I’ve joined an acoustic band called Six Feet Three – two guitars plus vocals. We’re covering a range of classic songs from the 60s to the 80s, including Jethro Tull, Wishbone Ash, King Crimson, Richard Thompson and many other tunes from my youth. As well as an opportunity to focus on my acoustic playing (which was in sore need of practise) I’ve set up the HX effects for live work.

Since I’ll be playing both acoustic guitar and Irish bouzouki, the first issue was having them both plugged in at the same time and switching between them. This turned out to be remarkably easy, I just put a pan control at the start of the patch and sent it either left or right. Two independent inputs fed to the same mono output. If I was feeling ambitious I could send it in stereo, although at the moment that’s probably overkill – stereo delay might just too distracting!

The next issue was obviously the sound. I watched a few videos and they seem to suggest similar solutions. I began with a parametric EQ for tone control (not assigned to a full switch), then an IR option for quick and radical tone change. Next comes a compressor for sustain rather than boost, followed by a mod such as a gentle chorus, a suitable drippy tape- based delay and finally a reverb. Settings of the reverb are controlled by an M-vave chocolate MIDI pedal giving me access to snapshots. It seemed the most flexible use of snapshots, It gives each patch for more flexibility. I’m highly unlikely to need several effects switches pressed simultaneously.

For one patch I added the 12 string effect which is quite authentic, certainly enough so that I don’t feel the need to bring my actual 12 string along with me (ever tried tuning one in a warm environment?) I told that using this effect would severely limit the number of other effects that could be run simultaneously, but it’s cause no issues of any kind. I suspect they amp and cap simulation would be the most processor intensive, but luckily this option isn’t available to the HX effects! Since this will be used for Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” I’ve preset the delay time to set the timing for the song with a quick “plunk” at the start. The expression pedal for this (and other) patch has been set to increase both the feedback and depth of the delay so at the end I can drift off enter some John Martyn type volume swells with a deep reverb.

I think for our first gig I may well have just the one patch for each instrument, but I’ve set up a couple of spares with different delays and mod options, plus an optional different IR.  I’m trying to balance a uniform sound And simplicity of operation with trying to simulate specific guitars on a song by song basis.

One beautifully simple idea I picked up from a video was to temporarily place a looper at the start of the patch, record a suitable loop then replay it whilst adjusting settings. Until now I just strummed, tweaked and strummed – having the loop repeating frees me from actually playing! After the tone he sat, I’ll just delete the looper.