Dude, I finally got to try the new firmware. I haven’t compared side by side, and each new firmware I’ll just dial in tones from scratch. Let me tell you, I’m getting along with models that have never really caught my attention before, like I just set an unbelievable edge of breakup tone from the 5152 Clean, a model I had never cared about at all before! I also got great results with the Deluxe Tweed, AD30, and RV50 right away, amps I rarely touch. With the Deluxe Tweed I had never before been able to get a tone I liked from it, but today was different.
Here’s how I’ve been doing it just for maximum realism:
I first chose an IR for which there exists a Speaker Impedance Curve,
then I reset the amp block,
next I selected the matching SIC,
then I set the Speaker Thump to match using my guess of the proper formula (amp wattage divided by combined speaker wattage multiplied by 5),
then I set the Speaker Impedance on the Power Amp page by ear for the most pleasing frequency response (from what I glean, real world speaker impedance varies enough to where I may as well just go by ear here no matter what),
then messed with the authentic page parameters as normal.
This is all completely unnecessary with all the power and flexibility in the unit, but for getting familiar with new firmware, I think setting things up for the closest to real world variables helps me just to get a feel for what’s changed, then I go as far as I want to mod from there, forgetting about the real world and just turning knobs until stuff sounds best.
Anyway, I read so much about the high gain amps, I just had to start digging in, and at least for the 5150, 5150 II, and VH4 Silver, I absolutely hear that tightness. It was like instant studio top tier metal tones, not only with tightness and heft, but also nuance and personality. It felt so good!
I had not felt that anything was missing before, but really, right away I felt a big difference that was like instant “rightness.” One surprising thing to me was that I had struggled for a while with a harshness with the way my guitar hit the lead channel of the 5150 II, but that was utterly gone now, replaced with utterly perfect metal!
With this new algorithm I will note totally go through all the models again to see how they interact with my guitar. I feel like I got a brand new AxeFX with this firmware. I mean, these tweaks have a gargantuan impact to my ears. I instantly got the best rock tone ever from the BE V1, and everything I touched just felt effortlessly characterful and really pleasing to hear, just with the very basic method I outlined above. And of course I can fine tune from there. I was aware that this thing essentially gives you wings, but now it’s just way even easier to me to get wherever I want to go in tone.
I didn’t even get to my favorite amps of recency, the Plexis, or to any pedals at all! I’m like a kid in a freakin’ candy store.
It’s hard to withhold gushing about these updates, but they really are tremendous to me, so I eternally sound like I’m hopped up on goofballs or something. But I don’t care; this kind of effortless tone shaping is what I think a lot of us dream about, so you can get past your tone right away and focus better on playing, writing, standing in cool poses, attracting groupies, or whatever it is we as individuals care about when we pick up our instruments. What a time to be a guitarist.
Thanks as always to Cliff and all the engineers who work endlessly to make the best even better. I’m shocked both that this product exists and that I own one.
