My Guitars, Rig, Effects and Amps Rundown

It’s very uncommon for me to write about music and music-making here, because the blog is reserved exclusively for HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. Recently, however, I made significant changes to my home studio and guitar rig, which I’d like to share.

Disclaimer: This is not a professional gear review, neither I am a professional musician, just a software developer, who, back in the days dreamed of becoming a rock star.

The Amps

I’ve experimented with various amplifiers, both tube and solid state. A few months ago, I decided to go for Carvin’s VL300, better known as Steve Vai‘s legendary Legacy 3, which I’m using with a 50-watt HT-112 Blackstar cabinet, but I’m planning to switch to a 4 x 12 Bugera, Marshall or Engl custom 2 x 12 Zilla cab in the next couple of months. Since the the AVID Eleven Rack’s output is stereo, for the second channel I am using an obscure active monitor, which I bought several years ago.

Effect Processors, Loopers and Stompboxes

AVID Eleven Rack with Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller

After so many years of being a devout BOSS user, I switched to AVID Eleven Rack and PRO Tools. The reason – I was searching for a new sound, look and feel, and also for a professional solution with direct I/O to my PC and DAW. After a thorough research, I narrowed down my choices to BOSS GT-100, BOSS GT-001 and AVID Eleven Rack. Although revealed on Frankfurt Musikmesse 2014, as of April 2014, the new BOSS GT-001 is still not available on the market, and the online reviews are scarce and controlled, so I decided to give AVID a try, and I was not wrong. The Eleven Rack is the most amazing guitar effects processor I’ve ever stumbled upon ever since I started playing the guitar. Sadly, I said goodbye to my GT-10 (sorry, BOSS!).

Since the Eleven is rack mountable, my choice of a MIDI foot controller was either Voodo Lab’s Ground Control or Behringer’s FCB1010. Behringer is a well-known name in Europe, and they are famous with their high quality products at really reasonable prices. This, combined with the 2 expression pedals convinced me to go for the FCB1010. In order to save myself from the nag of programming the board, I changed Behringer’s original PROM with the EurekaPROM by EurekaSound. If you are using Roger Linn Design’s AdrenaLinn III, Kemper Profiling Amp, Behringer V-Amp series, Behringer Bass V-Amp Series, Avid Eleven Rack, TC Electronic G-Force, G-Major, G-Sharp, Nova, Fractal Audio Systems Axe-FX II, BOSS GT-PRO & Roland VG-99 & VB-99 or Line6 POD series and you still don’t know what EurekaPROM is, you should definitely check what David and the other guys from EurekaSound create!

DigiTech JamMan Stereo

Unfortunately I don’t have time to play in a band anymore and I practice alone, so I’ve tried a number of different loopers, like BOSS Loop Station, Line 6 JM4 and KORG SOS, but none of these was as versatile as the DigiTech JamMan Stereo. The truth is that I’ve never been a great fan of DigiTech, but the JamMan looper and it’s librarian software really rock, so I guess I’ll keep it for a couple of years.

The Guitars

Since 2012, my main guitar is this amazing 7-string B.C. Rich Stealth. Even now, after a couple of years of using it, I am still amazed by the sound, awesome looks and playability of this instrument. I am also using a heavily modified MH and SV’s by ESP, Schecter Omen 7, Jackson Dinky and custom Aurellia guitars.

The Drums

From time to time, I play a heavily modified Yamaha DTX400K electronic drum set, which I also use for recording drum tracks. The customized drum set has an additional bass drum, extra crash cymbal and 3-zone snare drum.

The Rest of the Gear

In case you are interested, you may want to can check the rest of my guitar fleet and more gear on this page.