Anyone find they don’t “need” drive blocks in most cases since getting the AxeII?

L

lqdsnddist

Axe-Master
When I used to play hardware amps I always had a ton of drive pedals, clean boosts, OD’s, distortion etc. I’d often stack them as well to get a wider range of tones. Pretty par for the course with many guitarist I’m sure.

However, since getting the AxeFX, I find that I’m often not using drive blocks nearly as much in most of my presets. The amp tones simply sound right on their own.

I guess what this comes down to is being able to crank a model as loud as I want, while with a hardware amp, I often needed a pedal to push the amp harder, while trying to control the volume.

Or, having a ton of amp models means if I want a Marshall tone, I use that model, I don’t need a pedal to make my fender sound like a Marshall.

I still enjoy some pedals, real world or in the box, but a lot of amps sound pretty darn good on their own in the Axe FX and it makes me wonder why I used to feel I needed so maybe different types of OD pedals and such, since I don’t feel I’m missing anything now

Anyone else find this too?
 
its about philosophy. of course with every amp you can imagine you don't need the AITB pedals as you might with a real amp, but if you like to add textures/gain to single amp tone drive blocks are still a must. for what I do I have to have them.
 
i've never been a fan of "distortion pedals" real or modeled. i am a amp distortion guy, and because of that pretty much always into modelers because of the range of amp tones available - even back to the first POD ;) with real amps, i had to have a multi-channel something like the JSX, or Roadster, or VH4. no drive pedals for me.
 
I use them differently than I did in my analog rig. Because I don't have to worry as much about volume wars I'll use drive blocks with low clipped but higher output to hit the front end of the amps harder.
 
chris said:
i've never been a fan of "distortion pedals" real or modeled. i am a amp distortion guy, and because of that pretty much always into modelers because of the range of amp tones available - even back to the first POD ;) with real amps, i had to have a multi-channel something like the JSX, or Roadster, or VH4. no drive pedals for me.
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yeah, totally depends on your needs. from your choice of amps it's obvious you're a rocker or metal guy, so you wouldn't have need of them. those of us who use amps set clean or at the edge of breakup can't live without them.
 
Also... The knowledge base here on this forum has provided a greater awareness and understanding of how any particular amp actually works and how to accomplish dialing it in with a modicum of intelligence, rather than using the previous hit or miss process used prior to becoming enlightened generously by those in the know.
 
For me it kind of depends on the song. I've got some presets where I'm using a relatively clean Fender model of some sort, and use a drive block for solos and such. For others, I'll just A/B different amps in the same preset for different levels of dirt.
 
I've never used a distortion/overdrive pedal ever for any live rig. I have used them in the studio to change up some tones a bit.
 
I still like drives in front of the amp, but I never turn them up very high. Typically, I set the mix to 50% or less and the drive at <5. Sometimes I just like to push the front end of the amp.
 
I am using drives only to dirty up a clean amp like a Twin. The Ruckus drive on a Fender sounds sweet with a single coil neck pickup.
 
I mainly use the amp distortion. There are times when I do put a drive before the amp, but it's rarely more than 10% dirt. I mainly use it for solos for a little extra sustain and a little extra volume, if needed.
 
I was always a pedals into a clean amp kind of guy, as I started out with a Fender Twin Reverb. So my dirt just had to come from pedals. I played Fender combos most of my guitarplaying life. When I got the Axe I tried to recreate the signal/pedal chain that I was used to, including wanting to use my old drive pedals, as I didn't like most of the higain pedals modeled in the Axe. As my rig was spiraling out of control again I realized something, why bother trying to do the old thing, trying to make a Fender sound like a Marshall, when there are tons of Marshall amp models in the Axe? That was a game changer. After that I stopped using drive pedals and most of my drive blocks in the Axe are either boosts, or fuzz tones.
 
I only have the AX8 but find I prefer the amp's gains (in general) over providing gain with the od/distortion pedals.. HOWEVER I tend to always have a footswitch set up with 1 Drive block using the FET boost /Silicon and it gives "MORE" of what the amp distortion already does. It does that 100% perfectly. Some of the other 'boosts' do it also. When using my tube-amps, I've always mixed /matched my od's/boosts to be the exact right one to match to the amp to give it 'more' also For hi-gain tightness the new AIRIS Savage Drive is as good as it gets, For more gain with a SPLAWN,etc the Fulltone OCD is the perfect match.. The SUHR Kokoboost or or Cochrane TIM are perfect for certain things. .Anyway, I've had the AX8 for many gigs and really have only used the 'fet boost' regutarly , or occassionally the 3 knob Tube Driver. I don't need the sounds of the others (so far)

Eric
 
Tahoebrian5 said:
I use the TS808 mostly for tightening the low end. There is plenty of other ways to increase gain so for me its more about tone shaping.
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Same here, I'm sure there are other ways of doing this (PEQ block?), but the TS808 seems to work well. Also a fan of the Shimmer Drive for a similar effect.

There are also occasions that I'll use one of the fuzz models, such as the muff. Apart from that it's amp distortion only.
 
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