Suggestions for amplification of a pedalboard

[Zender]

Hi all,

My current setup needs a change. As it stands, I get most of my sound out of my pedal board, sending that into an E530 pre and mesa fifty fifty power stage. into a vertical 212 cab ... However, this is damn unpractical as I don't want to lug all that around.

I'm looking for "the" solution that allowed me the following:

- Go to jam/rehearsal with only a guitar and (large-ish) pedal board and have my sound.
- Play at home at bedroom levels, over headphones or over speakers, and have my sound.
- Plug cable into my steinberg UR22 for home recording, my sound again...
- Still be able to plug into my tube stack and get my sound as well, although that might be a bit different given that it will be using the pre-amp in the stack.

A few things I've considered are getting a pre-amp pedal that sounds like my E530, and a power-amp pedal, or some kind of IR box on the pedalboard (strymon iridium?)

I know there are a lot of options these days, and I'm a bit confused by them. I'm and old-school player with an amp and a pedalboard (two-cable method even...) who wants to move forward and go smaller, lighter, and still great sounding.

What would your suggestions be with these limitations? (bring guitar and board, and have my sound anywhere)

 

[sleewell]

will there be a pa where you are playing or no?

i would go with a quilter and your cab but maybe a hx stomp or helix lt if you could go direct to pa.

 

[Zender]

There is a PA most of the time, but not always. So sometimes I have to make due with what's there. (crappy solid state stack, I can plug into the power section of that without issues)

I'd rather not buy a pedal with "all the effects" such as a kemper floor, a helix stomp or line6 fractal. (puns intended) as I have my sound more or less on my board already and really don't need another delay/reverb/modulation pedal in there. The ideal would be one or two (pre-amp, power amp?) pedals where I can use the line-out to a PA, flat response powered wedge, or to an audio interface or something, or plug headphones into. Something to put at the end of my pedalboard to make it stand alone rather then needing a guitar amplifier.

One of my current practice rigs is an old PodX3 and a JBL charge speaker. The pod does all the effects, the speaker the rest. Sure, it sounds .. not so great. But it works.

How awesome would it be to not use the Pod, but but my actual proper pedals, and have that line out into headphones or that small JBL speaker. (Or into the slaved poweramp, or into the PA, or into the recording device.)

 

[Bearitone]

Kartakou Beast Box (Engl E530 preamp pedal).

Seymour Duncan Powerstage (Poweramp Pedal)

if you are going to get a pedal-sized poweramp, the SD170 or SD200 are the only ones worthy in my opinion.

 

[budda]

Kartakou Beast Box (Engl E530 preamp pedal).

Seymour Duncan Powerstage (Poweramp Pedal)

if you are going to get a pedal-sized poweramp, the SD170 or SD200 are the only ones worthy in my opinion.

Have you tried the quilter stuff? The small 200w one looks like it would meet OP's needs.

 

[ATRguitar91]

If you wanted to cover all the bases and keep it fairly simple, I'd get the Powerstage 200 as @Bearitone recommended (could also do a pedal power amp like the Quilter Microblock but it won't sound as good). The benefit of the Powerstage 200 is that it also has a direct and headphone out. Not sure how the cab sim on there is, but you could turn it off and run into a Mooer Radar for power amps sims and an IR loader. This would let you feed a cab and run direct into the PA simultaneously or anything in between.

 

[Bearitone]

Have you tried the quilter stuff? The small 200w one looks like it would meet OP's needs.

you mean the Toneblock 202? Yeah that would work too. If OP wants to go crazy he can even get the Bass Block 800. I don’t have any experience with quilter though.

If it were me, I would figure out a way to strap the Orange Pedalbaby 100 under my pedalboard but, i know that’s a sort of “out-there” idea for most people just looking for a pedal to put on top of the board.

Edit: OP wants a line out AND headphone out so i guess the SD200 is the only option

 

[ATRguitar91]

Edit: OP wants a line out AND headphone out so i guess the SD200 is the only option

Another option would be to place a Two Notes CabM after the preamp but before the poweramp and pass through the preamp signal to the poweramp. That'd cost more than SD200 and a Mooer Radar, but he'd get all the Two Notes goodies with it at least snd could use any poweramp.

I'm not sure the CabM is capable of it, but if it's possible to apply an IR + poweramp sim to the DI out and apply only EQ + poweramp sim to the speaker out, that'd be an excellent solution.

 

[Wolfhorsky]

https://www.thomann.de/pl/seymour_duncan_power_stage_200.htm
or a proper yet light and handy stuff: https://www.thomann.de/pl/prs_mt_15_amp.htm
plus Mooer Radar

 

[Wrecklyss]

If you want something that fits on the pedalboard, EHX makes their 44Mag, 22 caliber and 5mm pedal size amps. I've driven a 4x12 with the 44Mag to alarming volume, and can fill most local venues with a 1x12 cab. It does get a little dirty when you start turning it real loud, but that's probably louder than you need in most instances.

Carvin has a 2 channel dual 50 watt pedal size amp now called the Mach 100 if you need more power.

 

[Zender]

Thanks for the great suggestions.

A Kartakou Beast Box or some other form of pedal-sized pre-amp (Might jump on the 'kraken' hypetrain....) into a pedal sized power amp (power stage 200) or an IR pedal. This is starting to get very interesting.

Need to get a slightly bigger pedalboard, or something multilayered, but I'm seeing some great options with such a set.

 

[Backsnack]

Bluguitar Amp1 Iridium or Mercury Edition (whichever suits your taste, but the Iridium is more metal-oriented) and whatever else you want to go with it for the effects loop. It's a 4 channel amp in a relatively compact pedal with a 100 watt power amp, and it weighs a couple pounds. Either one of the Amp1 models has 4 distinctly different channels, so you probably won't need any drive pedals to go with it

Both have boost, noise gate, and reverb built-in and everything is controllable with MIDI. The power amp is class D so you'll have an easy time using it at home at bedroom levels. Paging @lewis and @laxu

There are tons of vids about it on Youtube. John Browne's video is one of my favorites.

 

[lewis]

Bluguitar Amp1 Iridium or Mercury Edition (whichever suits your taste, but the Iridium is more metal-oriented) and whatever else you want to go with it for the effects loop. It's a 4 channel amp in a relatively compact pedal with a 100 watt power amp, and it weighs a couple pounds. Either one of the Amp1 models has 4 distinctly different channels, so you probably won't need any drive pedals to go with it

Both have boost, noise gate, and reverb built-in and everything is controllable with MIDI. The power amp is class D so you'll have an easy time using it at home at bedroom levels. Paging @lewis and @laxu

There are tons of vids about it on Youtube. John Browne's video is one of my favorites.

+1 on the Amp1

its now the BEST pedalboard solution. It is tiny, weighs 2lbs, and is as loud as a 60watt all tube amp.
Unreal product.

very versatile too. It covers some crazy tonal ground - and has all the features you would need.

 

[Backsnack]

+1 on the Amp1

its now the BEST pedalboard solution. It is tiny, weighs 2lbs, and is as loud as a 60watt all tube amp.
Unreal product.

very versatile too. It covers some crazy tonal ground - and has all the features you would need.

Definitely. The Amp X is going to be a damn monster too when it comes out.

The only somewhat competitive solution is the new pedlaboard amp from Victory but it's way more expensive and doesn't have any onboard distortion, it's just a clean pedal platform with a class D poweramp.

All I'd really need with an Amp1 is maybe a delay and reverb pedal, Drop pedal, and something to load IRs if I'm going into a PA. Everything else is just
icing on the cake.

Although I'll probably end up building a big ass pedalboard with an Amp1 and a bunch of other experimental looper/ambient/glitchy shit on it because that's how I do.

 

[Backsnack]

@Zender here's another vid that shows you the ridiculous range of tones you can dial in with the Amp1 IE. Remember that it's a metal amp!