[tubro]

Hey all. First time long time. I’ve got a gig coming up of primarily gd tunes. I’m a deadhead who started going to shows and playing guitar in the late 70s. Ive never had the rig to chase JG’s sound but these guys would like me to try. The thing is that I have what I have. So I’m going to ask any and everyone to give me some ideas for signal chain, with suggested amp and pedal settings.

Amp is a vox AC15 with a blueback. Figure since I don’t have a twin reverb I’ll do what I can to copy it. Of course I’m using the speaker in the anmp rather than preamp out to an MCINTOSH annd a wall of sound 3 in cab. I’ll push treble cut bass make it loud hot and clean-ish. I could also use a loud 50w solid state amp that’s sort of similar to a Roland jazz chorus and get all the dirt from the pedals but I think I need the tubes.

I’ve got the pedals I need and I’m thinking the order will be

Maxon auto filter Also have mini q-tron but I think the Maxon with sensitivity dimed sounds better.

EHX mini pod octave.

Then the dirt. I’ve got a boutique distortion pedal that sounds a lot better than the MXR but I need to dial it in as closely as possible. It’s the Warm Drive by warm audio. With the gain pushed and the two different tone circuits I can mess with some eq.
One of the following 3:
Big muff fuzz
LovePedal OD (probably this but I do love the big muff and Jerry did use those nasty metal boss pedals)
Tube screamer.

Then the filters and modulation.
Maxon analog delay. (where to set it??)
Plus maybe 2 of the following:
Boss chorus ch-1
Phase 100
Earthquaker Ghost Echo reverb pedal
Boss flanger
One or two of the above dialed down for just enough effect to push the clean liquid sound. Probably the ghost echo.

Keeley Katana clean boost at the end.

So that’s it. Probably playing an SG or SG clone with a coil tap bit I don’t plan of shooting for the alligator strat sound.

I’ve been at this a long time always chasing the sound. But not trying to replicate Jerry’s sound. So I’m open to and grateful for any advice on how to set this up and on pedal settings. See you in Vegas.

Thanks.

[jackevorkian]

I think ELxx based amps have the nicest clean tones. And a Blue is an awesome sounding clean speaker at lower volumes. I'd be inclined to run the Vox super clean at lower volume and mic it, if that's an option. Add a second cab if you need it to sound bigger. Normal channel. Not sure that classic formula of simply cutting bass and boosting treble will hold true with a Vox, as the top end can be a little fizzy. Cutting bass will have the effect of boosting treble.

An ABY box would let you blend the two channels to take advantage of the bite of the Top Boost.

A 5751 preamp tube will help.

Another option would be to get a Sarno Blackbox, or something similar, and just use the solid state amp.

[Chocol8]

I am not super familiar with the AC15 to offer much on how to dial it in, but I would suggest the following:

Effects:
Always on reverb (A must IMHO)
Envelope/auto wah (must for certain songs)
Dirt (probably the Lovepedal but I don't have enough personal experience to know how the pedals will interact with the Vox to say what is best)
EQ pedal (GE-7? or maybe rack type with more bands?)

Gravy: Phaser, octave and other effects that you could easily do without even on the songs where JG used them, but might be nice to have.

The key here (hear?) is that you are not using a guitar with a middle pickup and not using a BF/SF Fender style amp with a JBL. Don't tell the purists, but you can makeup for a ton of this with some well applied EQ, hence why I would prioritize EQ over things like octave phaser, delay etc.

If you were to buy anything else to get closer, I would suggest a JBL X-120 or 130 to run the Vox into. Next level would be a Fender amp or fender style preamp, it doesn't need to be a Twin and you don't need to do the pre-amp out thing now that we have modern PA's. Something like a Deluxe Reverb with a JBL speaker will do Jerry all day long in a portable 1x12.

There also great digital options these days.

[tubro]

This is great advice. As a related matter I’m sure this has been covered here but I have a spark 40 that I got for free and generally feel is the dead and company of Amps. Sort of real sort of meh but impressive for what it is. Thing is that I could set it up as a twin and pull the treble and dump the bass and see what that’s all about. Thoughts?
Bottom line is that as I said I’ve never felt the need to chase the sound. Jerry along with others but sort of at the top of the list along with maybe jorma and holdsworth informed me from a young age. But my sound is what sounds good to me. And I like the jangly ac-15 British sound dialed in to handle pedals. Like the twin it’s such a monster loud amp that it’s really great without any pedals. So for this task I’d like to use it and put pedals in front of it and have some fun.
Maybe I will mess around with the spark.