Fro
Experienced
Well, I made it through the gig yesterday. I believe the official Milwaukee temperature was 103 degrees. We were in New Berlin, which is a little west of Milwaukee. The bass player swears his thermometer hit 108.
We started at 5:30 and we were facing right into the sunset. Fortunately, we were also facing the restaurant. Once the sun started setting, the restaurant blocked the sun, so the direct sunlight died down just a little.
I ended up shading my amp with a dog crate cover designed to protect dogs from the sun. I just draped it over enough to block the direct sunlight. The sound guy had an umbrella on his amp rack. It only helped a little. The monitor amps kept going into protect mode and cutting out until they cooled back down.
We also lost the bass amp at one point. I don’t think it was because of the heat. His amp was having issues anyway. We had a spare along just in case since we were expecting trouble.
Competing with the other guitar players DSL half stack was a breeze. I decided to not use FRFR for on stage. Instead, I went with an ART SLA-2 power amp into my Marshall 4x12 with Greenbacks. I was very pleased. The band loved it too.
I did give the sound guy a direct signal, and he also put a 57 on the cabinet. I tell you, I do appreciate my other band, and my other sound guy. That band has a Yorkville powered PA, and a Presonus board. That sound guy just LOVES my direct signal. This guy had a lot of old 80’s gear, and not too up on what I was doing.
This guy was thrown a little, but was open to getting a direct signal. He had never heard of the Axe Fx. I had to put it in terms he could understand, and explained it was like using a Red Box. I had one violin patch I used, the one that’s been floating around the forum, which really benefitted from the direct signal. It would have been passible with just the 4x12, but not by much.
After various amp sim suggestions from various people on the forum, I ended up sticking with my original set of patches and just modified them. So most of the night I used either the Marshal Plexi Treble, or the Double Verb. I use a Tube Driver in front of the Fender amp for solos. When I solo with the Marshall, I turn on the Saturation. I’ll attach the three patches I used the most last night, the Fender patch, the Marshal rhythm, and the Marshall lead.
Here is our stage in the sun.
And my amp with and without the cover.
Here is my competition, the DSL.
My pedal board.
I recorded the show with a Zoom H4N out in the crowd. I’ll just post a couple quick things. Some of it is some back and forth soloing between me and the other guy. I’ve marked off where each one of us is playing. I know in the first clip I’m using my lead Marshall patch. The last clip is my Fender patch. I’m not 100% certain on the second one.
Tomorrow is on the lake in Milwaukee at Summerfest. This is with the other band. It’s all IEM, no amps on stage, and some sequences. Very different animal.
Oh yeah, the patches. So here is the thing, and I ran into this with the Standard also. My real Marshalls always have way more bottom end than the Axe Fx does when running through a 4x12, and the Marshalls still cut. The 2 Marshalls I have are a Jubilee and a DSL, both 50 watt. I end up bringing up 110 or so in the EQ on the Axe Fx to fill in what is missing. In the standard, I did it with a PEQ block. With the II, I added some in the EQ section of the amp block, but also a little more with a PEQ in the send going to the amp/cab out 2 only. Has anyone else ever felt the need to do this?
When I tried some other amp sims, like the JVM OD1 or JCM 800 Mod, the EQ bosst at 110 didn’t seem as needed. The Plexi sim needed it, and it was more noticeable when going through an amp/cab setup. Anyway, it worked, and I liked how it sounded. I am a little more subdued than the other guy at points, but then again not so much at others. He has an original Boss Overdrive. When he uses that, it smooths him out a bit more, and he gets a lot more mids. I felt my tone was much more consistent. He was also having lots of bad cable issues, and he couldn’t see his tuner in the sun. I was just fine. All in all, I think the 2 guitars worked well together.
I’ll post more after tomorrows gig.
We started at 5:30 and we were facing right into the sunset. Fortunately, we were also facing the restaurant. Once the sun started setting, the restaurant blocked the sun, so the direct sunlight died down just a little.
I ended up shading my amp with a dog crate cover designed to protect dogs from the sun. I just draped it over enough to block the direct sunlight. The sound guy had an umbrella on his amp rack. It only helped a little. The monitor amps kept going into protect mode and cutting out until they cooled back down.
We also lost the bass amp at one point. I don’t think it was because of the heat. His amp was having issues anyway. We had a spare along just in case since we were expecting trouble.
Competing with the other guitar players DSL half stack was a breeze. I decided to not use FRFR for on stage. Instead, I went with an ART SLA-2 power amp into my Marshall 4x12 with Greenbacks. I was very pleased. The band loved it too.
I did give the sound guy a direct signal, and he also put a 57 on the cabinet. I tell you, I do appreciate my other band, and my other sound guy. That band has a Yorkville powered PA, and a Presonus board. That sound guy just LOVES my direct signal. This guy had a lot of old 80’s gear, and not too up on what I was doing.
This guy was thrown a little, but was open to getting a direct signal. He had never heard of the Axe Fx. I had to put it in terms he could understand, and explained it was like using a Red Box. I had one violin patch I used, the one that’s been floating around the forum, which really benefitted from the direct signal. It would have been passible with just the 4x12, but not by much.
After various amp sim suggestions from various people on the forum, I ended up sticking with my original set of patches and just modified them. So most of the night I used either the Marshal Plexi Treble, or the Double Verb. I use a Tube Driver in front of the Fender amp for solos. When I solo with the Marshall, I turn on the Saturation. I’ll attach the three patches I used the most last night, the Fender patch, the Marshal rhythm, and the Marshall lead.
Here is our stage in the sun.
And my amp with and without the cover.
Here is my competition, the DSL.
My pedal board.
I recorded the show with a Zoom H4N out in the crowd. I’ll just post a couple quick things. Some of it is some back and forth soloing between me and the other guy. I’ve marked off where each one of us is playing. I know in the first clip I’m using my lead Marshall patch. The last clip is my Fender patch. I’m not 100% certain on the second one.
Tomorrow is on the lake in Milwaukee at Summerfest. This is with the other band. It’s all IEM, no amps on stage, and some sequences. Very different animal.
Oh yeah, the patches. So here is the thing, and I ran into this with the Standard also. My real Marshalls always have way more bottom end than the Axe Fx does when running through a 4x12, and the Marshalls still cut. The 2 Marshalls I have are a Jubilee and a DSL, both 50 watt. I end up bringing up 110 or so in the EQ on the Axe Fx to fill in what is missing. In the standard, I did it with a PEQ block. With the II, I added some in the EQ section of the amp block, but also a little more with a PEQ in the send going to the amp/cab out 2 only. Has anyone else ever felt the need to do this?
When I tried some other amp sims, like the JVM OD1 or JCM 800 Mod, the EQ bosst at 110 didn’t seem as needed. The Plexi sim needed it, and it was more noticeable when going through an amp/cab setup. Anyway, it worked, and I liked how it sounded. I am a little more subdued than the other guy at points, but then again not so much at others. He has an original Boss Overdrive. When he uses that, it smooths him out a bit more, and he gets a lot more mids. I felt my tone was much more consistent. He was also having lots of bad cable issues, and he couldn’t see his tuner in the sun. I was just fine. All in all, I think the 2 guitars worked well together.
I’ll post more after tomorrows gig.
