Running full band (2 Guitars + 1 Bass)

J

johnburnsred

Member
I got my Axe FX 3 a few days ago and right now I'm experimenting with different sounds and building my own Presets for the band. My goal is to be able to run 2 Guitars and 1 Bass.

Here's what I'm thinking: Guitar 1- Input 1 , Guitar 2- Input 2, Bass- Input 3

I'm a little confused as to how this might work. Input 2 has a Left + Right instead of just 1 jack. Does it matter which side my second guitar goes into, and does this whole Left/Right thing affect the signal compared to the straight forward single jack on Input 1? Same with the Bass on Input 3.

Now the other hurdle I want to figure out is this: Both guitars need a clean and dirty channel for our live show. I created two different scenes for those channels which I can change easily on my FC-12. But wouldn't me changing to clean then ALSO change my second guitar player to clean? How do I make it so that we can both switch between scenes independently within the same preset? Would he also need his own FC-12 or FC-6?

And the last thing. Regarding the Bass, I notice that you're only allowed to use 2 amps and 2 cabs within a preset. Clearly I don't want the bass going through the guitar amps so what's my work around for that? I'm thinking Just set up Input 3/Output 3 without using any amp/cab but utilizing some other blocks as well?

What do you guys think? I'm completely new to this unit and I'm coming from a traditional tube amp setup, so hopefully I'm explaining this right.
 
I don’t have a 3 so I might get some of the wrong.

usually when using a mono input to a stereo channel, Left is the default side to use. I would stick with that and pay attention to the routing in the preset. I’m guessing your input blocks let you select where the signal is coming from but I don’t know.

You’ll either need scenes for every scenario, or set up channel buttons instead to switch between channels on the individual amp blocks without changing scenes. If everything you’re playing is written and rehearsed (as opposed to improvising and everyone wanting to switch whenever they want) then scenes should work fine:

1- both clean
2- a clean b dirty
3 - a dirty b clean
4 - both dirty

etc.

run the bass through a drive block and/or eq’s. You should be able to get away without too much going on there. Might want to give him a compressor.
 
Thank you! That's helpful. Right now I have my clean and dirty guitars on completely different scenes. Are you saying it's possible for me to use just ONE scene and change to a different channel when needed using my FC-12? And if I set-up my FC-12 that way will it interfere with the other guitar player or will he have to have a foot-switch connected as well to change channels?
 
Input 2/3 needs to be set to "Sum L&R" to effectively make it mono. There are also options for "Left" or "Right", but then I think you'd have to use one of the Grid blocks to sum. Otherwise, depending on what you set the input to, you make get output on just one side. Depending on your situations this may or may not matter.

I believe that the FC or other switches can be set to switch channels on various blocks. You would need to use both Amp and Cab blocks for you guitars, but they should be able to act independently one way or another. Even if you couldn't change channels with the FC, you can still do scene changes. 8 scenes per preset still gives you a ton of flexibility.

Bass is pretty easy to make sound good without an amp/cab block. Tons of people will just go direct through a sansamp or something similar live. In fact, for the projects I've recorded, I rarely ran bass thru amps or amp sims. My signal chains for bass are usually something like 1176 > 1176 > Sansamp/Darkglass > minor EQ > done. The Blackglass B7K in the drive block would probably be the first thing I would try in your setup.

My current setup isn't exactly like yours, but I do use pretty much all the inputs/outputs. I run guitar, bass (getting signal from a helix), vocals, and a "room mic" for drum monitoring (soon to be switched for a yamaha ead10), and usb ins for backtracks. The only "issue" I've run into is that the tuner for inputs 1&2 are currently linked together; meaning both will mute when you're trying to tune. For me it was only really an issue when I ran my vocalist thru input 2. You don't want to mute vocals while you're tuning hahahah!
 
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I’m pretty sure you can change channels on a block via the fc switches, but I don’t own any of that so I’m not certain.

Assuming you can do it that way, then you changing channels on your amp block wouldn’t affect his. He wouldn’t have a wayto control himself unless you share the fc, give him his own, or possibly even plug external switches into the fc that are tied to his blocks and run those to his side of the stage.
 
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