Amp Demo Day - Nottingham 30th May. ITS ON!!

Rowby1 · May 2015

Nice once Hywel, thanks for organising it

John_A · May 2015

Cheers Hywel, good day, star of the show for me was the Ceriatone Plexi, and the Blues Dog stuff sounded the nuts too, My ears have stopped ringing now, but think tonight's gig is going to sound quiet

hywelg · May 2015

Pardon.?? Youll have to speak louder than that!!!

bluesdog · May 2015

Great day Hywel, thanks for the invite. Great to try the D'style 50 watters, impressed with the Dr Z stuff also.

Thanks also to JohnA for his positive comments on my Bluesdog amps.

Looking forward to the next episode, hopefully my ears will have stopped ringing by then.

Lodious · May 2015

Very sad to have missed this, hopefully we can have another meet up soon?

hywelg · May 2015

Welcome Andy, I hope Mark will join up too..

I am thinking October for another bash. Would appreciate comments and suggestions for the next one. First thoughts are that we need more than one room.

Rowby1 · June 2015

October sounds good, promise to bring an amp and a guitar or two along next time.....and stick around a bit longer too!

John_A · June 2015

hywelg said:

Welcome Andy, I hope Mark will join up too..

I am thinking October for another bash. Would appreciate comments and suggestions for the next one. First thoughts are that we need more than one room.

Yep, a 'quiet room' would be nice

. Somewhere to sit and have a cuppa and a chat. There's Quad in Leicester that's well kitted out, could be a possibility?

hywelg · June 2015

I have another place in mind John. Will be checking it out in the next week or so. I would like to set a date early so people can prepare their plans for furniture shopping

I'd like a jam room too so we can try stuff out properly.

How about we draft in a drummer and a bass/keys player? OK maybe thats pushing it a bit too far.

Lodious · June 2015

I can play drums a bit (pretty basic though), and have a kit, if that helps?

paulmapp8306 · June 2015

I have a keyboard - but play at a very basic level, and a bass as well.

John_A · June 2015

How about, we book a pub, I bring my whole band and we take turns on guitar G3 style, the encore we can all get up for a 15 minute solo

.

Wazmeister · June 2015

Well, guys for those there on the 30th.... any chance of a review and summary ??

Best amps, faves etc.

Cheers

paulmapp8306 · June 2015

I think we had different tastes.

Personally, really liked the Ceriatone ODS and the Radplate Blackface. Quite similar in some respects, but the Redplate had more options.

The DR Z EZG seemed very flat to me by comparrison - but it was the most neutral amp meaning it took pedals really well. WE tried to copy that amp with my AFX - using the Carr Rambler model (as the Dr Z is supposedly quite blackfacy as is the Carr). It wasnt too far off, but hywelg has a great ear. We rolled off a lot of top end and bumped the mids. Also added some neg feedback to tighten the bass up, and added some depth to fatten the body. We also "upped" the sag quite a lot from default. In the end it was really quite close in tone and feel. Give the different cabs used, and that the EZG isnt modeled in the AFX it was quite impressive.

Quite a few people loved the Ceriatone Plexi clone (1987x I believe) but it wasnt for me - but then I dont like Marshals.

My PRS got some love as well. Its a CE from 1996, which was originally purple (before I got my mitts on it). It was from the original PRS "blue dye" batch that faded over time in sunlight - consequently its now a pinky cherry type colour. Its also been fitted with HB sized P90s, made by Catswhiskers. The bridge is Alnico 5 while the neck is Alnico 2 - And they have a proper tap so it has a traditional 7.6k (ish) DC rating and a hotter 10k rating option available. The former is typical P90, while the latter rolls of some top, adds some bottom and upps the volume/output just a little for a fatter sound.

The Bluesdog amps were really interesting, and rather unique to my ears - though based on conventional circuits.

Volume wise - you dont often get to turn stuff up. We had the ODS and the EZG practically at full whack - and the Marshall copy WAS at full. The AFXs kept up and then some.

Rowby1 · June 2015

hywelg said:

I would like to set a date early so people can prepare their plans for furniture shopping

Noted

John_A · June 2015

Yes Ceriatone Plexi was my favourite, but I do like Marshalls

. The Bluesdog stuff was lovely, and the EGZ was nice too. I'm sure my little Maz 18 sounds great but you couldn't hear it.

First time I've been up close with an Axe FX and while they may be great for recording or huge gigs in to the PA I don't think they cut it as a pub band back line alternative, not that they sounded bad by any means, but not quite like an amp IMO

paulmapp8306 · June 2015

You didnt really get time to play John. You need to plug in yourself - then play (or get someone else to play) to get the sound you want. Thats what me and Hywel did. I know using the same patch, you though the FRFR sound didnt have enough mids, but the amp/cab version had too much. Thats just patch tweeking.

Your little pedal board amps worked really well if you just need a couple of tones. I thought they were a little brash for my liking - but again thats taste and I didnt get chance to play with the EQs.

The various amps were "instantly" what youd expect. The AFX was "my" patches - and with all the G3 firmware upgrades I actually wanted to see how they stacked up against real amps. Not quite how they used too - as you said, too many mids (though they may have had that going on any way). Didnt take much tuning with the global EQ to get the right kind of flavour.

As has been said before, and was on the day. If you want one or two sounds, you know what they are, and you find the amp that makes them - then amps are better. If you need more options, or cant find an amp that makes the right noises - the AFX is a valid oiption. Ultimately - as we discussed - its primary reason for existence was never amp sims - it was as a pure FX processor to rival Eventide rack stuff. It does that really well - even if you never touch the modelling/drive stuff. If just seems to have got pigeon holed as a "modeler". Use if for what you need it for - and that may not be for the actual amp tones.

John_A · June 2015

^ don't get me wrong they sounded fab, but personally I preferred the sound of the amps, or to be more correct some of the amps. As you say though it's about having the right amp for what you need a Fender Twin might sound great, but not if you want it to sound like a Plexi

Would definitely like to mess with one more

hywelg · June 2015

I found it quite instructive, I learned that I like my amps turned up really loud ( surprise surprise!!) , they were just way better than at normal rehearsal or gig volumes. I also learned that I will never be able to settle solely for a combo, indeed my oversize 2x12 definitely sounded more muscular than either of the other two and better than the 2x12 Plexi combo.

Paul and I spent quite a bit of time EQ'ing the AFX, going from it to the EZG many times. The original Carr Rambler patch was very hard on the ear, too much high end that needed a huge drop in the 8kHz range to get rid of. Then adding some low mids added some warmth got us quite close. I'm not sure the sag was right, there was definitely a lack of feel going on that I really couldn't put my finger on, it was very very subtle. There was also something mildly flubby about the low end, which I think probably originated from it being modelled on a BF Deluxe?. However it did seem to me that the Axe got very close indeed and considering everything else it does would make it a steal for someone doing a lot of recording requiring a range of tones, plus of course all the FX on offer. Personally I dont think I'd be patient enough to learn all how all the parameters influence the tone. Which is why I like th EZG so much, 5 knobs if you dont count the reverb.

I dont agree with Pauls comment about the EZG sounding flat. I would call it neutral. No pronounced high end spike, like you can get with the bright switches on the RP and OTS, a very solid pronounced bottom end and a warmth from the low mids. Put a bright Strat through it with vintage low output PUPs and it will sound stellar, as Matt Schofield showed for a year or so before he went back to TR. And, I have found it to be the best pedal platform of all my amps, and the OTS and RP are both very good, but not as good.

I didn't get chance to try @Bluesdog 's interesting amps but I did hear them played by others. And the Weber Mass clone worked well with my OTS. Andy has used some neat ideas, I would have liked the time to try different output valves in the Univalve clone.

I also didn't get chance to try @John_A 's AMT preamp setup. That would have been interesting, a simplified form of the AFX, pick your tones, put 'em on your board, away you go!!.

I have also learned that for that number of people/amps, we need more than one room. After all, we all wanted to play the amps rather than listen to them and we also need to make time to do a bit of jamming, probably 2 or 3 at a time no more, taking turns obviously. So a jam room would be good too, though that would require moving amps around as well.

mrkb · June 2015

@hywelg - what was the cab that the DrZ was Sat on/plugged into? I want to try to replicate it in the axefx to go with the patch I got from Paul. The one with the plexi-screen in front was also a great sound - any details on its configuration?

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Amp Demo Day - Nottingham 30th May. ITS ON!!

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