[funkStrat_97]

As guitar players, we tend to hate going direct to the board but I don't really have another option at my church. I presently use a Boss ME unit, but I do prefer the sound of my individual pedals. I was thinking about usnig the following pedals and going direct to the board:

Boss CS-1 Compressor
Boss OS-2 Od/Dist.
Boss CH-1 Chorus
Boss DD-3 Delay
Boss (or other) EQ

Has anyone tried this approach? How did it turn out?

[Major Tom]

Never tried it, but you would be missing something to simulate the processing accomplished by an actual amp - what the amp does, and the speaker. Distortion pedals are made to be used in conjunction with an amp - what you'll end up with will be fizzy sounding, and not very realistic. One alternative is the Digitech Bad Monkey OD instead of the Boss - it has a sort of amp sim separate outpu, and it gets pretty good reviews. Otherwise, going direct to the board calls for a modeler - POD, GenX, V-amp, etc. They also have built in effects which are pretty good if you disregard the exaggerated presets and do your own.

[jamforchrist123]

the bad monkey is pretty good, I played it a week ago. I didn't get to try the cab sim. though.

[Keith L]

My church just upgraded the sound system, so now everyone has to go direct to the board - no amps on stage. I'm looking at the Tech 21 Tri A.C..
It has 3 amp sims (Fender, Marshall, Boogie) and can store 3 presets. Reviews are pretty good, especially using it direct to the board as a preamp with stompboxes. You can also use it running into a power amp or as a stand-alone distortion pedal. Lot's of versatility for $150 new, especially if you want to use your own pedals.

[PianoMan]

I've gone direct to the board through only pedals before cause I didn't want to use my churches extremely crappy amp. Bad move. Sounded even worse, even though I use/was using some pretty darn good pedals. You really need to have some sort of amp or simulator if you want a half-way decent sound. A crappy amp is better then none at all, trust me.

[meliasuk]

I have been in that situation as well--direct from stompbox to PA. Did not sound good at all. Now I am using a G2 as an amp simulator, works great!

[jamforchrist123]

When I had to play on a parade float, we only had a small 8 channel mixer, so I just used the one amp sim. on my zoom and my boss SD-1. For the situation, it didn't sound half bad.

[iAMspartacus]

shouldn't the ME unit have an amp/cab modeler on it? if so, then it could be a possiblity to run your pedal chain into the ME, then use the ME as an amp modeler to go direct with.

excuse my ignorance, i don't usually concern myself with multi-fx units :P

[jbm222]

the ME came out during the pre-modeling era of multifx. like the gt5 or the early digitech rp series (pre rp2000). I honestly don't know if they have a newer model with a cabinet modeler.

But if you want to go direct and use pedals instead of a multifx unit, you can get a cab simulator to simulate the frequency response of guitar amp speakers. I built one once that sounded somewhat like a 4x12 with greenbacks... a sound i don't usually like. But there are a few comercially available DI boxes with built in cab simulators, and probably some stand-alone cab simulators. They typically won't sound like a good amp, but can sound better than a crappy amp.

The EQ can help some, but not accurately simulate a speaker cab since typically the response has a very sharp roll off that starts somewhere between 2khz and 4khz. In other words, a guitar EQ pedal can't cut the high frequencies enough to sound like a cabinet. Something with more/higher frequency bands could come closer, but not as good as a cab simulator.

[nick2282]

if u had a pre-amp i think it might not sound bad.

[funkStrat_97]

That Tech 21 Tri AC looks pretty good. It could probably even improve the tone of my old ME-5. I've heard lots bass players using SansAmps and I've recorded with one, but I had forgetten all about them.