axes
Experienced
When I first tried V10, I didn't like it, you can see my topic below about this. Then Cliff told me that possibly I was doing something wrong, and it turned out that he was right, as always. Now I'm convinced that we finally don't need tube amps anymore.
When the first couple of "advanced" modelers came out (and I would date this to the release of the Line 6 Pod series) some people immediately grew to love it because they sounded a little different than tube amps. They had that smooth tonality that was caused by the device being fully digital and not being able to truly replicate the behavior of a tube amplifier and cabinet. For this reason I would call this effect "smooth tone mockery".
When I started playing the guitar not so long ago my first modeler was a Behringer V-AMP2, which I really liked and thought it sounded fantastic then I upgraded to a Pod XT and I loved it so much I can't even tell.
About a year after my Pod I bought my first real tube setup which was a Marshall 6100 head and a custom Hiwatt 4*12 cab with Fanes. For some reason I didn't like the tone I got from my Marshall, it was so raw and unpolished and I didn't understand what people loved about tube amps so much. My Pod sounded fabulous to me and I was convinced that digital is the way to go. I took another step to the X3 Live and kept it for years, I still have it. But then I felt something missing, I felt like that everything was too polished and smooth. I got into tube amps again and grew to love them. I had a Mesa Stiletto, a VH4, a Peavey JSX, and so on. In the meantime I've also tried the Axe Ultra (which for some reason I didn't like so much) and the green mean machine, too, that I sold a few months later. Profiling isn't the way to go, it seems.
And then I got a great deal on a Marshall YJM100 with an AX Greenback-loaded cab. I was in love with this head and cab, I really really liked it, I finally found everything that I tonally wanted from an amp. But I couldn't let go of my "heritage" of "smooth tone mockery" from playing modelers from day 1. I needed (and still need) that kind of tone, flexibility, tonal variety, and also the ease of recording at home which is pretty hard to achieve with a tube amp. But I didn't know where to turn. I didn't like the Axe Ultra so I didn't think the II would be better for me, the Kemper failed me, and everything else was out of the league.
I sold it. The amp and cab left my house after roughly 3 weeks of purchasing them and I was starting to think about getting a long long break from guitar playing and keeping only a small practice amp. I was confused about what I should do.
Then, I started to check YouTube for videos on guitar gear (that I usually do), and somehow bumped into Fremen's long videos that presented the Axe II with V8 I think. I've listened to Axe II demos before but at this point I was immediately shocked how great it sounded and didn't wait too long before I placed my order on one. It arrived with V8 a few days later, and as soon as I turned it on I knew I've arrived. I wasn't 100% convinced yet that the Axe II will be my last piece of gear (at least before the Axe III comes out, lol) but I knew it was great, and I heard it was great.
Then V9 dropped and I gave up. I had what I wanted, I really loved the Axe II, and I also loved how it felt much closer to tube amps than any other piece of modeling gear I've ever tried. And it still also had a little bit of that "smooth tone mockery" that I always like a little about modelers.
And then V10 dropped on Friday and for the first time I hated it. I hated it, because it brought back this kind of roughness and unpolished tone. Then I sat down and tweaked a little... and had to realize that the "smooth tone mockery" was gone. The Axe II is a tube amp without tubes but it also has the kind of tonal variety and flexibility of a modeler.
The more I'm listening to V10 I'm starting to realize that I've always loved and still love tube amps, I only forgot how great can they sound and how different they can be. I'm not the type of guy who was able to really experiment with tube amps as I could always afford only one of them at the same time with some cab, and this always left me thinking what these amps would sound like mixed together or with different cabs, etc. Now I can absolutely do this with the Axe II, only that it sounds even more fabulous in my room because if I want I can just turn up the Master Volume and turn down the output Level, something I could never do with my tube amps.
Long story short... I have a digital rack-format tube amp now called the Axe-Fx II and finally the end to the "smooth tone mockery" has came, too. The curtain fell and we're all standing before the first device that IS 120+ tube amps without tubes.
Long live the Axe II, long live Cliff and the team, and thank you for being patient with us and guiding us in the right direction when we were on the wrong way.
When the first couple of "advanced" modelers came out (and I would date this to the release of the Line 6 Pod series) some people immediately grew to love it because they sounded a little different than tube amps. They had that smooth tonality that was caused by the device being fully digital and not being able to truly replicate the behavior of a tube amplifier and cabinet. For this reason I would call this effect "smooth tone mockery".
When I started playing the guitar not so long ago my first modeler was a Behringer V-AMP2, which I really liked and thought it sounded fantastic then I upgraded to a Pod XT and I loved it so much I can't even tell.
About a year after my Pod I bought my first real tube setup which was a Marshall 6100 head and a custom Hiwatt 4*12 cab with Fanes. For some reason I didn't like the tone I got from my Marshall, it was so raw and unpolished and I didn't understand what people loved about tube amps so much. My Pod sounded fabulous to me and I was convinced that digital is the way to go. I took another step to the X3 Live and kept it for years, I still have it. But then I felt something missing, I felt like that everything was too polished and smooth. I got into tube amps again and grew to love them. I had a Mesa Stiletto, a VH4, a Peavey JSX, and so on. In the meantime I've also tried the Axe Ultra (which for some reason I didn't like so much) and the green mean machine, too, that I sold a few months later. Profiling isn't the way to go, it seems.
And then I got a great deal on a Marshall YJM100 with an AX Greenback-loaded cab. I was in love with this head and cab, I really really liked it, I finally found everything that I tonally wanted from an amp. But I couldn't let go of my "heritage" of "smooth tone mockery" from playing modelers from day 1. I needed (and still need) that kind of tone, flexibility, tonal variety, and also the ease of recording at home which is pretty hard to achieve with a tube amp. But I didn't know where to turn. I didn't like the Axe Ultra so I didn't think the II would be better for me, the Kemper failed me, and everything else was out of the league.
I sold it. The amp and cab left my house after roughly 3 weeks of purchasing them and I was starting to think about getting a long long break from guitar playing and keeping only a small practice amp. I was confused about what I should do.
Then, I started to check YouTube for videos on guitar gear (that I usually do), and somehow bumped into Fremen's long videos that presented the Axe II with V8 I think. I've listened to Axe II demos before but at this point I was immediately shocked how great it sounded and didn't wait too long before I placed my order on one. It arrived with V8 a few days later, and as soon as I turned it on I knew I've arrived. I wasn't 100% convinced yet that the Axe II will be my last piece of gear (at least before the Axe III comes out, lol) but I knew it was great, and I heard it was great.
Then V9 dropped and I gave up. I had what I wanted, I really loved the Axe II, and I also loved how it felt much closer to tube amps than any other piece of modeling gear I've ever tried. And it still also had a little bit of that "smooth tone mockery" that I always like a little about modelers.
And then V10 dropped on Friday and for the first time I hated it. I hated it, because it brought back this kind of roughness and unpolished tone. Then I sat down and tweaked a little... and had to realize that the "smooth tone mockery" was gone. The Axe II is a tube amp without tubes but it also has the kind of tonal variety and flexibility of a modeler.
The more I'm listening to V10 I'm starting to realize that I've always loved and still love tube amps, I only forgot how great can they sound and how different they can be. I'm not the type of guy who was able to really experiment with tube amps as I could always afford only one of them at the same time with some cab, and this always left me thinking what these amps would sound like mixed together or with different cabs, etc. Now I can absolutely do this with the Axe II, only that it sounds even more fabulous in my room because if I want I can just turn up the Master Volume and turn down the output Level, something I could never do with my tube amps.
Long story short... I have a digital rack-format tube amp now called the Axe-Fx II and finally the end to the "smooth tone mockery" has came, too. The curtain fell and we're all standing before the first device that IS 120+ tube amps without tubes.
Long live the Axe II, long live Cliff and the team, and thank you for being patient with us and guiding us in the right direction when we were on the wrong way.
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