Welcome to The Gig Toolbox, a resource created by working musicians for working musicians! Today I’m reviewing one of the newest additions to my setup, the Tech21 FlyRig 5 multi-effects pedal. There are several “flavors” of this pedal, I’ll be taking a look at the standard model. While it is vaguely referred to as a multi-fx pedal, the name FlyRig really implies exactly what this pedal does best: It’s a guitar rig you can take on the fly. After owning this pedal for a while and putting it through it’s paces, I’m pretty sure I’ll be keeping it, although that’s not to say it’s not without a few drawbacks. Rather than describe in detail every feature of the FlyRig 5, which you can find here, I’d prefer to just give you a quick rundown of what it does, tell you what I like about it, what I feel could use improvement, and how I implement the pedal into my setup as well as what I feel one could get away with by using it instead of a traditional amp.
The FlyRig5 is at heart a SansAmp, but its more than just a simple amp in a box. You can basically look at it in terms of 5 “sections”: Amp, Drive, Boost, Delay and Reverb (although the reverb technically resides in the “amp section”). You can use any or all of these sections to get you to the sound you’re looking for.
PLEXI
The amp section is inspired by the famous Marshall Plexi, and is aptly named “Plexi”. This is the SansAmp portion of the pedal. Activating this section will give you the “amp in a box” sound and speaker emulation. It’s best to use activate this section if you’re plugging directly into a mixer or full-range powered speaker. If you’re plugging into an amp, you don’t necessarily need this section to be on, but you can utilize it as an extra channel with it’s own drive setting. More on that later.
The Plexi section does a pretty good job at copping some Marshall tones. Like many Marshall emulations, I find it to be a bit shrill in the high-mids, but luckily, in true Tech21 fashion, the tone controls are VERY sensitive and any offending frequencies can be dialed down effectively. Your guitar will also influence the tone quite a bit. Traditionally, a lot of Marshall owners are fans of humbucker-equipped guitars, and I am admittedly a Fender-style, single coil player, and that comes with a brighter tone that may need to be compensated for in certain situations. Tastes are subjective, of course, but one thing is for sure, there is no lack of “presence” on this unit!