Just an amp and a guitar..sometimes its nice to get back to basics

Voxman

Watched an old concert (1971) 'from the vault' of the Rolling Stones at the Marquee, with Mick Taylor on guitar.  Nothing fancy about his tone (or his playing to be honest), just a nice warm break-up tone with his Gibson SG straight into an amp.

So I thought I'd go back to basics this afternoon, no pedals, no MFX units, just my LP Custom through my Laney Cub 12R, dialed in the same type of warm 'break-up' tone, added a little reverb, and been playing for the last couple of hours loads of Stones/blues stuff with a big smile on my face, just backing off tone & volume on the LP as needed.  Very enjoyable & very liberating.  

bazxkr

Very sensible...should do it more often...I think sometimes too much time is spent trying to get a tone or sound by tweaking this and that instead of just enjoying playing...bit like life I guess..can be as simple or difficult as you make it sometimes

Sounds like you had a great afternoon...will set you up well for a happy weekend

cruxiform

Sweet! I do that all the time, I love 'pure' tone. 

HAL9000

Although I own a few pedals I've pretty much stopped using them. For a couple of years now I've just set my amp so that it's on the edge of break up when the guitar's volume is set at around 6 or 7. Then I just ride the volume to either clean things up or to get more grit. 

Stevepage

Last time I rehearsed with my band (now finished) I just used a tuner and noise gate into the amp with just my LP. Much better than multi effects bullcrap, something very satisfying about it too.

TTBZ

I have a few pedals as boosts/different shade of gain type pedals but always end up going back to just using amp distortion. I've never used much in the way of effects anyway, only recently I've added a chorus and delay and feel a bit dirty for doing so. 

For me the amp always has to be set up as a single channel amp as well, I much prefer rolling off the volume to clean up over using a channel switcher.

57Deluxe

anything into just a Tweed Deluxe...

Jeremiah

I do most of my practice like this - time spent setting up pedals and packing them away again means less time spent with the guitar.

professorben

Nope, guitar without fx is like an egg without salt. 

Voxman

professorben said:

Nope, guitar without fx is like an egg without salt. 

Not entirely without effects...digital reverb built into the Cub.  

I did say sometimes its nice to get back to basic...but you do need fx when playing different styles inc delay, tube screamer, phaser etc. 

slacker

I personally dont understand why some players get into extremes, either no effects or all of them on all the time. I currently play in two projects one acoustic and one covers band. In one I use an acoustic and in the other I have a large pedalboard. My pedals have off switches. 

So use the setup that suits the set. 

professorben

Voxman said:

professorben said:

Nope, guitar without fx is like an egg without salt. 

Not entirely without effects...digital reverb built into the Cub.  

I did say sometimes its nice to get back to basic...but you do need fx when playing different styles inc delay, tube screamer, phaser etc. 

Yeah, a lot of what I do now is just driven guitar, not much modulation or delay etc. 

Its just that in my mind gain or drive IS an effect, so unless you are playing Jazz or Acoustic ( country guys have their compressors from birth) you are using fx.  

Voxman

professorben said:

Voxman said:

professorben said:

Nope, guitar without fx is like an egg without salt. 

Not entirely without effects...digital reverb built into the Cub.  

I did say sometimes its nice to get back to basic...but you do need fx when playing different styles inc delay, tube screamer, phaser etc. 

Yeah, a lot of what I do now is just driven guitar, not much modulation or delay etc. 

Its just that in my mind gain or drive IS an effect, so unless you are playing Jazz or Acoustic ( country guys have their compressors from birth) you are using fx.  

Don't forget the natural drive/gain in the Cub. 

professorben

Voxman said:

professorben said:

Voxman said:

professorben said:

Nope, guitar without fx is like an egg without salt. 

Not entirely without effects...digital reverb built into the Cub.  

I did say sometimes its nice to get back to basic...but you do need fx when playing different styles inc delay, tube screamer, phaser etc. 

Yeah, a lot of what I do now is just driven guitar, not much modulation or delay etc. 

Its just that in my mind gain or drive IS an effect, so unless you are playing Jazz or Acoustic ( country guys have their compressors from birth) you are using fx.  

Don't forget the natural drive/gain in the Cub. 

Yeah I still see that as an effect. 

samzadgan

I don't understand...

professorben

samzadgan said:

I don't understand...

I mean that Drive even from an amp is an effect, so in essence someone plugging into a booster and stacking a couple of drive pedals is no different from someone playing straight into an overdriving amp. 

english_bob

slacker said:

I personally dont understand why some players get into extremes, either no effects or all of them on all the time. I currently play in two projects one acoustic and one covers band. In one I use an acoustic and in the other I have a large pedalboard. My pedals have off switches. 

So use the setup that suits the set. 

Yep, this. If the music you want to make doesn't need effects, don't use them. If it does, do. 

I get how it could be helpful to a player who feels they're starting to get over-reliant on effects to take them all away for a while.

When I'm writing with a band I tend to start with all my effects turned off (except the small amount of distortion that comes from my amp), then bring them in if I think they're appropriate. 

samzadgan

professorben said:

samzadgan said:

I don't understand...

I mean that Drive even from an amp is an effect, so in essence someone plugging into a booster and stacking a couple of drive pedals is no different from someone playing straight into an overdriving amp. 

Ha...no I meant...guitar and amp only...I don't understand. 

It was joke, as I like some others run 10 pedals before getting to the front end of an amp...cutting that out is so foreign to me.

having said that, I just played straight into my new jtm45 on clean, and that was glorious...so I get it. 

StuartMac290

My favourite amp for this is the Bad Cat Black Cat 30. lovely compression that no pedal can match 

ESBlonde

I have a reasonably big pedal board which is almost always used at gigs (pop/funk), I have a few spares and a power supply with festoon type multi taps which is in my carrier bag lightweigh get away.and rehearsal setup. At home I almost never use FX (months since I last did iirc). Once you get a decent (dare I say valve) amp and guitar setup the direct interaction of the two coupled is a thing of beauty. I wish i could get away with it live more ofton.

frictionfraction

Pedal boards are like a woman's holiday shoe fetish -you just always need a slightly different variety to meet an unspecified need.   Barefoot is good