotten the Traynor yet, sothat hiwatty tpne may be the deciding factor for routing. Eventually i want to add 2 fenders into the head switching mux and have a custom midi device made to select betweem matchkess, hiwatt, bf fender and tweed fender. Or maybe have my vintage ac30 as a 3rd amp switchable with a tweef fender pro at 8 ohms with the 2 60s g12s speakers....

So when you play are you using an amp selector switch of some sort ( like amp a and amp b) or is the signal going to both amps at the same time? IF at the same time that would be an awesome way to "stack" delays! Never thought of it from that perspective. (whenever I've stacked delays its always been through one amp or channel.) I bet you get that nice stereo spread with your setup. I'd love to hear it if you ever get a chance to record it in action!

Its 3 amps at once each with its own midi controlled effects. But only 2 ever hit speakers at any time.the hc30 and traynor are sharing a cab.

I got the Hiwatty Traynor up to around 5 tonight after work.... SHIT... I bought this amp to be all clean, but the grind, the grind! Do I need a totally clean tone? This amp is so ballsy when its just breakin' up.... raw and ROCKIN like Pete standing on stage at the Isle of White festival in 69

Itd msking me debating swapping the G12M and CTS in my 2x12 for a couple of fanes or a fane and a JBL K120

I love my Voxes, but this Hiwatty tone is sumthin' else! Traynor YVM-1 where have you been all my life?

Look at this paira bad boys!

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Holy shit dude! You stand in front of that? ;o) A bit like standing behind the engine of a 747! Haha! Awesome!

Thats 1/2 the rig Ebow. Usually that cab would be flipped horizontal with an ac30 next to it for a very complete guitar sound.

This is a little rig. I used to have a clean/dirty setup with a dual showman and a superlead onthe road. At one point it had a whole stereo thing going with 3 to 8 marshall 4x12s. Shit you not dude.

This setup is barely loud. Really. Your guts don't vibrate at all.

Why? Your setup is smaller?

EDIT:

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that's a shot of my down-sized, mono touring rig while my band had a rhythm guitarist (I am on the left with the whack, punk rock hair, tie, and '88 LP Standard)... you can't see the vintage Marshall rig very well behind me, but you can see the dual showman and 1960A cab loaded with JBL K series speakers. The Marshall woulda been a Plexi RI or an early JMP superlead thru a 1960TV cab loaded with pre-rola g12ms (and sometimes vintage 30s on the bottom) or a 1980B cab loaded with stock H magnet speakers

Now THAT? That was loud.

I am already feeling bogged down by all this tech. Yesterday I just dumpedit all and put my SG straight into the 60 watt Traynor head, cranked the channel I was plugged into, master at 5, let her rip. Great clean with the guitar volume half-mat, killer OD full on. Mission accomplished.

I don't know why I always get bit by the effects bug. Maybe if I reduce my options a little, just some de-tune/chorus to separate the sides and maybe stereo echo... dirty boost. Less is more when it comes to effects for me, whereas more is more when it comes to amps, volume, different speakers... That's an effect tin and of itself.

still puttering, nova system is gone, control is now running from a behringer FCB1010 floor board and effects are down to a nove drive on one side and the flashback X4 for now.... might incorporate a line M5 or M9 and call it done. I would really like to score one of those egnater 4 amp to 1 cab MIDI switching devices over the Weber so I can 3 or 4 amps available on one side. Maybe Ac30, matchless and a JCM800? Then the traynor doing The Who duties on the other side all the time. hrrrm, the serious amp switcher is outta control expensive though. $1k. Gah. Maybe later in the year.

doomsday rig update... I have now gone to 3 amps always on (traynor 67/68 YVM1, Matchless HC30 w/2x5Y3 rectifiers, Vox AC30HW2X in full power OR 62 AC30B combos) thru six 12" speakers... I have the Brian May treble booster on in al loop almost all the time and achieve clean and dirty by switching pickups while my lead sound and different echoes are part of MIDI patches, so its a mix of new school and old school methods... I dropped the chorus for now and I have the superfuzz as my fuzzy octave lead with a certain echo assigned to it and then the booster hitting the rat side of the Nova Drive for a more modest lead tone with its own distinct echo setting....

not that anyone cares, but I got some jammin' in lately and it helped me really nail down my patches and fully integrate my Gibson-lover pickups/volume/tone manipulation into the footswitch settings to be a little more JIM... I have been tweaking everything to suit the way I found myself playing in real life while the boy is napping this afternoon. It actually has turned out to be a very Jimmy Page sounding rig even though that was not a clear cut goal. Now to start another full time band.