FX less

[pluto]

My beloved Rocktron Intellifex finally bit the dust this weekend. I owned that thing for over a number of years which is a record for me. It even survived a challenge from a TC G Major which I bought last year to replace it. In any case, I'm wondering if I should replace it or just go without fx. Seems like a good idea since I hate hooking stuff up, one of my amps (Cameron Marshall) doesn't even have an fx loop, and one of my other amps (Mesa Mark IV) has imo a crappy fx loop that had a difficult time adjusting correctly with the input of the intellifex. Anybody else go fx less these days?

[slowburn]

i go ampless these days, just strum my grosh unplugged....

[michaelomiya]

Originally posted by pluto
My beloved Rocktron Intellifex finally bit the dust this weekend. I owned that thing for over a number of years which is a record for me. It even survived a challenge from a TC G Major which I bought last year to replace it. In any case, I'm wondering if I should replace it or just go without fx. Seems like a good idea since I hate hooking stuff up, one of my amps (Cameron Marshall) doesn't even have an fx loop, and one of my other amps (Mesa Mark IV) has imo a crappy fx loop that had a difficult time adjusting correctly with the input of the intellifex. Anybody else go fx less these days?

hey, I go FX-less most of the time. Playing FX through the Marshall, as you'll quickly realize, will prove fruitless. Those guys are just sooooo loud, that why bother wetting up the tone. In fact, after a while, all the hi-gain will become big "wash" when you try and throw in too much delay or verb. If necessary, through in a little echo from the board or the PA, not through the amp. Just my 0.02!

[pluto]

Originally posted by michaelomiya
hey, I go FX-less most of the time. Playing FX through the Marshall, as you'll quickly realize, will prove fruitless. Those guys are just sooooo loud, that why bother wetting up the tone. In fact, after a while, all the hi-gain will become big "wash" when you try and throw in too much delay or verb. If necessary, through in a little echo from the board or the PA, not through the amp. Just my 0.02!

Too true about the "wash" factor. Some of those multi fx units have those wacked presets with tons of reverb and delay-mushes everything. The intellifex was pretty awesome though. Had that ducker delay thingy that was awesome. I'll definitely miss that. As for your last statement-that would be cool except my bedroom doesn't have a mixing board!!! :D Ha!

[pluto]

Originally posted by slowburn
i go ampless these days, just strum my grosh unplugged....

I hope you were kidding!! Ah, I guess that's okay though since when I play out, I don't even take an amp (just a little modeller!).

[michaelomiya]

Originally posted by pluto
Too true about the "wash" factor. Some of those multi fx units have those wacked presets with tons of reverb and delay-mushes everything. The intellifex was pretty awesome though. Had that ducker delay thingy that was awesome. I'll definitely miss that. As for your last statement-that would be cool except my bedroom doesn't have a mixing board!!! :D Ha!

was your's the black face (80's), the silver LTD, or the On-line version?

[pluto]

Originally posted by michaelomiya
was your's the black face (80's), the silver LTD, or the On-line version?

On line! Supposedly the worst version of them all-but I got back into guitar when the on line came out so I never heard the black face or silver ltd. I saw a beat up black face version at Dan's a couple of years ago-never played it though since it looked like it was going to die anytime. I bought a G Major last year that was supposed to take the intellifex's place, but I really thought the intellifex was superior for my use. Oh well, I kind of like not plugging in something through the fx loop anyways. BTW-can you send me your address again. I keep losing it.

[Rick]

I have an ancient tweed Champ in my living room. Just has a volume knob (though it goes up to 12, of course) which I usually keep between 2 & 3, even though the amp's only 4.5 watts. I sometimes make it more full-featured by using a Keeley Fuzz Head overdrive & a Little Lanelei spring reverb pedal before it (or even a Z-Vex SHO to push it). It sounds pretty cool with those added factors, but I can't deny that in A/B-ing that with just plugging straight into the amp, straight-in sounds more alive & expressive, as well as more subtly sensitive to the guitar signal.

[pluto]

Originally posted by Rick
I have an ancient tweed Champ in my living room. Just has a volume knob (though it goes up to 12, of course) which I usually keep between 2 & 3, even though the amp's only 4.5 watts. I sometimes make it more full-featured by using a Keeley Fuzz Head overdrive & a Little Lanelei spring reverb pedal before it (or even a Z-Vex SHO to push it). It sounds pretty cool with those added factors, but I can't deny that in A/B-ing that with just plugging straight into the amp, straight-in sounds more alive & expressive, as well as more subtly sensitive to the guitar signal.

Too true. Fx is cool especially a touch of verb or short delay for leads or maybe a little bit of chorus on clean tones, but there's nothing more rock and roll than a guitar plugged straight into an amp. My Uberschall sounded great with the intellifex, but sounds even better now without any fx. I realize I have to play much cleaner too, which is good since I'm sloppy.

[John Price]

Well I did scale things down this year but effect-less no! I had the midi thing happening for years with a TC G-Force running in stereo with the Rocktron midi controller plus all the expression pedals to control the amount of delay or reverb or maybe morph one effect into another bla bla bla! but it just got old to me! Thanks to EBay I sold all of that stuff and now just have a few pedals on a custom made pedal board with a very dry mix!

You know you have found a great amplifier when you plug directly into it "effectless" and play for hours!!!!!

:cool:

[slowburn]

Originally posted by pluto
I hope you were kidding!! Ah, I guess that's okay though since when I play out, I don't even take an amp (just a little modeller!).

well actually since I have a 6 month old, whenever I'm not playing with him he's usually asleep, hence I can't really crank an amp in the house.

[pluto]

Originally posted by slowburn
well actually since I have a 6 month old, whenever I'm not playing with him he's usually asleep, hence I can't really crank an amp in the house.

I actually have the same problem at home. My daughter is a lot older now (2 years), but I still can't crank it. It's kind of funny having 100 watt tube amps at home, but never really being able to play it really loud. When I play at church every Sunday, I just want to bring the least possible, so the Digitech works. The only problem is that the monitor we have is absolutely horrible-99% of the time I can't hear a thing but the acoustic guitar.

[dannopelli]

Nothing sounds better than guitar, cord, amp.

But I find I need a few diferent distortion sounds for live work. I do not have time to adjust my amp for the different guitars and sounds I need.

Plus I just switched from Mesa to Dr Z. No more multi channel.

So my pedal board is all components.

The signal to the front of the amp is:
-Boss TU 2 Tuner. (I know, but the beast is indestructible, so I do the BF by ear)
-Barber Tone Press
-Fulltone DP
-Fulltone FD2
-Fulltone Ultimate Octave
-Boss PW10 Wah (with Marshall Guv'ner programmed into heel)

So if you include the "boost" and "octave" functions on the FD2 and Ultimate Octave I can get five different distortion/fuzz sounds. And that does not count the sounds when I use the FD2 with one of the other pedals.

My FX loop just has a Fulltone Choralflange and Boss DD5. I do ahve a tap tempo plugged into the DD5

I had a G-Major with the requisite Ground Control for a while. I just never got comfortable with it. Tried several of the "multi thingys. Again I just keep going back to stomps.