So I wondered something and tried it out. I loaded the TripTik in Amp1 X and the 5150 Block Letter in Amp1 Y to see if I could get the TripTik to get close to the same territory as the 5150 for heavy tones, even if I had to abuse the EQ and Advanced tabs to do it.
Funny enough, I found that even with minimal effort, the TripTik not only went note for note with the 5150 in the brutality department, but even when I pulled out the stops and started really tweaking the 5150 hard too, the TripTik could even maintain a
heavier and
more brutal sounding tone than the 5150 in the end.
For me, the TripTik just beat arguably the most widely used and loved heavyweight champion of heavy metal amps, the Peavey 5150, at its own game. I still cannot believe it.
The stinging juxtaposition to all of this, I find, is that whilst we're happily [and continually] endowed with all these incredible models, Mr. Chase is loading his abode up with the actual, genuine, honest-to-goodness "real McCoys". Now, I know there's a lot of fervor and panache for the fact that the AF2 is seriously the best thing since sliced bread, and that it's betterer and realerer than the actual amps themselves. But I'd be lying if I didn't say there's some definite "analog envy" happening every time I see a new booteek amp hit our beloved library
Mo
Heh, I look at it this way. In my world, I can either spend 2 grand+ on an Axe-Fx II, or
hundreds of grands on the actual amps/pedals/cabs/cables/tubes/power supplies themselves.
Personally I hope Cliff gets so many amps that he can start his own "complete history of tube amps" museum! More for him means more for us, and without that guy, we'd have to spend the same money on getting only
two or three at best of the thousands of tones available to us in the Axe-Fx.