What is the longest you've gone without tweaking a piece of gear?

[BornToLooze]

Obviously guitars and stuff like Crybabies without knobs are excluded.

With my amps I'll tweak them a little while I'm playing even though I stay around the same settings, but this thread made me realize I've been using the same overdrive, with the same settings on it since the mid to late 2000s. In the 17 years I've been playing guitar, as much as my tastes have changed...never felt the need to tweak it or anything. It's like a Crybaby, just turn it on and it sounds badass.




Also, I'm calling it now, this is gonna be the GAS thread because who doesn't want a pedal or an amp or something that you can go 20-30 years and still love it.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Quite a while. I made a Peavey XXL work for a good decade, that was a good learning lesson in milking something for all it’s worth. Even now, as much as I hear people say they spend more time tweaking modelers than they do playing, I split my time between an AxeFX in my studio and an FM9 in my living room, once I have a preset set up I don’t mess with it.

I really rely on this stuff so I don’t have to tweak, I’ve got a bunch of presets set up so I can just sit down and start recording. The only real tweaking happens on a DI when I mix.

 

[BornToLooze]

Even now, as much as I hear people say they spend more time tweaking modelers than they do playing

That's why I've never been able to get into modelers. I'm one of those guys that if the made amps EQed to sound perfect for that amp with just a volume knob id be

 

[nickgray]

Surprisingly, once I got my Helix, I tweak things maybe every couple of months (like every 2-3 or so), and even then it's not much. Usually just trying out new amps, new IRs, new EQ settings. Usually it doesn't lead anywhere either, I actually change the settings (in a meaningful way) in my presets even rarer than that. Shit's convenient and sounds good, what can I say. Back when I was relying on VSTs I used to tweak non stop, including toying around with the overall setup (like trying to make Reaper's tracks into amp channels so that I could seamlessly switch between them, fun times).

 

[laxu]

Most of my real amps have been parked at the same settings after some time with maybe some tweaks if I change guitars. That's how I like the amp with a particular cab and space.

Most overdrives tend to have a pretty narrow sweet spot for their settings where the magic happens.

Looking at my Axe-Fx 3 presets, most are stuff that I tweak when I make it and then only if firmware changes do something that I feel makes for a need to adjust. It does put me in the "more playing, less tweaking" zone and that's a great thing.

 

[c7spheres]

I go through phases of messing with individual pieces or reworking the entire rig. I always come back to similar/same settings. I like how it's dialed in so I don't touch the preamp/power amp much.

- If I do dial it, I'm usually trying to get that elusive last 10% carrot. Having played mostly the same rig for years it's rare but sometimes I get it a little bit better.

 

[Adieu]

If there's no soldering iron involved, can you really even call it tweaking?

 

[thraxil]

I don't think I've made a new patch or changed an existing one on my Axe-Fx II in at least two years. That's mostly just because I don't currently have it hooked up to the computer and it's a pain to tweak through the front panel.

 

[Emperoff]

Yesterday in a rush on soundcheck. Spent a few minutes adjusting the gain and levels between some presets that had me a bit itchy in the last couple of gigs. Time fucking well spent.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

I've been using the same settings on Channel 3 of my Mark V for about 5 years. I've fiddled around with different settings and modes for the sake of it, but I always go back to my "default" after a few minutes. I've also used the same settings on my two Decimator II pedals for around 8 years, give or take a few degrees on the knob depending on the room I'm playing in.

Other than that, everything else gets some amount of tweaking here and there. Delay mix, overdrive tone, phaser speed, etc. Nothing major, but still not quite "static" like the Mark V and Decimators.

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

I set my VH4 plugin to something like a year and a half ago and only just changed it since I switched boosts from a TS drive to an HM2 and started recording so naturally I had to dial some gain back and cut bass/treble/boost mids. That was a month and a half ago and the HM2, VH4 and NadIR settings haven't been touched.

 

[NoodleFace]

Usually I find a setup for my band that works and don't really tweak it. My guitars all have pretty different pickup configs (passives in one, fishman in another) so sometimes I'll need to re-eq or adjust my gain or something but that's about it. I stopped tweaking when I was younger.