A more accurate description of Justin Chancellor's live rig

[ndrly]

Seems like a lot of people are complaining that the July 2007 issue of Bass Player magazine is wrong about a lot of things about Justin Chancellor's live setup. We should make a new editorial with a more accurate description of his live setup.

I'll get the ball rolling with some corrections to his setup...

-He does not use the XLR output of his Wal bass live. Granted, he uses it in the studio. Live, he uses three GK amps, one clean, one dirty, and one to the PA. I have no idea how he splits his signal between THREE amplifiers.

-He does not use a splitter box to run two amps at once. The dirty channel is created by connecting a Pro Co RAT and BOSS GEB-7 to the dry out of his bass whammy.

-His effects chain is Guyatone VTX tremolo -> Digitech Bass Whammy -> SansAmp GT2 -> BOSS CE-5 -> BOSS BF-2 -> BOSS DD-3 -> Guyatone BR-2 -> Coloursound Tone Bender -> Foxx Fuzz/Wah -> GK 2001RB -> Mesa 8x10.

That's all I can think of for the moment. If you have any corrections (to the BP article, or to MY corrections), please add them.

And if you've made a more accurate diagram of Justin's live setup, please don't hesitate to add it here. I'd like to see it, and I reckon so would some other TB'ers.

[vegas532]

-His live rig is split using a Radial JD-7...Channel 1 is a direct out to a Demeter VTBP-201s (this is the clean to the FOH).

-The dry out of the Whammy is just that...DRY! This goes to the Mesa 8x10.

-His effects chain is TU-2->VT-X Trem->Whammy->(dry) GK 2001RB W/8X10; (wet)->GT-2->CE-5->BF-3->DD-3->BR2->Colorsound Tonebender->Foxx Fuzz/Wah->Turbo Rat+GEB-7(always on)...there is a lot of gain stacking going on in that effects chain.

I'm pretty positive that the actual amp splitting is courtesy ofthe JD-7. Channel 1 is an ISO out (Demeter) and Channels 5 and 6 are Jensen Transformer Isolated with individual effects loops...this is likely the piece of gear doing all of the spltting.

[ndrly]

OK...getting confused now.

Can you draw up a diagram?

[Baryonyx]

I love the complexity of his rig, far more interesting than watching people try to guess what Tim Commerford's amp is set up like!

[brainhii]

i couldn't find justin on guitargeek those guys are too lazy to post up some decent rigs.....

[coolrunner989]

i saw them this summer and had fairly close seats. He had the mesa 810 and two gk 410 cabs. That all I can contribute

[Kraken]

Sorry folks nothing to add, but I've been trying to work out His Chorus and Flanger settings for a while now, and figure they may come up in this thread!

Again Sorry

Looks like the Wikipedia Article has some interesting conclusions about his gear though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Chancellor

[DWBass]

Found this online.

The XLR Out on his Wal bass goes into a Demeter VTBP-201 Preamp straight to the PA.

From the normal 1/4" out on the bass the signal goes into these pedals, in this order.

Guyatone VT-X Tremolo - SansAmp GT2 - Boss CEB-2 Chorus - Boss BF-3 Flanger - Boss DD-3 Delay - Guyatone GST-U05 Ultron AutoWah - Colorsound Tonebender Fuzz - foxx Fuzz-Wah Volume

it then goes into a splitter box, that sends the signal to 2 Amps.

The first one is his "Clean Rig"... straight into a Gallien-Krueger 2001RB, and a Mesa Road Ready 8x10 cabinet.

The second one is his "dirty rig". Here the signal comes off the splitter into a ProCo TurboRAT, then a Boss GEB-7 EQ Pedal. Both pedals are always on. This gives him what he calls his "textured sound". These go into another Gallien-Krueger 2001RB, but the cabinet here is a Mesa Road Ready 4x12.

Its blend of these 3 "channels" that gets him his sound live. Direct, Clean, and Dirty.

Then I saw the below quote. But the above quote was supposedly described by himself in an interview with a guitar mag.

A lot of that is right, but they leave out/change a lot too. Here's the real rig.

Wal Bass--> boss TU-2--> Guyatone Tremolo-->
Bass Whammy--(wet out)--->
Sansamp GT2--> Boss CE-5--> Boss BF-2--> Boss DD-3 (or 5) --> Guyatone BR2--> Colorsound Tonebender Fuzz--> Foxx FuzzWah(with the volume pot removed)-- GK2001RB

Whammy(dry out)--> ProCo Turbo Rat --> Boss GE-7--> MXR Micro Amp--> GK2001RB (Gritty Sound)

He doesn't use the XLR out of his bass (just watch videos of them or pictures and you can see he doesn't do that).

[DWBass]

Below is from the Bass Player article.

Like Tool’s compositions, Justin Chancellor’s bass sound is a carefully constructed and complex beast. It’s telling that his studio rig and live rig are essentially identical: His effects remain in place, his rigs are miked, and his signal path is his signal path, period.

Justin’s Wal 4-string, which has a mahogany body, bird’s-eye-maple top, maple neck, and Indian rosewood fingerboard, remains his choice for just about everything. “I can’t beat that bass,” he says. In fact, he had Wal make another one just like it in the event of an emergency. (The backup bass “doesn’t sound anything like it,” he laughs.) But Justin ended up using the cleaner, less-midrangy sound of the second bass for the finger-plucked buildup of “Wings for Marie.” He also used a greenburst Wal with a different body shape for the harmonics in the intro and outro of “Right in Two.” For many years Justin has stuck with Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky strings (.045, .065, .085, .110) and Clayton 1mm picks.

Still, Chancellor has made some changes to his setup since 2001’s Lateralus. He’s still using Mesa Engineering cabs, but he switched the dirty cab from an 8x10 to a RoadReady 4x12. Most significant is the switch to Gallien-Krueger 2001RB heads. “The Gallien-Krueger’s got really good punch, and it holds the note together well when you hit it hard. But the Mesa speakers were the best as far as I was concerned.”

Justin runs three channels all the time. The first comes straight off the xlr output of his Wal bass into a Demeter VTBP-201-DBL preamp (currently available as the Demeter VTBP-201-S), which serves as the clean direct signal and never touches anything else in the massive signal path. In addition to being a favorite of the soundman for filling out tone in the PA, Justin says it “saved my ass a couple of times” when a cable went bad or an amp went down.

His pedalboard is a thing to behold. New additions include two Guyatone pedals, a Flip VT-X Vintage Tremolo (used in “Right in Two”) at the front, and an Ultron AutoWah toward the back. Other newcomers include vintage pedals like a Colorsound Tonebender Fuzz (used in the crunchy middle part of “Jambi”) and the fOXX Fuzz-Wah Volume pedal (modified; the volume pot has been removed). That, plus everything else you see here, leads to the splitter and on to rig channels 2 and 3.

Channel 2 is the “clean” rig; Justin’s signal goes out of the splitter and straight into one of the two G-K 2001RB heads and into the Mesa 8x10. The third channel is “dirty”; the signal passes through a ProCo TurboRAT distortion (“That’s my textured sound that I have on the whole time”) and one last EQ before going to the other G-K head and a Mesa 4x12 cab. The overall rig is a blend of these two miked cabs, adjusted for desired levels of clean and dirty, with the clean direct running in the background at all times. Enough for ya?

[Phantopeth]

Justin's setup is so complicated, this thread almost crashed my computer. It was running fine until I openned this thread!

I just want his Wal

[Ayliffe]

Does anyone know of any pedals that sound similar to the Turbo RAT? I can't get one anywhere close to where i'm at, but was wondering if there are any alternatives from companies i can buy from?

[cavemanbass0805]

Originally Posted by Ayliffe

Does anyone know of any pedals that sound similar to the Turbo RAT? I can't get one anywhere close to where i'm at, but was wondering if there are any alternatives from companies i can buy from?

The digitech bass driver has a mode that is supposed to simulate the turbo rat. i've never heard them side by side, so i don't know how well it does....

[Bassmingo]

This picture should help matters somewhat...

[RHCP250]

Originally Posted by coolrunner989

i saw them this summer and had fairly close seats. He had the mesa 810 and two gk 410 cabs. That all I can contribute

Saw them this summer too, had the Mesa 810 and a Mesa 412, fun concert!

[wolf7883]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kat6WNUS-k

This seems to be new info for any JC fans..I've never seen the Red witch board or a few of the other pedals..interesting for those who care lol

[Samitch04]

i made this to look at his settings..

[Chowowbus]

Great job samitch..you should post this on the tool tone sticky thread i effects if you have not already!

[RBetoGT]

Originally Posted by Samitch04

i made this to look at his settings..

wow! nice pics! how did you find them?

[oniman7]

So much for not scooping your mids... but I had a feeling he did :P That picture oughtta help people who just have to have is exact tone. I know I wouldn't mind.

[bassgod0dmw]

Originally Posted by oniman7

So much for not scooping your mids... but I had a feeling he did :P That picture oughtta help people who just have to have is exact tone. I know I wouldn't mind.

The EQ pedal is only for his dirty rig.

Neither of the 2001's in that rack are really scooped...and I'd bet that his Demeter DI isn't either. His tone is rather mid heavy...