Anybody else go right in the front of an amp?

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daveg62

Member
For weeks now I've been running my axe-fx right into the front end of an old musicman hd-130 tube head pushing an ear-candy buzzbomb 2x12 cabinet, power amp and cab sims turned off. I think I've settled on this as my set-up. Tone settings on the amp are bass 2, mid 9, treble 2. Master all the way up on 10 and channel volume to taste so I'm not getting any distortion from the amps pre-amp, just a lot of head-room from the power amp section. I'm finding this to be quite the nice rig. I like that I can adjust the tone settings on the fly with the amp knobs if I need to depending on the room or situation. I could also live with the axe-fx feeding the loop return of my mesa mark III but that amp is friggin heavy. The musicman is a great amp, always was.
I don't know, I've tried frfr and for me it's just way too much to tweak. Too much difference from patch to patch, quickly found out not for me. Art sla-2 setup sounded like crap for me also. I like tube power amps for sure. Don't think you need a rack mount or dedicated one either.
 
If it's working for you then it's all good.

FRFR is a different anamial for sure and takes some understanding on how to set things up. As to an SLA and cab it can sound just as good as a VHT power amp and cab with the right amount of tunning with the cab being the constant and sounds far from crap. With my rig I have gone head to head with Divided by 13, Bogner, and my own Lee Jackson XLS and a few others and I have been able to get so close that most players wouldn't be able to tell the difference with the gear behind a curtain. The power is their and when you want to you can get it to sound that good it's all just a learning curve.
 
I just went in front of my amp today and crank the shit out of it!!!! Now I hear ringing in my ear... wait, what was the question?
 
Sixstring said:
If it's working for you then it's all good.

FRFR is a different anamial for sure and takes some understanding on how to set things up. As to an SLA and cab it can sound just as good as a VHT power amp and cab with the right amount of tunning with the cab being the constant and sounds far from crap.
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Yeah personally I haven't gotten the SLA to sound good no matter what settings I tried. Maybe it's the cab I was using but it just didn't sound warm and smooth at all, more sterile. Not so bad at low volume but when I cranked it just didn't sound good to me. To each his own I guess, if I had the choice I'd pick a tube amp any day.
 
daveg62 said:
Sixstring said:
If it's working for you then it's all good.

FRFR is a different anamial for sure and takes some understanding on how to set things up. As to an SLA and cab it can sound just as good as a VHT power amp and cab with the right amount of tunning with the cab being the constant and sounds far from crap.
Click to expand...
Yeah personally I haven't gotten the SLA to sound good no matter what settings I tried. Maybe it's the cab I was using but it just didn't sound warm and smooth at all, more sterile. Not so bad at low volume but when I cranked it just didn't sound good to me. To each his own I guess, if I had the choice I'd pick a tube amp any day.
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I have noticed when you really crank it it tends to get a tad harsh. I have also noticed that different cabs will make a huge differance with how things sound. I don't use really massive volumes anymore so I tune the Axe for the volume I run at but if needed I just use the Global EQ and I can dial out any harshnss that is added in with an increased voulme change. The ART for me was a good fit to my rig single space and the most wattage I could get for a decent price. I and a few others on the board have done side by side comparissons with tube power amps and the differance was so minor even used the cost of a tube amp didn't seam to warrent the inherent problems and weight you get with a tube amp.
 
Mine sounds really good into the effects return on my Line 6 Spider Valve HD...like really good...it makes a very powerful, inexpensive tube power amp...although it is obviously mono.
 
I have made many different setups with my Ultra ,

first in the return of the Koch twintone ( cab and amp sims off) , good sound with no character,
then with the ART SLA2 and a 2x12 guitar cab with eminence delta pro , amp sim on cab off , nice tone similar to tube sound but a little bit sterile in the clean sounds ( i made a lot of dialing with the amp parameters , sag depth etc) . It was difficult to cut through when i played with my band.Something was missing. All alone the tone was ok!! :eek: :eek:

and lastly I tried in front of the amp dialing the amps eq flat ( bass down - middle full- treble down). This was a surprise to me because it sounded amazing , the cleans were full with the physical tube compression , the drives creamy and the overall sound had the body and the punch that missed before. I made some experiments in some presets even turning the sag on and discovered more interesting sounds. So as you understand i am a bit confused now!!! And I know about guitars and amps ( I am 45 and played the guitar the last 35 years).
Many people in the forum posted that their solid state rig (either FR or not) is like a tube amp. I think is pretty close but when i saw that the Atomic FR has a tube power amp i understood a lot... And those who know about tubes can understand what i mean...!!!
 
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