[ethanay]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

My pedal board pedals (in order)

Pog Nano
MXR compressor
MXR distortion
MXR drive
MXR 10 band eq
Ernie Ball VP jr
Dedicated tuner out to Boss TU-3
ART MP tube pre with Sovtek 12ax7
MXR Carbon Copy delay
MXR smart gate
TC Eletronics Corona Chorus
MXR digital reverb
Electro-Harmonix 360 looper

Thank you! This looks similar to the sort of setup I am striving for. If I am struggling with a few of my pedals this will give me some good leads for potential swap-outs. The ART MP tube pre I never would have thought for using in a signal chain like this. Do you intentionally overdrive it at all?

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

Is this for gigging, or just home use? I didn't notice it if you explained.

Good question! Both. Mostly gigging. I am trying to simplify/streamline my rig to save space and maximize my familiarity with/knowledge of less equipment overall from instrument to instrument. My goal is to use my gigging rig for low(er) volume home practice and for recording work, so I am not switching setups/gear quite as much. I find switching between "home practice amps" and "gigging amps" pretty jarring. I LOVE my Chubster 40 but almost never practice with it at home. On one hand, when I do play it again, it always surprises me with how good it sounds. On the other hand, it also requires me to re-familiarize myself with it. For example.

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

The one *pitfall* in your quest is the bass guitar. Some 12" powered PA speakers don't sound bad with bass, as long as you are not trying to get loud or too punchy - and not trying to have other things through the speaker at the same time (vocals, etc). Some, though, provide a very anemic bass sound - there's a reason bass speaker cabinets are bigger/deeper.
A keyboard through a 12" PA speaker is fine - but 10" tend to have the low end drop off badly.
Electric guitar, use a good pedalboard or modeler (go for the Helix if you've got the money and you'll never drag a tube amp around again).

Yeah, I abandoned the FRFR thing for bass for that very reason. I am trying to get what I need out of an Ashdown C112 (180w expandable to 300w with another 8ohm ext cab) and a Traynor AM Std 150w acoustic amp as my main sources of sound or as personal monitors when a good PA is available. They work fantastic for their respective focuses and have great EQ sections, but I'm going to try to make them work in a wet/dry and/or stereo setup, as well (for acoustic and electric guitar/mando, not bass). Plus, together they weigh as much as a single tube combo. I'm also going to try running my keyboard through them (C112 on the L/bass; AM Std on the R/treble side).

I can't stand menus and sub menus and USB and deep editing. I spend way too much time in front of screens already. And I don't like "hidden functionality." In my experience even though it seems more intimidating first I like the "what you see is what you get" interfaces and well-designed, purpose-driven equipment that doesn't allow (let alone require!) editing dozens of parameters to get me to the sounds I'm after. Also a big factor: I run Linux exclusively, which pretty much excludes all that "patch manager" software.

I have even avoided anything with "internal DIP switches" and the like. The exception is the XD-2 which has an attenuator for its boost function, but that is easily accessible through the battery door and pretty much "set and forget" (or just forget

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

First, at Steve's suggestion I bought a Bugera V22 Infinium and have no regrets. Do a little shopping because it looks like the price has increased. Get the Infinium version, not the older model. BTW, I did swap out the tubes for JJs.

If size and weight are a concern, take a look at the Yamaha THR10 or THR10C. This is a small but capable modeling amp that has a headphone/line-out jack to plug in to your mixer or powered speaker. No, it doesn't give you exactly the sound of a tube amp, but it's pretty good, and you can edit the settings with a Windows PC or Mac and save up to five presets.

The THR series looks fantastic for home practice/recording! But I'm on Linux and unless I'm recording I don't like hooking up music gear to computer. I made an exception for Pianoteq for my keyboard but that is pretty much it. So glad they officially support Linux!

Originally Posted by M Hayden

It’s possible to do a unified setup - I’ve got one that uses a 1U acoustic preamp and a 1U mutlifx unit. It’s great for acoustic and completely workable for electric, and it reduces the load to a rack and the instruments (assuming you’re plugging into a PA).

Rack gear is even more foreign to me than pedal stuff, but I could definitely see a compact rack unit being workable. I just want to see if this pedal board based setup will work, and don't even know where to begin with rack-based equipment!

I appreciate all these suggestions. Options abound. I'm sure I will figure something out.