My Rig v8.7

jonny-b-brown · #1 07.08.11, 11:34 AM

I guess since it hasn't changed in a couple of weeks, but it has changed in the last three years since I last posted a rig, it warrants a thread.

guitars:
Classic Players 50's Stratocaster - totally stock, but relic'd to resemble a roadworn strat. I usually hate sunburst and two-point trems, but once I played it I had to have it.

1984 Strat - The date stamp is the month/year I was born, so I'm a little sentimental about it, but it's the backup for right now. Middle pickup has been changed to a silver lace sensor, the other two pups are stock. Currently has a "Tone Age" neck from Guitar Mill installed while I ponder a refret for the original neck (can't decide between vintage or medium frets.)

Ibanez Artcore - Very rarely used, mostly to record heavier parts or feedback stuff. Added Burstbuckers and a bone nut.

Pedals:
Crybaby 535Q

BYOC D+, Well, at least that's what it started as. It's more of a clean boost with a blend control for the clipping circuit. Has a huge amount of output (9 'o clock is unity gain, I'm guessing around 30 db maxed out). The actual amount of distortion available is really small.

Danelectro Dan-echo, The purple paint is gone and I'm considering adding an external footswitch for switching between long/short mode.

The black box at the back is actually a lithium ion battery pack. Nate (knives490) and I were discussing building a power supply with a built in battery, and then Sanyo actually came out with one. I built this one out of an RC car battery and an empty MXR sized box. It's 7.5v, cuz I like the sound of the D+ and the Dano when they are a little starved (unfortunately this doesn't work so well with the crybaby). It gets about 35 hours of play time on a charge, and charges in 3 hours. The downside is when it dies, it dies suddenly and without warning. Some changes I'm planning are a "low battery" led and an on/off switch so I don't have to unplug the pedals in between.

Amps:
Blackheart little giant head - no actual mods, just general stuff it needs out of the box. JJ tubes and some zip-tie re-orienting of the internal wiring.

Avatar Vintage 2x12 Cab - Wired for 8 ohms with one Celestion Vintage 30 and one WGS ET-65.

Peavey Classic 30 - JJ's, V30, it's currently on backup duty to the previously mentioned amp. It may get sold soon.

I'm currently trying to craigslist out all of the rest of my gear to fund a Tele Custom, and maybe a fuzz and a nicer delay. But overall, I'm really happy with this rig for the quasi-psychedelic power pop stuff I play.

Sun Sweet Sun · #2 07.31.11, 5:01 PM

How's that Danecho pedal holding up? The few Danelectros I've tried seemed not so sturdy.

jonny-b-brown · #3 08.01.11, 1:11 PM

The older metal Danos are actually really sturdy. I got the whole series (fab tone, daddy o, cool cat, and danecho) when they first came out in the 90's, and they're all still 100% functional. The danecho is the only one that I still ever use. I've actually got 4 fab tones now, but 3 are in various states of modification. The beavis audio "less gain" mod is actually really good, but it still has more dirt than I ever use. I've never laid hands on the mini dano's or the newer kinds, but some of them get a lot of love around here.

jonny-b-brown · #4 04.07.12, 2:56 PM

My pedalboard is starting to get larger again. Although I like the simplicity of just 3 pedals, there are limitations after a while. As of today, it's like this:

Lovepedal Superlead -> BYOC D+(heavily modified) -> MXR Carbon Copy -> Way Huge Aqua Puss -> EHX Freeze -> Danelectro Dan Echo

I've ordered some boxes from loop-master.com, but I didn't realize until after I ordered that he is backed up three months. >

Anyway, I got the clean/dirty switcher to switch between the Superlead and the D+. I also ordered a 3 loop switcher for the Aqua Puss, Freeze and Dan Echo.

Also, I'm looking at the FX Doctor 8-bit Fuzz versus the MXR Blue Box for some pyschedelic freak out noise and some type of stereo phase/vibe to split the signal and create a bigger sound.

Helmet · #5 04.09.12, 6:52 AM

I really like rigs where Less is More.

Nice strats by the way

jonny-b-brown · #6 04.13.12, 8:36 PM

I'm in the process of gathering up all of my gear from friends, my parent's house, my ex-wife's house, and the attic. I realized that I have so much stuff spread around in so many places and I keep buying more. What I really want to do is get it all in one place, take an inventory, and sell/trade/modify this stuff into one rig that I can use and rely on for everything.

On Olddawg's advice, I've decided to build an amp based on Weber's 6M45 head kit. It's going to be a super simple, one channel, no frills foundation for pedals.

jonny-b-brown · #7 04.19.12, 7:18 PM

I found my old 2x10 cab today in the back of my parents garage. I have no idea what make/model it is, but it's got two sweet 8 ohm Italian Jensens in it. It might be a good extension for the classic 30.....don't know yet.

As of right now:

Strat or SG

White coiley Bullet Cable

D+ > Lovepedal Superlead > Boss DD20 > EHX Freeze > Danelectro Dan-Echo

Classic 30

Realpity · #8 04.28.12, 6:09 PM

Just a question jonny, I have a chance at a fab tone for around $20, how do you find the distortion ? I prefer a fuzzier gritty sound like much of the northwest bands (mudhoney, Tad, Paw), is it capable of a fuzz like that ?

Love the '84, nice git !

jonny-b-brown · #9 04.28.12, 7:12 PM

At $20, a Fab Tone is a great buy. I don't use nearly that much gain anymore, but it does the chainsaw-fuzz thing very well. And the amount of lowend is unbelievable.

Braunz0 · #10 04.29.12, 4:39 PM

Cool rig man... What kind of music do you do? I'm sure I remember from way back, but I haven't been on this board for so long. Got any links to your band or anything?

jonny-b-brown · #11 04.30.12, 3:24 PM

Thanks man! Right now I'm working on a Police tribute band with two fellow teachers. Hopefully we are going to be looking to do some casino/corporate gigs during the summer break and again during the holidays.

Oddly enough, my rig is in the middle of another major revamp to try and nail the Andy Summers thing.....here's the pedalboard as of today.

But.....I'm in the middle of changing it all around again.

Plus, I'm rethinking my amp choice. Probably going to be something super small.

And I just finished putting together a new strat and the "84" is on the bench as I type.

So really, in twelve hours none of the above posts will be accurate

jonny-b-brown · #12 05.01.12, 10:36 AM

After moving things around, selling a TON of stuff, and doing a couple of pickup swaps, here it is today:

Two Strats-
White 2011 MIM Strat: GFS Neovin 'Power Rock' set, bone nut, stainless saddles, brass trem block, and Wilkinson EZ lock tuners. new favorite

Originally White (Now yellow) 1984 Strat: Dimarzio Paul Gilbert Injector set, otherwise stock

Pedalboard-
Pretty much the same...see pic. Might lose the Freeze.

Amp:
The mystery cab has been identified as a 60's Gibson 2x10 cab. It's tiny but deep.Two 8 Ohm Jensen C10Q. I love the sound of this cab with pretty much anything, but I would like to find something similar to my Champ 600 with a tad more power.

Additional bonus: From selling all the unused stuff, I now have an entire extra closet and enough cash for a killer vacation!

jonny-b-brown · #13 05.08.12, 9:48 PM

So after a few rehearsals and one headache of a first gig, I have ditched the EHX Freeze and replaced it with a Nano Holy Grail. Still looking for a chorus, using Danelectro Cool Cat (the old 18v version) for the time being.

I'm using a Blackheart Handsome Devil head loaded with JJ's, because the little Champ wasn't cutting it.

I really wish the loop-master stuff would get here so I could stop doing my ugly tapdance routine during songs.

Braunz0 · #14 05.09.12, 11:59 AM

Man, if that's a tap dancing issue, I'm really going to be in a bit of trouble... I'm getting ready to upsize my board so I can use it for whatever rig I use. Thought about doing the looper thing, but there's so many pedals I use that have more than one footswitch to do different things, so a looper would make it pretty difficult.

jonny-b-brown · #15 05.11.12, 10:47 AM

As far as loopers go, I'm planning on having the D+ and Superlead in a A/B selector loop so one button toggles between them instead of having to turn one off and the other on.

Then there will be a 3-loop switcher with phase/chorus/tremolo in loop 1, delay in loop 2, and reverb in loop 3. Since this will move the dd-20 to the back row, I'm going to use a mini tap-tempo button with the aux jack so that the loop button will turn it on and the mini tap tempo will be available on the front row to switch between memories and input tempo.

There will still be a couple of changes to make between songs (like phase or tremolo actually turned on in the loop), but during the songs I hope to limit the switching to just those front row selectors.

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