Anyone sell all their tube amps?

Keep your sentimental amps if you must.....

Valve technology is dead. There are very few valves worth having, left on the planet.

Modelling is in its infancy,

Just imagine 20 years from now.........

.......Old men reminiscing how amazing tube amps were..... to carry around, and maintain, and smell bad and take up precious real estate and that they sounded way better than their modern day counterparts....... Blah Blah.......Whatever.

The future is technology.

Not stuck in the past as Valve amps are from 50 years ago with "gurus" still tryin' to make the perfect amp when it can be done digitally and much sooner!

Wake up.
 
neale dunham said:
Valve technology is dead.
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But ALL the state of the art modellers are focused on modelling iconic tube amps that everyone wants to hear because they are in love with the sound of them. Would amp modelling even exist without a continued strong interest in the sound of tube amps old and new. Makers of some popular NEW tube amps want them modelled as it grows the market for the real amps + I think there will always be a segment of consumers who want to buy the actual thing as opposed to a model of the thing regardless of how good better the model of the thing might be. An arguement can be made that tube amps are far from dead, and there may even be a resurgence despite any tube shortages.
 
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I still have a couple Marshalls that I like but I am recently wondering why I still have them. A '69 Chevelle is a cool car, but by today's standards, they really don't drive all that well. I will never not have digital amp technical. It is just so much nicer to work with. And I am one of those old guys...
 
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Just about to sell my mesa mark v 25 head. Still don't own a fractal product yet, have a fm3 available to me for end of January but contemplating going all out and getting the big Daddy...... HELP ME
 
Never going to sell my tube amps ever again :)
1. Easy to dial in a tone that I want for recording or rehearsal, just turn a knob and plug it in. It works.
2. Modeller for live as it's consistent, but basically it just mimics the sound of the tube amp + actually due to EQ etc. it sounds better than the tube amp.

But I'll never sell tube amps because of no.1
 
ADAM-X said:
Just about to sell my mesa mark v 25 head. Still don't own a fractal product yet, have a fm3 available to me for end of January but contemplating going all out and getting the big Daddy...... HELP ME
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My opinion is to get the big daddy unless you need the FM3 for portability.
 
Ah but you can’t say you don’t miss the electric shocks on your lips while using an old valve amp and singing. Fractal should have a shock block to send a few hundred volts to the guitars earth so we can reminisce.
Pauly

neale dunham said:
Keep your sentimental amps if you must.....

Valve technology is dead. There are very few valves worth having, left on the planet.

Modelling is in its infancy,

Just imagine 20 years from now.........

.......Old men reminiscing how amazing tube amps were..... to carry around, and maintain, and smell bad and take up precious real estate and that they sounded way better than their modern day counterparts....... Blah Blah.......Whatever.

The future is technology.

Not stuck in the past as Valve amps are from 50 years ago with "gurus" still tryin' to make the perfect amp when it can be done digitally and much sooner!

Wake up.
Click to expand...
 
The III has changed the game for me. Since getting mine I have sold my Super Reverb, Mesa .50 Caliber, Tweed Deluxe clone and old National that was great for lap steel guitar. I have kept only two tube amps: my '66 Deluxe Reverb and a modified Blues Deluxe.. Couldn't be happier!
 
sprint said:
But ALL the state of the art modellers are focused on modelling iconic tube amps that everyone wants to hear because they are in love with the sound of them.
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Not Quite, I think I read somewhere recently that Cliff would rather incorporate his own designs only into the Axe fx rather than keep modelling old amps.

However, unfortunately, as good a unit as it may be.... Not as many people would buy into it as it doesn't have the brand names so to speak.

So he has little choice but to lean on the big brands to "help"

Modelling old or new amps is a means to an end for Fractal. Practically a by-product. Its the technology that counts effectively. Not the amps.
 
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Last year i bit the bullet and got my first tube amp setup. It was a Victory V30 Countess Mk2, Captor X and a Friedman Monitor. Its such an amazing amp and setup but man i feel so limited tone wise and wanted more. I found myself plugging into my neural plugins 9/10 times vs my tube setup. Now here i am trying to sell it all so i can get an Axe Fx 3
 
TheRobotCow said:
Last year i bit the bullet and got my first tube amp setup. It was a Victory V30 Countess Mk2, Captor X and a Friedman Monitor. Its such an amazing amp and setup but man i feel so limited tone wise and wanted more. I found myself plugging into my neural plugins 9/10 times vs my tube setup. Now here i am trying to sell it all so i can get an Axe Fx 3
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I'm sure some people on here will disagree with me cause they like to move air with a real tube amp and things like that, but I only recently sold my tube amp to but an axe3(my first modeling unit) and don't regret it at all. Granted I'm using it for recording only, but I have no doubt that it will be unbelievable live too. There is a reason so many huge bands use it live. My advice is do it and don't look back.

I also got the neural dsp plini plugin by the way. Really good
 
Made the mega mistake and sold my '73 Marshal1987 a year ago and bought it back.
Its unbeatable. All my old Blackfaces stayed and never got sold.

Way i Work often times-

Tube Amp > Ultimate Attenuator > AFIII/FM3 for Cab Simulation and effects > either studio monitors or headphones (at night or when i want to blast my ears at home).

Often ill just Attenuate and go to the Cab of one of my Blackfaces, without a modeler at all.

I can not recreate the feel or sound on the Modeler, but the modeler has a ton of other benefits. I often just connect to it and play and try not to think about it at all, Just play. Its fast, easy and no Tube maintenance, warm up etc.

And its also like a Video Game, I can tweak for hours if im not particularly inspired musically, at a given time.

I play for the Amp in the room tone, when it comes to why i even play the instrument. Its been concluded that its impossible, nor its even a goal, to achieve with a modeler.

Recordings , which is also part of my profession, is another story and the Modeler is usually present in one role or another, always for the Cab, Often for much more, incl amps like high gain or metal amps that i don't own the real version of.
 
I've been using modelers for 10 or 11 years now. There was a time when I thought I had to be "all in" with either amps or modelers. Now, I have a modeler that I enjoy playing and a couple of tube amps that I enjoy playing and will eventually have more amps. They both have their strengths and weaknesses and I don't see myself getting rid of either of them any time soon.
 
I got really close to selling my DSL5CR, but decided against it, because having one amp/cab around is great to actually amplify the sound and play in the room. Maybe if I replaced it with an FRFR cab I would sell my amp, but right now I'm keeping it to amplify the Axe. Also it is a seriously killer amp by itself, I go 4CM with my Axe sometimes just because that amp is impressive.
 
My opinion of this has changed since the fall of last year and my previous post.

All of this comes down to a certain comfort or willingness to change. I wasn't always wanting to do this and it took me quite some time to be happy about it. In my case, when we were playing live regularly up until the mid-march Covid shutdown last year, I was happy owning both a tube amp and the Axe III. We kept rehearsing and started working on some original material through the lockdowns at a private place that one of us has access to. Usually we go to one of the rehearsal places that has everything you need setup. I would just plug in my head to the cab and bring my board, etc. We only had a PA at this location so I had to bring everything with me.

A lot of this made me realize as I am getting older now, that I was getting tired of lugging a 45-50lb head, 65lb 212 cab and another 40lb pedalboard as well as my Waza TAE unit week in and week out. When I was younger, this wasn't a problem. Full tube head, 412, large board, etc....etc.

I simply sold it all off back in the early fall. With the $$$ I made from that sale, I got another super nice guitar that I wanted, an FM3 and a couple of very gently used ASM-10 monitors that are nothing less than stellar....and I still have a nice chunk of cash left over.
Now I have a great backup to the Axe III and 1000watts of pure stereo joy.

Honestly, now with rehearsals, I bring my guitar, FM-3 (which I have mounted on my small classic Jr board), and one ASM-10. I modified the ASM-10s with tilt back arms to point up at me like an monitor and that is what made the difference for me! 1 output goes to that, the other to the PA for FOH and I'm in and out in 1 trip as opposed to several. If I bring both monitors, it is one lightweight extra trip.

I don't have the amp in the room tone. I had a JJjr which was great, a BE-50 which I loved and a JP-2C limited edition which was also outstanding. Nothing can replace that feeling of a tube amp and 412 mashing it out. I don't have the v30s beaming at my band members or the audience and that is a plus. No one misses that.

What I do have now is the absolute best mic'd amp tone and a lot more clarity and space as we do play in some very tight bars/clubs. The gents have really noticed now that we all run direct how full and clear the sound is instead of everyone fighting for volume space by turning amps up all the time. One also has an arsenal of amps to choose from instead of 3 tones that were on my amp when I had it. Some may love that but having the extra options as well as the amazing FX all in one box is truly amazing.

Do I miss having an amp, sure. I was even contemplating getting one of the smaller versions of a tube head that I loved but I decided against it because of the other things I would have to buy for it once again to make it all work for me. It's just not worth it for me anymore.
 
For me and what I do, the fractal stuff is perfect. I can hook up to the PA at any gig, big or small, and have great sound. I sold my remaining amps after buying the Axe 3, since I didn’t need them any more. I did A/B comparisons extensively to see if there was any reason, sonically, to keep the amps. My conclusion was that I preferred the Axe.

That said, one thing the Axe can never do - is actually BE the amp it’s modeling the miced up sound of. I enjoy the hell out of a great amp! Just having that thing there on the floor, feeling the heat come off the tubes, just enjoying the aesthetic.

This was the last amp I sold, and have to admit I miss it, even if I don’t need it per se. It was a Carr Mercury V. Sounds killer! If anyone is interested, Johan Segeborn has some great demos of it.
 

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I guess I am missing the point. Love my FM3 and my tube amps. Played all today for a few hours. Plan on finishing my SLO50 build and playing the hell out of that as well. So, no, won’t be selling any tube amps anytime soon.
 
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