FRFR or SS+cab?

M

Michielnijboer

Member
I’ve been playing my AX8 with a Yamaha DXR10 for just over a year now. I play in a coverband so love the versatility and being able to switch from ‘David Gilmour type of sound’ to ‘Slash soundwith the flick of a switch.

I do feel like the Yamaha is not doing the Fractal justice though, the one thing I can still improve. I’m thinking of either upgrading to the Dynacord AXM12a or switching to a solid state amp (SD Powerstage probably) with a 2x12 cab (Mesa/VHT etc).

I’m a little concerned that the SS+cab will mean that I lose the versatility of the different IRs (and power amps?) but it would likely be more of a “real guitar sound” onstage and for rehearsals.

Would be interested to hear thoughts on this.
 
Honestly, that's the dilemma - you either go for something flat and use IRs or go with an actual guitar cab and lose that flexibility, but gain the 'amp in the room' feel. There isn't a right answer - you just have to try everything you can and decide what works best for you. I'm working my way through it, too.
 
I played in a cover band for years, and I pretty much used the same tone type setup I do today. Clean, Classic Crunch, High Gain and Lead (Which was high gain with a volume bump and more delay). That with occasional chorus and flange pretty much covered all of the bases.

Quite a few times, I had people compliment my SRV tone when playing one of his songs (I wish I could play as well as him). I was just using my crunch and lead channels for that stuff. What gear? ADA-MP-1. Mesa Boogie 50/50. 4x12 with V30s. Guitar with 2 humbuckers, only volume control and 3 way switch.

So my thoughts are, you can get a lot of range and flexibility with just a couple of patches, switching pickups, and rolling the volume control. To this day, I only use one or two amp models for those four channels. I use the same IR across all of them. It's actually a lot easier to match preset volumes, and sounds more consistent like a 'real amp' does.

FWIW, I still also prefer to power amp -> cab, and I still prefer tubes on the power amp.

But, a lot of people are successful with many different combinations.
 
I run frfr and power amp and cabs simultaneously. I just run an other output to my power amp before the cab block. Sounds huge.
 
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