Cover band users: how do you proceed to get your tones ?

I have 4 basic tones:
Hard rock Marshall with humbuckers
Low gain crunch with humbucker split
Clean tone with humbucker split
Ultra clean tone with neck humbucker split

I go from Twisted Sister to KC and The Sunshine Band to Duran Duran all night.

The thing that changes for me is effects.
I have the amen4 basic core tones, but have performance banks for different songs that require more detailed tones.

Like Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz- I do the flange part before the solo and have a rig dedicated for that song.
Or U2 Streets Have No Name with the delay.

Hi Everyone,
Forgot to mention that I also use morphing to reduce number of slots and the improve transitions between verse,chorus and bridge sections etc.
Again, I stress the importance of rehearsal testing at gig volumes. This is really important, especially if you only monitor your sound through IEMs when on stage. Listening to your FOH mix through the PA does help you shape your mix, even if the eq does change a bit in each venue.
Kind regards
Pre-Amp

Quote from Carp

Seeing The Doobie Brothers live a few times has changed my philosophy a bit. I've covered China Grove and Long Train Runnin' for years and always tried to get the sound exactly right. (old Fender, Marshall, etc.) But now, Tom Johnston plays PRS guitars and amps. The Archon isn't even in the same ballpark as an old Bassman but it sounds awesome and the audience loves it.

There are probably 100 other similar examples out there and even more where a guitarist's live rig is completely different from what they used in the studio. So now, unless I'm covering Van Halen, Boston, etc., I just pick something that sounds good to me. As far as I know, The Gin Blossoms never used a Dumble but now I know it would have sounded great if they did.

Aint That the Truth !!!!!

I don't ever try to get exact tones

Usually while browsing the library, I will hear something that reminds me of a certain player
It may not be the same, it just reminds me in some way of a certain guitar sound

I will download that profile, tweak it a bit, and call it good enough.

The tone is more in the players hands than the actual amp sound
But, it does sound better to get a sound that is somewhere in the same neighborhood.