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My Amps & Pedals

Amps

My rehearsal and (at least in theory) stage rig is a Blackstar Studio 20 head going through a Marshall 1960A 4 x 12 speaker cabinet (that looks like it went through World War II). The head, also called the HT-20, is from the original Venue series, the "Mk I". It was purchased new in the first days of 2011, so it is by quite a fair margin the amp that I've owned for the longest period of time. Sometimes I get impatient to find something new and better, but every time I do I come back to the HT-20 and realize just how great it is. This amp does everything I want to do. It has glorious cleans, a great crunch sound that cleans up when dialing back the guitar volume, and an aggressive distorted tone. It is just powerful enough that it can punch through a rhythm section.

The Blackstar ID:30 TVP is my go-to amp for recording. Unlike more traditional simulating amps, it doesn't have cookie-cutter emulations of classic amps. You will not find a JCM 800 sim, a Rectifier, a blackface Twin and an AC30. Instead, there are six gain stages (clean to massively distorted) and six simulated tube output stages, together with the usual Blackstar ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) that reconfigures the equalizer from American to British tones or anything in between. That way, you can approximate all the classic sounds as well as find your own combinations.

My dedicated practice amp is the Marshall Code 25. It has a few models that are simply fantastic: I can sit and wail with the JCM 800 sim for hours, and it also has a very nice Bluesbreaker tone. I especially enjoy that the Code 25 has the possibility to insert certain effects before the preamp, so I can have a selectable overdrive for that extra push when I want it.

I bought the Marshall with the intention that it would supplant the Blackstar. Logically, digital amps improve in leaps and bounds since processors and memory circuits get cheaper and more capable. Initially, it was obvious that the Marshall represented three years of digital evolution over the Blackstar. There is something about how the tones feel under the fingers that makes me prefer the Code 25 to the ID:30 when just soloing and riffing in the room. As soon as I connect the emulated out to my sound card, however, the roles are reversed. The Blackstar has a much more pleasing sound for recording, but it's hard to get inspired by the speaker sound. But this is only true so long as I play with distorted tones. When I switch to cleaner sounds, the Blackstar runs rings around the Marshall. Some of it stems from the fact that the ID:30 simply has a bigger speaker (12-inch vs. 10-inch) and a bigger cabinet, so it's more resonant. But the clean preamps along with the power amp sims can get me glorious, almost Fender-type cleans. Whenever I want to play with my delay, reverb and modulation pedals, I use the Blackstar ID:30.

Pedals

Ideally, I would run my guitar straight into the amp and try to challenge myself to extract as much nuance as possible from that simplest of combinations. In fact, if you look back on my playing career, that is actually how I have spent the most of the time. But recently, I have resigned myself to the fact that a pedal or two can actually add to your tone and inspire you to play and write new stuff.

I put it like this because I have always had a complex relationship with pedals. There's something about them that just screams buy me! collect me! and as a guy I'm predisposed to falling for such stuff. Colorful gadgets with knobs, switches and LED:s? I'm in! It goes in cycles, I suppose. I collect pedals and use them, and then I have a bad experience and I am turned off by them for a while—until the cycle starts anew. I think pedals are downright dangerous. They're cool, they're substantial enough to affect my tone, but at the same time they're usually cheap enough that I think nothing of buying one a month without much prior deliberation. It is telling that whenever I find a new guitar or amp that I really want, the first thing I do is check my pedal collection for anything I can get rid of.

I own two pedalboards: the Pedaltrain PT-2 and Nano+. I'm a little undecided on what I should do: keep the smaller one in the rehearsal room and focus on only the stuff I need, or use the bigger one with space for those extra pedals that might come in handy. There are arguments to be made both ways. But as of right now, my available power sources tend to dictate the choice. The big board is powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 that I have mounted underneath via the included brackets. It has worked great so far, and it has eight outlets, which means that I have power for just as many pedals as I would ever see myself needing at any one time. There is ample space on the board—I bought it when I owned a volume pedal and a wah. The smaller board has Pedaltrain's own Volto, which is basically a powerbank for 9-volt effects pedals. It works all right, and I particularly like not having that extra cable to worry about, but I have to remember to keep the thing charged or it will zonk out when I least expect it. Not a problem with true bypass pedals, but one of the pedals I rely on the most has a buffer and will not pass sound without power even if it's off. At any rate, I have used Pedaltrain's products for six years now, and I've never had an issue. They're sturdy and ergonomic, and I particularly like that I can pass cables (and mount the power supply) underneath it, so as to keep the top surface as uncluttered as possible. After a bit of going back and forth, I have settled on the EBS flat patch cables, that do a wonderful job and allow me to mount pedals really close to each other should I need it.

There is no pedal that I couldn't play without, nor is there something that's always on. But I have been able to narrow my preferences down to a central collection of four or five that inspire me a great deal and that I consequently always have available:

The three available slots left on my pedalboard tend to be occupied by a chorus, and then either flanger, vibrato, rotary or tremolo. Here is a brief discussion of the rest of the pedals in my collection:

I don't have many distortion pedals simply because I prefer the sound of amp distortion. Distortion pedals can sound good, but in my opinion they just don't get me all the way. They are handy because I prefer modulation and delays post-distortion and whereas I have an effects loop I don't want the hassle and the extra cables. But I prefer my amp tone to the degree that I willingly run all my effects into the front of the amp.

Between 2013 and 2018, I got the pedal-collecting bug because I didn't know what I wanted to do musically, and so I guess I used it as an excuse to try to be ready for anything. But when I formed the new outfit at the start of 2019, and it landed in classic rock territory, a number of pedals found themselves without a job, so I got rid of them. It is becoming increasingly clear that I prefer old-school effects: a bit of amp reverb, analog delay, tremolo, phaser, rotary and Uni-Vibe. Basically anything that was invented before 1975. I love listening back to those classic tunes and the warm, organic guitar tones.

This is important, because it determines what I should look for and shop for. I already have a tuner that works, an excellent phaser, the best possible analog delay and a sweet boost pedal. There is a good enough reverb in my amp and I also have a great tremolo pedal. I don't need another chorus or flanger. I could probably find a better Uni-Vibe clone, there is just something with mine that doesn't feel right. And I definitely want a better rotary pedal—the Neo Instruments Micro Vent 122! In all other pedal categories, I'm basically set. I don't use any of them enough that what I already own can't do the job when called upon.