New, to me, Custom 50 and Mini Amp Gizmo

[jmp22684]

Hello All!

Wanted to say Hi and see if anyone had tips and such.

Just ordered a Custom 50 Combo I found on eBay through music123 as a returned item for $1200! It will be here tomorrow!

I played on one of these at Chicago Open Air last weekend and loved it. You get funny looks playing funk and jazz at a festival like this

Then I found a good deal on a Mini Amp Gizmo for 110. I emailed RJM and they sent me a schematic of the cable for the custom 50 so I can make my own cable.

Right now I gig out twice a week. My current setup is a Line 6 Helix direct to my PA System:

Midas M32r
2x Prx715s
2x Prx718xlf

I kinda get sick of goofing with the models on the helix and just wanted an amp that gave me what I wanted. My intention at the moment is to use the Helix for effects only, as I can't afford to switch everything over to pedals and a loop switcher to pull off everything I do now. There is something very nice to clicking one button to make ten things happen.

I want to set the helix up to send midi to the gizmo so that it switches the amp channels and such for me. I'm already experienced with sending midi from the helix to a jvm410 I had a while back. The jvm didn't really impress me that much, too noisy.

Anyone here have any experience with the gizmo and the custom 50?

Any tips?

Anything I should know?

Cheers!

 

[goat-n-gitter]

Hello All!

Wanted to say Hi and see if anyone had tips and such.

Just ordered a Custom 50 Combo I found on eBay through music123 as a returned item for $1200! It will be here tomorrow!

I played on one of these at Chicago Open Air last weekend and loved it. You get funny looks playing funk and jazz at a festival like this

Then I found a good deal on a Mini Amp Gizmo for 110. I emailed RJM and they sent me a schematic of the cable for the custom 50 so I can make my own cable.

Right now I gig out twice a week. My current setup is a Line 6 Helix direct to my PA System:

Midas M32r
2x Prx715s
2x Prx718xlf

I kinda get sick of goofing with the models on the helix and just wanted an amp that gave me what I wanted. My intention at the moment is to use the Helix for effects only, as I can't afford to switch everything over to pedals and a loop switcher to pull off everything I do now. There is something very nice to clicking one button to make ten things happen.

I want to set the helix up to send midi to the gizmo so that it switches the amp channels and such for me. I'm already experienced with sending midi from the helix to a jvm410 I had a while back. The jvm didn't really impress me that much, too noisy.

Anyone here have any experience with the gizmo and the custom 50?

Any tips?

Anything I should know?

Cheers!

I don't have a custom 50, but I use a Helix as FX only with my Mesa MKV, and I previously used the RJM mini amp gizmo, though I now use a Voodoo Labs controlswitcher. I think you will find the RJM pretty easy to set up as long as your cable is wired correctly, I had no trouble at all with mine with the factory cable.
Just make sure you set up your Helix using the 4 cable method. That way you can route some FX to the front of the amp and some through the loop. There are some templates built in to the Helix to get you close. You will probably have to experiment with the various I/O level settings to get the right level without unwanted distortion as well. It took me a couple weeks to get things sorted so all my sounds cut through in a band setting.
If you take the time to set up snap shots in the Helix, you can really get big dramatic FX and amp changes all to happen at once. I use mine with my P22 a lot, and I route the piezo input through the second processing path, through an acoustic IR, and out to the PA while the first path handles my electric through the amp, and I occasionally send some special electric FX to the PA as well for some really dramatic sounds.

Best of luck with your new setup - I think you'll have a blast!

 

[jmp22684]

Thanks!

You sound like me! I have some very elaborate patches with acoustic IRs mixed in with cab IRs, as well as patches that have a separate chain just for a partical verb, cave, delay, to create a synth/strings sound over what I'm playing through my first path, 3 volume pedals two set to snapshots before and after the partical verb (this had to do with wanting trails when reducing the mix of the partical verb on another snapshot) and the third to my boss pedal to match the volume pedal at the end of the chain on the first path, also routed to the boss pedal.

I used the 4cm with the jvm, mkv, roadking, etc... I was surprised to find I wasn't extremely impressed with the mesa stuff. Guess it just didn't fit my me. Seemed flabby in high gain and then the mkv I really looked forward to. I grabbed the 90watt combo. With presence and treble at zero the clean channel still seemed ear piercingly harsh.... I tried and tried with that mkv until I let it go on eBay for 1600.

What I liked about the custom 50 was that it didn't seem brittle or harsh at all. I didn't listen to it in optimal setting at all. There was a TON of noise from the concert and other "guitarist" kids squealing, squeaking, squaucking, "thrashing".... everything I played I could hear and the volume wasn't cranked. To me that seemed to be the test. It cut through all the noise without making my ears bleed. That impressed me.