Jeff's Rig - Start to Finish

[jeffm725]

As Promised I am going to start posting information about Shakedowns gear. I am going to start with my own as I gather more information and pictures of/about mark and Daves.

Lets start with my guitar (at least the one I use with Shakedown):

This is called an Ibanez Professional series model 2681 or the "Bob Weir professional":

Here is an old ad from the 70's of Bobby and his endorsement



Mine is was made in July of 1976 which was the first production year of this model. The last production year was 1979 so you do not see many of these out there.

The body is solid Ash (quite heavy) with a Maple neck and Ebony fretboard. You will notice that the edges of the body have and Abalone binding called "purfling". The top is carved and contoured in a style that is called a "German carve" which is notable in the way the carve recesses before the binding.
The inlays are mother of pearl and abalone and the hardware is gold.

More pics including some closeups of the fretboard "Tree of Life" inlay:







A couple shots of her doing what she was born to do:



Coming next...the Amplifier.

[tiffcheese]

[jeffm725]

The effects pedal portion should be especially informative because {drum roll please} I make my own effects pedals (well there are a couple exceptions)

[tiffcheese]

[jeffm725]

Tiff, Actually I do have a very small side business making custom effects pedals for people. It is something we could discuss if youre (or anyone else is) interested

[jeffm725]

Here is what I use as My Amp:



The Roland JC120 is known worldwide as the ultimate "clean" amp. What that means is that the amp sounds by nature are not prone to distortion or coloration by the circuit of the amp. This is a solid state amp as opposed to a "tube" amp. There are many postitions and discussions as to which is "better" but it really comes down to the type of sound you are looking for and the steps that you take to achieve that sound. The JC120 suits me perfectly because
a) my personal taste in tone lies predominatly on the "clean" side.
b)When I do look to alter or color my tone, I use effects pedals, and some guitar pickup options to do the coloring. Since that is my method it serves me very well to have a very neutral, clean amp that I can depend on for base line power but that does not alter my tone.

MY JC120 was snagged off of Rich Sage(former Shakedown keys player and currect LOJ keys player, and is a very early made in USA model (late 1970's) this means that it does not have the effects loop that later models have, but I believe the overall tone, workmanship and speakers are better than the later models. The amp is HEAVY (80+ lbs!! but it has wheels and I just cant get what I want out of lighter models) I have a JC90 which is the exact same amp except for 10" speakers and the speakers DO make a difference. The JC120 has 12" celestions.

I have switched between Solid State and Tube many times over the years and I can go on and on and on about the differences and my experiences, but I won't unless someone has specific questions regarding it.

[tiffcheese]

[jeffm725]

OK a little bit about the Boss Gt-6. In my experience I usually have a great distate for digital multi-effects units. They usually sound very sterile and processed and as stated above, my taste in tone lies more on the clean, organic side.
The Gt-6 is by far the best sounding Digital Multi-effects unit I have ever used. It does have its drawbacks but the key is (I guess just like anything) is finding a use for it that fits my style and taste.

First of all the match between the effects unit and my amp is perfect. The Boss gt-6 is made by Roland who also make my amp (JC-120), it just so happens that one of the output selections on the GT-6 is designed SPECIFICALLY for use with JC-120 amps. This happens to be the only amp that has a specific output configuration designed for it. You can use other amps with the unit, obviously, but the output selections tend to run to a more generic ballpark (for example besides having an output called "JC-120" there is an output called "Combo AMP" and another called "Stack AMP" and another called "Line/PA). All these outputs are level matched and eq'd to work best with what you are outputting to. So if I was not using a JC-120 with this unit I would have to spend more time tweaking than I already do(and as with any digital muti-effect unit there is a TON of tweaking to do).

About the actual unit:
The GT-6 has more effects and possibilities then I would ever use in 10 life times. Again the trick for me is finding and learning how to get out of it what is good for me. The unit is VERY versatile and serves me very well in that I can create a ton of different patches with different base line settings to match what style I am going for. As an example in Shakedown I obviously try to get in the Bob Weir ballpark (I never try to copy tone exactly), my favorite period of Bob Weirs playing and guitar tone is 1977-1982. His tone back then was fairly bright with sometimes a touch of flanger or phaser and chorus and delay. He never, ever played with a distorted tone in that period. Weir started playing with a distorted tone more in the later years when he was playing with a modulus guitar and playing more slide. He used distortion then to get some "bite" on his slide work and his tone overall started shifting that way. By the 90's his tone was distorted in some manner I would say 90% of the time. Bobs gear changed to facillitate these tone changes. Even though I like to stay in the 77-82 period tone wise, there are songs from the later years that absolutely call for his later tone. Well, I don't have Bob Weirs's bucks to change gear and rigs. The Gt-6 allows me to have separate banks of presets that I created that can get me in the 77-82 ballpark and banks that get me into the 90's ballpark. This is something I could not do with analog stomp boxes. (or thousands of dollars)
Also, to change things up bigtime, when I play with LOJ I am obviously going for more of a Garica type tone, which is VERY,VERY different from Bob Weirs tone. The GT-6 again gives me a pallet to work with to build the characterisitcs of Garcia's tone (very bright, but not brittle; very tight and round and well articulated bottom end without being boomy).
To get even crazier their are certain characteristics of Trey Anastasios tone that I really like and his setup and tone taste is miles from Garcia and Weirs (trey had a secret weapon, a ross compresser, behind two Ibanez tube screamers (modded to 808 specs)...Garcia absolutely NEVER used compression, well his twin reverb does offer some natural compression just like any tube amp} There is no way during a gig that I could go from say a Garcia/Weir style tone, to an Anastasio style tone without switching amps, guitars and full lines of analog stomp boxes. On the GT-6 the change is one effects pedal bank away!

Now, after the way I have been talking about it, it would seem like, hey! If the GT-6 allows you to do all the things you just stated above, why doesnt every guitarist use one?!
Answer: This unit, along with similiar multi-effects units are a monumental PAIN IN THE ASS! The learning curve to get them to the point where I even found mine to be usable in a live situation was very steep. Their great ability of being able to offer loads of different effects in a single unit(and its less expensive, by that I mean is if you were to buy an individual floor stomp box of every effect offered in the GT-6 you would spend at least 20000 dollars, this unit is around 300 and you can probably get it for under 200 on ebay now because there is a newer model out), so the raw amount of effects and tweakability is its greatest asset AND its biggest detriment. It is not easy to use. It comes with like 80 preset effects patches. There was not ONE that was usable for me. They all sucked. The unit HAS to be tweaked to match your guitar and AMP settings and to do that is a ton of learning and work which a lot of guitarists just dont want to spend the time to do (and I dont blame them!).
The usit has what are called Digital Modeling engines which allow it to digitally emulate different amps and/or effects. Usually these are garbage, but I have to say that this one comes pretty close in some cases, best I have heard.
For example, I have a choice of emulating about 20 different amplifiers, including Fender Twins, Mesa Boogies, Marshall Stacks, Vox AC30's, etc..etc.. Some of them (especially the twin) sound pretty damn close, its impressive. There are also digital models of some classic ditortion effects icluding Ibanex Tube Screamer, MXR distortion +, Proco Rat, marshal Guvnor.
Digiatl Models of Wah pedals, Cry Baby, Vox, Morley.
Etcc. etc...
Not to mention that since it is a Boss unit, pretty much every Boss pedal is represented.

To me a breakthough in using this unit came when I started to look at it as having a bunch of separate stomp boxes instead of looking at it as a whole unit.

In a live setting I never use the amp modelers (they just dont cut it live, I have found it useful in the studio).
I never use the Distortions (I have built my own TS808 tube screamer and my own MXR distortion +, why use a simulator?)

I DO use the reverbs, delays, chorus, phaser, flanger and Wah's, octave divider on this unit in a live setting. The "time based" effects are the strong suit of this unit.
I use these effects just like I would use different stomp boxes.

Next up, the couple stomp boxes I DO use and have built

[WEIRINCT]

What happend to the cowboy fancy and your boss gt-6??? and whats your current rig consist of???
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WEIR on a mission!!

[BryanK]

Wow , VERY , VERY informative Jeff !

Looks like you spent a good deal of time trying to explain your setup. Just wanted to let you know that someone is reading and appreciating the time it took to post all of that (although someone musically challenged such as myself will have to re-read it a few more times to get the gist of it).

Now if we can just get the rest of the band to go into as much detail about their equipment , I for one would enjoy reading about it !!

[jeffm725]

OK, Scott asked about what happened to some of my stuff. and Johnny Blenz asked about one of my new guitars.

Since the beginning of this thread, I have changed my whole rig Like 5 times and now I have really 4 different complete rigs that I have to choose from depending on how big a room is, what sound I am going for and how much I feel like carrying around on a particular week.


The aformentioned Roland Jazz Chorus, Boss GT-6 multi-effects, and Ibanez Bob weir professional I have either sold (Jazz chorus and GT-6 were sold) or put on mothballs (Ibanez Weir guitar).


I will start notating changes here in the next few posts:
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Is hypnocracy not the search for the meaning of hypnocracy?

[WEIRINCT]

add this amp to your curret rig


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WEIR on a mission!!

[jeffm725]

Amplifiers:

I have 3 different Amplifiers that I use depending on room size, mood and tone I am going after.

When I am after a 72-74 Weir tone I use this:

1968 Fender Twin Reverb.
Specifically it is a January 68, so while it is the first silverface year, it is the famed Blackfaced AB763 circuit inside it.


The twin is just such a fantastic amp, but HEAVY and LOUD. It stays clean all day long. It is wonderful when combined with my Gibson ES-135 for getting the 73-74 Bobby sweetness (which stands to reason as I believe Bob used a Twin then and his main guitar was a gibson Es-345 which is just a double cutaway version of the 135 I have.)
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Is hypnocracy not the search for the meaning of hypnocracy?

[jeffm725]

OK Here we go: this is not all the amps and the Solid State rack is missing from this pic:


Left to Right:
1968 Fender Twin Reverb, 2005 Fender Deluxe Reverb (thanks scott!). 1978 Mesa Boogie Mark 2a

the 2 Fender Amps are sitting on top of a Custom Built Hard Trucker Style Cabinet with JBL E-120 speakers
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Is hypnocracy not the search for the meaning of hypnocracy?

[jeffm725]

Guitars:


Gibson ES135



Casio PG380



Ibanez MC400

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Is hypnocracy not the search for the meaning of hypnocracy?