By 
Random Guitar Rig Bingo 1 – Letting fate build a random guitar rig for us!
Introduction
Time for something fun in this article! We are going to do Random Guitar Rig Bingo! We’re putting all our guitar gear together and letting fate decide the rig! We’ll be selecting a guitar, an amp, and one pedal-then putting it all together to see what it sounds like and what combinations we get! There will be a mixture of gear involved in this article, from boutique hand-built gear to affordable and super cheap practice gear. So who knows what combinations we might end up with?
Before we check out which Random Guitar Rigs were selected, let’s talk about the plan, the idea, and what we aim to do! So, what is the idea?
What is the Idea?
So what is the idea for this article? Well, it’s to put all our gear together and let a website randomly select a rig! We’re going to select a random guitar, pedal, and amp! Of course, we own a fair amount of gear, so there was a huge range to pick from-we could end up with something amazing or something rubbish! Who knows!
How are we selecting the gear? We’re using a free website online to randomly select it for us! In the video below, you’ll be able to see the selections. I think we got lucky and ended up with some amazing rigs-but you’ll see all of that very shortly!
So, with all this discussion of gear, I think it’s about time we talk about what gear we’ll be using! There’s a lot of it, so why don’t we quickly go over what’s in store. If any of the gear has been reviewed, we’ll also include links to the full reviews.
The Gear
The Amps
There are a few amps to pick from! Some are very high-end, hand-wired amps, and others are small practice amps! So whatever we get will be fun! With such a huge array of amps and tones, the combinations are going to be wild! So, what amps do we have to pick from?
- RD Amplifier Custom Made Amp (Review Coming Soon)
- Boss IR-2 (Review Here)
- Revv D20 (Review Here)
- Spirit of Vintage (Review Here)
- Orange Micro Crush (Review Coming Soon)
- Boss Katana Mini (Review Here)
The Guitars
We don’t have a huge range of guitars, but we do have a few. They are all very different, with unique sounds and pickups! Each one makes you play differently, so it’ll be interesting to see what gets picked by the Random Random Guitar rig!
- LT Custom Guitar (Review Here)
- Vintage Epiphone Les Paul (Review Here)
- LT Flying V (Review Coming Soon)
- Vintage VSA500 (Review Here)
The Pedals
We have a few pedals-in fact, while we’re writing this article, a few more are already on the way! All these pedals are different. We have overdrives, delays, choruses, and much more. Whatever gets picked will completely alter the sound! So many tones could be created by this Random Random Guitar setup!
- JSA Nightingale (Review Here)
- JSA Hottest Toddy (Review Here)
- Goliath Tonebender (Review Here)
- JSA Delay (Review Here)
- JSA Compressor (Review Here)
- Vox Wah (Coming Soon)
- Harley Benton Wah (Review Here)
- TS Mini (Review Here)
- TODP (Review Here)
- NUX Plexi Crunch (Review Here)
- Boss SDE-3000 (Review Here)
"A small bedroom amp with an HSS-loaded Strat-style guitar and a thick, meaty fuzz pedal"
Is it all Good News?
So why don’t we dive into the random rigs? Let’s find out what we were given! What did the wheel of gear pick for us? The first rig it selected was super interesting-I was really excited to try this one!
Rig 1
Rig one was a huge surprise! What a first go! Three amazing bits of gear! So, what did we get? Well, the list is below:
- Amp: Boss Katana Mini
- Guitar: LT Guitars Custom Strat
- Pedal: Goliath Tonebender
Our Thoughts?
This is a killer rig! A small bedroom amp with an HSS-loaded Strat-style guitar and a thick, meaty fuzz pedal-what’s not to like? This is the definition of a small, easy-to-use, and affordable rig! Two out of the three items in this Random Random Guitar rig are from independent UK builders, with the last one coming from possibly the biggest name in guitar gear. This is actually very similar to what most people’s guitar rigs look like: a mix of high-end, affordable, and budget gear. It’s a great example of rigs made from a variety of sources!
My favourite sound from this rig was setting the Boss Katana Mini to a pushed clean tone, then gunning the fuzz pedal! It allowed me to get thick riffs, and the built-in Boss Katana Mini delay made it so much fun to play! You could argue that using the delay is cheating, but it’s part of the amp-and the amp got selected-so I’m using it! Turning the bias down on the Goliath Tonebender really lets you dial in a just-past-pushed, spitty fuzz. It’s not a sound I use often, but when I do, I really enjoy it-it brings out a whole new side of my playing!
All the sounds you hear in the video were recorded using the Boss Katana Mini’s cab sim headphone output straight into the audio interface-a feature not many people think about. It can be used to record or, dare we say it, gig with!
Rig 2
Time for rig two! This one was a nice surprise-some proper high-end gear in this selection. As mentioned earlier, the selections range from high-end custom gear to more affordable and semi-custom pieces. A very wide range of tones is possible here, so let’s find out what was selected!
- Amp: RD Amplification Custom Made Amp
- Guitar: Vintage Guitars VSA500
- Pedal: JSA Pedals Custom Atmos Delay
Our Thoughts?
This rig was just straight-up blues-very much a Joe Bonamassa-style rig! A 335-type guitar, a lovely-sounding amp, and just a bit of delay. What’s not to love? It’s a simple rig, but you can get a wide range of tones thanks to the Vintage VSA500’s volume and tone controls. My custom RD Amplification amp hasn’t had its own article yet, but behind the scenes, it’s had a lot of use and work. It’s nice to feature it in this video and let it stretch its legs!
The JSA Custom Atmos is a dual version of the JSA Atmos pedal. I asked him if he could make a dual version so I could have two presets loaded up-and boy, did JSA deliver! Talk about an organic and analog delay-this thing is lovely! It’s different from a lot of delays out there. It has its quirks, but it’s so much fun and adds tons of character to your sound. If you’re looking for a delay and want to try something unique, definitely check out the JSA Atmos Delay. He’s recently updated it with new features, and yes-I’ll be sending mine off to get the update and will bring you the new sounds and features soon!
The RD Custom Amp has a built-in spring reverb, so expect to hear plenty of that in the sound demos! Speaking of which, all the demos are recorded using the speaker output into my Two Notes Captor X with a 1×12 cab loaded in. How do you think the rig sounds? Personally, I love it-100% amp gain with a sprinkle of delay for some background movement. It’s a wonderful sound that’s super fun and easy to play!
Rig 3
This last rig was another nice surprise-something different, and a combination I wouldn’t have picked myself. And I think the tones that came out of this rig were quite different from what you’d expect-especially considering the amp! So, what was selected for Rig 3? Let’s take a look:
- Amp: Hughes & Kettner Spirit of Vintage
- Guitar: LT Guitars Custom Flying V
- Pedal: JSA Pedals Nightingale
Our Thoughts?
This is the final rig-and I must say, it’s killer! A classic vintage-style amp, a familiar overdrive pedal, and a high-output P90-loaded Flying V. This is the recipe for a standout Random Random Guitar rig! Setting the amp to a light crunch (or pushed clean) and then using the overdrive to push it further gave me surprisingly high-gain tones with this setup! It was such fun to play! Every time I plug in the Hughes & Kettner Spirit of Vintage, I’m reminded of how good it sounds and how nice it is to play.
The LT Custom Flying V hasn’t had a full article yet, but there’s a funny story behind this guitar-so maybe we’ll do a full feature soon! It’s loaded with high-output P90s, making it a high-gain machine. But it also does that creamy blues sound beautifully too!
The only thing I found myself missing was some reverb or delay. As you can hear, it’s very dry! Adding a little ambient effect would smooth off the transients. I’m one of those players who struggles without a bit of reverb or delay-I know I should practice more without it, but I love having that cushion behind me when I play!
"One thing you’ll notice is that there wasn’t a lot of modulation selected-sadly, no chorus or modulation pedals made the cut."
The Sounds
I think it’s time we hear some sounds! Below is the full video of the Random Random Guitar Rigs! The video goes through the entire selection process, the building of each rig, and, finally, the sounds of each setup! What do the selected pedals, amps, and guitars sound like?
You’ll hear a little bit of playing as I noodle along with a jam track! If you like (or hate) what you hear, please let us know in the comments on the video! Make sure to share your thoughts-do you like the rigs? The gear? The tones? We’d love to hear your opinion!
We’ve already mentioned how each rig was recorded and captured above, so if you’re curious about how we got the sounds, check out the relevant section above! Plus, in the video, you’ll see the full signal flow for each Random Random Guitar rig.
Our Thoughts
One thing you’ll notice is that there wasn’t a lot of modulation selected-sadly, no chorus or modulation pedals made the cut. Which is a shame, because I really love me some modulation! Thankfully, I did get either delay or reverb with each Random Random Guitar rig, so I wasn’t playing completely dry the whole time!
Watching the video above, you can definitely tell the kind of tones we enjoy-there’s a strong lean towards that mid-bump, bluesy kind of sound. All the rigs featured that flavour of tone! If I were going to use these rigs more regularly, I’d definitely spend some time dialing them in further. I also think that adding one extra pedal to each rig would massively open up the tonal range and give you more options. That’s one thing these rigs were really missing: flexibility. You could clean things up a bit using the guitar’s volume control, but you didn’t have a full spectrum of tones available. A simple modulation pedal, for example, could have added so much more texture and variation.
Any Further Thoughts?
That said, this whole Random Random Guitar experiment was a fun and creative way to explore all the gear we have-and let fate decide the rig! It was refreshing to mix everything up and see what came out of it. Part of the fun was the simplicity: just an amp, a guitar, and a pedal. A really stripped-down rig that forced you to shape a tone from the basics. I absolutely loved Rig 3-such a great surprise! That small Hughes & Kettner Spirit of Vintage amp still impresses me every time I plug it in. Plus, the guitar and pedal in that rig were top quality too!
What this experiment reminded me of is that you really don’t need loads of gear to get a wide variety of tones. Honestly, I think you could do a pub or club gig with any of these rigs. Sure, you’d have to consider volume and headroom, but used the way we did, they’d hold up fine. Could I do a wedding or corporate gig with one of these setups? I think I could get by-but I’d definitely want a few more toys to shape my sound and add versatility!
Conclusion
Hope you’ve enjoyed this article-we definitely enjoyed making it and putting it all together! We’ll definitely be doing another Random Random Guitar rig article in the future, especially since we’ve added even more gear to the collection since writing this one! And yes, we’ve got plans to bring in even more gear (including some absolutely insane amps), so stay tuned!
What did you think of the sounds and the rigs? Do you have a favourite? Head over to the YouTube video and drop us a comment-we’d love to hear your thoughts!
One of the biggest takeaways from doing this Random Random Guitar experiment is just how valuable it can be to restrict yourself. Strip your rig right back and give it a try. Limiting yourself can teach you how to really use a basic rig and help you understand what you actually need. We all think we need certain pedals, amps, and guitars to achieve our sound-but do we really?
Doing this exercise forces you to rediscover the fundamentals of tone and playing. Once you understand your basics, then you can start to build up your rig with purpose-adding only what truly enhances your sound and your playing.
If you want to support the site then please give us a follow on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube.
Gigs & Guitars Affiliate Links:
- Epiphone Les Paul (Andertons Affiliate)
- Epiphone Les Paul (Thomann Affiliate)
- Boss Katana Mini (Andertons Affiliate)
- Boss Katana Mini (Thomann Affiliate)
- Harley Benton Wah (Thomann Affiliate)
- Boss SDE 3000D (Andertons Affiliate)
- Boss SDE 3000D (Thomann Affiliate)
- Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini (Andertons Affiliate)
- Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini (Thomann Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
Check out our other Articles here
