Pure, mono attack all the way вЂ“ itвЂ™s a tried and tested method of bringing crowds worldwide to their knees! WhatвЂ™s the secret behind many a great rock production where youвЂ™ve been in the crowd and felt like the guitar sound is coming straight at your face, delivering you a massive sonic smack in the head? (And in a good way, obviously.)ДЄ good old classic rock setup: guitar player, guitar cable, guitar amp. Stereophony at live gigs is not just a double-edged sword for guitarists, by the way: keyboards and drums can also suffer from stereo playback nightmares, and it depends strongly on the venue and the spread of the audience on whether itвЂ™s even worth making the effort.ДЄnd thereвЂ™s yet another problem with the stereo setup that rears its ugly head when youвЂ™re on stage. But if you then go the gig and find yourself unlucky enough to be stood to the left or right of center stage, you have to make do with the respective half of the stereo signal.

With stereo rigs onstage, thereвЂ™s only a relatively small geographical area where audience members can stand to witness the complete aural experience вЂ“ the stereo sound experience that the musicians and sound engineers envisaged.Д®very music fan knows the feeling: listening through headphones can open up new worlds of listening pleasure. Studio master Trevor Horn had shown the way with his almost holographic production techniques (listen to 90125 by Yes or Grace JonesвЂ™ Slave To The Rhythm and youвЂ™ll understand what we mean!) and a number of companies ultimately started offering combos, heads and related bits and pieces in stereo format. Transmitting a widescreen Cinemascope sound on the guitar became the trend of the day. And yes, the chap in the picture still works for the company, and yes, heвЂ™s still smiling today. Even Hughes & Kettner made gear in rack format. Above all, these вЂmonster racksвЂ™ вЂ“ as they quickly became known вЂ“ brought a more three-dimensional sound to guitar, because most of them generated a stereo signal that players could use to assault their audiences.ДЄ long time ago, in a galaxy far, far awayвЂ¦. Of course, keeping the damn things running smoothly also required a good bit of mechanical knowhow, meaning that any guitarist who was also handy with a soldering iron had something of an advantage right from the start.ДЄnd they soundedвЂ¦ interesting. Racks looked incredibly technical, promised unprecedented tonal opportunities, and just seemed to offer us guitarists a sense of completeness. Suddenly, it was cool to build up your own refrigerator-sized rack of gear from scratch. A new competitor was in town, and it was seducing guitarists left, right and center. There was a time in the late вЂ80s when amps, combos and heads all seemed to disappear at once. But which is best for you? Read on to found outвЂ¦ That might mean a stereo rig, or even the fabled wet/dry/wet setup. But others, those players who use complex FX units and require a bunch of different sounds every show, demand more. Is one guitar amp ever enough? For many of us, a single mono head/cab or combo may do the business whatever weвЂ™re playing.

Wet dry guitar rig