Amps with great dynamics for live use?

giantslayer

Experienced
Let's talk about good live tones, the old fashioned "play an entire gig with one amp on the edge of breakup" kind. I'm talking about an amp that doesn't just clean up when you play soft, but the volume softens just the right amount with it. When you dig in, it doesn't just get dirtier but stays punchy and has more oomph to it. Then you can kick it up another notch with a pedal to keep up with the drummer.

The 5E3 Tweed comes to mind as a good example of this. What are some other amps on the Axe FX III that work well for this?
 
Matchless dc-30 get some York audio irs and go to town. 1.5 on the input drive and MV on 10
 
Blackface Deluxe does everything from clean to edge of breakup and loves pedals. I also use the York deluxe IRs with it.
 
Very timely question, I am wondering this as well. I usually have 4 scenes for live: clean, chime, crunch, and lead. 9 times out of 10 I end up on chime for the whole night. It’s a bandmaster with a 3 knob tube driver out front. I find it jarring changing amps, especially mid song. I was wondering whether one of the drives can create a good crunch sound, and another one for smooth distortion.
 
Nuclear Tone for clean to crunch, I've been stuck on this model for the past several months. Add the Super OD or Jam Ray for more gain/lead tones. Use the Output Compressor>Feedback control (Dynamics page) for edge-of-breakup tones- works with any amp I've tried. Used the AC20 and Matchbox prior to the NT.
 
Let's talk about good live tones, the old fashioned "play an entire gig with one amp on the edge of breakup" kind. I'm talking about an amp that doesn't just clean up when you play soft, but the volume softens just the right amount with it. When you dig in, it doesn't just get dirtier but stays punchy and has more oomph to it. Then you can kick it up another notch with a pedal to keep up with the drummer.

The 5E3 Tweed comes to mind as a good example of this. What are some other amps on the Axe FX III that work well for this?

Brit Super works great for me. Pair that with a HSS combination and I can do anything without changing a scene or stomping on a OD.
 
Here is the JCM800 Mod with the volume rolled right down on the guitar - When I roll the volume up, it is a full-on saturated 80s tone



And here is the range of the JM45 changing nothing but the pick attack


That's exactly what I'm talking about! Awesome demos. I think the key is that an amp has the ability to get that perfect high that doesn't round out at all, something that's the opposite of a 5150, e.g. If you turn your volume knob down on a 5150, it's just very mid-rangey, and the high end doesn't lend itself to good cleans. A good starting place is just to record yourself with your volume rolled down quite a bit, splice that with a recording of yourself with the volume at 10, and scroll through amps. I use really low cap values for my tone pots, and I always mimic Les Paul/SG wiring to get better dynamics more easily.
 
The AC amps are great for this, I'd say the Hiwatt too but it compresses so that the volume change between clean and dirty are minimized. It feels like someones reading my mind and riding my fader, and all the tonal cues that give away if you're loud or soft are there. My absolute go to for this kind of thing has always been the Bandmaster tho. Huge rhythms that dont fart out if you start strumming like its an acoustic, and the ability to play leads that poke out even if you aren't digging in.
 
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