Let's Talk Cover Band Setups!

Cover band guitar player myself.

I have an AX-8 on the way and I'm looking forward to using the versatility of the unit to get as many tones as I can!
 
Cover band here too. I set scenes 1-4 up as Dirt -Lead -Clean- Other. Then 5-8 are effects, usually boost, delay modulation and reverb that I can manually switch on and off. Then I have 2 main patches.1- Splawn, scene 1 dirty rhythm, scene 2 lead, scene 3 clean.2- USA Rhythm scene 1 is my light crunch,scene 2 lead, scene 3 clean. The the rest are patches for specific songs. Scene 1 is always dirt, 2 lead and 3 clean no matter what the patch is. Scene 4 is my wild card in any given patch. That would be for any special effects in a given song. I tried to keep it pretty simple and it's working great so far.
 
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Cover band here as well I run three banks that I use for most gigs not counting anything that has extra special needs like say man in the box would need.

Preset 1: cleans
Preset 2: low gain vox type gain
Preset 3: main rhythm like Marshall or 5150 type amps
Preset 4: main lead sounds
Preset 5: Acoustic guitar tone match patches, 1 is a Taylor, 1 is a Gibson, and the last is a Martin.
 
I noticed a few are using Acoustic simulation patches.. can anyone share one? I've been playing a few songs just with a clean setting but there really acoustic songs..
 
I too was fortunate to win Mike's Acoustic! I highly recommend it.:)

In my 4 or so presets I use, 1-3 footswitches are for scenes, 4 is always a boost for leads, 5-8 are effect specific. The bottom right is reserved for tap tempo. I am experimenting using FS 8 to skip to a specific preset, like my Fender clean. I always seem to go back to that. We play a bit of modern country that I use that on.
 
Akstrat said:
I too was fortunate to win Mike's Acoustic! I highly recommend it.:)

In my 4 or so presets I use, 1-3 footswitches are for scenes, 4 is always a boost for leads, 5-8 are effect specific. The bottom right is reserved for tap tempo. I am experimenting using FS 8 to skip to a specific preset, like my Fender clean. I always seem to go back to that. We play a bit of modern country that I use that on.
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Very similar to how I set up

FS 1 - uses Scene 1 - base sound, no drive pedal
FS 2 - uses Scene 2 - adds drive pedal, same volume as scene 1
FS 3 - uses Scene 3 - typically Scene 2 + enable filter with +3.5db for solo
FS 4 - just a +3.5db filter set non-latching for quick boost on 'punch in' solos
FS 5-8 pedals - typically drive, reverb, delay, and maybe a chorus or envelope

At this point doing classic rock covers I only have one song specific preset for Summer of 69 (thanks Moke!!!), all my other songs are spread over about 5 presets using Fender Twin, Marshall, etc. Pretty generic.
 
I like all these different ideas. I think I'm gonna go with a few "meat and potatoes" patches that can be used for almost anything. Then I'll have a few song specific patches.
 
Si. said:
I noticed a few are using Acoustic simulation patches.. can anyone share one? I've been playing a few songs just with a clean setting but there really acoustic songs..
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I have a free one that I converted from Acoustic Badger for AXE FX II, and I converted the tone match to a cab for the AX8. I will post it tonight. Other than that, I hear great things about Moke's acoustic patches.
 
My main cover band for years was handled with five presets. Clean, Slight Crunch, Crunch, Lotsa Crunch, and Crazy. Crazy was for the song Crazy and was a total accident that I came up with but I liked it. Each of the four main patches had delay, verb, dirt, boost, vibe, and wah.

My most recent cover band was two patches. One of the slightly crunchy factory patches tweaked with a drive and vibe that would let me cover 85% of what I used. The second patch was the amp and drive but with a tremolo and whammy for Like A Stone.

I don't like lots of patches. For most of my life I played single channel amps with small pedal boards. Despite the capabilities of the AX8 to go nuts, I just focus on a good fundamental tone and worry about my playing.
 
Haha, honestly, the best part of your song specific presets is seeing the other band guitarist jaw drop, the audience most likely doesn't care anyways :D
 
I run on 2 general preset, a marshall mid gain and a MK4 for heavy stuff, amp bypass for clean
and i have 2 song so far that need dedicated presets.
 
I find it kind of funny that no one mentioned guitars. One of the reasons I use four to five presets is that I typically use two guitars. If I am covering a funk or Motown, maybe Clapton, I use a Strat. If I am doing 80's rock, grab my Les Paul. Both guitars ore so different, I need Presets that are dialed in just for that guitar. They sound like shit with the other guitar. How many people use more than one guitar?
 
I use a PRS with 3 P90s for my pop/strat needs (soon to be replaced by a custom built Rahbek Strat) and a PRS Single Cut with humbuckers for the raunchier stuff. The PUps in the two guitars have roughly the same output.Actually, the humbucker PRS cleans up very well, much better than my Les Paul (and all other Les Pauls I have tried), so I tend to use the humbucker guitar the most. It simply covers more styles better.
 
I use a preset per song, with scenes. Most of these presets are similar, same amp and cab, fx etc.

The reason I use dedicated presets is because my RJM lets me name the scenes in each preset, which is very handt, and I also use the program changes to autom. switch songs in BandHelper on my iPad.
 
ChristThePhone said:
I use a power strat type guitar to cover all styles and bring a backup. Too much hassle changing guitars during a set (just my 2ct)
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Similar .. . I ALWAYS have a HB/SC/SC strat (with a Floyd and Drop-D tuna) . . I have a few of those, and they're the most versatile and valuable at my gigs. I also ALWAYS have a back up , which tends to be a HB guitar that I can drop-D as well. in some bands I've needed a Drop-C guitar too, and that was a pain bringing a guitar for only a handful of tunes..................I don't know about the rest of you guys, but too many places I play, the electricity has lots of interference, and I can't use my Single Coil pickups without loads of noise. Pisses me off, as I'm more of a SC player. . That's why I always need to have the HB Strat. Eric
 
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