Have you found “your” amp in the FM3?

OP here, revisiting this thread now as an FM9 guy using using a SS PA + guitar cab setup instead of FRFR.

I still like the RV50 and Plexi 100W Jump, but I am also loving the Recto1 Orange a lot! (Not so much into the SLO anymore.)

I think the Recto1 and Plexi may be my two main amps, we'll see.
 
TubeStack said:
I think the Recto1 and Plexi may be my two main amps, we'll see.
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But which Plexi haha there’s a bunch of them. I looked at my post from May and I was on the Cornford. I don’t use it anymore. For Plexis I like the 6CA7 and 1987 jumped or treble. Fenders 5F8, 65 Bassman and Band Commander. The AC20 is great. And the Nuclear Tone kicks ass. For now these cover all my bases.
 
skolacki said:
But which Plexi haha there’s a bunch of them. I looked at my post from May and I was on the Cornford. I don’t use it anymore. For Plexis I like the 6CA7 and 1987 jumped or treble. Fenders 5F8, 65 Bassman and Band Commander. The AC20 is great. And the Nuclear Tone kicks ass. For now these cover all my bases.
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Plexi 100W Jump (mentioned earlier in my post ^^^). There are a lot of them!
 
TubeStack said:
I don't mean a model of an amp you actually own or have owned, necessarily, but one you love and use almost all the time.

For me, it's the SLO 100. I could just play that amp and be happy, it has everything I'm looking for. Also enjoy the 5F8 Tweed, Rockerverb 50, and Plexi 100W Jump, but the SLO was my first “that's it” moment with my FM3.

Have you had one? If so, with what amp?
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I modeled two of my personal amps because neither had the exact amp already in the list. I’m happy with the results; it’s impressive what you can get when you start swapping things around.

And, either amp is more expensive than the FM3.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I modeled two of my personal amps because neither had the exact amp already in the list. I’m happy with the results; it’s impressive what you can get when you start swapping things around.

And, either amp is more expensive than the FM3.
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I'd be curious to know which amps you modeled, Greg. How did you go about approaching the necessary changes to get what you were looking for? Thanks.
 
For high gain I’ve been on the Engl Savage 2 with Shiver Clean for the clean scenes. Haven’t gotten off this for all of 2022.

Vintage stuff? Who knows I keep flip flopping
 
scott.frank.b said:
I have really been digging the Carol Ann Tucana
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I keep getting back to CAs all the time. Every day I try a new amp, looking for that tone I have in my head. Reading those fantastic @yek's posts, remembering most of Cliff's posts on cabs, amps and drives, having wiki Amp page as my bible, checking all @2112 videos and presets, as well as a few other forum residents... But even if some amp grabs my attention for more than a day, I will be on my Tucana or Triptik patches again the next day, just having endless eargasms. I don't think my search for the sound is over, it is far from it, but search for the amp? It should have been called "Boomerang" - don't even try to throw it away!

just-when-i-thought-i-was-out.gif
 
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For me, it's easy and somewhat futile to go down the rabbit hole of tone chasing.. because my ears aren't the greatest anymore and my chops suffer when I tweak too much. It's nice to have some really great-sounding amp models and presets that give me the ability to just focus on playing and recording music.

I'm a huge fan of the FAS models. They sound really good with default settings so it's just a matter of selecting your favorite IR(s) that sounds best with the guitar you want to play, adding some high and low cut filters in the cab block, tweaking EQ to taste, and then playing your damn guitar. I'm a proponent of finding your top couple IR's and sticking with them. It's also fun - but not really necessary IMHO - to play with different impedance curves. But too many variables can start to make finding a great tone more complicated than it needs to be. That's why the FAS models are so good.

Side note: in the spirit of keeping things simple, I just bought the "Fremen's Picks" preset pack and have been really enjoying going through the different sounds. I'm getting ready for my first gig with the FM3 and am narrowing down presets that really cut and sound inspiring.
 
Cam Heiliger said:
I'd be curious to know which amps you modeled, Greg. How did you go about approaching the necessary changes to get what you were looking for? Thanks.
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The first was a Mesa Lonestar Special, which was relatively easy starting from the Texas Star Clean and Texas Star Lead models. Because that's the 100-watt 6L6 2x12 model, it needed power tube changes to EL84 and some other tweaks which I don't remember because it's been a couple of years. I recently added a Class A version of the lead scene because the low-power switch changes the amp to Class A operation, which is done by setting Grid Bias to 1.

The one I've worked on more is a version of a Tone King Imperial Mk II, which is a cross between a Deluxe Verb Vibrato on the rhythm channel and a Dweezil's Bassguy on the lead channel. I changed the power-amp settings of the Bassguy to the same settings as the Deluxe, and adjusted the Speaker Impedance Curves to match the 1x12 Brit G12M, which seems close to what comes with the amp; I think the real amp uses a custom Greenback. I doubt I'm finished adjusting it, but it sounds pretty close. The tube amp is my grab-and-go when I take an amp, so having it in the modeler is nice.

To make them I read many reviews to get the "it sounds like" comments and bounce those off my thoughts, looked at the schematics to get an idea of what was going on when changing channels, and adjusted parameters based on Cliff's and Yek's notes.

Also, I've always tipped my amps back so they fire at my head, so I'm used to hearing what the microphone would hear, or the modeler generates through my FRFR speakers. When I have the modelers at a jam I have some friends who are good players and who know my tube amps, and I'll put them on my presets and then sit back and listen, then ask their opinions afterward and tweak accordingly.
 
I've only had my FM3 for about 2 months so I still have much to discover but my go to, let it all out there is the Friedman factory presets, HBE being my preferred. However, I'm still amazed scrolling through the presets that each one has its own thing going on, sounds incredibly realistic, and is inspiring in its own way. Coming from Headrush, which was nothing but a let down, the amp modeling with FAS is just outstanding and I've yet to pull up a model that hasn't been a joy to play through.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I modeled two of my personal amps because neither had the exact amp already in the list. I’m happy with the results; it’s impressive what you can get when you start swapping things around.

And, either amp is more expensive than the FM3.
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Which amps did you conjure up?
Care to share a preset or two?
 
Dave Merrill said:
Ah missed the thread you linked.

But I'm not familiar enough with those and to want to tweak to match them. I'd give a preset a try if all I had to do was load it though.
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They're using commercial IRs. If I get a chance I'll try to find something suitable in the factory cabs. Without knowing how the amps sound when in front of them it'd be hard to make the presets sound right which wouldn't really accomplish much that was useful.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
They're using commercial IRs. If I get a chance I'll try to find something suitable in the factory cabs. Without knowing how the amps sound when in front of them it'd be hard to make the presets sound right which wouldn't really accomplish much that was useful.
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Or just call out what those IRs are. If they're mainstream, some folks will have them, and if not, the names will help.
 
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