I have been in the throes of contemplating a shift in my guitar rig. My rig has gone over a few changes in the last couple of years, and I've not really found anything that I love. I've acquired some nice overdrive boxes like the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and the Budda Phatman tube overdrive that have stayed on my board for a long time. Maybe too long. The Fulldrive 2 has been the centerpiece of my overdrive sounds for about five years, and I think I'm satisfied with what it does. I am thinking about pickin up a new dirt pedal, though. Something with a little more spank and brightness.
The big change I am contemplating is effects. I've gone through several changes lately. I used overdrive pedals into a Boss GT-3 for several years, and it worked out really well. The GT-3 is a pretty impressive pedal, especially for the era in which it was released. Of course, it is very "digitally", but the ability to tap in multiple, timed effects was cool to me. A few years ago, I decided that my GT-3 was a little long in the tooth, and I tried to go to individual effects. I had my overdrive section running in to a Boss DD-20 gigadelay, a holy grail reverb, and a Boss tremolo. It was ok, but not really what I was hoping for.
My buddy, Brandon, is a heck of a guitar player and lead singer for the up-and-coming LA band, Matcli. He has been using the POD XTLive for a while now. He showed me some of the delay tones, and it sounded really great. I have been playing through one ever since. And up to this point I've been really enjoying the vast array of delays and effects the unit has. I've been disappointed with the amp modeling with it, however, and find that it is no better than the GT-3 for amp and cabinet modeling. Everything sounds squashed and compressed and lifeless. So what I've got is a really big and heavy delay pedal. And lately I've found that this pedal is putting me into a rut as a player. Because it is a multi-effects pedal, it has dozens of patches that are all individualized and unrelated. If I want to brighten my tone for a particular amp I'm playing, or tweak anything, I'm scrolling through menus and punching a lot of buttons. And what's worse, is that change isn't carried over into other similar patches.
So now I am contemplating selling off some gear to got to individual stomp boxes again. I used to have hours to spend tweaking patches and getting the right tones, but I have to face it: I'm in my mid 30's, married, a fast paced job, and I'm volunteering as a worship coordinator at my church. Do I have time to tweak my patches every week? Heck no.
So I'm stuck in a quandary. I have to choose between the Boss DD-20 Gigadely and the Line6 DL4. The Line6 DL4 is pretty sweet, except that you can't dial in tempos, and it won't do a "dotted-quarter" delay time. For me, that is almost a deal killer. As a worship leader, I try to keep the flow going, and nothing breaks the flow like punching in a tap tempo and having it be just a "little off".
But the DL4 has some gold-standard delay tones that the DD-20 just can't do. I thought of going with the DD-20 and piggybacking the Line6 Echo Park with it. The Echo Park pedal is an awesome pedal, and will do the big swirly delays that the DD-20 won't do. The DD-20 also cops the Boss Analog Delay that is the "holy grail" of analog delays amongst many players.
But the DL4 would give me a wider array of overall tones, and so many pro guys are using it......it has to be good. I haven't been able to pull the trigger, though. Of course, to pull the trigger means that I have to sell of other gear.......a true dilema!
The big change I am contemplating is effects. I've gone through several changes lately. I used overdrive pedals into a Boss GT-3 for several years, and it worked out really well. The GT-3 is a pretty impressive pedal, especially for the era in which it was released. Of course, it is very "digitally", but the ability to tap in multiple, timed effects was cool to me. A few years ago, I decided that my GT-3 was a little long in the tooth, and I tried to go to individual effects. I had my overdrive section running in to a Boss DD-20 gigadelay, a holy grail reverb, and a Boss tremolo. It was ok, but not really what I was hoping for.
My buddy, Brandon, is a heck of a guitar player and lead singer for the up-and-coming LA band, Matcli. He has been using the POD XTLive for a while now. He showed me some of the delay tones, and it sounded really great. I have been playing through one ever since. And up to this point I've been really enjoying the vast array of delays and effects the unit has. I've been disappointed with the amp modeling with it, however, and find that it is no better than the GT-3 for amp and cabinet modeling. Everything sounds squashed and compressed and lifeless. So what I've got is a really big and heavy delay pedal. And lately I've found that this pedal is putting me into a rut as a player. Because it is a multi-effects pedal, it has dozens of patches that are all individualized and unrelated. If I want to brighten my tone for a particular amp I'm playing, or tweak anything, I'm scrolling through menus and punching a lot of buttons. And what's worse, is that change isn't carried over into other similar patches.
So now I am contemplating selling off some gear to got to individual stomp boxes again. I used to have hours to spend tweaking patches and getting the right tones, but I have to face it: I'm in my mid 30's, married, a fast paced job, and I'm volunteering as a worship coordinator at my church. Do I have time to tweak my patches every week? Heck no.
So I'm stuck in a quandary. I have to choose between the Boss DD-20 Gigadely and the Line6 DL4. The Line6 DL4 is pretty sweet, except that you can't dial in tempos, and it won't do a "dotted-quarter" delay time. For me, that is almost a deal killer. As a worship leader, I try to keep the flow going, and nothing breaks the flow like punching in a tap tempo and having it be just a "little off".
But the DL4 has some gold-standard delay tones that the DD-20 just can't do. I thought of going with the DD-20 and piggybacking the Line6 Echo Park with it. The Echo Park pedal is an awesome pedal, and will do the big swirly delays that the DD-20 won't do. The DD-20 also cops the Boss Analog Delay that is the "holy grail" of analog delays amongst many players.
But the DL4 would give me a wider array of overall tones, and so many pro guys are using it......it has to be good. I haven't been able to pull the trigger, though. Of course, to pull the trigger means that I have to sell of other gear.......a true dilema!
Labels: Gear
3 Comments:
hey Scottie,
Sounds like quite the dilemma. I go through a desire to switch out all my gear every couple years but, thankfully, I haven't given in (I always go back to loving what I have like a month later when I find a new way to use it).
It's a good thing that you are taking your delay so seriously, I personally think that the delay tone is probably the second most important part of a guitar setup (amp/distortion tone being first). Now I could have sworn that the DL4 had tap tempo and could do dotted quarters, are you sure it can't? You could also look at the Echo Pro which is the rack unit put out by Line 6. Iy includes midi functions which make things much easier and might offer the flexibility you are looking for.
I myself have tried to overcome the urge to easy my delay suffering for the perfect tone. I use an old Korg SDD 2000 digital modulation delay. This unit is the baby brother of the SDD 3000 which was the Edge's primary delay (along side the TC 2290) for most of their greatest albums (Unforgettable Fire through Pop). The tone is unbelievable and i picked it up for a good price ($120 on ebay). It has a kind of an indirect tap tempo, but since I also use a lot of dotted tempos, it doesn't help me for the most part. But it is midi, so I can have tons of presets that I can switch back and forth from in a split second.
If you are looking at getting into amp modelling, you might be biting off more than you really want to chew (unless you are a glutton for punishment or have a lot of disposable income). Generally speaking, most good amp modeling units don't sound good through amps (or more accurately through preamps). The best way to get good sounds out of amp modelers is to run them through a nice power amp and then a speaker cab (or possibly just directly into the house system). I personally don't like the idea of running my rig directly through the house system because it takes away a lot of my control as a guitarist, and buying a good power amp is as expensive (and sometime more so) than buying a good tube amp. Now that's not to say you can't get a good sound running a modeler through a regular amp, but it's a little more unpredictable.
Before I finish let me just throw in a plug for an awesome piece of equipment. If you want something with sounds that will keep everyone on their toes, look into getting a Digitech 2101. I've had one for about 5 years now and it is an essential part of my rig. The reverbs are extraordinary, and the amount of control with each patch is beyond anything I have ever seen. In all actuality, any sort of setup you can imagine, you can create. Say for instance you want to run a signal through a chorus then split the wet signal to run one through a pitch shifter and the other through a delay then bring them both back into a reverb while the clean signal runs through a phaser and a delay that will only kick on once you start playing at a certain volume, you can do it. The only thing you are limited by is the amount of RAM in the unit. Now this may be the opposite direction of what you are looking for since programming can take some time (though it is easier now since there are free computer programs where you can put everything together and then send to the unit). But it is pretty nice. I use it to get the Edge shimmer sound (the string sound you hear in the background of With or Without You that follows the guitar or on the Live Version of Love is Blindness). Anyways, hope some of this helps.
Hey Dan,
Actually, I don't want anything to do with amp modeling. I've got an XTLive that is great for FX. But I've never been able to get the amp models to sound real. I've got an AC30, and the amp models that Line6 creates aren't even similar. It seems like the Line6 models all sound "Fenderish" to me. They all sound like a 6L6.
The new Line6 Spider-Valve is out, and they are claiming to Model all sorts of EL34 and EL84 amplifiers. But the thing has a Vintage 30 speaker and 6L6GC tubes. I don't know how you make a 6L6 sound like an AC30???
Line6 gets my kudos for world-beating delays, but I'm giving up on their modeling.
That's why I'm looking maybe at a DL4 to reclaim some pedal-board space and weight, and get a little more on-the-fly flexibility.
Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't know you were an effects geek like me! This is a bonding moment for us! :)
Have a great weekend!
You guys are both nerds. In a good way!
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