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Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 29 2012, 02:24 AM

Here is a pic of John Petruccis touring rig for upcoming G3. Notice how much it has shrunk since he did those videos showing him with two refrigerator racks of gear? It's down to one Mesa Triax preamp, axe effects, rack wah and that's it. It seems the days of HUGE rack of gear is going away for many pros. Makes sense though The Axe Effects replaces wads of gear. Marcus Siepens touring rack is another good example.

Here is Johns current rig.


and his old rig.


What gear have you cut out of your rig if any?

Posted by: SirJamsalot Sep 29 2012, 06:49 AM

I noticed that too.He's got the Axe FX - I'm guessing that's where he's leaning?

Posted by: PosterBoy Sep 29 2012, 12:43 PM

My rig went from a 2x12 Fender Deville + 30"x15" pedal board to Axe Fx ultra.

Posted by: SpaseMoonkey Sep 29 2012, 01:08 PM

Yeppers, he uses the amp for the sounds and the Axe FX for all of his pedals pretty much.


I went from a Mesa Triple Rectifier, 4x12 Cab, and 3-5 pedals. To a Kemper and headphones or via my stereo.

Posted by: The Uncreator Sep 29 2012, 02:29 PM

He used to have two rigs for two guitar tones so live when they panned his playing it gave a better effect, he also had a small delay on one to give it a human element. All that can be done now with single units, so setup is quicker, touring with it is easier too Id imagine.

Posted by: PosterBoy Sep 29 2012, 03:48 PM

and more importantly touring becomes a little less expensive with smaller rigs

Posted by: Todd Simpson Sep 30 2012, 08:39 AM

There's that So yeah, these days, with an AXE FX in your rack, you mostly good to go. A couple of Mesa Cabs, or really no cabs at all and run direct and your still ok. The new guitar player for Megadeth uses the output from his laptop running the axe fx control software for his personal monitoring. He doesn't even use cabinets at all.

Things have certainly changed The good news is, stage volume can be lowered so the overal mix can be better and it means lugging less crap around which is nice.

Todd

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Sep 30 2012, 05:34 PM

Great topic!! I will be going to the G3 show here!

This is something that I have been thinking about... I like the idea of having only an Axe Ultra and a foot controller for Cirse's shows, and maybe using wireless monitoring to hear my guitar... however the type of shows that we have are very different, sometimes we play in great halls with really good audio systems but other times we play in small places with really bad audio system.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 1 2012, 05:30 AM

Even if the house PA is complete crap, your stage volume isn't going to make it much past the 5th row of seats yes? But then if the place is really intimate/small, you might put only the vocals in the PA and let the amps fill the room with sound. So maybe carry one MESA cab and the AXE FX? You could decide whether to plug the cab in once you see the house PA. Even if you don't plug it in, it will look great and serve as a stand for your AXE FX

Todd

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Oct 1 2012, 01:26 PM

In this way I would also need a power amp, don't me?

Posted by: PosterBoy Oct 1 2012, 04:20 PM

yes http://www.matrixamplification.com/ Have come up with what seems to be the power amp of choice for Axe Fx users, amateur and professional

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Oct 1 2012, 09:16 PM

Thanks for the link... the question in my mind will be... Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier vs Axe Fx.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 2 2012, 02:43 AM

You can always do like MARCUS and use both He posted in a thread a pic of his rig which is a Mesa Triple Recto and an axe fx. He said he sometimes uses both, recto for gain, axe fx for fx, but sometimes, he will just use the axe fx by itself if the traveling and or gig is better suited to a smaller load in/out.

It's the perfect rig It's very close to John Petruccis G3 rig in fact. John is using a MESA triaxis preamp (a digitally controlled Mesa Recto Preamp) with an axe fx. James hetfield uses the Triaxis in his touring rack as well.

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Rackmount-Preamps/TriAxis/triaxis.html





No power amp required for running direct If you just come out of the AXE FX and go in to the Mixing Board/PA, you can skip the power amp entirely. The AXE FX does speaker/cabinet emulation so it can sound like a cabinet with a nice mic on it, even when it's running direct out.

Posted by: Max Sokolov Oct 2 2012, 04:31 AM

My 'club' rig is now an Axe FX Std, or Fender Blues Junior FSR with my pedalboard.
It depends on monitoring availbility)

Axe FX is a really good thing!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 2 2012, 11:05 PM

Nice! I really want to get an AXE FX after hearing so many good things about them. I"m a big fan of emulation in general, when done well, and AXE does it very well

I"m actually playing with the idea as well of stuffing a mac mini in a rack mount with an audio interface and a midi pedal board for control and creating a live rig that uses Amplitude/Guitar Rig/Overloud

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Oct 5 2012, 08:37 AM

The golden rule of touring: keep it simple, the more stuff you carry around with you, the more things can go wrong. And as Murphy told us, all those things WILL go wrong at some point ^^ Funny to see Petruccis setup is pretty close to mine, just that for me it is Tripple Rectifier with Axe FX :-)

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 10 2012, 10:37 PM

Well said It seems more and more folks are keeping it really simple for touring which makes sense. Getting a massive rig to a show in japan from a show in Europe can't be easy, cheap, or even possible if the window is to short. And renting gear at every venue adds up. I"ve started seeing folks bring an axe fx as a carry on in a plane as their entire rig or use a KEMPER to profile their home rig and just take the kemper as a their entire rig and run direct.

It seems even cabinets are a luxury these days!

Todd

Posted by: Alex Feather Oct 12 2012, 12:09 AM

I think on the second picture is a double rig in case one will break I am taking an extra pedalboard with me on tour in case something will go wrong and I need a replacement I think that's what it is also it could be he runs two cabinets on each side of stage! His rig didn't shrink too much though!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 13 2012, 05:07 AM

Yes, that's probably the backup rig. But just compare the single refrigerator sized rack with his new half refrigerator sized rack. And notice the lack of two full Mesa Boogie heads in each rack. That's what's impressive to me is how much smaller a modern rig is than a rig for the same artist just a few years back. An axe fx and a tube pre-amp and Bingo it's a touring rig!

Todd