Racks!

No, not female knockers. Im talking about Rack Units, you know for effects. While never trying them myself yet, i've never heard anybody say bad things about them other than that they are complicated. What i want to know is if they are worth it, and do they work just like pedals?

It depends on which rack you talk about.
Some of them are made with things really dedicated to only one effect. Like you would use a 'reverb' rack unit, then a distortion, then a delay etc... In that case, yes, they are worth it, since every link of your sound goes into the best thing there is!
You also have some rack units that actually are multi effects, and then, the sound depends on the quality of your multi effects (like if you use an eventide harmonizer, that costs around 10000 bucks, it might sound better than anything else) And yes, it's quite more complicated to use a rack than a pedal, but depending on the sound you like, you can use either of them.
Some people use a rack because they need to get all those different sounds from all their albums others can achieve that with stompboxes (like satch). Some guys (like me)have had racks that were as big as a fridge, and then went back to 'a guitar, a cord, and you good ol' fingaz'.

true, very true- often the pure sound of a strat through a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb is enough for me, although im trying to find my possabilites in the wah-wah genre, specifically right now the envelope filter style. i have a good envelope filter from electro-harmonix, Q-Tron +, its great but its difficult to find 'the sound', takes alot of tweaking.

I was thinking about the Rack Units before because it would be quite foolish to go do concert with 30 different little stompboxes, i mean thats a disaster waiting to happen (imo).

where do the racks hook up, i mean it looks like a rack unit, do you need something special in order for it to work?

also, can you get a rack floorboard so that instead of turning each one on individually, you can simply flip to which one you want?

that's a very complicated task. You can have a floorboard, with every switch turning a particular sound (like going through your chorus, then into the EQ) and another switch that makes you go through other things, or maybe other amps.
Those boards are midi driven, and usually, it's the guitar tech that builds them. (or someone whose job it is)

Actually, if you have more than 10 pedals, I think you should turn to a rack. What pedals do you have?
Other than a wah, a distortion, a chorus, a delay, a whammy maybe, what's useful? If you love Jimi, maybe an octaver, but what else?
You also have the possibility to see the Pod, which is equivalent, in quality, to the biggest racks of the 80s. It can be floorboard driven, and it has more things than you'll ever need. (actually, there's also a rack version, with more in and outs for recording)

i heard that the pod only works on line 6 amps though...

i'll consider the rack option, im saving my money for a new electric guitar (got $550 so far), which will be nice.

have you heard anything about McIntosh Amps? Specifically the McIntosh 2300 Amp, thats what its called, but it doesnt really look like an amp. I saw it on a Jerry's Rig page, it looked like everthing was hooked up to the McIntosh, including the Silverface amp jerry used and the JBL speakers.

I checked Musiciansfriend on the McIntosh, couldnt find it...

The pod is a multi effect, so it works with any amp, and you can record direct with it.

I don't know about the Mc Intosh, but I guess that maybe Jerry had it made for him? (like the thunderbolt guitar?)

It looks like this:


And Jerry set it up like this.

Well, it looks a lot like a hi-fi stereo amp, not a guitar amp... Try looking into hifi things...

The MC 2300 is a 300 Watt/channel transistor stereo power amplifier. I don't think he was running a stereo rig, so he probably bridged the outputs in mono for feeding those three Alembic speaker cabs.

That page says the power amp was driven by the preamp of his Fender guitar amp, which would mean that his sound was not dependant on distortion generated by the power stage of the Fender amp!

Originally posted by Lordathestrings
The MC 2300 is a 300 Watt/channel transistor stereo power amplifier. I don't think he was running a stereo rig, so he probably bridged the outputs in mono for feeding those three Alembic speaker cabs.

That page says the power amp was driven by the preamp of his Fender guitar amp, which would mean that his sound was not dependant on distortion generated by the power stage of the Fender amp!

under normal cercumstances,i would understand what you just said, but i just got done working a very long shift at Mcdonalds, and my brain is fried. Anywhoo, would the MC2300 be a big chunk of his sound, or any of his sound at all?

If the info on that web page is true, his sound was based on his guitar, his stompboxes, and the preamp section of his Fender Twin Reverb. The MC 2300 is just a honkin' big, [u]clean[/u], transistor power amp, used to drive those three 2x12" speaker cabs. There's no mention of micing the Twin Reverb, so he wasn't even using the power section of the Fender to drive its own speakers... just the preamp section to drive the big transistor amp. It looks like a piece-meal Fender-based big-ass version of the more recent Marshall Valvestate amps that use tube preamps and transistor power amps.

oooooh alright, i see now. where would you think i could get one?

That's the neat part! One clean transistor amp sounds just like any other clean transistor amp. The tonal qualities you're looking for come from the guitar, stompboxes, and the tube preamp. The transistor power amp just makes it louder, [u]without adding, or taking away any of the tone[/u].

In other words, you already have everything you need. If you get a gig that requires huge amounts of power, route the signal from your nice, new Fender re-issue's preamp to the mixer panel for the PA, and let 'er rip! Jerry was running his own stacks with that big Mac hi-fi amp, but your soundman, (and the audience) would be happier if the sound was balanced by someone running the main mix.

Depending on what period of Jerry's sound you want to emulate, you will need some MXR or Boss stompboxes, or some of that rack gear he was using at the end.

I think this is probably a good time to remind you that even if Jerry himself had invited you up on stage to play his own personal rig, set up his way, you would still sound like [u]you[/u], playing Jerry's rig. Don't get too hung up on the gear.

yeah, i totally agree, but i still think its neccessary to get more equipment amp-wise than just my FDRR, you know?

I think you've got all the amp you're ever gonna need. Take another stroll through this list of Jerry's Effects, and you may find a thing or two worth picking up. Remember, you're looking for a particular kind of sound. Jerry got it with the low-level stuff like the effects and the preamp. In the 80's he was using the same Boss pedals anybody could buy at their local music store. The rest of it was just stuff to make that sound get louder.

Does anybody know a resonable priced rack that has rich/deep chorus effects? Maybe a multi- effect? Or another petal? I have tried the SuperChorus from Boss, but I guess I am looking for something a little more... Maybe an interesting petal to tack onto the chorus other then delay/echo/reverb? Im trying to achive something "dreamy" sounding kinda like Joe Satriani has.

If any of you have the Live in San Fransico DvD- the last part on the cd's where joe satch takes you through a quick run of his setup. Well he kicks on his chorus, then another 2 petals to get an awsome tone! Except he never states which other 2 petals, which is understanible. Looking for ways to achive a similar sound, (but not the same) to that.

I had read that for the choruses, he used the eventide h3000, which is everything but reasonnably priced...

Hey thanks. How about something that is more... well.. not so freakin expensive? lol Know of anything that will do the trick? I often go to Guitar Center and try different combo's out, but they actually dont have as many effects as I thought... No chorus has struck me there yet

I use a Zoom 3030, and I can really have a tone pretty close to Satch's... But as for really recreating the same rack as him... I dunno (BTW, maybe through his rack, you'd sound like... Yourself through Satch's rack...)

Yeah, i have a list of effects im going to get, but you wouldnt recommend any add-ons as far as JBL's or a Mac, or anything like that?