FW 14 Cleans

Jason W.

Jason W.

Inspired
I've read some posts with some folks complaining about grit in their cleans, mostly within the last few FW updates. Is anyone getting pristine cleans with FW 14?
 
Chris, I watched your firmware update vid on youtube, is this still the exact method to update fw? I still have the factory fw (9.02) going. I'm just freaked out about screwing up a step in the updating process. I have the axe 2 mark 2.
 
Try reinstalling firm 14 just in case. But to stay on topic, yes, I've tracked in the past week, since 14 was released. No trouble getting squeaky clean tones with the usual amps, known for clean.

I also used a Marshall clean, by turn the drive way down, and also the INPUT TRIM. It was the first time I ever changed that knob. Very pleased with what it can do, and I plan to mess with it more, in future programming.

14 and ultra res, and my programming and understanding improving, I now find it difficult to get a bad tone. I have had the experience in the first couple of months, where I kept adjusting, adjusting, and then go away for a few days, and come back, and that tone is horrible. Those days are gone now.

It's all good and working great for me.
 
Jason W. said:
Chris, I watched your firmware update vid on youtube, is this still the exact method to update fw? I still have the factory fw (9.02) going. I'm just freaked out about screwing up a step in the updating process. I have the axe 2 mark 2.
Click to expand...

Fractal Bot makes this a breeze now.
 
What about when people say to select amp and re-select amp to get them to work, what is meant by this? After updating I mean.
 
Getting lovely cleans with several amp models.
Jason W. said:
What about when people say to select amp and re-select amp to get them to work, what is meant by this? After updating I mean.
Click to expand...
This will reset all advanced parameters to defaults. Basic controls like gain, master and BMT stay untouched. It is usually not necessary, just when stuff is way off. I noticed sometimes just re selecting the preset makes stuff go back to normal, too, but I suspect my foot controller for screwing stuff up.

There is an update all presets function which will call up each preset in succession, add the new parameters at defaults and save them again. Great fun to see and hear happening. This will prevent many problems.

Good idea to disconnect the foot controller and shut down all programs but the Bot when updating, btw. Don't want anything distracting the PC and the Axe from this task.
 
Thanks Dutch, I think today will be the day of my first update, I hardly use my laptop for anything more than YouTube and EZ Drummer, so I've been reluctant to try any updating. I only have maybe a couple stock clean channels I use and a couple heavy channels I created. I know this has been covered a thousand times, but if I want to back up those heavy presets, do I back them up to the computer somehow or to the axe itself. Thanks man, I have very limited computer savvy!
 
I noticed I was getting a bit of breakup on some of the Fender cleans (the Deluxe Reverb, for instance) that I did not experience before on the stock setting, but that was only on the default and can be dialed out. The Twin and Vibro seemed to sound even cleaner and fuller in 14. I'd say it is likely a settings thing. You can get most any of the amps to distort, but most of them can also clean up with an adjustment.
 
On occasion, people have found bugs along the way where there were incorrect values for certain amp models baked into the firmware. These get fixed pretty dayum fast once discovered though.

For me, the bottom line is, the models are getting so close to the real amps, that they actually clean up better. Even though the default settings might have more break up than previous firmware!

What I mean is, when you take an amp that has natural overdrive at a mid input drive setting, and you lower the input drive (or input trim), when the amp cleans up, the result is much better with more recent firmware. In the past I found extremely low or extremely high settings could get a little strange on some amp models. Not so much anymore.

The cleaned up tone is fuller and still very musical. Especially the mid gain amps. I've got a pretty cool clean using the Marshall 1987x for example.
 
I've noticed with 13 and now 14 that the "tubes" in my presets clipped a little sooner and sounded a bit "softer". I thought I had FW14 tweaked pretty good, but I had lots of mush at the show on Thursday so I rolled back to v13 yesterday.

The major updates just require some reworking of your amps to get back to your sound, but it's well worth it for the modeling improvements they've brought.
 
Jason W. said:
Thanks Dutch, I think today will be the day of my first update, I hardly use my laptop for anything more than YouTube and EZ Drummer, so I've been reluctant to try any updating. I only have maybe a couple stock clean channels I use and a couple heavy channels I created. I know this has been covered a thousand times, but if I want to back up those heavy presets, do I back them up to the computer somehow or to the axe itself. Thanks man, I have very limited computer savvy!
Click to expand...
Best to do both. If you Back up to internal memory it will stay there through FW updates and downgrades. Although when downgrading, a preset made with newer firmware will probably fail.

When updating: disconnect everything but the USB to the axe and follow the instructions to the letter. Shouldn't be any troubles.
 
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