Advice on hooking up Axe FX, power amp, and cab.

Yall

Member
Hi gang,

Proud new owner (well when it gets here on Tuesday) of an Ultra. In my basement, await an SKS rack case, power conditioner, an ART SLA 2, and a Line 6 Vetta 4x12 cab (stereo). To my knowledge the Vetta cab uses FV celestions with the idea being that the matching head was to do the cab simulations.

So the question is how should I be hooking this all up? Should I run everything mono? Is there any advantage to stereo? It seems to me that mono might be better from the point of simplicity, plus if I'm being mic'Ed instead of DI'ed isn't mono preferable so that the mic is picking up al the sounds?

Any specific configuration tips from those in the know would be appreciated.

I also need to pick up an adapter for banana to 1/4", but I'm pretty sure they have those at Guitar
Center. I'm wondering if I should grab two for stereo?
 
I'd suggest mono and keeps things simple, at least to get you started - if it's just one 4x12 you're running, the speakers are too close together for any stereo effects to be noticeable anyway. The ART doesn't have 1/4" outs, as you've already noticed, so you have one of two options: 1) use a standard 1/4" speaker cable and buy a 1/4" to banana converter, or 2) cut up a standard 1/4" speaker cable, strip the shielding and just slap a banana plug on it (it's fairly straight forward, and requires no soldering).

For live shows, I would recommend just simultaneously send a direct out to the soundboard with cab sim, so you won't have to mic' up the amp, and you have the flexibility of using different cab sims for different patches. The amp essentially becomes your personal monitor. If the sound guy insists on mic'ing (which they sometimes do), that'll work as well.

Hope this helps.
 
You'll probably want to sound check the L6 cab. You may want to use the Axe's global EQ feature with it. My understanding is that those cabs are NOT flat in the strict FRFR sense, they WERE designed to be used with cab sims specifically when used with L6 heads/power sections but I'll bet they will require some tweaking with the Axe+Art rig.
 
I tried a few sound checks using my Prophesy II, the ART, and the L6 cab. Was kind of all over the place in terms of sound and volume. I was expecting 560 watts RMS to be louder quite frankly. It did seems louder than my Carvin TS100 though. Every time I used that at rehearsal I had to crank it and the Prophesy's output to have appropriate volume.

Hopefully The Axe and the ART will sound better together.
 
Back
Top Bottom