back in rack heaven

[bettsaj]

Short story.....

A few years back I was in the process of organising a huge Pink Floyd tribute show, and consequently my guitar rig had to be developed to cope with all the effects that were required for such a show. It was a big undertaking for me, and I was fortunate to have some great people working with me to bring it to life from video editing, arranging and musical direction.

UPDATE: I broke my wrist whilst we were in rehearsals for the show. This meant I couldn't play, and being the principal guitar player, and lead vocalist the show was a non-starter. It cost me a lot, venue fees, personal financial loss and in the end I had to recover my losses. To do this a lot of my equipment had to be sold to pay creditors etc... i didn't want my family to be affected by this horrendous issue. sold everything, except my guitars..... The whole rack system went, along with the GCP, and GCX, all my stomp boxes, Marshall 9200 power amp, modified JMP 1 pre-amp, strobe tuner, radio system, speaker cabs.... Basically everything.

Now i'm back after 2 years in the wilderness. Buying my gear back..... I have struck a deal and secured the purchase of the used GCX and GCP that was in the touring rig of Dan Hawkins of The Darkness. I buy amp and pre-amp and cabs after Christmas...... Everything feels good and i'm glad I'm getting back on my feet.

John Clark, you were a font of all knowledge back in the day when I was totally clueless about rack systems..... (I Still am a bit) I will be a regular on the forum in the new year as i start to re-build my rack system, and I value your advice. This is just a quick message to say thank you..........

[JohnClark]

Wow... looks like you certainly don't fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way!

Welcome back to the rack!

[bettsaj]

Thanks John, oh I see what you did there..... "In an off hand way".. Very good.

Yes, the GCX and the GCP are being collected from Dans guitar tech on Tuesday after Christmas. I'll then spend a bit of time cleaning them as they have tape all over them. Here is the actual one's I've bought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S27uOk4y0w&t=545s


I actually think the GCP I've bought is the older v1, DMC version thinking about it, the one on the pedal board. Either way it looks the same with that horrible yellow tape on it... He has, or had 3 of everything... the 2 in the video and 1 other as a spare.

This video actually shows really well how damned good the GCX and the GCP are....

[bettsaj]

UPDATE 23/01/2017

Current list of stuff purchased for the rack system is as follows:

Samson Powerbrite - power conditioner
Sennheiser rack mounted wireless system
Korg DTR1 Rack Tuner
TC Electronic G-Force Processor
Voodoo Lab GCX Audio Switcher
Pedal power supply (For powering stomp boxes in the rack)
Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro
Mission Engineering Exp Pedal
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (To be used with the GCP as a second Exp Pedal)

I've also bought 20 meters of high quality Van Damme guitar cable to wire the thing up. i'll be buying switchcraft plugs eventually once I've counted up how many I need. I was thinking about using Evidence Audio solderless patch cables but though it would be just as good and more robust to use soldered.... Also a damn lot cheaper.

I still need to buy the case for it all... Which will be a 10u case, as I need to fit all that, plus a Marshall JMP1 and a pedal draw which I haven't purchased yet.

I'm also thinking of making a patch panel to help with wiring the thing up, as i'll have a second case with a stereo power amp in it.

It's all looking good

[bettsaj]

Right.... The continuing story of my rack re-build.

Here's how it stands currently, I still need to buy a 10u ABS rack case to put in all in but the equipment is as follows:

Rack Case 1.
Samson Powerbrite - Power Conditioner
Sennheiser Wireless System
Korg DTR1 Rack Tuner
TC Electronics G-Force Processor
Mesa Boogie TriAxis Pre-Amp
Voodoo Labs GCX Audio Switcher
Rack Draw for stomp boxes

Rack Case 2
Randall RT2-50 Power Amp

On The Floor
Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro
Ernie ball Volume Pedal (Used to control volume via the GCP)
Mission Engineering Expression Pedal
Area 51 Custom Wah

Speakers
2 x Marshall 6912 Blue Speaker Cabs Anniversary Series


I'll be running the G-Force in stereo through 2 loops of the switcher. I'll eventually get the stereo mod for the switcher but at the moment I'll use 2 loops like i did with my old system.

I'll probably run the G-Force through the TriAxis Effects loop.

Any ideas or recommendations on connecting this thing up will be greatly appreciated..... John Clark or nyteowl!!!

It's a similar set up to my last system however I've upgraded the power amp and pre-amp. i used to have a JMP1 pre-amp and a Marshall 9200 in my old system...... I think this one is better..... Also the processor is the better G-Force rather than the G-Major i had before.
The G-major was excellent... But I found the G-Force in my local music store 2nd hand for £150.... It was rude not to buy it at that price as that's what the G-Major normally goes for.

I'm in the process of building some stomp boxes, which i'll add at a later date as I finish them. I suspect the stomp boxes will need to go before the pre-amp in the chain... I'll be using a Power boost and i would expect that to go last in the chain before the power amp. But where in the chain would it go in the GCX? If the G-Force in taking up loops 6 & 7 on the switcher would i put the boost in loop 8? I suspect the answer would be yes....... But some advice would be great.

The other stomp boxes are standard fuzz, Muff etc so they'll go in the GCX before the G-Force.

[JohnClark]

If you do run the G-Force in the Triaxis FX Loop, you might not need to use the GCX Loops to switch the G-Force since the Triaxis FX Loop is programmable with each Triaxis Preset.

I'm not too sure what to say about the boost, except once it is built I suppose just patch it into the signal chain directly at various points to find where you like it best. But I can say that running the boost after the G-Force won't really work simply because you have a stereo signal at that point (unless you are going to run a pair of boosts)

[bettsaj]

So what you mean regarding the TriAxis, is i don't need to waste buttons on the GCP for the G-Force as I can switch the G-Force in and out on the TriAxis presets...... This means i have recovered 2 buttons i thought i'd lost on the GCP Great!!

[JohnClark]

I was thinking saving you two GCX Loops, but yea I suppose that would also possibly save you a couple buttons if you were going to dedicate them to switch these two loops.

Of course you may still dedicate the buttons to these two loops, just the loops can be used for something else now

[bettsaj]

Ahhh.. I understand now.. Sorry my bad. Had a blonde moment... You mean just run the tc through the triaxis missing out the gcx all together...

[bettsaj]

So.. Update:

Currently wiring the rack for power. I'm waiting a delivery of Neutrik jacks so I can wire the audio. I've also wired up a patch panel for the rear of the rack