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racks..


Anathema

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well i jsut wanted to know what you put on racks and stuff. ive seen some ppl have them and i was wondering how they work, what benifits do they have,and how they power up. do they use a power supply or anyhting or is it hooked right up to the amp its self. and i was wondering if this was anygood to use.......

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=04.../base_id/85714/

also what are some good things to put on racks or any suggestions.

sorry im a newbie :D and i just wanna learn as much i can.

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I'm not sure exactly what you are asking but here's a shot at an answer:

Rack mounted equipment is just a way of mounting electronics in an organized fashion. There are some units that are available as either floor pedals or rack mountable. The rack itself is just a case with standardized spacing for the shelves. The rack/case is just a box and doesn't have any electrical equipment built-in. Maybe there's a manufacturer who does build in a power supply or light but that's the basic idea.

The rack mountable units that you buy separately screw into the shelves. Each rack mountable unit could be a tuner (like the one you linked to), effects processor, noise gate, light, power conditioner, ... You buy what you want and screw them in. Each unit has it's own power cord. You can buy rack mountable power supplies to plug your units into.

The signal routing is not part of the rack itself either - you route your cables between the units as you want.

Lately, some people have been on the kick of getting rid of most of their rack gear and have been buying the "botique" floor pedals instead. This is of course just a personal preference thing. I currently own a few rack devices that I really like and am not planning on getting rid of no matter what the trend is. The units I currently use are:

TC Electronics G-Major (sweet effects processor)

BBE 362? (I can't remember the model number)

I have a few half-rack units that I used to use a lot but since the G-Major has come along - they have become obsolete for me.

Hope that helps a little. Check out SKB on a web search - they are one manufacturer of rack cases. The rack units are a little more difficult to search on since there are so many built by hundreds(?) of companies.

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:DB)

@ Anathema

Lol that is a tuner.. it is probably for studio use or just to look cool.

The thing with racks is that it holds alot of possibilities. A little Boss pedal is like a rack only then build for the floor and ten times smaller. In a rack you have way more space to put electronic stuff in.

There are rack processors with alot of effects. You can control it with for example a floorboard.

19" is the standard size for soundmodules.

I have no experience with racks. but since noone else is responding... :D

I know they can be most expensive..

[edit]

Lol little bit too late :D

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In mine I keep a lighting controller, Minidisk recorder and a TC Electronics multifx.

In the future, I aim to get a bigger one so I can add a stereo power amp. But it's mostly PA orientated, rather than guitar. Neither my guitar amp nor my Pod fit a rack.

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basically you can put a whole amp setup in a rack for efficiancy, choice(you can always swap one piece out, like a preamp..etc), and you can often get better sounds for less, a used pre/power is gonna be cheaper usually than a used 2000$ head and you could equal the sound..

each rack piece usually has it's own power cable :D

here's the rack i want to put together at the moment

(6 spaces)

Gmajor effects-1 space

midi switcher(ground control) so i can control everything from the one unit- 1 space

egnater IE4 preamp- 2 spaces

Peavey classic 50/50- 2 spaces

it means you don't have to worry about carrying, controlling, or seting up heaps of pedals, and you have great freedom with preamp and poweramp choice B)

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Mine's been sitting empty for years. It's nice tho. I made it from construction site 3/4" scrap plywood. I put a slight stain varnish finish on it (just wiped on a thin coat). From across the room, it looks a lot like one of those tweed covered Groove tubes racks. I used a ' tongue and groove' joint

( http://members.shaw.ca/wgafurniture/sec1/baretongue.gif ) to glue the sides and top and bottom together. I'm keeping it, because I'm making rack size amp chassis' for little Fender Champ/Gibson GA-5/Kalamazoo type amps I'm building/rebuilding.

Most of the ones you buy are too big, especially from front to back. Instead of metal " rack rails", I used 3/4" oak flooring pieces embedded half-way into the plywood. Then I drilled holes for wood screws to hold the racks in place. This way, I can avoid the ground-loop problem that the metal rails can cause. I want to put threaded inserts into the oak "rails", just never got around to it. But then, I could use machine screws to hold the racks in place.

Rack stuff is seen as being quite 80's or 90's. I don't think mine looks that way so much because it's a light natural wood color, not covered in black carpet, and not filled with ART rack effects with goofy day-glow paint designs on the panel :D

You can probably buy rack stuff cheap from those cigarette in the mouth, les paul slung down low, floor pedal junky convert guys.

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Hey guys, sorry to post this again, but has anyone got an answer for my question?

'Wow, just checked out a description of the TC Electronics G-Major unit and bloody hell. It has everything. Does all the effects sound as good as their stand alone counterparts or do they sound a little fake?'

Thanks.

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the g-major is a pro-sumer rack device. which means it is a pro level unit at consumer attainable price tag. the g-major is a new version of the ever popular g-force. it sounds great. Vai uses one, and his tone is fantastic!

on to the rack question. my rack has a furman rack power condenser, an alesis midiverb4, and a v-amp pro.

i would like to get more rack effects, like the g-major which will be mine soon. racks are really great for sound quality, allot of the effects are better sounding, but racks are far less portable and are much more expensive. case in point i had a boss super chorus rack mount 350 USD, and the pedal version is like 80 USD. if you are on a budget, go with pedals, or discover the magic of lay-away!! :D

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For a gigging musician, racks are much easier. All your effects can be mounted in the same cabinet (rack) for ease of set-up when on the road. Instead of having foot pedals or effects units strung across the floor you can have it all located in one place, stacked on top of each other in a tough, protective rack.

It's a good idea to have a rack mounted power conditioner that all the other rack-mounted equipment plugs into. This can eliminate alot of unwanted noise and also be safer by supplying all the equipment with the same ground potential.

Another useful rack-mountable unit is a patch bay. This is basically a rack with input & output (I/O) jacks all over it. This allows you to route your effects quickly and easily in many different ways by just unplugging one cable and moving it to a different jack.

Also, many rack mounted versions of pedals have more I/O jacks and some have more features that make them more versatile.

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Howdy,

Another set of advantages for a rack are:

It is neater, with all of the wires hidden. With a back door or pushed up against a wall.

It can be more difficult for the kids & pets to get into. Some of them have back doors.

If you are moving your gear alot, put wheels under it and it rolls, and you do not have to take things apart and put them together so frequently.

Since you can not throw it, there is less chance of breakage.

Guitar Ed

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