Strange Setups

[Drewbertca]

I'm starting this thread to discuss strange setups that seem to work....

I play in a punk Band. I play a heavily modified Pawn Shop VI into a Fender Bassbreaker 45 head running into an old Traynor cab with a 15" EVM 15b and a Eminence Hempdog. I didn't butcher the cab to fit the 15, I bought it that way, initially planning to replace the front baffle and make a 2x12, but Curiosity got the best of me when i considered the gear I had (I recently bought the Hempdog and was using another 12 in the cab prior - the amp was bought about a month ago as well). This setup suits the sound I need for the band and works. But I also play guitar on my own and it works well for that as well without any EQ tweaking...believe it or not.

For FX, on my bass pedal board I have a EHX Green Russian Reissue and a Fender Pedal Tuner, powered by a Boss 9V adapter (Muff) and included 9V adapter for the tuner with a small power bar I had.

On my Guitar pedal board I have, in order of connection, a Germanium 4 Muff, Vox Wah (newer plastic enclosure) Bass Big Muff (in normal mode), Micro POG Small Stone Phase Shifter, and TC Echobrain Delay. I have a Snark Pedal tuner on the dry output of the POG and the whole board feeds into a Snarling Dogs A/B/Y box to feed 2 amps (or Channels). This Board is powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus.

I also have other amps i use on occasion including a Fender Excelsior Pro - Surf Green (would be great in the Studio for guitar or bass), Epi Valve Jr, An old Garnet "The Deputy" (Was my main amp until I bought the Bassbreaker, and a GK MB200 (backup at gigs). I have other Cabs too including a 1x12 open back my band's guitarist is using (loaded with a 100W Eminence fender driver, a EV Designed cab that has the original 15 from the Traynor cab mentioned above and 2x Traynor Columns with 4 x 8" full range drivers in each. I goof around with different cab combos for fun.

Here is a pic (Pre Hempdog) of my main rig showing some of the rest of the stuff.

[Drewbertca]

I can't be the only person doing something a little off....

[supafuzz666]

Not super weird but I like to have two amps on a splitter a smaller one overdriven/really fuzzed out and a larger one run clean. Having an amp splitter with a phase reverse and ground lift. Is super useful for this. You can have different effects chains per amp, messing with the inbuilt reverb and trem on an amp and leaving the other dry and stuff. I used to put the mic where it sounded good at the place I was sitting. One day I’ll try it again but maybe make a heath Robinson. Binaural head.

[dinosaurkale->]

i have a similar setup to this ^

one small amp with clean and another with drive. the driven one with a footswitch, so i can have two clean amps or one clean/one dirty.
i spread them out live too...one in the middle near the bass and one on the side near me. the middle one is also on an angled stand at a 45 degree angle.

[Witchburner]

I used to do the same

Split into a Princeton non reverb for grit and pushing clipping, with a JBL 12" in it
And into a twin for the cleans and lush sounds, biased pretty hot

in my current set up, I'm building a trainwreck for the dirt, and i'll be using the Princeton for cleans

[Embenny]

When I was 9, I first discovered guitar via the 3/4-sized classical guitar sitting in the back of my parents' closet. It had been dropped on its endpin, putting a good 3" hole into it. My parents' stereo system included a tape deck with a mic input and two sliders for L and R channel gain (don't ask me why they even had a mic, maybe the salesman pushed the magic of being able to record things to tape?).

I figured out that dropping their little condenser mic through that hole in the guitar and maxing the gain sliders gave me a sound a lot like my brother's Smashing Pumpkins and Bush X CDs, so that became my practice rig as I figured out songs by ear and played along to the CDs. Yep, in a great example of convergent evolution, I "invented" my own fuzz using a broken 3/4-size nylon string guitar, an internal mic, and a tape deck, without having any concept of what a pickup, amp, or Big Muff was. I just knew that it sounded a lot more like the CD that it did when I played it acoustically, and I liked it.

Does that count as a "strange setup"?

[Drewbertca]

When I was 9, I first discovered guitar via the 3/4-sized classical guitar sitting in the back of my parents' closet. It had been dropped on its endpin, putting a good 3" hole into it. My parents' stereo system included a tape deck with a mic input and two sliders for L and R channel gain (don't ask me why they even had a mic, maybe the salesman pushed the magic of being able to record things to tape?).

I figured out that dropping their little condenser mic through that hole in the guitar and maxing the gain sliders gave me a sound a lot like my brother's Smashing Pumpkins and Bush X CDs, so that became my practice rig as I figured out songs by ear and played along to the CDs. Yep, in a great example of convergent evolution, I "invented" my own fuzz using a broken 3/4-size nylon string guitar, an internal mic, and a tape deck, without having any concept of what a pickup, amp, or Big Muff was. I just knew that it sounded a lot more like the CD that it did when I played it acoustically, and I liked it.

Does that count as a "strange setup"?

I would say it counts. I did almost the same thing when I got mi first bass. Plugged it into the aux input of my dad's stereo. Soinded good before I got my first amp

[spilltray]

I'm using a 2 amp a/b setup (that I'd like to expand to 3). Both amps are always on. The first is an Excelsior. Set to"dark". The second is a Humboldt special Blues Jr (with the hemp speaker). Neither amp gets me where I want by itself. I'm looking to add an AC10.

I use some mismatched effects, for example reverb and chorus are on the Excelsior channel only, but my chain is pretty basic. Lpb-1, soul food, ic muff, small stone, vox wah, nothing fancy.

[StevenO]

Kind of a strange setup, considering all the expensive gear I've somehow managed to collect over the years, but... My main guitar setup lately for home playing has been:

Tele/Jazzmaster/Etc. > Tronographics Rusty Boxy > Rehoused EHX Holy Grail Reverb > Fender Rumble 25 Solid-state Bass amp

That's really it. It's been the nicest sounding set up I have played in awhile. There's no quirks to its operation, like my tube amps sometimes have, and it just gives me a great clean sound and the Rusty Box provides a great overdriven sound and further tone-shaping.

[Drewbertca]

Funny you mention the Rumble series. When I got into researching the Bassbreaker 45 I stumbled on a post on another forum saying someone else uses it for guitar as well as bass. I have nothing against Solud state amps except that my effects sound better through my tube amps...so my GK MB 200 is my backup gig amp because it fits in my gig bag...

[StevenO]

Honestly, everything I've used with this amp has sounded great. Far less finicky with effects than my tube amps (except, maybe my old Princeton Reverb, which loves everything).