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Anyone here up on electric guitar gear?
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Author:  LanceK [ Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:21 pm ]
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I have been building up an electric guitar rig to use at church and im looking for a little advise on the best way to hook everything up.

I have an Alesis QuadraVerb, AdA Mp1 preamp, and a Kustom Quad 65 DFX amp.
Just for the record, the QuadraVerb and Ada are rack mountable units.
My problem is that in the past I used a stright power amp instead of a standard guitar amp, and im at confused as to the best way to chain all these togheter.

Feel free to email me off forum if you like, I know this is VERY off topic, hope I dont make the moderator mad

Here are a few pics that I hope will help-
First the control pannel for the amp.




The Quadraverb



And the ADA front and back





And to confuse things even more, the AMP has an effecs loop LanceK38746.8525925926
Author:  TBone62 [ Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:49 pm ]
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I would use the effects loop since you have one. It also appears the loop has a level adjustment. That way you can adjust the effects level and not your guitar signal. Preamp out works on most equipments as a line level out put so what it sends is the preamp (line level) signal to whatever device you're sending it to e.g. power amp, mixing board. Most amps will only send the preamp signal so it will not sound like your speakers. The more expensive and some cheaper new amps will have a speaker simulator, it's good but not like miking the speaker. My Mesa Boogie has a record out which is not only pre but power amp sound as well. I've met many pickers that also don't realize that a headphone out jack is another way to send your signal.
I noticed you have a tape/cd input this works the same as an auxilary input so it's really another input but keep in mind some tape inputs have no tone or volume controls built into the amp, it has to be adjusted at the source. Your A and B outputs and your effects send is another way to send your signal to a mixing board or power amp. You've got more choices than most. Play around with it and keep in mind if the jacks have warnings about minimum loads and sometimes a stereo jack will short out if a mono plug is inserted. Nice rig should sound great.
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Sun Jan 29, 2006 4:39 pm ]
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I'd use the Quadraverb in the effects channel, and I don't think you'd need the ADA preamp at all- what for? Just use a good cable and plug directly into the amp.
It would be nice if you had a MIDI footswitch. You could use it to get to ANY sound quickly in the quadraverb, and if your amp has MIDI then it would also do all of the switching there too, such as channel switching and clean/dirty, and effects.
Author:  John How [ Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:55 pm ]
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I'm afraid I'm not much help. I prefer the sound of a fender single coil straight into a tube amp. Crank it till it gets fat and playit.
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:02 am ]
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[QUOTE=Mark Swanson] I'd use the Quadraverb in the effects channel, and I don't think you'd need the ADA preamp at all- what for? Just use a good cable and plug directly into the amp.
It would be nice if you had a MIDI footswitch. You could use it to get to ANY sound quickly in the quadraverb, and if your amp has MIDI then it would also do all of the switching there too, such as channel switching and clean/dirty, and effects. [/QUOTE]

Thanks Mark,
I guess a little description of what im trying to do would have helped


First of all, this is the same set up I used back in the 80s and 90s when I played out constantly, so rather than trying to reinvent what I was doing I decided to go with the same gear, problem is, I use to use a rack mountable Marshall Power amp, which had no controls, just on and off, I suspect it was set to 11 by the factory
This new set up im using a regular amp and that is where im running into problems.

The need for a preamp is for the 128 presets that are selected by my midi MC-1 foot pedal. I must have the ability to switch from dirty to clean in an instant,
as well as many other combinations of sounds and effects. With the preamp I can set the volume to boost for leads and drop back to standard playing volume, leaving the sound man less to do Also, there is an endless array of tones you can create and assign as well as attaching the quadraverb and its multitude of effects, so with the preamp/verb system its practically limitless as to what you can do.

SOO -- This is where im at, trying to decide if this amp is going to work or if Im going to have to get a poweramp?

It seems if I plug into the CD/Tape input it by passes all the amps tonal controls, but I am worried that that is not the best place to plug the preamp in?

Thanks guys....



Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:26 am ]
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Ok, you have a lot (maybe too much) gear there...the more you complicate things, the easier it is to gum up the works! <G>
With 128 sounds in the preamp itself, you may not need the quadraverb then. but if you want it, then use your MIDI foot pedal to control it, too. You'd need to put it on a different MIDI channel than the ADA preamp and run another MIDI cable from the THRU or OUT of the preamp to the quadraverb. Then your footpedal will do it all. Your amp has no MIDI, so that's out for channel switching...so get a basic good clean tone from your anp, and use your preamp to get the sound changes you need. After you get that right then set your amp's dirty channel.
Your amp is the only thing you have changed. And that amp is designed to be used alone, so it has a lot of flexibility. But you're used to getting your sound from the preamp and quadraverb, so start there. As long as you have a good basic sound from the amp you can't go wrong.
Author:  Wade Sylvester [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:59 am ]
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Lance,
I cannot believe it! You have almost the exact same setup I have had for years. Let me go over how I have set it up and I will get back to you.
I used this rig for many years in the last band I was with and, as long as you have clean cables, it worked like a charm.

Wade
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:15 am ]
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Great news Wade!

Ill take all the help i can get
Author:  Wade Sylvester [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:17 am ]
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Lance,
As you can see, I made a little rack case to hold the 3 rack devices. The ADA is first on the chain and I plug my Guitar (through a volume pedal) in the front input. I don’t use the effect send because it is mono and defeats the propose of setting up in stereo. Since both the reverb unit and the chorusing effects of the ADA are in stereo, this was the best way to keep the stereo sound trough the whole setup. It also made sense to use a rack/2 channel amp also as this promotes a solid, clean signal. It’s also much cheaper than 2 guitar amps.
As you may already know, the ADA has more than enough preamp setups that allow for gobs of customed sound choices and the MIDI foot switch, (mapped through to the reverb as well) will allow you to change effects mapped with your best preamp setups.
I hope this helps Lance. I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Wade
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:39 am ]
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Awesome! Thanks Wade!

So, do I understand this right? You go, stero out of the ADA, into the reverb unit, then mono out of the reverb to the pwr amp?

Author:  Wade Sylvester [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:56 am ]
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It is Stereo all the way for me Lance. I have 2 speakers also. If you only have one channel with the reverb than you could use the FX send but if you then only have a one channel Amp, It won't make too much of a difference if you use the send or go from the ADA to the reverb to the amp etc.
It can sound funky if you have it setup for stereo but only use one output. Especially if you have the chorus ON in the ADA. I would suggest leaving it off in your presets unless you go stereo.
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:58 am ]
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Ok, thanks again wade .
Author:  Mattia Valente [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:18 am ]
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All this rack mounted shiny stuff is tempting me oh-so-badly to go blow near 300 bucks on one of Antec's silent 4U rackmount studio/server cases. Just because I need a new motherboard (PC is being oh so terribly flaky). It would look so nice and neat underneath my Rivera TBR-1 and the Lexicon 'verb....
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:20 am ]
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Mattia, if my Kustom amp dont work out, ive been looking reeeeally hard at a Carvin TS100 - 100w Tube Power amp

OH! So shinny!


Author:  Mattia Valente [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 7:42 am ]
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Yowza! That's one SHINY amplifier.
Author:  Mark Swanson [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:40 am ]
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On a different take, do you feel that you play loud enough to use a 100 watt power amp like that? I would bet that most of us play in smaller/quieter venues, where we have to turn our gear down a bit...for me, I like a 30-50 watt amp that I can turn up until it gets the sweet tone to develop. You can always mike up a small amp, and many newer ones have a pretty good line out, too.
You guys might laugh, but I've been using a Behringer V210, this has two 10" speakers in stereo with 30 watts per side. I can't believe how cheap it was, (like me) and it has a built-in tuner, a good stereo line out, two channels with digital modelling, and a whole bunch of DSP effects that have MIDI control. This amp does everything I need, and I get complimented on my good guitar sound when I play out.
Author:  Dave-SKG [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:23 am ]
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Lance...less is more...who do you think you are? Eddie or Steve? . Next thing I know you will want to borrow the Liberatore guitar...YIKES! Like they say on the Glade commercial "plug it in Plug it in". Simple approach...effects generally do better in the effects loop. Preamps are just that pre-amp. Why not just buy a simple little, one 12, amp with reverb and have a nice little ( single box) to carry instead of all this goble-de gook? You know one of the cables are bound to fall out or short and always right at the most important part of the song. Good luck my friend...
Author:  LanceK [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:46 am ]
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SUCCESS!

Evan, Mark and Wade, thanks to you guys ive got it connect and working great!

I found a website dedicated to the ADA MP1 and they had a bunch of presets called Patches, I loaded about 6 of them and It sounds terrific!

Dave, I do agree that less is more, for most stuff, but for me, I use to use this same rig, verbatim except for the pwr amp, which (was) a 100wt Marshall rack mount and a 4X12 cabinet, and as Mark pointed out, is over kill, especially for Church

All in all, im all set

Thanks again guys.LanceK38747.8254050926
Author:  Evan Gluck [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:22 pm ]
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Good to hear Lance,in fact I can hear you from NY It was fun to revisit the 90's again. The rack stuff was so cool when it was just starting to be guitar oriented. I must of sold 100-200 Quadraverbs when I worked at Manny's in the 90's.
Evan
Author:  Wade Sylvester [ Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:46 pm ]
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It is great to see some of you rockers coming out of the wood work, (so to speak).
Sounds great Lance.
I'll be listening for you.
Wade
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