Creating a Komet Silver Cloud in the Axe-Fx 3?

tvegas99

Inspired
I want to create this sound in my Axe 3





any suggestions on how to recreate this?

The Silver Cloud is cathode biased, with KT88's, NMV, tone-stack-bypass knob, I think is has a really killer top end that's different from the glassiness of an AC30

Thanks!
 
The Silver Cloud is an original Komet design. I copied a response from Hogy the designer on TGP about the amp below that might help. I never believed the Komet hype until I got one (low power K60). They are amazing amps and I use the K60 amp in the III the majority of the time.

From TGP:

This is basically an amp that I designed for myself, initially. I've been playing and gigging with vintage amps for decades, and I still have quite a collection of old amps. I wanted an amp that has that vintage feel and gain level, without the shortcomings that bug me in the old amps.

My favorite vintage amps are indeed a 1963 JTM45 I've had forever, a 1963 Vox AC30, and a 1960 Tweed Bassman. A 1965 AC100 that sounds HUGE also needs to be mentioned here.

The Silver Cloud is not a copy of any of those amps, but it is founded in those classic tones.

The preamp follows a classic topology all of the above mentioned amps share, but with a very different tone stack and very finely tuned frequency response.

The power amp is pretty unique, I'm running a pair of cathode biased KT88 pentodes in Class A, with no negative feedback. This gives me a very harmonically rich response that seamlessly transitions into overdrive. It's one of those things where you almost can't tell whether you're playing clean or overdriven, it sounds like both. Clean tones that sustain and turn over into harmonics.

There is a control in the preamp I call "TSB" (Tone Stack Bypass). Turning it up gradually routes the signal around the tone control section. Since the tone stack is subtractive by nature and has inevitable insertion loss, bypassing it ups the gain, midrange and harmonics.

The Silver Cloud produces about 55 Watts. With P-90s or humbuckers, significant overdrive starts around 10:00 o'clock on the volume with the TSB off. 11:00ish with Strats and Teles.
Like all Komets, the amp is very sensitive to input levels, so you can much higher headroom by turning down the guitar's volume. It is a very tactile amp that really responds to the player's input.

The Silver Cloud has tremendous, clear bass response due to the KT88s and the big (18lb of steel), proprietary output transformer. Midrange is very vocal and detailed, trebles are chimey yet warm. It's a big, fat, round, clear tone that really let's the guitar's character come through.

I have been gigging the prototype for over three years, constantly tweaking and fine tuning details until I was satisfied that the amp was truly finished.
The feel of the amp was as important to me as the sound. This is an amp that feels great under the fingers. The response is bouncy, never harsh. Very euphonic.

Being proud of it, I'm obviously biased, but I'm also being completely honest when I say that for what I like, this is the greatest amp I have ever played. Hands down my favorite, and the one I could replace my entire collection of amps with (which, thankfully, I don't have to do).
 
I don't know if I've ever wanted an amp so badly after hearing a demo, I hope you love it @theblogjammers !

The k60 I owned was one of the best sounding/feeling amps I ever had, 6v6, 6L6, EL34's all sounded great.

I hope to see a review of your Silver Cloud post honeymoon.
 
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I bet he would !!!

Offer him the chance if he pays round-way shipping.
Those 100.000 karma points might come in handy some day :)
I have never heard of this app before but if it is even half as good as you say it is I am sure that some of us on the forum could chip in to cover the cost of shipping if they wanted to borrow it.
 
Eh, that amp is nothin...
Ahh, who am I kiddin’, that thing is glorious! My goodness, ya gotta love the touch sensitivity of those Komets.. and that variable PAB is beyond killer. The only problem is the no fx loop.. I understand the why and don’t disagree but not really enough to sacrifice fx routing which then leaves time based fx at the board. I’ve never done that in a live situation, (other than using some reverb on vox mics etc) but don’t see why it wouldn’t work, leaves for some less than desirable patching though. Or just learn to live without!

Edit: Komet has a solution to the FX Loop problem:
http://www.kometamps.com/products/ambikab/ambikab
 
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I would maybe start with the Concorde and switch tube type to KT88s. Turn off negative feedback. Without a schematic that's as close as you'll get
 
@mikeyg got it most of the way there with his suggestions. But there's something with the transformer and especially the tone stack that is a little different from the Concorde or the 60. And less gain overall from what I could tell. Hard to gauge from a YouTube video. But it was fun to try!
 
I tried with the Komet 60 and raised the grid bias to 100 to class A operation switched to KT88’s & turned off the negative feedback and added in the cathode follower, lowered the input trim, messed around with the transformer etc.. and used a combo of 57/121 on V30’s on some 2x12 cabs. I even copied that to the B channel and then started switching out the tonestack to some of the other amps he listed as the inspiration for this amp but I really couldn’t come up with anything to my satisfaction that nailed what was in the vid. I actually much prefer just the Komet 60 unmolested. I’m thinking maybe a better way to approach it would be to start off with a true Class A amp and work it from there. It won’t say Comet on it but so what if it works.
 
I'm a big Komet fan too. I still keep my K60 and the Comet 60 is the amp I use most in the AxeFX - clean and dirty.

I messed around with a preset when the Silver Cloud based on Hogy's description above (before there were any videos available) and came up with something I like a lot. I couldn't say how close it is to the real thing but it's a big and sweet sounding clean-ish tone that works well with Strats.

Channel B is a slight reworking of it but with negative feedback. It's therefore less accurate to the Komet but it sounds better to my ears.
 

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