Reason to use rack over floor units

[sleewell]

Played a mega fun show last night that got crazy rowdy. The place was packed so we were setup crammed against drums to give more crowd/mosh space. Singer accidentally stepped on my input chord during a big surge of bodies coming at us and slightly pulled it out of the LT so my guitar totally dropped out mid song at a really good part. I, of course, panicked and instantly envisioned the worst but thankfully figured it out pretty fast and got it back working without too much of a big deal.

But yea... just one of things I didn't really consider until it happens to you. Prolly would not have happened if I had the rack and a controller instead of the LT.

 

[laxu]

Can't win in that situation. If you loop your cables somewhere so they are not easy to pull out, they might pull the whole rig instead.

For me pedalboards and floor modelers are out purely because crouching down to the floor to adjust anything is no go due to some health issues.

I don't really love the rack format as it's often large and inconvenient too. You can throw anything up to FM9 size into a suitcase and have a easy to transport rig but racks are a whole rack case affair that basically makes a car a necessity.

I wish we had more options for the desktop format units. The QC is pretty great in form factor for this. HX Stomp too of course, but its downgraded UI is not.

 

[ragingplatypi]

Sounds awesome, but I can relate to those hairy moments.

Ever since my friend drunkenly spilled most of a bottle of beer into my floor wedge (right next to my pedal board) I’ve lived with the anxiety of thinking through every catastrophe that can happen on stage. A big reason I haven’t bought a big helix or FM9 has been that I couldn’t afford to replace it or fix it in a pinch.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Singer accidentally stepped on my input chord

How do you secure your LT and the input section?

 

[sleewell]

How do you secure your LT and the input section?

Right now I just put the cable in but I think at the very least I can switch to a right angle cable rather than straight so it'd be a lot harder to step on and pull out. I don't want to put my lt in front of my cab bc I use momentary octaves and don't want my back to the crowd.

My lt was basically right in front of the kick drum and our singer was right in front of that. A huge wall of bodies pushed forward which is awesome that people are going that hard but shit happens. He was close to falling through the entire kit lololol.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Right now I just put the cable in but I think at the very least I can switch to a right angle cable rather than straight so it'd be a lot harder to step on and pull out. I don't want to put my lt in front of my cab bc I use momentary octaves and don't want my back to the crowd.

Oh, so no case. I think for anything but bar jazz and other functional gigs, a case is a must.
I protect my inputs using a case that goes up in the back, so no plugs are exposed straight away. I do then use angled jacks and for the input I'm using a short cable ending in a cable socket or cable extension adapter. The short cable is secured to the case with a cable tie. So the worst that could ever happen was the short cable to get damaged, but it never happened.
Fwiw, I used to use one of those breakout panels, but the cable version, even if looking more amateurish (if you will), does a vastly better job (especially as I'm not forced to cable run directions). It's a little different with the current board as the cable tree running outside is used for the (external) wah/vol pedal, but all the mentioned ingredients are visible and at work in this picture:

 

[sleewell]

Yea that makes sense. Thanks, I'll have to look into that.

 

[Trollbait]

I agree, spilling drinks on the pedal board was a concern when playing at bars. I used rack gear to both save weight over a tube amp and for drink spillage. My Roland VG 8 pedal sat on top of my rack.

 

[ispunk]

I got tired of cords on stage a long time ago. I've got a Kemper Rack (in a rack) with a Shure wireless and a Morningstar MC8 with CME WIDI and a rechargeable battery to control the Kemper wirelessly.

 

[Sascha Franck]

You possibly just need to channel your inner Zakk Wylde to become spilled drinks from the audience way less of an issue...

 

[ballhawk]

you can always try this....

 

[adam]

I have a modded fcb1010 that receives power over midi, and keep everything racked, with just a single midi cable running to the fcb out front.

I even ran an atomic amplifire 3 velcro'd onto a 1u matrix power amp in a 6u rack with the midi powered fcb, as I was worried of even the AA3 getting damaged. That rig weighed virtually nothing