My (not so) Huge Rack

Ventanaman

Inspired
I posted this over at TGP and thought you all might be interested:

I just revamped my gigging rack and thought some of you may be interested in my setup.

First, I am a weekend warrior guitarist/singer in a modern rock band that does mostly covers and a few originals in bars and private parties. I also do some side production work for audio books and radio spots and my day job is completely unrelated to music or production.

I need a wide variety of high-quality tones that is (relatively) easy to transport. So, here is my latest iteration of my gig rig.

The signal chain is guitar -> G90 wireless -> split with tuner side into the Vocalist Live Pro and the main out into the AxeFX front input -> AxeFx then split with Out1 going to the PA and Out2 going into the Matrix and then to my Scumback M75-loaded cab (Stagecraft diagonal 2x12). All is controlled with the MFC-101 and a pair of Mission expression pedals.

I did all of the wiring myself (except the power cables) and it sounds fantastic. I always get other players coming up after shows wondering how I am getting so many great tones out of the system.

The best part of all - the entire rack weighs only 50 pounds.

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It was a lot of fun putting it together. The previous version contained a VHT 2/90/2 as the power amp, but I really wanted to add the G90 unit (which works as advertised) without going to a 8 space rack, and despite my reservations, took the plunge on the Matrix power amp. I plan on having an extensive review posted on the Matrix in a week or 2 after I have a few more rehearsals and a couple of gigs under my belt with the unit.

The rack case is just the standard Gator 6-space rack.

The most challenging part of the build was routing the inputs to the Vocalist and the AxeFx from the rear of the G90 to the front of the rack. I drilled a couple of holes into the upper aluminum bezel of the rack and the covered the bezel with black gaffer tape to streamline the look and somewhat hide the holes. I then soldered a strait connector on each of the cables and threaded them through the bezel holes, made sure I had the proper length, and then had to solder then right angle ends after the cables were pulled through. Getting the right angled end through the handle on the AxeFx took more effort than I expected.

Covering up the XLR jacks that go unused is very helpful when setting up quickly in a dark environment.
 
Interesting solution...you've drilled through the top brace to get cables out front. Looks like you're a fan of black gaff tape as well. Good job.
I don't have a top brace to go through, so I made a spacer to put behind rack ears. It moves one unit far enough in front of another to fish a cable.
 
I drilled a couple of holes into the upper aluminum bezel
I have filed a small space out of those, which makes it way easier to get the cable out again (still have to remove the nearest unit).
You don't even need to file halfway into it, so still strong enough (except for UPS ;))
 
Hi

Can you please tell me where you purchased the tabbed screw/fixture surounds/washers for the rack mount screws?? they look great ! Would love to get some!
 
Get a punched rack panel (for d-type plugs) and make yourself extensions from the devices to that panel.
That way you won't wear out the plugs (including the ethernet connection on the AxeFxII).

Label that with a Dymo label maker, you can even get the "metal" label disk for that. Then you can rely that no soundguy will be plugging/unplugging on the wrong place, or even yourself if you get drunk :)

Then, your rig is complete AND fool proof! :)
 
You do not need the impedence of the front input, the G90 behaves like line level equipement.
Are you sure about that? The XLR-output is balanced line level, but if the 1/4-inch-output was, it would massively overload the standard input of any amplifier since the level of instrument pickups is weaker.
 
Are you sure about that? The XLR-output is balanced line level, but if the 1/4-inch-output was, it would massively overload the standard input of any amplifier since the level of instrument pickups is weaker.
We were talking "impendence" not level/gain. You do not need the (high) impendence (and the impendence switching) of the front input, as your guitar only sees the impendence of the transmitter and there will be no reaction in terms of sound difference.
 
We were talking "impendence" not level/gain. You do not need the (high) impendence (and the impendence switching) of the front input, as your guitar only sees the impendence of the transmitter and there will be no reaction in terms of sound difference.
Thanks for the explanation. However, I'm well aware that the guitar's pickups see only the impedance of the transmitter-input, not of the Axe-Fx rear input (by the way, the impedance of both front and rear inputs are 1 MOhm, but operate at different levels). The front input has some additional hardware and software processing, thus allegedly making the guitar sound "better".
 
Thanks for the explanation. However, I'm well aware that the guitar's pickups see only the impedance of the transmitter-input, not of the Axe-Fx rear input (by the way, the impedance of both front and rear inputs are 1 MOhm, but operate at different levels). The front input has some additional hardware and software processing, thus allegedly making the guitar sound "better".
Front is 1MOhm *but* in Auto mode, the impedance is automatically set based on the first active effect the input "sees." Thus it is mimicking the effect on impedance some of the vintage stomp boxes have. You need this functionality only if you hook up to your guitar directly.
If you use a G90 (or similar) you can use the rear input (that does not have this impedance switching), because this additional hardware and software processing won't happen as it is not connected to your guitar (and the G90 [or similar] won't react to it as it has simply no pickups to do so).
 
So you're basically saying that the hard- and software processing affect only pickups and not the tone itself, don't you? That's pretty interesting. Or did I get it wrong?
 
because this additional hardware and software processing won't happen as it is not connected to your guitar (and the G90 [or similar] won't react to it as it has simply no pickups to do so.

that kind of absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.

guitar - cable - axe fx ii

guitar - transmitter - receiver - cable - axe fx ii

the guitar is still connecting to the input of the axe fx ii, just a few more things in between.

are you saying there is some magical connection or sensing technology that links the guitar pickups directly to the axe fx ii when connected only by a cable rather than a wireless unit?
 
that kind of absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.

guitar - cable - axe fx ii

guitar - transmitter - receiver - cable - axe fx ii

the guitar is still connecting to the input of the axe fx ii, just a few more things in between.

are you saying there is some magical connection or sensing technology that links the guitar pickups directly to the axe fx ii when connected only by a cable rather than a wireless unit?

Anwer is no: the guitar is not connected to the Axe-Fx, there is no electrical current from the Axe to the guitar or back. The guitars (digitized - G90 is digital right?) signal gets transmitted to the the Axe.

Passive pickups react strongly to differing impedances with different tones, i. e. they sound different. Whether that different means better depends on taste and on what kind of tone you want to get. Active pickups react to differing impedances to but usually way less (the dominating factor there is the impedance of the preamp). BTW Input impedance - Axe-Fx II Wiki explains this in depth.

Now if your (passive) guitar is connected to the Axe using a cable, the impedance switching in the Axe will have an effect on the sound because the frequency response of the pickups will change with the changing impedance of the input.

If you are connecting the G90 (and thus not the guitar) there will be no effect on the frequency response of the guitar. In this case you may opt for the rear input to save you some routing.
 
skyko said:
Anwer is no: the guitar is not connected to the Axe-Fx, there is no electrical current from the Axe to the guitar or back. (...) If you are connecting the G90 (and thus not the guitar) there will be no effect on the frequency response of the guitar.
... makes sense to me. The G90 works like a WiFi-receiver, I believe it's even the same protocol. In conclusion, only the input impedance of the transmitter itself could affect the guitar pickups, which of course is insignificant since Line6 made sure the impedances match.
 
So why does it sound different when I use the wireless in the front vs wireless in the back (all settings are correct)?
 
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