Okay, so I'm a newbie, and I have looked around a bit for a post on organizing rigs, and found a few things but not exactly what I'm looking for. Anyway, I apologize beforehand if I just didn't see it, but what I'm looking for is different ideas on organizing rigs.

Do you tend to organize based on instrument? For instance, all my rigs for bass go in Banks "B" through "D", or all my rigs for acoustic guitar go in Banks "A" etc. Do you tend to organize based on song style? Heavy tones in certain banks, crunch in certain banks, pop in certain banks, etc. Perhaps you organize based on particular songs - A1 = verse, A2 = chorus etc.

Moving the rigs around in mass is somewhat tedious so I've edited the xml file to "blank out" all my rigs and now am loading them from the pc. I hate doing things twice if I don't have to, so I'm trying to come up with a fairly solid plan. I also see how it's not that difficult to edit the xml to place the rig where you want it. All that is well and good, and anyone who wants a "blank out" xml file I can give you one, but mainly I'm looking for what type of strategy you use, and WHY you use it. Thanks in advance.

Each of my "banks" have 5 presets (because of my midi controller) for clean,crunch,rythme,lead and wah and each bank is targeted to the music style I want to play: acoustic, blues, rock, hard, metal, shred. If I need specific effects for a song I create a bank of 5 presets for that song, or for that artist. So if I want to play blues I go to that bank and I have 5 presets to play with.

Since the wah has it's own preset in each bank (because I also change the amp eq, delay and reverb) my expression pedal (an old converted Crybaby) is setup for volume in other presets of the same bank.

I know it does'nt match the 4-rigs per banks but my midi controller has 5 preset switches per bank and it's easier for me to thnk that way live and I prefer a dedicated wah preset in each bank.

Nice. So when you kick a different preset does it select a new rig entirely, or just send alterations to the rig you're using? In other words do the 5 presets in each bank use 5 different rigs, or 1 rig and send alterations, or a combo of these?

Also, do you have independent control of your effects while in a preset (reverb, mod, delay etc.)? Thanks.

Each bank use 5 different rigs.

No I don't have independent control of effects while in a preset, they are "generic". If I need something special for a song/artist I create a bank just for that.

Here's a pic...
[img]http://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw0RhPM_r5NlQ1pla0lLMlh4UHM[/img]

I use a similar strategy.

I use a Rocktron MidiMate. I have it set up so the bottom five buttons allow me to choose a preset (so mine are banks of five as well) and the top five buttons set to toggle on/off:
DIST
MOD
DELAY
FX1
FX2

I set up my banks similarly:
clean
crunch
rhythm gain
lead
acoustic

My "acoustic" preset is one I found that makes an electric sound like an acoustic. It's not perfect - but close enough. I play at my church. We typically play 4 songs per service. I may play one on acoustic. It's a lot of extra effort to bring in an acoustic guitar and set up another channel for it so I just flip to the neck pickup and use this acoustic preset. It's close enough, especially in the mix of the band, to pull of one song.

Back to organizing - I have modified the above approach a little lately. I've used the three gain slots to just be different gain tones - typically getting heavier gain as I go from left to right. I used to create lead presets which were copies of the preset directly next to it but just "more" (more gain, delay/reverb, volume, etc). I stopped using this approach and have gone to using a boost in the FX Loop via a Line6 M9. It's a more natural transition between rhythm and gain this way as the 11R doesn't trail any effects when you change presets so I had some unnatural hard cuts on some songs. A bit off topic - but thought I would share as it's changed how I organize my presets.

Donald... that photo brought back memories... I used to have one of those in the late 80s. It was kind of on the big side, but worked very well. I had it for years and it was still working fine when I gave it to a friend of mine. As far as I know he still has it.

You're right, it's big!!! But it's build like a tank and it's fitting perfectly in my SKB rack

Since I play guitar almost exclusively at home it's hard for me to justify spending $300-$400 for another one. Next time I go rehearsing I will take my 11R with me and will try bass models on the PA. Not a big fan of SVT but if they're good I might invest in something more portable ;-)