You guys know what I've been playing through lately but now that I have the amp in a combo box with a new cab, the McFeely 454 and my current pedal situation with a month or twos worth of shows under my belt I've come to the following conclusions:
1. Love the Suhr Badger 30 best in this configuration with the Celestion Creamback. Sometimes I wish I had a more Fender-y sound for some things, but overall this is the best sounding amp I've ever owned. I'm actually running it a bit louder lately and not stacking pedals as much as I used to with my Deluxe Reverb or when I had the head and cab setup and my sounds are way better. The cab has a bit better defined low end (although not as much of it) and the lower wattage speaker still gives me enough clean headroom without it sounding thin with the master volume cranked down.
2. The McFeely 454 is a beast. Anything else I play with leaves me wishing I was playing the 454. Sonically it is very big and lively. Hopefully when the 440 gets its new neck it'll be comparable since the only thing I'm missing is the occasional strat neck pickup sound. I'm now a massive fan of Korina.
3. As far as pedals go, everything I'm using except for the Soul Food is perfect for my current needs. I'm using the Crosstown fuzz a little more too. The Strymon Mobius sounds killer for the 4 sounds (chorus, Phaser, Tremolo and Rotary Speaker) I use it for. Not sure if you can see it in the picture but I've actually stomped the 1st button on the left hard enough on the Mobius that I've dented the case
.
Since I'm not stacking pedals so much or just leaving the RC Booster on all night now I'm getting more use out of my compressor too.
The Soul Food is nice for what it is but I don't care for the coloration that it gives my sound. The RC Booster is very transparent and at some point I might just get a second one and put it in that spot in the chain for an overall boost. In the effects loop would be best for it but its a PITA (and additional stage mess on my smaller stages) running another set of cables every night.
As far as the reverb goes, I only really use it on quieter gigs. It totally mushes my sounds out at high volumes although I would have probably have used it at the OC Fair since it was so dry with no reflections where we played that day.
364 by Mark Wein on MarkWeinGuitarLessons.com
346 by Mark Wein on MarkWeinGuitarLessons.com
With the RC Booster on for the whole song and the Wampler EGO compressor on for solos:
Strymon Mobius for the tremolo sound and Crosstown fuzz for the solo:
Amp clean for the rhythm and it looks like I had the RC Booster and SParkledrive Mod stacked for the solo:
Sparkledrive MOD on the whole time and I just volume-knobbed the clean sound:
Clean for the rhythm and compressor and RC Booster stacked for the solo:
My tone on this gig could have been helped with a little bit of the analog delay or the reverb but I didn't want to mess with it on the fly and there was no actual sound check....figured it was safer to go without although it made playing a little harder.
1. Love the Suhr Badger 30 best in this configuration with the Celestion Creamback. Sometimes I wish I had a more Fender-y sound for some things, but overall this is the best sounding amp I've ever owned. I'm actually running it a bit louder lately and not stacking pedals as much as I used to with my Deluxe Reverb or when I had the head and cab setup and my sounds are way better. The cab has a bit better defined low end (although not as much of it) and the lower wattage speaker still gives me enough clean headroom without it sounding thin with the master volume cranked down.
2. The McFeely 454 is a beast. Anything else I play with leaves me wishing I was playing the 454. Sonically it is very big and lively. Hopefully when the 440 gets its new neck it'll be comparable since the only thing I'm missing is the occasional strat neck pickup sound. I'm now a massive fan of Korina.
3. As far as pedals go, everything I'm using except for the Soul Food is perfect for my current needs. I'm using the Crosstown fuzz a little more too. The Strymon Mobius sounds killer for the 4 sounds (chorus, Phaser, Tremolo and Rotary Speaker) I use it for. Not sure if you can see it in the picture but I've actually stomped the 1st button on the left hard enough on the Mobius that I've dented the case
.Since I'm not stacking pedals so much or just leaving the RC Booster on all night now I'm getting more use out of my compressor too.
The Soul Food is nice for what it is but I don't care for the coloration that it gives my sound. The RC Booster is very transparent and at some point I might just get a second one and put it in that spot in the chain for an overall boost. In the effects loop would be best for it but its a PITA (and additional stage mess on my smaller stages) running another set of cables every night.
As far as the reverb goes, I only really use it on quieter gigs. It totally mushes my sounds out at high volumes although I would have probably have used it at the OC Fair since it was so dry with no reflections where we played that day.
364 by Mark Wein on MarkWeinGuitarLessons.com
346 by Mark Wein on MarkWeinGuitarLessons.com
With the RC Booster on for the whole song and the Wampler EGO compressor on for solos:
Strymon Mobius for the tremolo sound and Crosstown fuzz for the solo:
Amp clean for the rhythm and it looks like I had the RC Booster and SParkledrive Mod stacked for the solo:
Sparkledrive MOD on the whole time and I just volume-knobbed the clean sound:
Clean for the rhythm and compressor and RC Booster stacked for the solo:
My tone on this gig could have been helped with a little bit of the analog delay or the reverb but I didn't want to mess with it on the fly and there was no actual sound check....figured it was safer to go without although it made playing a little harder.
I'm glad I didn't fall out of my chair!