The Watering Hole

I know most of you here are die hard tube amp/exotic pedal fans. I am too. But I don't have the budget for either. So I've been spending the last year on the same rig trying to get the best tones I can out of it.

Well...tonight I rediscovered what I have. In my little measly room to work with. What I am running is an Ernie Ball 'Luke' guitar to my Digitech RP500, to my Marshall VS-S80.

I pretty much matched the VS amp's clean channel to a buddy's 'jumped' plexi. Meaning I have it set to just starting to break up.

I've been using the JCM900 amp model from the RP500, which has gain for days but has also always seemed a bit mid-scooped in tone.

Tonight I moved the modeler to the 'Plexi' model, redid the onboard eq, added the onboard 'Tubescreamer' pedal, and added the onboard compression.

End result is that I have a completely richer sounding rig. The mids are creamier, the lows are tighter, and the highs are no longer piercing. Tonally...it is very much more like a JVM. Whereas before it sounded like the Marshall model on a Spider 2.

Pretty big difference. And there is so much more to explore and figure out with this pedal. Honeymoon period is long over with the RP500....yet I'm still lovin it.

cool

congrats Johnny.  The Plexi amp tones are the basis for many great tones!

Tonight I moved the pedal from the Screamer to the Redline. I don't have a clue what a Redline pedal is....but on board the RP500 it has a lot more character, low end, and gain than the Screamer. Had to bring the mids up a tad to replace the creaminess of the screamer, but it's there now.

This pedal is stupid fun. I have a Dual Rectumfier channel set for heavy stuff. I eq'ed it to Creed's 'My Sacrifice'. Power chord-wise it's pretty damn close. Where it lacks is the mid punch a real recto packs on the leads. It doesn't sing like my Roadster did. But hell...it's not a Roadster. Duh...

And.....I have 4 channels set for SRV Texas dirt rock type tones. Probably more like Pat Green tones...but Texas dirt rock nonetheless. Ironic as it is....as I'm not a good blues or dirt rock player....these are the best sounding tones I'm getting from this pedal. Very spanky, quacky, and rich.

Disclaimer....If you do not own a Strat or a Tele..or something that can reproduce a reasonable facsimile of their tones, this will not make sense to you. Go back to your Ibanez and practice your blazing scales. An MXR flange pedal sounds really cool with blazing scales.

Carry on.

what if we can't do blazing scales either?  

The RP500 and RP1000 have some great sounds in them. I have been playing in 2 cover bands on a regular basis lately and the RP1000 + power amp and cab replaced my Vetta. But, the last month or so all I have been playing through is the RP1000 direct to the PA.

These two recordings were taken from a show last weekend, both were done with a Schecter Blackjack, RP1000 using a Mark IV model direct to the Mackie console. recorded with my little Zoom H4n, mounted on the ceiling about 15-20' from the stage.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8486302

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8486296

Also you mentioned the Redline model. I agree it is the best sounding on board OD in the RP. I used to run my RP1000 into the front end of a Fender HRD 4x10 and I bypassed all the amp and cab modelling and just used the Redline pedal model for my high gain stuff, then completely bypass the RP for clean sounds.

One thing about the RP1000 that really made it my pedal of choice is the fact that it responds really well to changes in dynamics, pickups selection, etc... The two recordings above both used the same patch, but i manipulate my volume knob and pickups selector to vary my tone.

I have never played an Axe FX, but that particular uint aside, I think the current generation RP series tops any hardware based modeller out right now in terms of realistic amp modelling. Not saying it is as good as a real amp, just saying that I love showing up to a gig with a pedal, a few guitars and that's it. My power amps and 4x12 cabs are starting to collect dust.

That RP unit sounds killer, Still a modeler but as close to a real tube amp sound that I have heard to date. I have heard some great things about those RP units on the Digitech Forums. Yeah. Nice playing too Spai

Thanx DBM.