Used one pedal and head at practice last night

Keg8605

Keg8605

Power User
So I recently sold my axe ultra. I currently have a spare ultra to gig with. I also purchased a used Axe II from a forum member. It's on its way.

Well last night we had practice and I didn't have time to switch the spare ultra into my rig nor did I want to carry my heavy pedal board case, rack and head to practice. So I just took my head. Used the other guitarist's cab and guitar.

I literally played the whole practice with my rockerverb, a tube screamer and a PRS DGT. Everything sounded great and it was fun. My playing was awesome. Couldn't believe how well solo's sounded even without some delay. It really was a blast and made me think I might just have to have two rigs for awhile. I'm not going back to pedals for good or anything. I need a lot of effects for some stuff but man I almost felt free last night. Indecisiveness at its best. Numerous gear head friends have told me I'll go full circle at some point. That being said I'm also really really excited to receive the axe II and check out the V10 sounds.

Not trying to convince anyone, just wondering if any of you have done this from time to time. I'll never be Axe FX- less. But there is something to be said for simplicity.
 
Sometimes I just play through my Suhr Badger 18 with no pedals. I also have PRS DGT. It's refreshing to control your sound with just volume, tone controls and technique. I can also focus more on vocals when I'm not worrying about what patch to switch to next.

That being said I don't ever plan on going back to that setup permanently. It's just very easy for a short practice. I am way too addicted to the variety of sounds I get from the AxeFx including a dead on version of my Badger.
 
I'll often play a single patch all night: one amp and cab block, a drive block, a delay block. Nothing but that and my guitar's volume pot for gain control. :D
 
Very coincidental that you raise this topic; I've actually done the same recently, and it indeed has been refreshing in "practice". Marshall head, 2x12 cab, 2 pedals that I brought in my gig bag and guitar. Sound was great, and I found myself not thinking so much about which amp, cab, settings, firmware, differences, tweaks, etc. However, now I'm preparing for an upcoming show, and I want to KNOW the sound that the audience is going to hear in FOH, so it's back to the Axe II at this weekend's rehearsal.
 
I hear ya. That's the key thing. I don't think the mic'ed cab sounds as good as the tone you can get direct. However, I play about 50% shows where the audience gets a good cab sound vs the other 50% are bigger (or quiet police) and a direct signal would be better. Still just trying to simplify my setup so I don't think "O crap I have to pack all this up!" Part of it is my heavy pedalboard case... maybe a small midi controller would be smarter.

A good guitar and good tube amp is pretty sweet though!
 
Had a similar experience about a month ago where a played a few songs with a friend in a bar - a laid back evening with different folks getting up to join in for different songs..

To make things easy for all i left my ultra and atomic reactirs at home, I just brought along a strat and a delay pedal.. Plugged into one of those fender hotrod amps, used the volume and five way selector on the strat. Really cool..

So last weekend I played an outdoor gig where spotted another fender hotrod that was supplied by the backline company. I had a spare 15mins, so I decided to hook up the second output (efx loop of my ultra) to the fender amp. I usually run my talkbox from that output, so a little bit of front panel programming needed to be done..

So my onstage rig for Saturdays gig consisted of two atomic reactors (full simulations) and a fender hotrod deville (tapped off before the amp block of my ultra).. Talk about huge sounding!!! And a nice lush stereo feel two..
 
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