I run a pretty simple guitar setup - I have a handful of guitars (each with its own flavor) that go into a really basic pedal setup (I use an overdrive, a distortion, a volume boost, a delay pedal and a chorus) and into a guitar amp.
I was looking for something to give my rig more 'dimension', without needing a whole change to my amp (since I spent a long time searching for the right amp, and they aren't cheap!), so I started looking at what I already had. No need to reinvent the wheel, right?!
I started by considering rigs I've heard and/or envied in the past, mostly stereo setups or 'wet/dry' ones. I have a stereo chorus pedal, so I tried that first - splitting my guitar signal into two sides that each get a part of the chorus effect and could have distortion and delay on just one side. It worked, I had the equipment for it and I tried it out. I love the stereo chorus effect, it pushes one speaker while pulling the other, creating a deep chorus sound that better emulates the rotating speaker cabinets that organ and guitar players used to use (but weigh a ton and are wicked expensive...) but I still thought something was not quite right.
The next option I looked at was getting a splitter to break the signal at the front of the pedalboard, so I could have two completely different signal chains going and try a 'wet/dry' setup. But I really don't like buying things to 'try' something... so one day I was using my little acoustic/bass pedalboard and realized that the tuner pedal I was using on it was equipped with two different outputs one is always on, regardless of the tuner function, and the other gets muted when you turn the tuner on - so I decided to see what would happen if I plugged different amps into both outputs at the same time. I found that I had a perfectly good signal splitter that also gave me the option to mute one signal, while the other one remained (this would mean that with no need to buy anything else, I could have my wet/dry AND I could mute the 'wet' side altogether if I wanted to just have the 'dry' side going...
Then I had to decide which of the two smaller combo amps I already had would be my 'Wet' amp. My main amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III, so I've got that sound nailed. The options were a Vox AD15VT and a Crate G60R - one is very low powered, but has more tone options and one has more power (and a bigger speaker) but is limited to similar tone options as the Fender I knew I'd be keeping... I played around with each for a while and landed on the Vox - it may be smaller, but it gives a decidedly different voice to the side of the signal that was going to get the chorus and delay effects.
I set up my pedals in two different parts, each with a mute (tuner pedal) and now I have my rig setup with two guitar amps, each getting different clean and distortion sounds, and one carrying the effects (this means that I've always got a good and solid basic sound (clean, OD, Distortion or combination of OD and Dist) and the 'fun' stuff can be layered on top of that - this is great for ensuring that the rhythm sounds stay punchy and don't get bogged down by any effects, which can make things get loose).
How many times have you been looking for a change, and gone out of your way to push the changes to happen at the expense of our sanity and our pocket books? It's amazing how many times if you just step back and look at what you already have, you'll find an excellent solution that will answer your 'I want' and your 'I need' all in one low-cost option!
I was looking for something to give my rig more 'dimension', without needing a whole change to my amp (since I spent a long time searching for the right amp, and they aren't cheap!), so I started looking at what I already had. No need to reinvent the wheel, right?!
I started by considering rigs I've heard and/or envied in the past, mostly stereo setups or 'wet/dry' ones. I have a stereo chorus pedal, so I tried that first - splitting my guitar signal into two sides that each get a part of the chorus effect and could have distortion and delay on just one side. It worked, I had the equipment for it and I tried it out. I love the stereo chorus effect, it pushes one speaker while pulling the other, creating a deep chorus sound that better emulates the rotating speaker cabinets that organ and guitar players used to use (but weigh a ton and are wicked expensive...) but I still thought something was not quite right.
The next option I looked at was getting a splitter to break the signal at the front of the pedalboard, so I could have two completely different signal chains going and try a 'wet/dry' setup. But I really don't like buying things to 'try' something... so one day I was using my little acoustic/bass pedalboard and realized that the tuner pedal I was using on it was equipped with two different outputs one is always on, regardless of the tuner function, and the other gets muted when you turn the tuner on - so I decided to see what would happen if I plugged different amps into both outputs at the same time. I found that I had a perfectly good signal splitter that also gave me the option to mute one signal, while the other one remained (this would mean that with no need to buy anything else, I could have my wet/dry AND I could mute the 'wet' side altogether if I wanted to just have the 'dry' side going...
Then I had to decide which of the two smaller combo amps I already had would be my 'Wet' amp. My main amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III, so I've got that sound nailed. The options were a Vox AD15VT and a Crate G60R - one is very low powered, but has more tone options and one has more power (and a bigger speaker) but is limited to similar tone options as the Fender I knew I'd be keeping... I played around with each for a while and landed on the Vox - it may be smaller, but it gives a decidedly different voice to the side of the signal that was going to get the chorus and delay effects.
I set up my pedals in two different parts, each with a mute (tuner pedal) and now I have my rig setup with two guitar amps, each getting different clean and distortion sounds, and one carrying the effects (this means that I've always got a good and solid basic sound (clean, OD, Distortion or combination of OD and Dist) and the 'fun' stuff can be layered on top of that - this is great for ensuring that the rhythm sounds stay punchy and don't get bogged down by any effects, which can make things get loose).
How many times have you been looking for a change, and gone out of your way to push the changes to happen at the expense of our sanity and our pocket books? It's amazing how many times if you just step back and look at what you already have, you'll find an excellent solution that will answer your 'I want' and your 'I need' all in one low-cost option!