Anyone with a II try to cop an SRV tone yet?

Hey guys, again- I'm not trying to be a hater at all.. I guess we all have a certain standard for tones to our "mind's ear" that we accept or reject... I will own an Axe-Fx II soon and here and feel for myself what I like or dislike.. Are there any "tests" out there of blind clips of low gain stuff so I can hear for myself if I am just full of sh!t or really can hear the differences between an Axe-Fx and "the real thing" on a compressed recording filled with digital artifacts??
 
Is the SRV THE TONE you seek from AxeFX? Or, do you want to get close and have gazillion other options? If it's the first I would get a super reverb, some pedals and a great attenuator. Just sayin...
 
Gasp100 said:
Is the SRV THE TONE you seek from AxeFX? Or, do you want to get close and have gazillion other options? If it's the first I would get a super reverb, some pedals and a great attenuator. Just sayin...
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Was this meant to be helpful in answering the OP?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
Gasp100 said:
Is the SRV THE TONE you seek from AxeFX? Or, do you want to get close and have gazillion other options? If it's the first I would get a super reverb, some pedals and a great attenuator. Just sayin...
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we're leaving out some of the key, non-Axe related variables... like the telephone pole thick strings Stevie used. You're just not getting "Stevie Tone" even with his rig and Strat if you put the usual .009s on it or .010s on it.
Are you willing to put krazy glue on your ripped up fingers to keep playing? If you're not, you won't sound like the man himself! : )

Try some .013s in Eb on Strat and let me know if the difference is real.
 
Gasp100 said:
Is the SRV THE TONE you seek from AxeFX? Or, do you want to get close and have gazillion other options? If it's the first I would get a super reverb, some pedals and a great attenuator. Just sayin...
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This is exactly what I've got already ;)
 
kfliegner said:
Was this meant to be helpful in answering the OP?

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Yes. I would NEVER invest in the AxeFX if I knew the exact tone or tones I wanted could be copped with a neat, simplistic rig in many cases for less than the AxeFX itself.
I want aLOT of variety out of the box, killer fx, ultimate volume control, dual amp rigs, silent recording, etc... I am the perfect type of user for the AxeFX. Someone who already loves their tone is wasting their time and money investing in the AxeFX unless they want to explore new tones and new ways of doing things. But many people just like buying new shit.
And no matter how good the II is I will put money that it still doesn't sound and feel exactly the same as playing a real kick ass tube rig 'in the room'. Factor in that you will still need to find the right FRFR solution (if you go that route) and a midi controller. If you go power amp and traditional cab you end up carrying MORE gear to the gig.
So yeah, most post was meant to help. Some people try and fit a square peg thru a round hole.
 
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Capricorn said:
If I recall a while back, I thought Stringtheorist had a pretty damn convincing SRV tone with the ultra on YouTube.
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I did, but that preset has long gone as a result of firmware upgrades. If anyone's interested I can post the preset I'm using now but it's not the same. The video is at the Youtube link below.
 
Stringtheorist said:
I did, but that preset has long gone as a result of firmware upgrades. If anyone's interested I can post the preset I'm using now but it's not the same. The video is at the Youtube link below.
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If it's the Couldn't Stand the Weather clip then I'm not sold.. Great playing though! The intro licks especially have that raspy squish that are pretty apparent regardless of how it was recorded, compressed, sent through the interwebs, and through my crappy headphones.
 
There's a "Pride n' Joy" preset on the II, and I know Larry Mitchell was involved in creating some of the presets. Perhaps it was done by him...

I'm probably not the best judge since I don't have a Strat and I don't play blues, but it sounds pretty good to me.
 
etneccas said:
sorry not even close
Great tone for sure but NOT the same

Get out your soldering iron and get to work .........
Just take a look at the size of the caps in the power supply not to mention the xformers and tube rectification just in the the power supply of the Super/Vibroverb

Have any of you actually heard stevie play live?

Believe it or not his tone sucked in the early 80's
until cesar and others where so inspired by him to
design specific mod's to existing circuit designs
to bring out his tonal soul

Axe is the ultimate FX hands down and can certainly stand on it's own
But C'mon SRV's bottled tone..........
maybe AXE FX LXVIII;)
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This is simply ridiculous. I've owned an Axe-FX for several years now, tube amps for many years before that (still have my favorite), have listened to SRV since I was a kid (he was the player that made me decide to pick up a guitar in the first place), and I just played another session through a Vibroverb. The Axe-FX I quite easily gets SRV's tones if you know how to obtain said tones in the first place.

SRV's tone isn't any one thing however. Listen to recordings of him over the years and you'll find that he had quite a few very different tonal flavors in play through the years. I think some of them were rather terrible, some good, some great, and some seemed legendary. The legendary ones were legendary simply because they allowed his playing to really shine. If you listen to just the rig sound, it isn't particularly impressive on it's own. It's his playing that people gravitate towards more than the tone.

Just for the heck of it, I've spent some time trying to get SRV's better tones in the Axe-FX and have been successful. It really isn't all that difficult if you know what he was using at the time and how to find it in the Axe-FX.

For those of you that are looking for specific SRV tones in the Axe I, start a thread and I'll help you in any way that I can with the tones. The problem with nailing the tones though is that it does little good unless you can play the tunes just like SRV. If you had the exact tone but can't play it like he does, you still won't be happy with the way it sounds.

D
 
dk_ace said:
...... The problem with nailing the tones though is that it does little good unless you can play the tunes just like SRV. If you had the exact tone but can't play it like he does, you still won't be happy with the way it sounds.

D
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Ding. We have a winner.

It's ludicrous to think that the Axe II cannot do an SRV tone. I notice that many times no specific song was indicated.

Dumble once remarked that Stevie played so hard he could get distortion out of his cleanest possible tweaks. He played HARD. Most people do not play that way. He could hammer at all 6 of those strings at once, and using left hand mutes let you only hear what he wanted you to hear...also very difficult to get right.

There are any number of amps models that can get there, but you'd need his fingers, the guitars he played, etc. The Cornford is an interesting choice too...but again, it's all in the fingers.

Ron
 
electronpirate said:
Ding. We have a winner.

It's ludicrous to think that the Axe II cannot do an SRV tone. I notice that many times no specific song was indicated.
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But see my OP.

I appreciate everyone's comments (and look forward to trying out your patch, Stringtheorist). Here's a few comments of my own:

1. I grow weary of advice that "you can't sound like [fill in artist name] unless you have his [hands; guitar; rig; whatever]". While undeniably true, such tonal nihilism is also undeniably unhelpful. Yes, I know I'll never play or sound like SRV (or any of my other favorite players: Page, Lifeson, Van Halen, Edge, etc.). So I shouldn't even bother to try? There are some stock presets in my Ultra that come remarkably close to particular song/artist tones, even when I play them (and I suck). Same goes for some presets I have created myself. I made this one "from scratch":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6OsC3f9vd0

and I think it sounds pretty close, even though I couldn't get Alex himself to play it for me. So, as a general statement, I think trying to achieve artist tone--even without artist hands--is a worthwhile endeavor (and, evidently, so did the creator of "Stevie's Rotary", "Brown Sound", etc.).

2. More specifically, with regard to SRV, while there's no disputing his unique talents, I have certainly heard musicians come close to his tone without the actual use of his hands (which, he being deceased, would be illegal in most states, even here in Michigan). How? Well, first, yes, talent. But also using the right gear. When I use to play "Tightrope" (badly) through my Line 6 Guitarport, the tone was a reasonable approximation of the real thing. I have no doubt that any Axe-Fx could do better, but I haven't been able to dial it in--my bad. Since the entire purpose of the Axe is to approximate as nearly as possible multiple amps and effects, I find the suggestion to obtain a Super Reverb, a Fuzz Face, etc. to sound like SRV, particularly in the setting of this forum, rather pointless (it would be different, I suppose, had I posed the question on, say, TGP).

3. I'll take my ritual forum beating now. (I see what Scott's had to put up with, and he's respectable!)
 
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kfliegner said:
But see my OP.

I appreciate everyone's comments (and look forward to trying out your patch, Stringtheorist). Here's a few comments of my own:

1. I grow weary of advice that "you can't sound like [fill in artist name] unless you have his [hands; guitar; rig; whatever]". While undeniably true, such tonal nihilism is also undeniably unhelpful. Yes, I know I'll never play or sound like SRV (or any of my other favorite players: Page, Lifeson, Van Halen, Edge, etc.). So I shouldn't even bother to try? There are some stock presets in my Ultra that come remarkably close to particular song/artist tones, even when I play them (and I suck). Same goes for some presets I have created myself. I made this one "from scratch":

YouTube - ‪The Spirit of Radio‬‏

and I think it sounds pretty close, even though I couldn't get Alex himself to play it for me. So, as a general statement, I think trying to achieve artist tone--even without artist hands--is a worthwhile endeavor (and, evidently, so did the creator of "Stevie's Rotary", "Brown Sound", etc.).

2. More specifically, with regard to SRV, while there's no disputing his unique talents, I have certainly heard musicians come close to his tone without the actual use of his hands (which, he being deceased, would be illegal in most states, even here in Michigan). How? Well, first, yes, talent. But also using the right gear. When I use to play "Tightrope" (badly) through my Line 6 Guitarport, the tone was a reasonable approximation of the real thing. I have no doubt that any Axe-Fx could do better, but I haven't been able to dial it in--my bad. Since the entire purpose of the Axe is to approximate as nearly as possible multiple amps and effects, I find the suggestion to obtain a Super Reverb, a Fuzz Face, etc. to sound like SRV, particularly in the setting of this forum, rather pointless (it would be different, I suppose, had I posed the question on, say, TGP).

3. I'll take my ritual forum beating now. (I see what Scott's had to put up with, and he's respectable!)
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You are honing in on the last thing I added to my post and ignoring the rest. The real point of that sentence was that you could in fact have a perfect reproduction of his tone and still not think you're even close because you're not playing it the same way he did.

You also apparently didn't read the rest of my post, because in the sentences leading up to the one you guys are focusing on is an offer to help Standard and Ultra users get the SRV tones they seek if they'll start a thread relevant to that. You don't need the Axe-II to do that, the Axe-I can already do it. I've tested it myself and with a little homework and trial and error I found the SRV tones I was looking for. I can't play like him, but I didn't find it all that hard to get his tones once I had the right pieces in place.

D
 
dk_ace said:
You are honing in on the last thing I added to my post and ignoring the rest. The real point of that sentence was that you could in fact have a perfect reproduction of his tone and still not think you're even close because you're not playing it the same way he did.
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Dude, I would SO settle for that! :)

Didn't mean to ignore your offer to help. I'd humbly accept and appreciate any tips you can provide.
 
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