Covers band rig advice

[NZRS-Dave]

When I played in a covers band (lead guitar), I had a Jackson Performer (cheap japanese one), Marshall VS100 Head and Cab, chorus pedal, wah pedal, and a delay over the whole lot for a bit of fatness. So I had three sounds. clean, crunch, and solo.

I used it for all songs regardless of what they were. People don't need the exact tone, and in my case, they didn't even get an approximation of the original tone. It was my tone playing their songs. Nice and easy, and a good sound.

[druz15]

friends don't let friends use chorus pedals

[slash-ed]

Bottom line: play what you want, with whatever tone you want, as long as it sounds "ish" close to the original. OR make it sound better with your gear

When I play my single channel amps and get my cleans solely from rolling back on the volume, they are often a little more hairy or slightly crunchy compared to the original song. Sometimes this is a good thing! And luckily I haven't received any complaints about my tone just yet.

[Pastasauce]

friends don't let friends use chorus pedals

+1

Nothing says 80's to me like a Chorus pedal.

[Rog]

I've recently watched two different guitarists playing covers in different bands. One used just a delay pedal and a real AC-30 with a Strat, the other used an LPC and no fx at all straight into a Mesa Subway Blues. They both played all night with no extra gear. They both sounded great and as mentioned above, the audience neither noticed nor cared that the tone was not the same as the original recordings.

Personally, I prefer to have fx at hand in my ME-70, such as delay, chorus, wah, flange, harmonies, tremolo & overdrive. I know no-one else notices them, but after all, I do play mainly for me and it makes me happy. Overall, I prefer to use my Strat and leave the LP at home. To me, the Fender is just so much more versatile and seemly for the type of music I enjoy playing. Plus of course, it cost half as much as the Gibby and has better build quality.

[Rog]

Nothing says 80's to me like a Chorus pedal.

Nothing says '80s to me like a load of bland music and terrible clothes.
Its a generational thing....

[NZRS-Dave]

Nothing says 80's to me like a Chorus pedal.

Sweet ... we played lots of 80's stuff.

[jimi]

clearly the answer is a new Jazzmaster in the guitar rack. It will make you look cool and lets face it, when you're playing covers thats all that really matters right?

My set up, which is only used for covers, has been constantly tinkered with. Currently using the ASH Aurum -> M9 -> Marshall TSL601 Clean channel. On the M9 Im using the "Classic Distortion" (RAT) for dirt and a Tube Compressor effect for a boost.

Previously I had a Wah, 2 OD pedals, CE2 Chorus and a Delay on the board. And a tuner cos being in tune is pretty important I guess.

In terms of what you need though as said above - you need a clean sound, a dirty sound, and a probably bit of extra boost for solos. I have got through a whole gig using nothing but 1 dirt pedal (SFT) and my volume knob. We sometimes do a U2 song, so for that I need a Delay, otherwise I'd love to cut my pedal board down to just a tuner and a dirt pedal.

[electric68]

My free advice is worth what you pay for it.

A clean(ish) platform that provides headroom, a hairy-ness pedal, tuner and guitar volume are probably 97% of what one needs. I like a single coil (strat) for its ability to cut through, and a pedal(s) can fatten it up if you need to.

"A strat player cries a little for his tone; a LP player cries a lot". See whether that starts a fight!

I think we all fuss over tone tone tone and it's a subtlety that is lost on all but the musos when playing anything but a concert (which I haven't done).

But I still spend my kids' inheritance (and am leaving them debts too) in pursuit of tone tone tone.