I completely agree with the concept of playing a simple rig. It allows you to focus on the music playing part not twisting knobs and getting reacclimated to different guitar shapes and sounds. I guess I’m really not one to talk but I do tend to practice on just a couple guitars. By the way, I’m very happy to be a member of the new Five Watt Friends. I know how much work it takes to make videos like yours Hypes and I want to support you so you keep doing them! Great video!
Ngl you should do a video on your channel about the advantages and disadvantages to playing on just one rig, plus also the best guitars, amps, and pedals for people on a budget and who need to get the most for their money, would help a lot being honest
Thanks Rick Beato! "Guitar Planet" is quickly finding out that yourself and just a handful of intrepids are cutting through so much minutia to the heart of the matter! Take courage my friend. I absolutely love your backstory segment a little while back . Thanks for all you share....!!!
I went down to one guitar 2 months ago because the wife and I went full time in an RV. All I had for an amp was a Smokey 9v battery cigarette pack amp. I have since upgraded to a Yamaha THR-5 amp, no pedals. I am really enjoying it. I had a more complicated rig in the past. I am finding that although I can’t achieve all the same sounds, I am having an easier quicker time getting pleasing tones. It has re-energized my playing and my desire to learn some new stuff. On the approach it felt like I’d be giving up a lot. But taking the leap has brought unforeseen benefits. Many mentioned in this video!
@Thoth Al Khem It was a reference to the song by the same name, by the band, The Darkness. And in "The Darkness" bind them. Nobody has a sense of humor anymore
"Out of doubt,out of dark to the day's rising I came singing into the sun,sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath,now for ruin and a red nightfall"!!!
Keith, Thanks for another great video. Recently, I’ve taken a new approach to pedal acquisition: instead of buying them I build them. This replaces the instant gratification of buying one online and having UPS deliver it 2 days later (when the thrill has already begun to wear away). The effort in finding and buying a PCB, sourcing all of the components, dealing with out-of-stock and back ordered items, soldering the board, drilling the enclosure, labeling the knobs, and spending almost as much money as the original pedal forces you to decide if you really NEED another overdrive or if you can get the tone you’re pursuing from a pedal that you already own. I’ve learned a lot about building pedals (and about myself) through this approach and my tone is better than ever.
Wow. Not sure I could do that. I had 2 guitars after 3 weeks of owning the first one lol! But that was more out of necessity. I needed an extra pickguard and you can't buy them for my guitar so that leaves custom made. Standard Strat pg's don't cover all over the routing on my Strat clone so those aren't an option. I ended up finding a pickguard being auctioned off and scored it for $25, less than a custom pickguard. This one just happened to still have a guitar attached to it 🤷♂️🤣
If it works for you then it is just fine. I still have the first acoustic I ever played. It was my mom's old 1959 00-17 Martin. It's still my favorite acoustic guitar.
That’s why Trey has used basically the same set up since the 80s. I love the story of how he built his cabinets. His tone was one of the biggest reasons I went to Mesa’s.
@@stevensrp2music985 it's interesting that the rig seems more complicated than it actually is as well. The core is two Tube Screamers, the Ross, a vibe, a rotary, plus rackmount ambience and the boomerang Whammy too
First off, this is such a wholesome channel. It's a nice change of pace from all the madness going on. Im currently going through this right now. My roommate is having a child soon, and I'm staying with my parents so he can self quarantine before her birth. I have my Player's Strat and a noisy little Blue Junior. It's really opening my eyes to how much I don't miss my other 8 guitars. Might be time to start consolidating the collection.
Can't even begin to say how excited I get when these videos come out! It's awesome to see an advocate for simplicity in a very complex world. These videos helped me get out of the buy/sell/trade/hoard gear cycle I've been in for years and cut my whole rig down to a few pedals, one guitar, and one amp. Even with the few things I now use, I'm still trying to find ways to cut down on the space and volume! It's also awesome to see a fellow New Hampshire-based guy! I grew up in Amherst NH and it always makes me happy to see people in my home state doing cool things!
Like most of the commenters here, my one rig experiment has been going on for years! I play other rigs when I play with my fellow guitarists. Thanks for the video! Enjoy your new house as well.
I’m in the process of moving myself and I’m currently using my LP through a Fender Frontman. No pedals; just the effects that are built in. I love it. I’m spending more time running through exercises than I would turning knobs or switching out guitars to “find the right sound.” At the end of the day, it’s the little victories from progress made that makes me love playing so much.
This subject is relatable to drummers as well. I've got over 25 snare drums, dozens of cymbals and three full kits. Sometimes I find it best to just hang one good sounding snare and four cymbals on the same kit for a month at a time and just play them inside out to explore and learn every little nuance of each individual instrument rather than constantly swapping them all out. Another great episode. Thanks for posting!
When I was a young teenager back in the early 70s, you could own all three/four effects pedals in existence if you worked two jobs and played out...or if you were wealthy. New pedals were invented faster and faster, but there weren’t many new *TYPES* of effects for a few years, so you had a Cry Baby, choice of two or three fuzz boxes, a phase shifter, and if you were REALLY well off, you might be able to afford an Echoplex.
Man can I relate to that! It took me ages to get all of the pedals I wanted. I made my own pedalboard, couldn't afford to buy one. .As we all know unless we had a trust fund it was extremely tough to be able to afford buy good gear before playing out. I was working a day job (only one-ha ha) and gigging pretty heavily at night when I finally got most everything that I wanted. I remember lusting after a TC Electronic Chorus/Flanger which was about 3 bills at the time. That took awhile to get. It was worth it as well as the TC Sustainer/Parametric which was AMAZING! It went to hell and the new ones they're making aren't as good. I do remember that most of my pedals remained the same except a rather long procession of different distortion pedals. Did change out my original ShoBud volume pedal for an Ernie Ball, having to deal with the plastic strings in the ShoBuds were a real drag. So some of the new pedals were an improvement. Same Crybaby Wah for eons.Man, an Echoplex?! God after hearing Joe Walsh in James Gang I wanted one but never could seem to be able to afford one. Did get into having a couple different delays to use to cut down on knob twiddling live. My MXR 100 phaser died and I never replaced it, lately during the quarantine I've been thinking of getting one again however. A really annoying story, my best friend my freshman year in college had get this:a beautiful Fender Twin, a classic SG AND a Martin acoustic! His Dad was, in fact, a banker...I was so jealous-I had my $150 Gibson Melody Maker with a cracked head that was doweled up. It never stayed in tune, didn't even have a bridge that you could adjust the harmonics with until later when Leo Quan came out with the "Bad Ass" retrofit bridge. Ahhh yes, the good old days...man oh man! I like the Anastasio idea of having a rig you know rather than "better" gear. So us older players remember when we used to waste our money on rent and food and try to spend as much of it as we could on the good stuff like guitars, gear, booze and women!
I came up playing in that era too. On my board a crybaby, Univox Micro Fazer (got into univibe territory), MXR Dist+... And... The switch for my Echoplex! Yes as a high schooler earning $2.10 an hour I bought / paid $400 for a used Echoplex. My new LP was like $675, so that was a chunk of change for echo. Echo, yes, before it was called "delay", how fancy. I HAD to have Lifeson's sound on All The World's a Stage and I got pretty close. Then when VH1 came out I was able to get close to that as well. Close enough. And that rig, sounding way above any of my guitar slinging competition got me into bands. Echoplex took you into professional sound territory. Nowadays kids can get these sounds for pennies on the dollar. Things have changed for the better, it's good.
Jimmy Running Dog yep, I can tell you were definitely there and then. I remember when I heard about the first “digital delay,” too. Not too long after everything went “solid state,” meaning “transistors,” the mainstream shifted toward everything being “digital,” which was when everything began to lose its “soul.” And wow, $2.10 an hour! I think minimum wage was something like $1.75 or $1.80 when I was a freshman, and slowly climbed to $2.00 when I graduated in ‘74. You must have gotten that Echoplex sometime in ‘75. Man, even just a single “slapback” echo back then made your sound feel like a big wall coming at you. Of course, once the digital delay hit the stores, it was THE pedal to have! You could get by without a phase shifter (as long as your band didn’t play any Trower,) by using your amp’s revert correctly, and you could get your distortion by turning up your gain knob, but nobody wanted you without at least SOME kind of echo. Hey, thanks for the trip to “back in the day.”
@@jamesthe-doctor8981 Thank YOU! I thought we'd be kindred spirits. I bought my Echoplex in 76 or 77. It was amazing. Volume swells like Alex in By-Tor and the Snow Dog. Which I did for hours. Min wage in Ohio was like $1.80 then jumped to $2.10 when I was washing dishes and stocking shelves to by Gibsons, Marshalls and Echoplex'. Took a long time saving, but worth it.
When you stop focusing on what you're using that's when the music flows. You focus more on what you're saying/playing. When I had one instrument and one amp and pedal setup that's what's when I was most productive and made the most progress in technique. Now I'm always tweaking this and that, adjusting rods and saddle screws, turning knobs, etc etc
Thanks for another great video Keith! It was really fun putting down the strat for a while and focusing on the LP. What was very interesting was picking the strat back up, I felt I played it differently. Keep up the great work!
If you wanted an electric guitar, you can find used, but decent quality guitars (Like squire and epiphone) on ebay bids for around £40-60 in the uk, so probably similar in the US
I own 1 electric, 1 acoustic, 1 amp and 4 pedals (although I do want a 5th). Been playing 20 years and I'm not bored yet! I actually enjoy my playing much more since shifting all my unnecessary gear.
So, there goes my argument that switching scale lengths will help me to be more adaptable. I went through a pedal phase, but now I’m limiting myself to what fits on a Nano+. Actually, when I got my 65 Princeton Reverb last spring, I put the pedals away for about 7 or months. You are making some good points. I didn’t see a single commercial; however, my phone died right in the middle, and I picked up where I left off once I hunted down a charger. Thanks again!
I've been doing this for months. I saw a video about the benefit of sticking with one guitar and rig. I settled on 15w. combo, four pedals (usual suspects) and my Casino. Just today, before seeing this post, I played my Strat for the first time in ages. I got straight back into it. I'd almost forgotten just how enjoyable cranking the Strat is. I'll always find a way to delude myself that I need another guitar, I don't have a single cut for example. But now, I have a one in-one out policy, and I can't part with any, so that's that! Thank you KW.
Absolutely a 1st world problem lol. I got my first guitar in 2000, a nylon strings one. Then, on 2002 I got a crummy bass and a tiny bass amp, and a year late a crummier electric guitar. From 2008 onwards, as I moved from place to place, I only carried my nylon strings guitar and left all the rest at my parents house. Then, two years ago, I got an Epiphone 339 and a Katana 50W, and about two months ago I got a Squier Tele. To be honest, these two electrics and the Katana fullfill pretty much all my sonic desires, especially after spending so many years with just a nylon strings acoustic. The only thing I would like to do is to change to a really small amp, given that I just play at home and my wife usually complains about the noise. Also, I feel that the 50W Katana doesn't come to its full potential on really low volumes.
It is so liberating to say: " you know what: Enough tweaking, lets play" and do it with a minimal rig for a very long time. I went down from a 6 pedal setup and I'm currently down to 2 guitars and an HX stomp. I can connect into an amp if needed, into an Hifi, into an headphone, into a computer, even into a door if it produces any sound I like. Just play!
Same here. I made an ego-riser that houses my HX Stomp and the receiver of my remote. At home I play through headphones. At practice, I plug it into the PA. At gigs, it goes straight into FOH.
I mainly play through a helix right now as well, but unfortunately don't have the discipline to stop tweaking the hundreds of options. It is a fantastic space saver though
@@sporkcrx I find constraints to be very good for creativity. Create a constraint or accept one and make your live easier. That will stop the tweaking I think.
Had to smile. For 15 years, I played two 45 year old ported bins with 15" JBL's +horn I inherited from a friend. Had an old high end Yamha hifi power amp that would do 250w rms a side. Again, inherited from a friend who had upgraded his stereo. Got myself a samsamp stomp box as preamp....that rig was awesome, if a bit heavy. Cost me near nothing.
My bass setup is much simpler than my guitar rig even though i've played bass longer and consider myself more a bassist than a guitarist. I have two basses for vastly different tones and one amp, that's it. Straight into the amp where I've set my EQ the way I like it and it sounds fantastic and works 100% of the time! I do still love to fiddle with pedals, I prefer more elaborate tones for the guitar so I futz with that a lot just for the fun of it.
@@aylbdrmadison1051 the only guitar I have is my dad's. I don't even have an amp lol. Though the importance of guitar is nullified by it being my 5th instrument.
thank you, since I found this channel, I decided to focus on one guitar, and already sold 70% of my effects pedal, I focused more on the basics and helped me to find my musical character, so as not to copy other people's rigs.
Funny what Mike Campbell said - I agree - if you have a "Fender" style guitar, and a "Gibson" style guitar, you really can cover the bases of nearly everything. I mostly tend to alternate between my Agile Les Paul copy, and my SX Tele copy. Humbuckers or single coils, but similar in layout and feel. And if I back off the tone on the Tele, it comes very close to the Les Paul sound.
Bringing this back from the dead...how do you like that Agile LP? I have had a Douglas super strat, and an SX strat with p90's, and a 1/2 scale SX strat (great fun bending notes to nearly the next octave!), and they've all been pretty darn good.
Me before 5WW: 100W Marshall JCM 900, Marshall Silver Jubilee 4X12, massive PB and 16 guitars. Me after 5WW: 50W Port City Pearl, 2X12 Port City Cab, smaller PB, 5 guitars. I'm scared and happy about this
love these vids...i recently worked with someone who had several thousand ollars worth of the latest gear (just the gear- not including the guitars) to play a 5-song worship set...though i envied someone being able to afford all the latest stuff out there, when they described how they were going to set it all up (using just about every routing option available) i thought, "why are making this so complicated?...there is no way you're going to use all this- particularly on Sunday mornings.."...it's very apparent with everyone i see that the longer you play, the less gear you use...you find the smallest rig with the most versatility, and then concentrate on playing- not navigating your gear...
The trend I see is, the more I gig, the less I care. Once stuck at home, get bored, look for colours and variety. Once you have one good guitar, you may start to question and second guess. Once back into gigging routine - it matters way less. On the road you usually want to have more underwear than guitars.
Great Idea. I try to stick to one guitar just to get used to a sound. I am a producer engineer. So I have to switch guitars for different sounds. I also don’t buy into Tele and Old Les Pauls are a like. Proof would be Led Zep 1 vs. 2. Mahogany has a specific sound even with a maple cap. Ash and alder is different. Not to mention Hum vs. Single. Wanna try something different? Pick a guitar and an Amp. Get rid of all the effects. Learn to play without pedals. Being a studio guy. I play without effects and add to taste later.
I love this concept of keeping it simple. It’s very freeing and gives you time to really focus on your playing and learning how to use your limited gear. As a fellow New Englander, I applaud you sir!
I’ve found there are different types of guitarists. Some learn tunes easily and remember them, some are good improvising and creating their own music. Also, some guitarists want tons of options-different guitars, pedals and amps while some want to find their sound and want to find and use just the gear that gets them there. I’m of the latter of both those types. I have 4 electric guitars but I only really play one. Out of a PRS Custom 22, Gibson RD Artist, my first real guitar-a heavily modded Aria Pro II TS-300 and a partscaster I play the partscaster. I’ve spent the last 5 or so years making that guitar perfect for me. It not only plays the best, it sounds the best. One pickup, one volume and that’s it. I have one 20 watt amp, a 2x12 cab and 3 pedals. The reason I’ve gone this route is exactly as you say in you video-I play more. No option anxiety. I’ve used modelers for years previously and was always tweaking the tone at home only to find that great tone didn’t work at practice so more tweaking....ad infinitum. Once I ditched the modeler and embraced my ‘new’ tone of guitar into amp I was able to concentrate on playing. I know exactly what sound I’ll get and can use technique to vary my tone (plus a pedal or two). I have made more progress these last few years because I don’t waste time tweaking tones anymore. I can work on writing and technique and not think about the tone because my options are so limited. It frees my mind from gear and lets me make music.
Out of curiosity, I've done this before. Your experiment is better because you were forced into it and I could always bail out at any minute. A different mindset. Total discipline required. Yes, I put my Boss PQ 4 on there for extreme versatility.
Totally off topic here, but I can't even stare at a guitar without a headstock, I think that ruins the essence of the instrument which has such a great and long history and a basic shape associated with it. This is not to start an argument though...!
Yeah: that is something that put me off really. I do have a travel guitar that I took along in extreme circumstances when I could not board with a full sized guitar and I admit it’s quite awkward… Some say Stranberg are special though…
sure period.. unless you're on the second set of a five set night and you and your bass player get a little too animated and you wind up cracking the headstock off of your ESP eclipse and it goes flying off into the audience. Luckily I had a backup guitar but since then I've come to appreciate headless guitars
Here's a video idea: How to break in an expensive new guitar. I really want to play my new guitar, but I still treat it too much with kid gloves. How to overcome this fear?
just do it. be as careful with the finish as you would be with any others, and (i assume it's well setup) tune it regularly. and have fun, of course. instruments are meant to be played, and if your cheap strat copy didn't break apart when you were starting out, your new 3000 dollar vigier won't either
It’s kinda odd for many of us one rig is what we live with. And we aspire for that second rig. We make the best we can with what we got. That being said, it’s sill a good question. You make a good video with good subject matter. Keep up the good content and stay safe.
As a truck driver I live this experiment daily. My Squire Strat and OCD through my Boss Katana is what I have room for. When I get home it's "What do I want to play?" My Epi LP? Mitchell? Tele? Ibanez? With three other options to choose from. But my Strat gets loaded up each time I head out.
Playing music that speaks just for you is the basis of art. I am photographer and shoot for myself first. You take your art, photos, paintings, pottery, or music to the public once we are happy with what we have created. Acceptance by the public or not, the real critic is ourselves. I now feel the same way about the music I play and create while in my office . I am happy to have created something because to me it is music. Thanks for making me think of this.
“Because you have no choice” - but, but, I like choices. Awesome video. We’re about to move and I might do this experiment as I set up my new bunker and shop.
I've been playing a custom 24 SE for a couple of years, until recently, at the end of 2019, i got a CE, which i instantly fell in love with. So, you get the idea: i played the new guitar for the last 6 months and let the old SE in it's gig bag. Fret work and set up needed to be done on my recently acquired CE, so i took it to the luthier, and got to play the old SE back. And I couln't belive it!!! First of all it was almost in tune after 6 months not being used. Second, this thing feels great, plays great, sounds great. I realised i've been a bit of a snob... Maybe i should play both rigs now. Quite not the direction of your video. Yet it's your video that made me realize that! Funny 🤪 I love being a part of the five watt world
I'm new to guitar, so for my rig I usually use my squire showmaster and an 20w orange amp for overdrive and clean tones, if I want to add extra effects, I plug it into my computer
After selling all my gear, leaving behind the music world 20 years ago, i recently got back into playing. Wanted one guitar that could do many things, and that turned out to be the Taylor T3/B; humbuckers, but with split coil option for a mid-scooped single coil sound; a mid range roll-off for a broad range of tones from wide open rock sounds to dark, moody jazz tones. The Bigsby is a nice textural tool for sure. This guitar, for me, has been the perfect "one-rig" guitar, from tele and strat sounds to Gibson style sounds, this guitar does it all. With a TC Electronics flashback, MXR 10 band eq, Origin Effects compressor, volume pedal, an old Chandler Tube driver from the '90's, and a '74 Twin Reverb, I can do just about anything I enjoy playing!
I love what some people can do with Fenders. However, for the longest time, I was playing a Les Paul copy and I noticed that I never felt without. During the quarantine(s) and whatnot, I bought another Strat and have been playing it as my sole guitar for almost 5 months now and I definitely feel stifled. I think I could stay inside for a year with a Epiphone Casino with P90s, a Carbon Copy Deluxe, a Boss DS-1, a Boss PS-2 and an Earthquaker Devices Transmisser and forget to buy food, but be totally happy. I use an iPhone app for tuning.
Good video addressing a topic that I have been contemplating recently. My shrinking rig... Amp: Fender Pro Jr transplanted into an Epiphone Valve Jr. 13 ply birch cabinet with an Eminence 12" speaker. Amp mods by me include a Mercury Magnetics OT and plenty of res/cap changes. Pedal board: *Tech 21 Double Drive *Arion chorus *Tremolo/clean boost (kit from General Guitar Gadgets and/or Run Off Groove) *Boss 7 band EQ, small tuner *Homemade power supply Guitar(s): *Warmoth strat (trem, alder body, maple/rosewood neck, fiesta red, white pickgaurd, can't remember pickups) *Warmoth tele (butterscotch blonde, maple/maple neck, black pickgaurd, can't remember pickups) *Gibson Les Paul Special double cut (stock, P-90s, heritage cherry) *PRS SE (stock, humbuckers, cherry burst) Have several other guitars, but these four get the most use by far. Would probably take the tele if I had to choose one. The tele can sound strat-ish, PRS-ish and P-90-ish and I prefer the slightly stiffer feel of the longer scale length.
I had a similar experience. I relocated back to the U.K. from the USA last year and had to live from January to August with only what I could bring on the plane. I knew a guitar was a key ingredient to keep me sane, but all I could manage to carry was my CA Cargo carbon fibre travel guitar. It worked, I stayed(mostly) sane and, while I didn’t really improve, the guitar really helped me relax during selling and buying houses! However, I was really glad to be reunited with my “friends “ when the shipping container arrived and the guitars were safely unpacked in the new house.
Yeah, i subscribed. I dig it. Five watt life is the only life for me. Ive got a good few pedals but usually end up playing the same few. Currently got a lovely custom guitar, and am having another built. No idea what ill play when that arrives
Another artist that set up a minimalist touring rig was the late Johnny Winter, who played three Erlewine Lazer travel instruments, along with two Musicman Combo amps and six pedals, including his back-ups
Been using a Martin 0X2MAE, a boss rc30, and a Fishman Loudbox mini for my shows for the last three years and it has been the perfect minimalist rig for a singer songwriter such as myself. Couldn't be happier with the way it sounds all together
I'm definitely a one-rig guy. My pedalboard is used both for guitar and bass. I have a Boss TU-3, an MXR analog chorus, an LPD Modern Classic drive, an MXR Carbon Copy, and an Electro-Harmonix reverb. My guitar amp is a Boss Katana, and my bass rig is a Mesa Subway D800 with matching 15" cab. My main electric is a PRS Custom 24, and main bass is a Warwick Corvette $$. I do play my acoustic on occasion, but prefer electric. Yet another great video!
Keith, please keep this up. I really enjoyed this episode. I don't think any other guitar-centric has made me think as hard about why I play guitar as yours has. Bravo and encore !
I inherited quite a few guitars and amps from my father in law , being that I’ve always just tinkered around on the guitar before that I figured what better way to honour his memory than to buckle down and learn once and for good . I’d say you are absolutely right in the assessment that too many options is a barrier. I think I will take this challenge and see where it gets me ! Thanks for the great video ❤️
This is exactly what I'm going for with my personal rig and my playing philosophy. Just want to have the essencial to have fun and play the music that I like. Thank you for showing that it is possible!
I have recently moved my family from South Florida to Rhode Island and have come to the same realization that I have to much gear that is not condusive for my needs. I'm not gigging, I don't go to open jams or play with friends because I have 2 young boys that take up a lot of my time which is good because I love being a Dad. Also finding time to practice is very limited. So I'm going to go through all my stuff and really try to whittle it down to what I "really need" . Wish me luck. Great episode by the way. I really enjoy what you do for our community.
I've played acoustic guitar since I was twelve because it was all I could afford. When I did gigs I always borrowed nice guitars like Les Paul Standards or modded MIM Strats and flagship things but when I could finally afford a nice guitar a went for something budget friendly and something I knew would fit me playing style which was very open and comprised of blues and jazz but a hint of hard rock here and there for playing in an acoustic so long. I got a boss Katana Mk 2 to be able to find my own tone and an Ibanez As-73 because it fit me the best. It's easy to gig with and you have your presets on your computer, furthermore i now know that the only guitar that I want now is a jaguar. Keeping one rig inspired me to improve and change my playing style but also limit myself when it came to knowing what else I wanted and needed altogether
It's so true that Fender /Marshall combo fill each others tonal gaps, I was so happy to hear you say this , ive been playing the same pair of amps from 1978, now, I have scaled it down for the modern 5 Watt times. For me the Fender /Marshall blend has filled all my playing needs .
I always enjoy your vids. Knowing a simple setup inside out makes it more about the music and less about the toys. Classical musicians tend to live this way for the familiarity and control benefits.
I'm not playing one rig at the moment (more like 7), but I have reached the point where I have what I want, and I'm concentrating on basically 2 rigs. No more tonal excuses, time to play and learn.
I've been obsessed with minima rigs for the past 4 years. I keep my rig to be "backpack friendly" and ampless. On guitar, I've been using a telecaster and a small Metro16 board based around the Tech21 flyrig for some time. I added an SP compressior, a carbon copy delay, an mxr clone looper, and the mooer DI for xlr out and cabsim, while the Tech21 (Richie Kotzen FlyRig v2) gives me the amp voice, distortion, reverb, and lesle sounds. I just seem to hate carrying an amp around and ended up selling my Roland JC40. I couldn't be happier. I'd be super curious to see you with an ampless rig that is not based off digital modelers.
Someone coming into rehearsal and spending half-an-hour futzing around with near gear really is a complete vibe-killer. I've been guilty in the past but I've learned to book in a rehearsal space session for myself to really dial in gear at proper volume.
I really appreciate your channel. Your calm demeanor and wealth of knowledge make your videos relaxing and educational, as well as inspiring. Keep up the good work!
I am a relatively new bass player. All I have is my Jackson JS3VQ Concert Bass and a Danville Tec80B 1x12" amp, both of which were Reverb finds. The bass was B-Stock, so basically brand new only I got it for $275. The amp has significant preamp hiss, but sounds great if I run my bass through the "Insert" port which bypasses the preamp (my bass has an active EQ, so the preamp isn't really necessary). I recently added a Focusrite Scarlett Solo I got used on Reverb for $65, so that allows me to play with VST plugin effects instead of buying pedals. Being that I am a college student about to live in a dorm, it is important to me that I can practice in headphones through my Scarlett while the free VST effects sweeten the deal while keeping it cheap. I have played this rig for about a month now, and I am already daydreaming of LeFay basses with Darkglass pedals...
A humbucker as the rear pickup on a tele with a coil split is always nice and useful. Funny thing is the older you get, the less gear you need. I had 47 keyboards in my studio rig. Now a B-3 and acoustic piano would be my choice. I still have quite a number of guitars and I enjoy mixing it up - because I’m average at best. Jack of all trades Master of none. I like to tinker with guitars, truss, intonation frets, action. The same with pedals. The usual OCD stuff that keeps us happy :)
Great video Keith, thank you. For the last thirty years I've acquired more guitars than I need, but I always end up playing my MIM Fat Strat. I love the sound the other guitars make, but the sound that is mine, comes out of the strat. I watched the rig rundown with the band Khruangbin, and the guitarist tours with only one guitar! No backups, no alternates, only the single axe. I thought man that is so relatable. Just like this video, thanks for making this!
Hey Dan, Great channel. I’m 68 and I’m really digging low wattage amps. I recently purchased a Tweed Champ style amp and a Tweed Fat Champ, 15 watts, from the same builder. My first time owning a Tweed amp. I love the way they sound. I play clean using pedals for dirt. My 5 watt has a Weber 8” speaker. I expected it to sound… well like an 8” speaker. I’m using a V.O.R 10-25 10” in the Fat Champ. I absolutely love the clean tones in both amps. Especially with my single coil pickups.
Another great video. The part about mild dyslexia rings true for me. Letters are much harder to retain than intervals. I’ve been playing a minimalist rig for two decades. I get more music done and less knob turning.
I have 3 rigs Les paul/marshall Stratocaster/fender blues jr Epiphone eb-3/fender rumble 40 The rig i use the most is the LP marshall amp because that is personally my sound and its been the rig ive used for almost a year and really dont see myself changing
Keith, as always, great video! For me, the rig is always reducing and expanding (between 5 and 10 pedals), depending on what interesting gear is released. But there are essentials like specific drives or e.g. types of delay and modulation, that never leave the board. I could play a gig with just 5 pedals (tuner included) and be happy. But it is just fun to swap stuff out and be surprised and challenged. With the years of practice, I know what works and what wont, so no bad surprises, only happy ones :D
Schecter tele with coilsplit - wha - ds1(no dist, only tone for shaping) - orange dark terror with graph eq and lexicon fx/rev/dly unit in the loop - 1x12 v30 cab. That's my do it all rig.
I have a collection of 20-odd guitars which all get played, but only 2 are my go-to instruments (one is down-tuned to D and strung with 11's). My go-to amp is a 7w non-MV hand-wired class A Matamp C7. I also have a Matamp 1224 for recording clean guitar and a Marshall DSL, which I never seems to use, mainly because it sounds dull compared to the clarity of the Matamps. I don't use pedals - the Matamp C7 will go from clean to scream at the twist of the guitar's volume control and both Matamps have reverb.
I really like the idea of a very simple rig. Amp, tuner, EQ, drive, delay, modulation, guitar... Very cool all of the tones that you can get from just those pieces. I've been buying a LOT of gear over the past year, but I know that I really need to work on things as simple as scales and technique.
I recently built a mini pedalboard on a pedaltrain nano. I find myself playing the scaled down simplified rig with the pedaltrain nano, one small fender practice amp, and just my ES-335 style guitar almost all the time now. It has become my ideal practice rig. The last couple of sessions that I recorded with my band, I actually took the mini set up into the studio instead of the huge pedaltrain pro with my dual amp set up. Something about playing a scaled back rig can inspire new ideas and refreshed creativity. I can dial in sounds faster with less options. The limitations imposed on the rig can actually be in advantage in the recording studio (which I was pleasantly surprised by). Having a scaled back rig in a practice situation is ideal and a new norm for me. I spend less time dialing in fx, experimenting with sound design, and chasing tone with the small rig. The bigger rig is almost too fun to play with and I find myself wasting valuable practice time messing around with a huge pedalboard. It's fun to have all the toys out and at your disposal, but it's not always the most efficient or productive choice. It's all about balance and context. I've written about a dozen new songs since building the mini rig and I think that simplicity and limitation of choice have been factors in the new rush of creativity over the last 90 days. I'm sure when we go go to the studio to record the "final" versions of some of these songs, I will likely have both the large dual amp set up AND the mini rig set up to be able to track out the best sounds for each idea, but it's been a blessing to have something so streamlined set up on the front end for the first phase of song writing.
Great experiment. I’ve been happily playing my single guitar/amp/pedal board set up since last fall. No major tweaks or adjustments since first stumbling on my journey and your channel. 👍🏻
I love this minimal approach, I decided to go down this route and have only one room. All I've got in there is about 20 guitars, 15 amps and 70 or so pedals. This room is very 5 watt world, its like a Swiss army knife of gear, and of course as Keith says in this video "anything that can make you hear differently is welcome"
This one made me think, I've kinda been on the same basic rig for over 30 days myself, Marshall Origin 20 with 12" Red Fang speaker in a Jet-City cab, a PRS Starla loaded with Duncan Antiquities, and a Direct Drive V4. In that time I have plugged in some other guitars, tested some pedals, but when it comes time to playing for myself, it's been that same rig. The more I played that one rig, the more I have learned the rig, and dialed it in to be better than if I had just been swapping components and guitars. Even the pickups in the Starla, were swapped about a month ago as I kept dialing in the guitar more to try to get the best voice. The amp had already seen a trivial one-cap mod early on which made it my main testing and playing amp for three months now.Thanks for including the BUSS pedal, it was meant to cover a lot of sounds in a compact form, I love it when guitar players get where I was going with a pedal, that's the stuff that makes it worth it. Oh, that MXR chorus had that "drifty Metheny sound", it could be challenging to keep my 30 day rig the same for another 30 days!
Yeah, you pretty much nailed it at “First World Problem.”
I completely agree with the concept of playing a simple rig. It allows you to focus on the music playing part not twisting knobs and getting reacclimated to different guitar shapes and sounds. I guess I’m really not one to talk but I do tend to practice on just a couple guitars. By the way, I’m very happy to be a member of the new Five Watt Friends. I know how much work it takes to make videos like yours Hypes and I want to support you so you keep doing them! Great video!
Thanks Hypes! Glad you liked it and man, thanks for all the support.
Two worlds collide 🤯
Ngl you should do a video on your channel about the advantages and disadvantages to playing on just one rig, plus also the best guitars, amps, and pedals for people on a budget and who need to get the most for their money, would help a lot being honest
this is like witnessing Bach and Beethoven exchange pleasantries. Love it!
Thanks Rick Beato! "Guitar Planet" is quickly finding out that yourself and just a handful of intrepids are cutting through so much minutia to the heart of the matter! Take courage my friend. I absolutely love your backstory segment a little while back . Thanks for all you share....!!!
I've been playing one rig for almost three years now... wait.. it's the only one I own! Cool video.
same although I recently got a bass
@@journeyofawesome8473 Nice! I actually only play bass - I have a Jazz Bass and a Fender Rumble 100w amp.
I went down to one guitar 2 months ago because the wife and I went full time in an RV. All I had for an amp was a Smokey 9v battery cigarette pack amp. I have since upgraded to a Yamaha THR-5 amp, no pedals. I am really enjoying it. I had a more complicated rig in the past. I am finding that although I can’t achieve all the same sounds, I am having an easier quicker time getting pleasing tones. It has re-energized my playing and my desire to learn some new stuff. On the approach it felt like I’d be giving up a lot. But taking the leap has brought unforeseen benefits. Many mentioned in this video!
One Rig to rule them all, One Rig to find them, One Rig to bring them all. and in the darkness bind them.
I believe in a thing called love
You mean that darkness right?
@Thoth Al Khem It was a reference to the song by the same name, by the band, The Darkness.
And in "The Darkness" bind them.
Nobody has a sense of humor anymore
@Thoth Al Khem The infinite universe is LOVE... and the first law of Love (Cosmic Law) is "Free Will" :) Choose LOVE:)
"Out of doubt,out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing into the sun,sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath,now for ruin and a red nightfall"!!!
I definitely hear this in the voice from the movies..... RIP
Keith, Thanks for another great video. Recently, I’ve taken a new approach to pedal acquisition: instead of buying them I build them. This replaces the instant gratification of buying one online and having UPS deliver it 2 days later (when the thrill has already begun to wear away). The effort in finding and buying a PCB, sourcing all of the components, dealing with out-of-stock and back ordered items, soldering the board, drilling the enclosure, labeling the knobs, and spending almost as much money as the original pedal forces you to decide if you really NEED another overdrive or if you can get the tone you’re pursuing from a pedal that you already own. I’ve learned a lot about building pedals (and about myself) through this approach and my tone is better than ever.
I did this with amps for years.
I played one rig for 30 years.
Probably time to treat yourself to a new set of strings ;-)
@@CitizenOfEverywhere
Lol.....
Wow. Not sure I could do that. I had 2 guitars after 3 weeks of owning the first one lol! But that was more out of necessity. I needed an extra pickguard and you can't buy them for my guitar so that leaves custom made. Standard Strat pg's don't cover all over the routing on my Strat clone so those aren't an option.
I ended up finding a pickguard being auctioned off and scored it for $25, less than a custom pickguard. This one just happened to still have a guitar attached to it 🤷♂️🤣
You are not even 30 neighbor
If it works for you then it is just fine. I still have the first acoustic I ever played. It was my mom's old 1959 00-17 Martin. It's still my favorite acoustic guitar.
As Trey Anastasio said in his rig rundown, it's better to have gear that you know rather than "better" gear.
This is the truth
That’s why Trey has used basically the same set up since the 80s. I love the story of how he built his cabinets. His tone was one of the biggest reasons I went to Mesa’s.
@@stevensrp2music985 it's interesting that the rig seems more complicated than it actually is as well. The core is two Tube Screamers, the Ross, a vibe, a rotary, plus rackmount ambience and the boomerang
Whammy too
I bought an Ibanez JEM (FP one of the very first)in 1988 and it's the only electric guitar I have ever owned.
First off, this is such a wholesome channel. It's a nice change of pace from all the madness going on.
Im currently going through this right now. My roommate is having a child soon, and I'm staying with my parents so he can self quarantine before her birth. I have my Player's Strat and a noisy little Blue Junior. It's really opening my eyes to how much I don't miss my other 8 guitars. Might be time to start consolidating the collection.
Can't even begin to say how excited I get when these videos come out! It's awesome to see an advocate for simplicity in a very complex world. These videos helped me get out of the buy/sell/trade/hoard gear cycle I've been in for years and cut my whole rig down to a few pedals, one guitar, and one amp. Even with the few things I now use, I'm still trying to find ways to cut down on the space and volume!
It's also awesome to see a fellow New Hampshire-based guy! I grew up in Amherst NH and it always makes me happy to see people in my home state doing cool things!
Like most of the commenters here, my one rig experiment has been going on for years!
I play other rigs when I play with my fellow guitarists. Thanks for the video!
Enjoy your new house as well.
I’m in the process of moving myself and I’m currently using my LP through a Fender Frontman. No pedals; just the effects that are built in. I love it. I’m spending more time running through exercises than I would turning knobs or switching out guitars to “find the right sound.” At the end of the day, it’s the little victories from progress made that makes me love playing so much.
This subject is relatable to drummers as well. I've got over 25 snare drums, dozens of cymbals and three full kits. Sometimes I find it best to just hang one good sounding snare and four cymbals on the same kit for a month at a time and just play them inside out to explore and learn every little nuance of each individual instrument rather than constantly swapping them all out. Another great episode. Thanks for posting!
When I was a young teenager back in the early 70s, you could own all three/four effects pedals in existence if you worked two jobs and played out...or if you were wealthy. New pedals were invented faster and faster, but there weren’t many new *TYPES* of effects for a few years, so you had a Cry Baby, choice of two or three fuzz boxes, a phase shifter, and if you were REALLY well off, you might be able to afford an Echoplex.
Yep!!
Man can I relate to that! It took me ages to get all of the pedals I wanted. I made my own pedalboard, couldn't afford to buy one. .As we all know unless we had a trust fund it was extremely tough to be able to afford buy good gear before playing out. I was working a day job (only one-ha ha) and gigging pretty heavily at night when I finally got most everything that I wanted. I remember lusting after a TC Electronic Chorus/Flanger which was about 3 bills at the time. That took awhile to get. It was worth it as well as the TC Sustainer/Parametric which was AMAZING! It went to hell and the new ones they're making aren't as good. I do remember that most of my pedals remained the same except a rather long procession of different distortion pedals. Did change out my original ShoBud volume pedal for an Ernie Ball, having to deal with the plastic strings in the ShoBuds were a real drag. So some of the new pedals were an improvement. Same Crybaby Wah for eons.Man, an Echoplex?! God after hearing Joe Walsh in James Gang I wanted one but never could seem to be able to afford one. Did get into having a couple different delays to use to cut down on knob twiddling live.
My MXR 100 phaser died and I never replaced it, lately during the quarantine I've been thinking of getting one again however. A really annoying story, my best friend my freshman year in college had get this:a beautiful Fender Twin, a classic SG AND a Martin acoustic! His Dad was, in fact, a banker...I was so jealous-I had my $150 Gibson Melody Maker with a cracked head that was doweled up. It never stayed in tune, didn't even have a bridge that you could adjust the harmonics with until later when Leo Quan came out with the "Bad Ass" retrofit bridge. Ahhh yes, the good old days...man oh man! I like the Anastasio idea of having a rig you know rather than "better" gear. So us older players remember when we used to waste our money on rent and food and try to spend as much of it as we could on the good stuff like guitars, gear, booze and women!
I came up playing in that era too. On my board a crybaby, Univox Micro Fazer (got into univibe territory), MXR Dist+...
And...
The switch for my Echoplex! Yes as a high schooler earning $2.10 an hour I bought / paid $400 for a used Echoplex. My new LP was like $675, so that was a chunk of change for echo. Echo, yes, before it was called "delay", how fancy.
I HAD to have Lifeson's sound on All The World's a Stage and I got pretty close. Then when VH1 came out I was able to get close to that as well. Close enough.
And that rig, sounding way above any of my guitar slinging competition got me into bands. Echoplex took you into professional sound territory.
Nowadays kids can get these sounds for pennies on the dollar. Things have changed for the better, it's good.
Jimmy Running Dog yep, I can tell you were definitely there and then. I remember when I heard about the first “digital delay,” too. Not too long after everything went “solid state,” meaning “transistors,” the mainstream shifted toward everything being “digital,” which was when everything began to lose its “soul.” And wow, $2.10 an hour! I think minimum wage was something like $1.75 or $1.80 when I was a freshman, and slowly climbed to $2.00 when I graduated in ‘74. You must have gotten that Echoplex sometime in ‘75. Man, even just a single “slapback” echo back then made your sound feel like a big wall coming at you. Of course, once the digital delay hit the stores, it was THE pedal to have! You could get by without a phase shifter (as long as your band didn’t play any Trower,) by using your amp’s revert correctly, and you could get your distortion by turning up your gain knob, but nobody wanted you without at least SOME kind of echo. Hey, thanks for the trip to “back in the day.”
@@jamesthe-doctor8981 Thank YOU! I thought we'd be kindred spirits. I bought my Echoplex in 76 or 77. It was amazing. Volume swells like Alex in By-Tor and the Snow Dog. Which I did for hours. Min wage in Ohio was like $1.80 then jumped to $2.10 when I was washing dishes and stocking shelves to by Gibsons, Marshalls and Echoplex'. Took a long time saving, but worth it.
When you stop focusing on what you're using that's when the music flows. You focus more on what you're saying/playing. When I had one instrument and one amp and pedal setup that's what's when I was most productive and made the most progress in technique. Now I'm always tweaking this and that, adjusting rods and saddle screws, turning knobs, etc etc
Thanks for another great video Keith! It was really fun putting down the strat for a while and focusing on the LP. What was very interesting was picking the strat back up, I felt I played it differently. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Jeff!
I can't even afford an electric guitar. All i have is a 80$ acoustic. And i'm playing that guitar for 3 years
If you wanted an electric guitar, you can find used, but decent quality guitars (Like squire and epiphone) on ebay bids for around £40-60 in the uk, so probably similar in the US
GLARRY,makes really good cheap guitars,and their guitar and amp packages are pretty decent
I've been playing the same $99 Maestro acoustic guitar for almost 11 years now
Look up glary instruments if you don't mind doing a full setup you could be playing a good entry level guitar for under $100.00 (us) to your door.
Now I feel guilty for having one $200 acoustic.
I own 1 electric, 1 acoustic, 1 amp and 4 pedals (although I do want a 5th). Been playing 20 years and I'm not bored yet! I actually enjoy my playing much more since shifting all my unnecessary gear.
I play a cheap rig with only 3 pedals for a year now and a love it
Fabulous content. I have been following your channel for some time now and find all your videos extremely useful.
So, there goes my argument that switching scale lengths will help me to be more adaptable. I went through a pedal phase, but now I’m limiting myself to what fits on a Nano+. Actually, when I got my 65 Princeton Reverb last spring, I put the pedals away for about 7 or months. You are making some good points.
I didn’t see a single commercial; however, my phone died right in the middle, and I picked up where I left off once I hunted down a charger. Thanks again!
If you want to switch scale lengths, play a fender scale and then tune to Eb and capo on first fret for a Gibson feel.
I've been doing this for months. I saw a video about the benefit of sticking with one guitar and rig. I settled on 15w. combo, four pedals (usual suspects) and my Casino. Just today, before seeing this post, I played my Strat for the first time in ages. I got straight back into it. I'd almost forgotten just how enjoyable cranking the Strat is.
I'll always find a way to delude myself that I need another guitar, I don't have a single cut for example. But now, I have a one in-one out policy, and I can't part with any, so that's that!
Thank you KW.
"Guitar neutral" like "carbon neutral", that's what I try as well. Not always successful but it always comes around again.
That is very good advise. Plus switch off delays and reverbs and distortion and play till YOU make it sound nice.
And eyes closed
Absolutely a 1st world problem lol.
I got my first guitar in 2000, a nylon strings one. Then, on 2002 I got a crummy bass and a tiny bass amp, and a year late a crummier electric guitar. From 2008 onwards, as I moved from place to place, I only carried my nylon strings guitar and left all the rest at my parents house. Then, two years ago, I got an Epiphone 339 and a Katana 50W, and about two months ago I got a Squier Tele. To be honest, these two electrics and the Katana fullfill pretty much all my sonic desires, especially after spending so many years with just a nylon strings acoustic.
The only thing I would like to do is to change to a really small amp, given that I just play at home and my wife usually complains about the noise. Also, I feel that the 50W Katana doesn't come to its full potential on really low volumes.
It is so liberating to say: " you know what: Enough tweaking, lets play" and do it with a minimal rig for a very long time. I went down from a 6 pedal setup and I'm currently down to 2 guitars and an HX stomp. I can connect into an amp if needed, into an Hifi, into an headphone, into a computer, even into a door if it produces any sound I like. Just play!
Same here. I made an ego-riser that houses my HX Stomp and the receiver of my remote. At home I play through headphones. At practice, I plug it into the PA. At gigs, it goes straight into FOH.
I mainly play through a helix right now as well, but unfortunately don't have the discipline to stop tweaking the hundreds of options. It is a fantastic space saver though
@@sporkcrx I find constraints to be very good for creativity. Create a constraint or accept one and make your live easier. That will stop the tweaking I think.
I've been using the same rig for just about six months and I'm still finding new voices and sounds from it.
We bassist usually play the same rig for decades..or we're just poor?
Had to smile. For 15 years, I played two 45 year old ported bins with 15" JBL's +horn I inherited from a friend. Had an old high end Yamha hifi power amp that would do 250w rms a side. Again, inherited from a friend who had upgraded his stereo. Got myself a samsamp stomp box as preamp....that rig was awesome, if a bit heavy.
Cost me near nothing.
My bass setup is much simpler than my guitar rig even though i've played bass longer and consider myself more a bassist than a guitarist. I have two basses for vastly different tones and one amp, that's it. Straight into the amp where I've set my EQ the way I like it and it sounds fantastic and works 100% of the time!
I do still love to fiddle with pedals, I prefer more elaborate tones for the guitar so I futz with that a lot just for the fun of it.
Rather lucky when you don't fall victim to the G.A.S.
@@-Christoph Oh I do, I just can't afford to feed it. Though my G.A.S leans more toward studio/recording equipment
I prefer to believe that we're streamlined...
Any CUBE and a Telecaster. Done! (Telecaster with a paf in the neck position...)
this is easy when you can only really afford half a rig
Why you gotta call me out like that?
@@aylbdrmadison1051 the only guitar I have is my dad's. I don't even have an amp lol. Though the importance of guitar is nullified by it being my 5th instrument.
@@aylbdrmadison1051 You find out how to make the same equipment sound different. It can be nice to not worry about which pedal to step on.
thank you, since I found this channel, I decided to focus on one guitar, and already sold 70% of my effects pedal, I focused more on the basics and helped me to find my musical character, so as not to copy other people's rigs.
Funny what Mike Campbell said - I agree - if you have a "Fender" style guitar, and a "Gibson" style guitar, you really can cover the bases of nearly everything. I mostly tend to alternate between my Agile Les Paul copy, and my SX Tele copy. Humbuckers or single coils, but similar in layout and feel. And if I back off the tone on the Tele, it comes very close to the Les Paul sound.
Bringing this back from the dead...how do you like that Agile LP? I have had a Douglas super strat, and an SX strat with p90's, and a 1/2 scale SX strat (great fun bending notes to nearly the next octave!), and they've all been pretty darn good.
Always gets me thinking.... Thanks!
Me before 5WW: 100W Marshall JCM 900, Marshall Silver Jubilee 4X12, massive PB and 16 guitars.
Me after 5WW: 50W Port City Pearl, 2X12 Port City Cab, smaller PB, 5 guitars.
I'm scared and happy about this
love these vids...i recently worked with someone who had several thousand ollars worth of the latest gear (just the gear- not including the guitars) to play a 5-song worship set...though i envied someone being able to afford all the latest stuff out there, when they described how they were going to set it all up (using just about every routing option available) i thought, "why are making this so complicated?...there is no way you're going to use all this- particularly on Sunday mornings.."...it's very apparent with everyone i see that the longer you play, the less gear you use...you find the smallest rig with the most versatility, and then concentrate on playing- not navigating your gear...
The trend I see is, the more I gig, the less I care. Once stuck at home, get bored, look for colours and variety. Once you have one good guitar, you may start to question and second guess. Once back into gigging routine - it matters way less. On the road you usually want to have more underwear than guitars.
Loved it.. Truth is.. the rig is always a work in progress.. part of the fun
Great Idea. I try to stick to one guitar just to get used to a sound. I am a producer engineer. So I have to switch guitars for different sounds. I also don’t buy into Tele and Old Les Pauls are a like. Proof would be Led Zep 1 vs. 2. Mahogany has a specific sound even with a maple cap. Ash and alder is different. Not to mention Hum vs. Single.
Wanna try something different? Pick a guitar and an Amp. Get rid of all the effects. Learn to play without pedals. Being a studio guy. I play without effects and add to taste later.
I love this concept of keeping it simple. It’s very freeing and gives you time to really focus on your playing and learning how to use your limited gear. As a fellow New Englander, I applaud you sir!
I’ve found there are different types of guitarists. Some learn tunes easily and remember them, some are good improvising and creating their own music. Also, some guitarists want tons of options-different guitars, pedals and amps while some want to find their sound and want to find and use just the gear that gets them there. I’m of the latter of both those types. I have 4 electric guitars but I only really play one. Out of a PRS Custom 22, Gibson RD Artist, my first real guitar-a heavily modded Aria Pro II TS-300 and a partscaster I play the partscaster. I’ve spent the last 5 or so years making that guitar perfect for me. It not only plays the best, it sounds the best. One pickup, one volume and that’s it. I have one 20 watt amp, a 2x12 cab and 3 pedals.
The reason I’ve gone this route is exactly as you say in you video-I play more. No option anxiety. I’ve used modelers for years previously and was always tweaking the tone at home only to find that great tone didn’t work at practice so more tweaking....ad infinitum.
Once I ditched the modeler and embraced my ‘new’ tone of guitar into amp I was able to concentrate on playing. I know exactly what sound I’ll get and can use technique to vary my tone (plus a pedal or two). I have made more progress these last few years because I don’t waste time tweaking tones anymore. I can work on writing and technique and not think about the tone because my options are so limited. It frees my mind from gear and lets me make music.
This is easily my favourite episode of five watt world.
I only wish I could limit myself. Can't limit with only one guitar
Out of curiosity, I've done this before. Your experiment is better because you were forced into it and I could always bail out at any minute. A different mindset. Total discipline required. Yes, I put my Boss PQ 4 on there for extreme versatility.
Totally off topic here, but I can't even stare at a guitar without a headstock, I think that ruins the essence of the instrument which has such a great and long history and a basic shape associated with it. This is not to start an argument though...!
Yeah: that is something that put me off really. I do have a travel guitar that I took along in extreme circumstances when I could not board with a full sized guitar and I admit it’s quite awkward… Some say Stranberg are special though…
sure period.. unless you're on the second set of a five set night and you and your bass player get a little too animated and you wind up cracking the headstock off of your ESP eclipse and it goes flying off into the audience. Luckily I had a backup guitar but since then I've come to appreciate headless guitars
Another enjoyable and informative video. Thanks Five Watt World!
Glad to be one of the "Friends of Five Watt World" now. :)
Thanks so much Reid!
Here's a video idea: How to break in an expensive new guitar. I really want to play my new guitar, but I still treat it too much with kid gloves. How to overcome this fear?
This is why I don't buy new guitars.
just do it. be as careful with the finish as you would be with any others, and (i assume it's well setup) tune it regularly. and have fun, of course. instruments are meant to be played, and if your cheap strat copy didn't break apart when you were starting out, your new 3000 dollar vigier won't either
@@raulperez2308 yeah. I got a sweet set up on it. Plays like butter
As always Keith it is a pleasure to hear your perspective is so appreciated. Love your channel! Love your approach!
Thanks Troy
It’s kinda odd for many of us one rig is what we live with. And we aspire for that second rig. We make the best we can with what we got. That being said, it’s sill a good question. You make a good video with good subject matter. Keep up the good content and stay safe.
Thanks for another simulating and thoughtful video!
As a truck driver I live this experiment daily. My Squire Strat and OCD through my Boss Katana is what I have room for. When I get home it's "What do I want to play?" My Epi LP? Mitchell? Tele? Ibanez? With three other options to choose from. But my Strat gets loaded up each time I head out.
Always great content Keith. Gives me something to think about and try these crazy mastermind experiments you come up with.
"We started out with one guitar" EXACTLY! Nailed it Keith!
Playing music that speaks just for you is the basis of art. I am photographer and shoot for myself first. You take your art, photos, paintings, pottery, or music to the public once we are happy with what we have created. Acceptance by the public or not, the real critic is ourselves. I now feel the same way about the music I play and create while in my office . I am happy to have created something because to me it is music. Thanks for making me think of this.
Great perspective, Keith.
“Because you have no choice” - but, but, I like choices. Awesome video. We’re about to move and I might do this experiment as I set up my new bunker and shop.
I play my Suhr Classic S surf green into a Victory V40 and basically the same pedalboard for about 2,5 years now. Couldn‘t be happier with it.
I've been playing a custom 24 SE for a couple of years, until recently, at the end of 2019, i got a CE, which i instantly fell in love with. So, you get the idea: i played the new guitar for the last 6 months and let the old SE in it's gig bag.
Fret work and set up needed to be done on my recently acquired CE, so i took it to the luthier, and got to play the old SE back. And I couln't belive it!!! First of all it was almost in tune after 6 months not being used. Second, this thing feels great, plays great, sounds great. I realised i've been a bit of a snob... Maybe i should play both rigs now. Quite not the direction of your video. Yet it's your video that made me realize that! Funny 🤪
I love being a part of the five watt world
It’s nice to be reminded that what you have is good enough...and what you want to be better is not your gear but your talent. Thanks for what you do.
I'm new to guitar, so for my rig I usually use my squire showmaster and an 20w orange amp for overdrive and clean tones, if I want to add extra effects, I plug it into my computer
After selling all my gear, leaving behind the music world 20 years ago, i recently got back into playing. Wanted one guitar that could do many things, and that turned out to be the Taylor T3/B; humbuckers, but with split coil option for a mid-scooped single coil sound; a mid range roll-off for a broad range of tones from wide open rock sounds to dark, moody jazz tones. The Bigsby is a nice textural tool for sure. This guitar, for me, has been the perfect "one-rig" guitar, from tele and strat sounds to Gibson style sounds, this guitar does it all. With a TC Electronics flashback, MXR 10 band eq, Origin Effects compressor, volume pedal, an old Chandler Tube driver from the '90's, and a '74 Twin Reverb, I can do just about anything I enjoy playing!
I love what some people can do with Fenders. However, for the longest time, I was playing a Les Paul copy and I noticed that I never felt without. During the quarantine(s) and whatnot, I bought another Strat and have been playing it as my sole guitar for almost 5 months now and I definitely feel stifled.
I think I could stay inside for a year with a Epiphone Casino with P90s, a Carbon Copy Deluxe, a Boss DS-1, a Boss PS-2 and an Earthquaker Devices Transmisser and forget to buy food, but be totally happy. I use an iPhone app for tuning.
Good video addressing a topic that I have been contemplating recently.
My shrinking rig...
Amp:
Fender Pro Jr transplanted into an Epiphone Valve Jr. 13 ply birch cabinet with an Eminence 12" speaker. Amp mods by me include a Mercury Magnetics OT and plenty of res/cap changes.
Pedal board:
*Tech 21 Double Drive
*Arion chorus
*Tremolo/clean boost (kit from General Guitar Gadgets and/or Run Off Groove)
*Boss 7 band EQ, small tuner
*Homemade power supply
Guitar(s):
*Warmoth strat (trem, alder body, maple/rosewood neck, fiesta red, white pickgaurd, can't remember pickups)
*Warmoth tele (butterscotch blonde, maple/maple neck, black pickgaurd, can't remember pickups)
*Gibson Les Paul Special double cut (stock, P-90s, heritage cherry)
*PRS SE (stock, humbuckers, cherry burst)
Have several other guitars, but these four get the most use by far.
Would probably take the tele if I had to choose one. The tele can sound strat-ish, PRS-ish and P-90-ish and I prefer the slightly stiffer feel of the longer scale length.
I had a similar experience. I relocated back to the U.K. from the USA last year and had to live from January to August with only what I could bring on the plane. I knew a guitar was a key ingredient to keep me sane, but all I could manage to carry was my CA Cargo carbon fibre travel guitar. It worked, I stayed(mostly) sane and, while I didn’t really improve, the guitar really helped me relax during selling and buying houses! However, I was really glad to be reunited with my “friends “ when the shipping container arrived and the guitars were safely unpacked in the new house.
Great tale Paul!
Yeah, i subscribed. I dig it. Five watt life is the only life for me. Ive got a good few pedals but usually end up playing the same few. Currently got a lovely custom guitar, and am having another built. No idea what ill play when that arrives
Welcome to five watt world "NotJohn". I have to ask, is that a "John from Cincinnati" reference?
five watt world Actually its from when i had an online persona as John travolta from my profile photo and people used to stalk my account
Another artist that set up a minimalist touring rig was the late Johnny Winter, who played three Erlewine Lazer travel instruments, along with two Musicman Combo amps and six pedals, including his back-ups
Been using a Martin 0X2MAE, a boss rc30, and a Fishman Loudbox mini for my shows for the last three years and it has been the perfect minimalist rig for a singer songwriter such as myself. Couldn't be happier with the way it sounds all together
Thank you. I always enjoy what you have to show and tell.
Thanks for the great video! I really wish you make more content like this(what your channel is about)
It’s about both parts that interest me.
Good job man! ❤️
I'm definitely a one-rig guy. My pedalboard is used both for guitar and bass. I have a Boss TU-3, an MXR analog chorus, an LPD Modern Classic drive, an MXR Carbon Copy, and an Electro-Harmonix reverb. My guitar amp is a Boss Katana, and my bass rig is a Mesa Subway D800 with matching 15" cab. My main electric is a PRS Custom 24, and main bass is a Warwick Corvette $$. I do play my acoustic on occasion, but prefer electric. Yet another great video!
Keith, please keep this up. I really enjoyed this episode. I don't think any other guitar-centric has made me think as hard about why I play guitar as yours has. Bravo and encore !
Thanks David!
I inherited quite a few guitars and amps from my father in law , being that I’ve always just tinkered around on the guitar before that I figured what better way to honour his memory than to buckle down and learn once and for good . I’d say you are absolutely right in the assessment that too many options is a barrier. I think I will take this challenge and see where it gets me ! Thanks for the great video ❤️
This is exactly what I'm going for with my personal rig and my playing philosophy. Just want to have the essencial to have fun and play the music that I like. Thank you for showing that it is possible!
I have recently moved my family from South Florida to Rhode Island and have come to the same realization that I have to much gear that is not condusive for my needs. I'm not gigging, I don't go to open jams or play with friends because I have 2 young boys that take up a lot of my time which is good because I love being a Dad. Also finding time to practice is very limited. So I'm going to go through all my stuff and really try to whittle it down to what I "really need" . Wish me luck. Great episode by the way. I really enjoy what you do for our community.
I've played acoustic guitar since I was twelve because it was all I could afford. When I did gigs I always borrowed nice guitars like Les Paul Standards or modded MIM Strats and flagship things but when I could finally afford a nice guitar a went for something budget friendly and something I knew would fit me playing style which was very open and comprised of blues and jazz but a hint of hard rock here and there for playing in an acoustic so long. I got a boss Katana Mk 2 to be able to find my own tone and an Ibanez As-73 because it fit me the best. It's easy to gig with and you have your presets on your computer, furthermore i now know that the only guitar that I want now is a jaguar. Keeping one rig inspired me to improve and change my playing style but also limit myself when it came to knowing what else I wanted and needed altogether
Another great video my friend...............I own 54 different guitars, own about 12 amps, and 98% of the time play one Tele with a Fender Tweed!
It's so true that Fender /Marshall combo fill each others tonal gaps, I was so happy to hear you say this , ive been playing the same pair of amps from 1978, now, I have scaled it down for the modern 5 Watt times. For me the Fender /Marshall blend has filled all my playing needs .
I always enjoy your vids. Knowing a simple setup inside out makes it more about the music and less about the toys. Classical musicians tend to live this way for the familiarity and control benefits.
I'm not playing one rig at the moment (more like 7), but I have reached the point where I have what I want, and I'm concentrating on basically 2 rigs. No more tonal excuses, time to play and learn.
I've been obsessed with minima rigs for the past 4 years. I keep my rig to be "backpack friendly" and ampless.
On guitar, I've been using a telecaster and a small Metro16 board based around the Tech21 flyrig for some time. I added an SP compressior, a carbon copy delay, an mxr clone looper, and the mooer DI for xlr out and cabsim, while the Tech21 (Richie Kotzen FlyRig v2) gives me the amp voice, distortion, reverb, and lesle sounds. I just seem to hate carrying an amp around and ended up selling my Roland JC40.
I couldn't be happier.
I'd be super curious to see you with an ampless rig that is not based off digital modelers.
Someone coming into rehearsal and spending half-an-hour futzing around with near gear really is a complete vibe-killer. I've been guilty in the past but I've learned to book in a rehearsal space session for myself to really dial in gear at proper volume.
Cool concept for a video
I really appreciate your channel. Your calm demeanor and wealth of knowledge make your videos relaxing and educational, as well as inspiring.
Keep up the good work!
I am a relatively new bass player. All I have is my Jackson JS3VQ Concert Bass and a Danville Tec80B 1x12" amp, both of which were Reverb finds. The bass was B-Stock, so basically brand new only I got it for $275. The amp has significant preamp hiss, but sounds great if I run my bass through the "Insert" port which bypasses the preamp (my bass has an active EQ, so the preamp isn't really necessary). I recently added a Focusrite Scarlett Solo I got used on Reverb for $65, so that allows me to play with VST plugin effects instead of buying pedals. Being that I am a college student about to live in a dorm, it is important to me that I can practice in headphones through my Scarlett while the free VST effects sweeten the deal while keeping it cheap. I have played this rig for about a month now, and I am already daydreaming of LeFay basses with Darkglass pedals...
A humbucker as the rear pickup on a tele with a coil split is always nice and useful. Funny thing is the older you get, the less gear you need. I had 47 keyboards in my studio rig. Now a B-3 and acoustic piano would be my choice. I still have quite a number of guitars and I enjoy mixing it up - because I’m average at best. Jack of all trades Master of none. I like to tinker with guitars, truss, intonation frets, action. The same with pedals. The usual OCD stuff that keeps us happy :)
Great video Keith, thank you. For the last thirty years I've acquired more guitars than I need, but I always end up playing my MIM Fat Strat. I love the sound the other guitars make, but the sound that is mine, comes out of the strat. I watched the rig rundown with the band Khruangbin, and the guitarist tours with only one guitar! No backups, no alternates, only the single axe. I thought man that is so relatable. Just like this video, thanks for making this!
Hey Dan, Great channel. I’m 68 and I’m really digging low wattage amps. I recently purchased a Tweed Champ style amp and a Tweed Fat Champ, 15 watts, from the same builder. My first time owning a Tweed amp. I love the way they sound. I play clean using pedals for dirt. My 5 watt has a Weber 8” speaker. I expected it to sound… well like an 8” speaker. I’m using a V.O.R 10-25 10” in the Fat Champ. I absolutely love the clean tones in both amps. Especially with my single coil pickups.
Great choices, great sound, nice.
Bought a t-shirt. Love the channel and all of the history, gear, and music lessons that come with your channel. Thank's Keith!
Thanks Zach!
Another great video. The part about mild dyslexia rings true for me. Letters are much harder to retain than intervals. I’ve been playing a minimalist rig for two decades. I get more music done and less knob turning.
I have 3 rigs
Les paul/marshall
Stratocaster/fender blues jr
Epiphone eb-3/fender rumble 40
The rig i use the most is the LP marshall amp because that is personally my sound and its been the rig ive used for almost a year and really dont see myself changing
Keith, as always, great video!
For me, the rig is always reducing and expanding (between 5 and 10 pedals), depending on what interesting gear is released.
But there are essentials like specific drives or e.g. types of delay and modulation, that never leave the board. I could play a gig with just 5 pedals (tuner included) and be happy. But it is just fun to swap stuff out and be surprised and challenged. With the years of practice, I know what works and what wont, so no bad surprises, only happy ones :D
Schecter tele with coilsplit - wha - ds1(no dist, only tone for shaping) - orange dark terror with graph eq and lexicon fx/rev/dly unit in the loop - 1x12 v30 cab. That's my do it all rig.
Check Mark Speers Rig Rundown! Mark has been using one guitar, one amp, one set of strings, one pick, and a handful of pedals for years!
I have a collection of 20-odd guitars which all get played, but only 2 are my go-to instruments (one is down-tuned to D and strung with 11's). My go-to amp is a 7w non-MV hand-wired class A Matamp C7. I also have a Matamp 1224 for recording clean guitar and a Marshall DSL, which I never seems to use, mainly because it sounds dull compared to the clarity of the Matamps. I don't use pedals - the Matamp C7 will go from clean to scream at the twist of the guitar's volume control and both Matamps have reverb.
Nice! You do t hear about Matamps very often. Very cool!
I really like the idea of a very simple rig. Amp, tuner, EQ, drive, delay, modulation, guitar... Very cool all of the tones that you can get from just those pieces. I've been buying a LOT of gear over the past year, but I know that I really need to work on things as simple as scales and technique.
I recently built a mini pedalboard on a pedaltrain nano. I find myself playing the scaled down simplified rig with the pedaltrain nano, one small fender practice amp, and just my ES-335 style guitar almost all the time now. It has become my ideal practice rig.
The last couple of sessions that I recorded with my band, I actually took the mini set up into the studio instead of the huge pedaltrain pro with my dual amp set up. Something about playing a scaled back rig can inspire new ideas and refreshed creativity. I can dial in sounds faster with less options. The limitations imposed on the rig can actually be in advantage in the recording studio (which I was pleasantly surprised by).
Having a scaled back rig in a practice situation is ideal and a new norm for me. I spend less time dialing in fx, experimenting with sound design, and chasing tone with the small rig. The bigger rig is almost too fun to play with and I find myself wasting valuable practice time messing around with a huge pedalboard. It's fun to have all the toys out and at your disposal, but it's not always the most efficient or productive choice. It's all about balance and context.
I've written about a dozen new songs since building the mini rig and I think that simplicity and limitation of choice have been factors in the new rush of creativity over the last 90 days. I'm sure when we go go to the studio to record the "final" versions of some of these songs, I will likely have both the large dual amp set up AND the mini rig set up to be able to track out the best sounds for each idea, but it's been a blessing to have something so streamlined set up on the front end for the first phase of song writing.
Great experiment. I’ve been happily playing my single guitar/amp/pedal board set up since last fall. No major tweaks or adjustments since first stumbling on my journey and your channel. 👍🏻
Thank you for allowing Us to experience Your Five Watt World! Great Video!
I love this minimal approach, I decided to go down this route and have only one room. All I've got in there is about 20 guitars, 15 amps and 70 or so pedals. This room is very 5 watt world, its like a Swiss army knife of gear, and of course as Keith says in this video "anything that can make you hear differently is welcome"
This one made me think, I've kinda been on the same basic rig for over 30 days myself, Marshall Origin 20 with 12" Red Fang speaker in a Jet-City cab, a PRS Starla loaded with Duncan Antiquities, and a Direct Drive V4. In that time I have plugged in some other guitars, tested some pedals, but when it comes time to playing for myself, it's been that same rig. The more I played that one rig, the more I have learned the rig, and dialed it in to be better than if I had just been swapping components and guitars. Even the pickups in the Starla, were swapped about a month ago as I kept dialing in the guitar more to try to get the best voice. The amp had already seen a trivial one-cap mod early on which made it my main testing and playing amp for three months now.Thanks for including the BUSS pedal, it was meant to cover a lot of sounds in a compact form, I love it when guitar players get where I was going with a pedal, that's the stuff that makes it worth it. Oh, that MXR chorus had that "drifty Metheny sound", it could be challenging to keep my 30 day rig the same for another 30 days!
Thanks for watching David! And the modulation on Travels is coming from the delay.