Morbid
Inspired
Hello Gents,
Just a friendly discussion that I imagine has happened here time and time again, but with the release of the Quantum Firmware, I wanted to bring it up again to get some new opinions.
First, a little backstory.
I can only imagine many people shared the same view at one point, but I was once against digital modelers entirely. I'd played with and listened to just about every modeler I could get my hands on, and all of them left me wanting. Lack of warmth, no lushness, no smooth grit...it always sounded fake. So I spent a few years putting together my rig, finding the best deals I could, and eventually my Mesa Boogie Mark IV rig was born. All 300 lbs of it, lol. A rig I can't move by myself, but can't help but get weak in the knees when I hear it.
A couple of years ago though, my Mark IV started acting up. After about 20 minutes of play time, the sound would change in a very undesirable way. I could put it on standby, flip it back on and be good for a little while, but it'd always come back. In the midst of all this, I'd been searching for a light weight good sounding solution to an Open Mic Night rig that didn't require a cabinet but was still enjoyable to play (why bring the entire rig for 3 songs?). In comes the Marshall JMP-1. It sounded good, but wasn't really what I was after tonally. Then a deal on the Axe-FX pops up that I couldn't resist, so I grabbed it. It sounded better than any modeler I'd heard, but still took me a few weeks to get a sound I really loved...one that compared to my Mark IV. But with each FW update, things have gotten better and better.
Fast forward some time, and I haven't touched my Mark IV rig, in part because of the sound issue, and in part because I moved. Having moved my old rig recently from one house to another, I'm reminded of how incredibly heavy it is, and how difficult it is to move even with 2 people, and at this point I'm now considering selling it. I'll be plugging it in at some point within the next few days to give it a listen, just to remind myself of what the real tube tone sounds like, but based on all I've heard and seen about Quantum (waiting for some of the bugs to be patched before I upgrade), I've grown to think that perhaps the Axe has reached the point where tubes truly are no longer necessary.
So how about you guys? How many of you sold your "real" rigs in favor of the Axe-FX, and, do you ever miss having a real tube amp?
I already recognize how much more versatile the Axe-FX is than a normal one trick pony rig, so no need to focus on that part of the discussion. It's mainly the tone/feeling/reaction of playing that I'm interested in hearing about
Give me some details if you would. We have a pretty large community of both seasoned and professional players, so I want to hear it all.
Just a friendly discussion that I imagine has happened here time and time again, but with the release of the Quantum Firmware, I wanted to bring it up again to get some new opinions.
First, a little backstory.
I can only imagine many people shared the same view at one point, but I was once against digital modelers entirely. I'd played with and listened to just about every modeler I could get my hands on, and all of them left me wanting. Lack of warmth, no lushness, no smooth grit...it always sounded fake. So I spent a few years putting together my rig, finding the best deals I could, and eventually my Mesa Boogie Mark IV rig was born. All 300 lbs of it, lol. A rig I can't move by myself, but can't help but get weak in the knees when I hear it.
A couple of years ago though, my Mark IV started acting up. After about 20 minutes of play time, the sound would change in a very undesirable way. I could put it on standby, flip it back on and be good for a little while, but it'd always come back. In the midst of all this, I'd been searching for a light weight good sounding solution to an Open Mic Night rig that didn't require a cabinet but was still enjoyable to play (why bring the entire rig for 3 songs?). In comes the Marshall JMP-1. It sounded good, but wasn't really what I was after tonally. Then a deal on the Axe-FX pops up that I couldn't resist, so I grabbed it. It sounded better than any modeler I'd heard, but still took me a few weeks to get a sound I really loved...one that compared to my Mark IV. But with each FW update, things have gotten better and better.
Fast forward some time, and I haven't touched my Mark IV rig, in part because of the sound issue, and in part because I moved. Having moved my old rig recently from one house to another, I'm reminded of how incredibly heavy it is, and how difficult it is to move even with 2 people, and at this point I'm now considering selling it. I'll be plugging it in at some point within the next few days to give it a listen, just to remind myself of what the real tube tone sounds like, but based on all I've heard and seen about Quantum (waiting for some of the bugs to be patched before I upgrade), I've grown to think that perhaps the Axe has reached the point where tubes truly are no longer necessary.
So how about you guys? How many of you sold your "real" rigs in favor of the Axe-FX, and, do you ever miss having a real tube amp?
I already recognize how much more versatile the Axe-FX is than a normal one trick pony rig, so no need to focus on that part of the discussion. It's mainly the tone/feeling/reaction of playing that I'm interested in hearing about
Give me some details if you would. We have a pretty large community of both seasoned and professional players, so I want to hear it all.
