guitar (or bass, or whatever) effects

I run wet dry wet.

Guitar> CMatMods Butah > true bypass A B 4 channel Looper (loop 1&2 are toggle, loop 3&4 are modulation)

Rig A - dry, Marshall 18 watt only gets dirt on/off
Rig B - wet, Left of all stereo effects Vox AC30TB 1965
Rig C - wet, Right of all stereo effects Fender Deluxe Reverb

Loop 1 & 2 toggle Cranked AC / Dirty Little Secret or (2) Scarob Deluxe / Fixed wah
Loop 3 70's DMM Delay
Loop 4 ibanez pt-9 phase> Option 5 Destination Rotation> Supra-Trem 2

Delay is alway just one dedicated repeat to first Left channel amp, sometimes I add a ad999 and dedicate a third repeat from the right channel amp, so it ping pings first dry amp, then Left amp and last right amp.
Stereo effects are all "true" stereo with dedicated amps for L & R

If I want the sound of an effect driven, I have the mild Butah in front. It can be added to the stereo amps with modulation (that's how I prefer my Phase. Think Cowboy song, or Cars tunes.

I hardly ever stack effects... ok never. I turn on One in a toggle and go on/off from mild break up to lead, fuzz, Woman tone…
Usually only one modulation is used in a song or a toggle at a time, think Badge, Sister Havana, or In the Meantime…

When playing, it's almost always a three piece. Don't play much at all these days. No venues, no pay. Last gig I did was actually an authentic Sock Hop. Bunch of doowop and rockabilly.

I actually just took it apart to change the cloth background

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That helps a lot now I understand that you dealing with .
1st I would ask is are you happy with your tone?

If so I have also learned the preferred thing to do is ask your drummer very politely to play softer or with lighter sticks and the bass player to turn down. Wow what concept!

The volume on stage is almost always set buy the drummer.
If the bass player or you cant hear yourselves you have no choice but to turn up till you can. Too loud of stage volume causes feedback & a multitude of other problems like getting fired or never being asked back. Oh yea and hearing damage.

Seasoned players understand controlling volume & dynamics to match each other & the room is job # 1! Nothing pisses off staff and patrons more than bands that are too damn loud!
It is always better to be asked to turn up than down.
I have played with more players and seen more bands than I can count that simply cant grasp this basic concept.

1st hint if everyone in the audience is standing at the back of the room & no one is siting or standing/dancing close to the stage…Your too f*cking loud!


2nd will changing your amps tone setting help you sit in the mix better?
What sounds great at home by yourself doesn’t always work in a band setting.

Often rolling off some bass on your guitar to leave those frequencies for the bass player to cover & the bass player cutting some of his highs to make room for you cleans up the mix because the 2 instruments are not competing with each other & creating phase issues resulting in mud. Try EQ’ing to make space for each other in the mix.

If your’e playing with the type of players who think “If its too loud you’re too old” & that isn’t an option.
The cheapest and easiest thing to do IMHO is dial in your amp right where you like it and simply mic it with a Sennheiser e 609 ($100) or e906 ($189) draped over your amp .

If you need “More Me” on stage run it thru your monitors for each member & to the FOH as needed

No chasing tone, going through pedal after pedal & endlessly rolling tubes or swapping out speakers.

The VHT Special 6 like most low wattage amps are really designed to be played at smaller venues & studio work & to break up at low volume levels. That is the point of low watt amps. Tube saturation at manageable volume.

Adding breakup is easy but adding more clean is very hard.

Headroom is the reason I run a Princeton (Stays clean to 10 like a Twin) verses a Princeton Reverb that breaks up around 3.5 -5 depending on tubes/speaker installed.

I have a 78 Fender Twin Reverb loaded with JBL E-120’s that has the ultra-liner transformer 135 watts of pure tube point to point Fender clean! Takes pedals wonderfully too.
But I can only use it one or twice a year because it will melt your face off and make you deaf before it ever breaks up.

Other options are..

A) Try a more efficient speaker that gives you more output & has less speaker cry. I replaced the stock speaker in my Fender Excelsior with an Eminence legend and gained almost 10db !


B) Use an extension cab. Generally +3db for each speaker added (I bet if you plug that VHT into a 4x12 cab you will have enough headroom)

C)Try different tubes

D) Use an amp with more headroom if all else fails.

Good luck I have been in your shoes many times..Often the answer isn’t more or different gear but actually each member making adjustments to accommodate each other that make the band as whole not each individual sound its best.
PQ
Some great advice. Venues are small in my area and they don't pay much either. I keep down sizing my amps. I haven't needed to mic a guitar amp in a long long time. Even Weddings barely need a fill mic just cracked on. We're down to just a sm48 in the bass drum, one between hihat and snare and an over Hang above the drummer in the front, nothing in the monitors except vocals. The bass guitar amp is just a 12 and two 10's with a line in that we barely crack on. No mic on the guitar amps. We're down to taking 4-6 bagend 12's and one super light 15" sub. I've sold off over 20,000 watts of pa amps. We're down to 1 peavy 8.5 and two super light behringer 6000 watt amps. I'm down to a dual 15 band for the fronts and one 15 band eq for the monitors. Drummer is now using a 20" x 16" bass four piece. A 72" tall rack for pa is down to a 36" tall one. All the big mains and horns are gone.

Volume has always been my pet peeve. I like stacked harmonies and dynamics. Less is always more. I like soft touch jazz drummers in rock bands actually. Nobody wants Banham back there building a shed anymore. Music isn't the center of attention anymore… people want to talk across a table while you play. The dancers want tight base and volume but they are about 10-15 feet from the tables… go figure. More challenging is the genre of music. I will not play traditional blues. I'm sick of it. I don't EVER want to hear Smoke Stack Lighting or Ain't No Sunshine again in my life. I don't want to play with musicians who hide under the guise of "Blues" so they can stop rehearsing and overplay and massage the pentatonic scale all night. If you don't have the dedication to learn structured songs, real parts, don't play. Nobody wants to hear a break in each song as you shout out your own name as if your some legend. Leave your harps at home or learn to compliment the song rather than try to take over. Nobody wants to hear your 20 minute harp solo that is so far from what the song started as that nobody remembers what song you were playing. I don't sing songs about throwing gas on my wife or deals with the devil. I don't ever hear steamtrains from my porch or pick cotton in the sun... so I can't relate and it's not honest coming from me. Blooz suck to play around here. I also don't own a bowling shirt or a Sinatra hat...

Truth, I like to make an audience happy, but there isn't much I want to play anymore. I'm actually thinking about selling everything and just keeping a flat top. Where I live, nobody supports or cares about live music. It's completely dead.
 
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I play electric bass guitar. After many years of fooling around my set-up has settled on this: passive Fender Jazz with dead flatwound strings directly into a 1x15 Fender combo amp. The amp has a built in chorus, which I use slightly, and a graphic eq which I use every time I change venue. Every so often I have a need for a brighter sound, in which case I substitute a Carvin PB500 amp into a 2x10 cab with a horn in place of the fender amp. I also use a digital tuner. I can't possibly overstate a tuner as a must-have effect for those without good pitch or (in my case) band mates who can't quit noodling while you're tuning. That's it. The whole signal chain. Unless I need a direct box for something. Then I have the flattest passive direct box I could find, but I use it d=so seldom I forget the brand.
 
I'm a drummer, so I don't have a lot of hands-on experience with guitar/bass effects. But some of my favourites that I've played with have been:
The good ol' Boss OD1 used as a gain (high level, low drive) into a Fender Tweed clone just on the verge of overdriving itself with either an SG or Tele - the perfect rock rythm-crunch.
Carl-Martin Plexitone into a Laney Lionheart or 70's Fender Deluxe Reverb - a super versatile pedal, that can do anything from clean to crunch to hard distortion and sound good all the way.

In my current band one of the guitarists is using a Fulltone OCD, but in "reverse" - he has it turned on with low volume during his rythm parts, and off during solos. That actually started with the two of us just playing around with his settings, but it works very well, because his lead sound is just his amp overdriving, and then the pedal lowers the input when he's playing rythm.

For bass I like a bit of overdrive with a gentle treble-boost to accentuate the attack for rock stuff. Or a subtle octave with the normal frequencies still being dominant, especially in a trio setting where it can provide some extra fullness to the sound.
 
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I'm toying with the idea of getting an (upper) octave fuzz. It will definitely hinge on whether or not this new project happens. Ideally it would be small.

Looking for a little smoother (not too glitchy or sputtery), and probably with independent fuzz and level controls and octave on/off. Ideally it would track well enough to not completely freak out with double stops (though a little octave weirdness would be cool and expected).

I think a Foxx Tone Machine-esqe thing might be the ticket, but I have no idea. The idea is to get some smooth sustain and controllable feedback at lower volumes.

Any suggestions?
 
I'm toying with the idea of getting an (upper) octave fuzz. It will definitely hinge on whether or not this new project happens. Ideally it would be small.

Looking for a little smoother (not too glitchy or sputtery), and probably with independent fuzz and level controls and octave on/off. Ideally it would track well enough to not completely freak out with double stops (though a little octave weirdness would be cool and expected).

I think a Foxx Tone Machine-esqe thing might be the ticket, but I have no idea. The idea is to get some smooth sustain and controllable feedback at lower volumes.

Any suggestions?
Danelectro has a octave fuzz you could get just to fool around with. I believe it's a fox tone circuit copy?
 
Here's a new one from Orange Amps, their take on the Foxx Tone machine, the Orange Fur Coat Fuzz:

If you already have a fuzz pedal you might so consider this octave pedal from TC:
They also make a mini version.
You could pair it with something like this mini fuzz pedal from Red Witch i you don't have a fuzz:
http://www.redwitchpedals.com/ruby

The Danelectro is pretty good for the price but doesn't have a separate octave footswitch and the bass really drops with the octave on.
 
You definitely have a number of options for this type of pedal. One you might want to check into and which was one of my favorites for many years:

https://www.bearfootfx.com/store/fuzz/candy-apple-fuzz/

and another I like which is Tone Machine inspired:

http://proguitarshop.com/greer-amps-super-hornet.html

I love everything about that Super Hornet except the size and how much it costs :(

I actually really like the sounds of the Dano French Toast, but some reviews I've read mention a lot of noise even when bypassed, which would definitely bum me out.
 
Re: octave fuzz, I think this might be the ticket. Tons of clarity, and the octave can be used on its own. Spendy though.
 
Thank you John. When I think of all the guitars, basses, pedals and amps that passed through my grubby lil hands I have to shake my head. Of course working in a music store helped to fuel that. But it got to the point when I opened my storage space to fit yet another G&L (a small-MFD Humbucker Interceptor) and couldn't find anywhere to put it, that the purge began.
Just found the right guy to fix the Quad GT,so im very chuffed.Took ages to find this guy,he can even take those mad little Sony DAT machines apart and rebuild em and he charges reasonably.
 
I got a MOD Kits DIY Piledriver boost kit for Xmas, so a few weeks ago I built my first pedal.

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I made a few dumb mistakes early on, but fortunately I caught them and it fired right up. I like the sound of this thing a little more on bass than guitar, but it's pretty neat. It sounds best around noon to 2 o'clock. Just gives the amp a little kick in the teeth and brings up the upper mids.

Kind of want to do another project. Probably a fuzz.
 
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