Gone back to valves

Wazmeister

sweepy said:

After owning two Helixes and one Fractal Axe-Fx II I have decided to return to trusty old valves and pedals . The driving reason for this was when I bought myself a Fender Journeyman Strat from a Peach and plugged straight into a Dr Z, I had a grin a mile wide . The modelling gear is very good these days but there is something special in a Valve amp interacting with a good guitar, it’s fun to be back 

Well, Ive been very impressed with modeliing, and I was a very early advocator on this very forum of the womderful FX8...

But, Ive now gone totally back to old technology - and ive just sold my Helix...

Ive tried the FX8, AX8, Kemper and Helix; all wonderful devices, there is no doubt about that.
All achieve what ‘they say on the tin’, and all offer way more routing, looping etc possibilities than any old valve amp.

Close, but none of sound exact and more importantly FEEL like a Strat/Tele into Rambler/Redplate.... which is divine.... for my needs and sounds.

I tell you somethng though, I miss that looper on the FX8. I may yet buy one of these...

fandango

TheMarlin said:

Less is more

Distil that thought down and you end up with a ukelele.

EDIT: no pickups, no leads, no amps, no pedals, no 7 or 8-string nonsense, and no fiddling with settings. Just play.

Gadget

Freebird said:

If I could get 100 assorted pedals and 10 valve amps (including microphones) for £1500, I would be all-in with the analogue gear...

This was my main internal debate re. owning a modeller - from the one point of view it was dozens or hundreds of amazing amps, pedals, cabs and mics that I would probably struggle to even find IRL, let alone afford, all packaged in one cheap-by-comparison box...

... but then I reminded myself that all I really had was a rack mount computer with a couple of DSP chips and clever software.

In short I was kidding myself that buying a modeller meant I owned a huge collection of boutique gear, in just the same way that buying a sampling synth didn't really get me an orchestra of real instruments.

If you like the modeller sound and have an application that needs one, they're undoubtedly great, but don't kid yourself re. what it actually is. They are literally providing a facsimile of real gear.

peteri

Interesting thread, for a very long time - since I got my first valve amp in 1986 (Fender 1962 Bassman - not a bad start, £25 would you believe?) I've been all valves.

Last year I got a Helix and then quickly tried a Fractal and moved over to that.

For me - I've never been happier, I have a massive range of sounds - the limit is me not the gear - and since June I've not wanted a single pedal.

I think if you've playing a single style, amps make sense - for me in recent years I've wanted to play a range of styles, which kind of dictates either multiple set-ups or what I ended up with, big pedal board in front of pedal platform amp.

I had a pedal board which whilst huge sounded great and I could go anywhere and plug into an amp and it worked really well.

But since I got the AX8 (soon to be Axe-FX III), I've never looked back. It's small and convenient, sounds consistent at any volume level and as I'm preparing for the South Jam (first for me), it's really proving how easy digital can make it.

I'm playing a sound which fits the song, which I've enjoyed programming and hasn't taken that long. The signal flow is logical and I know the sound will be the same on the day as I hear on headphones.

Sure I would love to go back to my late 80's days and play in front of a roaring Jubilee stack, but that's just not practical and actually was a lot more limited than I have now.

Valves are great, but there's just not something better anymore - there are just different tools, it's a little like saying what's better a Strat or a Les Paul?

The comment on high cuts etc. that was something I found I needed to worry more about on the Helix, on the AX8 it's much more 'real world' like in my experience - for example my EVH patch is a modified Marshall, with the power supply set to 75% variac, 50htz power supply and an eq boosting the mids on the way into the amp, bit of reverb and it's sorted. That's not hard to work out.

I do use high and low cut on cabs often - but that's not because there's a fault in the technology, that's making my DXR10 speaker -react more like a much less efficient guitar cab. I quite like that freedom, because sometimes the sound is a little 'better' with more top end, sometimes it's not - but I get to choose.

Couple of weeks ago I bought a 50's Les Paul from someone on here, I was lucky to demo it at close to uncomfortable valve amp volumes, sounded amazing - and I loved playing at that volume again.

Got the guitar home, and was convinced the guitar wouldn't be as good through the AX8.

Actually it was.

I'm happy with digital, I'd gladly play through valves again - and I will. But I'm not missing anything.

Almost everyone uses DSP now, how many pedal and valve fans will sneer at modellers, but then have a Strymon delay or reverb, that's the same technology.

I can't think of a better time in history, we have some amazing guitars, amps, pedals and modeller alternatives - I feel very lucky

chugington

Buying a 100w Katana last year completely cured my gas for pedals. I have always used valve amps but the Katana is great. When practising with our very loud drummer I use the Katana on its own. I also really enjoy playing it in conjunction with a beefed up Princeton clone using an aby pedal when playing live. The best of both worlds!

bignorm

From a punters point of view, I saw Extreme with Living Colour supporting them in Bristol last year.
Vernon Reids guitar rig was a kemper..
Ive been sort of gassing after one for a while so i was looking forward to hearing it being used in anger.
His sound was terrible, all scooped, thin and very nasally. Very disappointing.

Then Extreme came on and instantly transported us back to the old days.
Old school loud as f@ck, with a guitar sound that was a mile wide. I haven't a clue what Nuno was using coz his rig was off stage just his cabs were on show.
I'm guessing it was valve though coz last time I heard a glorious row like that I had fired up my jmp100 100w head into two 4x12 cabs 

Fiftyshadesofjay

bignorm said:

From a punters point of view, I saw Extreme with Living Colour supporting them in Bristol last year.
Vernon Reids guitar rig was a kemper..
Ive been sort of gassing after one for a while so i was looking forward to hearing it being used in anger.
His sound was terrible, all scooped, thin and very nasally. Very disappointing.

Then Extreme came on and instantly transported us back to the old days.
Old school loud as f@ck, with a guitar sound that was a mile wide. I haven't a clue what Nuno was using coz his rig was off stage just his cabs were on show.
I'm guessing it was valve though coz last time I heard a glorious row like that I had fired up my jmp100 100w head into two 4x12 cabs 

To be fair Vernon Reid always sounds like shit no matter what he’s using so probably not the best example. But I know what you mean, There’s still something about a proper valve amp cranked up sometimes, though Kemper gets close. 

meltedbuzzbox

Very true about Vernon @Fiftyshadesofjay ;

A very talented player but that guitar sound eeeeek