While Blue On Black has been settling into its final (so far) form and playing some gigs, I’ve been having a fun time sorting out my amp rig. Moving to smaller amps has been really interesting, sorting out gain structures and tone settings, not to mention amp combinations.
I started out in the six-piece version of the band using the Boogie and the Marshall together, which sounded absolutely mighty, but I quickly realised that I probably wouldn’t have the room on the stages I’d be playing on to throw up so much gear. Not really needing a clean sound, I used the Marshall rig for some gigs and was back in JCM800 heaven. I even did a gig with the 15w Fender Blues Junior IV, and it roared! I hadn’t owned a Fender amp since I was a teenager, and it was pure nostalgic fun to just crank it up and go. It was with the four-piece version of the band too, so I had heaps of room to play with sound.
With the introduction of original material into the set, I found I needed more tones for some of the lighter songs, so it was back to the two-channel, 25w Boogie. Some tweaking has found me just what I need in the clean channel, and now have quite a cool sonic palette to play with. I’ll be exploring further while we’re writing and recording, and I am hanging out to beat the boards again next year, hopefully a bit more often than we did this year. Here’s hoping!