Solid State/Going Direct: new territory for me

[klasher]

I'm interested in getting a solid state amp that I can route direct into the sound board when need be. I also need suggestions for OD/Dist pedals that sound vintage like and at least somewhat autentic going into a solid state amp, either when using that amp's speaker or when going direct from the amp into the board. I tried the Boss fender modeling pedals and was very impressed with the deluxe reverb one, at least in terms of a cool vintage-like low gain sound (the higher gain sounds didn't impress me). Any suggestions for higher gain pedals, both in terms of heavy overdrive crunch and more distorted hard rock sounds? Any suggestions for a solid state amp that would sound good with it's speaker or with going direct?
My goal here, for those who are curious, is to get a bunch of sounds that are going to sound pretty much the same all the time, whether in low volume settings, high volume settings, or when going direct. Tube amps are awesome when cranked, but at low volumes they tend to sound either weak and plinky, or the overdrive pedals going through them just don't sound good.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

[spencer31st]

Digitech RP-500, I use that and a Crate 50DSP SS amp. I can get ANY sound I want/can think of from this combo! The digitech also has XLR out to hook stright to your sound board. Mono or Stereo.

[Ptrallan01]

Think multiple when using modelling technology. I use a digtech rp250 straight to the board. It has a switch for input to an amp or mixing console.

It is important to know that the patches will sound very different into an amp versus a board even with the switch. They will also sound very different at low and high volume. The easiest way to deal with this is to create two patches side by side with one for low and one for high volume. The other solution is to have them setup from 1 up for high volume and 1 down for low volume (the digitech devices will go either direction.) If you do this you will be able to handle switching between the volumes.

For what its worth I HATE not hearing myself through the monitors in our church. Monitor speakers are not tuned to a guitar the way guitar amp (ss or tube) are. We don't have floor monitors for the musicians at the moment so we are all struggling. The room volume is much better and our singers aren't yelling to hear themselves anymore so the experience is better for everyone but the players. Even our drummer has had to go to electric drums in order to control volume.

Have fun and remember it is ultimately for the AUDIENCE OF ONE!

[JohnSS]

Tech 21 Trademark series amps have XLR Direct Outs and are excellent analog modeling amps - it's basically a SansAmp with an amp & speaker.

[COAHplayer]

I'm a tech 21 fan myself. No amps allowed in our worship service. I used a trademark 10 for a while on the clean fender settings with a RAT and Bad Monkey for dirt but now I have a bigger board with 2 channels. I have a crybaby->tone press-> channel switcher either bad monkey into the liverpool character series pedal or rat into the blonde pedal then bring the signal back from either loop into the DD-2, DL-8 and Rv-5. Its a cool set up but in the end rather expensive. I could have gotten a POD live or a Boss GT 10 after all the pedals. The good thing is I can get 4 distinct sounds with the loops and dirt pedals.

[emiller45]

Originally Posted by JohnSS

Tech 21 Trademark series amps have XLR Direct Outs and are excellent analog modeling amps - it's basically a SansAmp with an amp & speaker.

+1 on the Tech 21. I use one for recording quite a bit and they actually have an XLR output for going direct along with some nice speaker simulations. They also come in sizes and output ranges that would work well for a church or worship setting.

[teleftcaster]

Last Sunday I plugged a Roland Cube 30x straight into the mix ("Tweed" modeler) and it sounded real nice with my Tele. I was wondering about adding distortion or overdrive. I read that the more hi-fi'ish speakers used in sound systems have a much broader frequency range than guitar amp speakers and can make distortion effects sound like crap. I'll have to experiment to see if I can come up with anything that sounds good.

[scooteraz]

It's not SS, but my Fender Princeton Recording Amp goes direct to the board. And I use the attenuated output to the speaker as my stage monitor. Works fine. The other guitarist uses a Pod XT Live for direct to the board, and the local instrument monitor for monitoring. Niether is the ideal solution, but both are OK.

[jb12string]

The tech 21 amp modelers (liverpool, etc) intrigue me, but what I am using currently is a line 6 pod xt live, which would do exactly what you want, give you a number of sounds which would sound exactly the same, no matter the volume. One of my favorite features of the POD family is the computer patch editing software, you can adjust patches using the unit itself, but doing it with a computer is much faster

[David Barnett]

I vote for Tech 21 too, their stuff is consistently musical.

[Parma_TeleMon]

I'm running a Vox ToneLab LE direct. Just picked up a small SS amp for home just to make the windows rattle a bit.

Bottom line, modeling amps are the way to go and most of them have direct out. I used to run my Spider II direct but got tired lugging it's 52 pounds of goodness around.