tone pilgrim
Inspired
I'm a vintage amp lover. I've owned Fender Twins, Supers, Vibrolux's, Bandmasters and Vox AC's. Although I sold my tube amps to get an Axe II over 2 years ago, I still never felt very confident with it as a 'real' competitor to a fine tuned vintage amp. Two things have changed my opinion and my confidence level:
1. The Atomic CLR- For the first time since owning the Axe, I've felt like I was actually getting realistic Fender and Vox tones.
2. The Vintage Shootout- Today I got together an with old friend who has a number of great sounding old amps. I was pretty uncertain going into our jam session how well my Axe + Matrix GT800 + passive CLR would stake up against his '64 Super, PreCBS Pro Reverb, AC 15, and two Plexi's. I was actually nervous.
But playing a few licks back to back on both, my nervousness immediately went away and I began to smile inside. My rig sounded damn good next his. In some ways bigger and better. The CLR has really closed the gap for me on the amp-in-the-room effect. Although it doesn't throw the sound around the room in the same pleasing way a real guitar cabinet does, it does sound much more real than the other FRFR's I've heard (Mackie, Xitone and my old RCF NS12). At one point, I hooked up a small '64 Vox 2x10 cabinet to run along with my CLR. I didn't turn it up enough to actually hear it but just enough to let the open back splash some sound off the walls. There it was- my rig sounded as good and as amp-in-the-room as his 'real' amps.
Conclusion: With my Axe + Matrix GT800 + passive CLR combination, I can sound every bit as good as these beautiful old amps. And with a small 'guitar' cabinet added in mildly, I can sound every bit as amp-in-the-room.
Post Script: In addition to vintage amps, I've also owned 4 Boogies, and a Dumble Bluesmaster clone. I've felt and still feel confident on how the Axe + Matrix GT800 + passive CLR just rips it up in this department compared to these amps as well.
1. The Atomic CLR- For the first time since owning the Axe, I've felt like I was actually getting realistic Fender and Vox tones.
2. The Vintage Shootout- Today I got together an with old friend who has a number of great sounding old amps. I was pretty uncertain going into our jam session how well my Axe + Matrix GT800 + passive CLR would stake up against his '64 Super, PreCBS Pro Reverb, AC 15, and two Plexi's. I was actually nervous.
But playing a few licks back to back on both, my nervousness immediately went away and I began to smile inside. My rig sounded damn good next his. In some ways bigger and better. The CLR has really closed the gap for me on the amp-in-the-room effect. Although it doesn't throw the sound around the room in the same pleasing way a real guitar cabinet does, it does sound much more real than the other FRFR's I've heard (Mackie, Xitone and my old RCF NS12). At one point, I hooked up a small '64 Vox 2x10 cabinet to run along with my CLR. I didn't turn it up enough to actually hear it but just enough to let the open back splash some sound off the walls. There it was- my rig sounded as good and as amp-in-the-room as his 'real' amps.
Conclusion: With my Axe + Matrix GT800 + passive CLR combination, I can sound every bit as good as these beautiful old amps. And with a small 'guitar' cabinet added in mildly, I can sound every bit as amp-in-the-room.
Post Script: In addition to vintage amps, I've also owned 4 Boogies, and a Dumble Bluesmaster clone. I've felt and still feel confident on how the Axe + Matrix GT800 + passive CLR just rips it up in this department compared to these amps as well.