Getting a "boost" for soloing in a live setting

[Shogun]

Does anyone have any suggestions for how an effective (and possibly cheap) way to get a "boost" in my volume when doing a solo? I'm playing a show at the beginning of November where my band will be covering Guns N' Roses songs, and I'm Slash. I play through a Peavy 5150 head and don't use any pedals. I would just like some way for my solos to stand out over the other guitar when needed. The show will be at a large venue and I don't think it would be possible to have the sound guy adjust the volumes as neccessary.

[wildstrat]

There are many clean boost pedals on the market (too many to begin mentioning here). I also like the inexpensive route, and use either my Boss DS-1 (with distortion amount set to zero and volume boosted), or a Nobels PRE-1 (which gives a clean boost with better EQ options). Both can be had for less than $50 new. If you have more cash to spend, check out some of the boutique pedals available. Another popular option is to use an EQ pedal to create your boost.

[EricV]

Well,

I recommend either a booster pedal, such as a Boss SD-1 or Ibanez Tube Screamer ( not for boosting the gain, but the volume ), or put a good volume pedal ( i.e. Ernie Ball ) into the loop of your amp... it´s like a master volume.
Open it to like 85-90 % and adjust the soundcheck volume. Then, when soloing, open it all the way and you´ll hear 10-15% more volume
Hope this helps
Eric

[Shogun]

Yeah, I pretty much thought that a pedal was the best way to go, but I didn't know which pedals worked. Have either of you actually used any of these pedals in a performance? Anything I should look out for? Any features that are nice to have? It sounds like the Nobels pedal with the EQ options would be nice. Thanks

[Shogun]

One other question:

Do you think it would be more beneficial to run this in the effects loop of my head or before my head? I'm not sure if the extra volume will harm my head at all.

[EricV]

Oh... you mean run the booster ( like the overdrive ) in the loop ? Because the volume pedal I suggested should be run in the loop, if you run it before the amp you´ll limit the amount of gain.

But about the booster...
I would put this between guitar and amp.
Don´t worry about the extra volume, a tube amp can easily handle it.
You can, however, damage a solid state amp if you send too much volume into the input. On the other hand, a solid state has less problems with a mismatched impedance ( if it is i.e. set to 8 Ohm and you attach a 4 Ohm speaker... that could damage a tube amp pretty quick, while a solid state amp can deal with it... but I don´t recommend this anyway ! )

Warm regards
Eric

[RockSuperstar]

Funnily enough I'm having the same problem.

I was thinking about an eq pedal, but I already use the loop on my dual rectifier as a master volume, so will this still work?

My sound engineer suggested that I Mic up two speakers on the cabinet and run them into an A/B switch which then goes into two seperate channels on the desk.

This way he reckons that if I set the gain higher on the one channel (with the eq setting the same) I should be able to get a boost by hitting the A/B switch....

Is this a kinda needless solution? I dont think i recall ever seeing a footswitchable A/B box with two XLR inputs/outputs.


Arrrrgh, I confuse myself sometimes!!!!