Amps and effects - Rock Guitarist Martin Behr

Martin's amps and effects

Martin proudly endorses MOEN effects pedals.

	Pedalboard #4 (Large Gator) This board is mainly used for the SUNNY SKIES and sessions as it delivers a lot of great and very authentic vintage sounds. (If I need to get rude, I can turn on the Violent Metal at any time.) This versatile board features the MOEN Holy Choir, Overdrive, Uni Comp and Violent Metal, Catalinbread Silver Kiss MKII, Boss Digital Reverb, Ibanez Digital Modulation Delay, Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic modded by Tonehunter (Ralf Reichen), Ibanez Tuner and the brand new programmable MOEN GEC434 which does the main switching with 4 loops, Tuner Mute and Solo Boost. This board loves Strats and I love this board. Soon I'll put up an in depth demonstration of how the GEC434 works and how I have set it up to control the whole rig. You can allready hear and see me use this board live on YouTube.
	Rack with cabinets This has been my main setup for about 16 years now with only slight changes. I use it on every KILLERZ gig and in the studio. The signal goes either into the Transfer True Diversity or straight into the ADA MP-1 to the Replifex and then into the Marshall poweramp to 1 or 2 Marshall cabinets. One cab is a classic 300 Watt cab with 75 Watt speakers that I usually play with KILLERZ and the other is fitted with Greenbacks for a sweeter, more vintage sound that is better suited for the Sunny Skies. At very large gigs and for recordings I sometimes use both for more power or to be able to get stereo effects directly from the rig without processing from the mixing board. The rack also features a tuner so that I can mute the signal with my controller and tune silently on stage at every time. The rack is controlled by a Rocktron All Access and I have 5 instant access switches assigned to different effects so they can be switched on and off within every preset. That gives me the spontaniety of a pedalboard with the convinience of Midi-switching. The expression pedal controlls one parameter within each preset and is usually assigned to volume but it can also get assigned to the delay time or chorus level for instance.
	Pedalboard #1 (V-Twin) This board that I mainly use for practicing and rehearsals has changed since this picture was taken. I took off all the Ibanez pedals for other boards and added an Ibanez Stereo Chorus, Boos Looper, amp channel switch and Tuner. It's still a nice versatile board that gives me clean, crunch and distortion. I will post a new pic and description soon.
	Pedalboard #2 (Psycho) After finishing the V-Twin board I had a lot of different pedals left over that I had aquired over the years so I built a second board with all this crazy stuff like the Whammy Pedal, Small Stone (Phase-Shifter) and Flanger. To be able to switch sounds, I included the SUPER Overdrive, an EQ and the channel and reverb switch. This board really only works perfectly with an amp that has channel switching and reverb because otherwise I don't have anything like reverb or delay at all and only clean and overdrive (footswitchable) and that's usually not enough variety for me. This board works perfectly with my Laney combo so I get clean and overdrive from the amp and with the SUPER Overdrive added, a great lead tone. Due to the vintage nature of this board I like it best with strats, so I use this mainly for studio sessions and at small gigs with the Sunny Skies. It is a lot of fun to use and provides solid as well as absoluty insane and sick sounds.
	Pedalboard #3 (Looper) This board can do just about anything! The RP-50 can provide every sound in very good quality and I use it for teaching, gigs where I can take only my guitar case and a bag with me and don't know what to expect, on this board and for practicing or sessions. My RP-50 has sufferd quite a bit but it still works and can be edited. After the RP-50, the signal goes through the Loop Station that can loop parts and even store them and includes drums as well. A really cool pedal that's perfect for practicing, teaching or working out overdubs and harmony lines without using any studio device. The volume of the RP-50 is controlled by the volume pedal so I can determine the volume of the recorded parts and kind of "mix" as I go along. It can also be used to controll the RP-50's Wah. The pedal to the left controlls different functions like stopping and selecting phrases of the Loop Station. The pedals are intentionally not glued to the board as on my other boards so I can take them out whenever I need them seperately.
	Laney Combo Classic british amplification! My first tube amp. I bought it at Valley Arts Guitars in Cologne and freaked out when I got it. It has more than enough gain as well a nice clean tone and hot crunch allthough it will not shame a Mesa/Boogie Lonestar... The power amp has 6V6 tubes which are the same as some small Fenders and has 30 Watts. I use it for practicing and writing at home, rehearsals, with a pedalboard at small gigs and for recording when I want it simple, fast and not too loud. Vinnie Moore used to play the heads of this series in the eighties so they have to be cool! I played this on many gigs in my early years when I didn't have a bigger amp and used it for years to record at home through a G-Arts Cabinet Box (Speaker simulation) into my 4-track.
	Guitar Synthesizer The Roland GR-30 allows me to use every synthesizer sound on the guitar. I have a GK-2 system installed on my USA Standard Stratocaster and the GR-30 converts the signal to Midi so I can use saxophone, flute, organ or string sounds for example. I use it from time to time for playing parts into a sequenzer or sometimes even on stage. The tracking is very good and the sounds are phenomenal; people are really baffled when they hear it and some start looking for someone playing the particular instrument before they realize it's coming from the guitar. As you can see I use the volume pedal and double footswitch from Pedalboard #3. I would love to do a project where I use it live extensively but time is limited.