How many amps do you actually use?

jeremypodom

jeremypodom

Member
I've had my Axe for a little over six months, I think. The thing is, I found/made just a few presets that work great for what I'm doing and have barely touched beyond those few. Does anyone else find themselves in the same boat? I bought a simulator with nearly 200 amps available and virtually limitless cabs and I'm using about 5 of them. I almost feel like I'm cheating. I've also gotten so talented at changing the sound on the corncob amp that when it's time to make a new sound I start with it and tweak until I'm where it needs to be.
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with using only a few amps. You have something to get any sound you could imagine, and you found the flavor/s you like :) The Suhr Badger 30 sim has been my main amp on here for about 3-4 months lol. There are other amps in the same general flavor but that amp has something special about it that puts a smile on my face. I also feel like I under utilize it because most of my patches are Amp-Cab w/ parallel reverb and delay for ambience, but hey I like it :)
 
I find myself falling into the same pattern, so I intentionally "find a new amp" for a song and try to broaden my horizons. If you subscribe to the general impression that most amps are based on Fender, Marshall, Vox, and even that Marshall is based on Fender, then it is not all that unusual to find about 3, that you like, that cover the gambit.

And particularly in a live gig situation. In years past, you've owned one amp and had channel switching and maybe 1-2 overdrives to help rev things up on the 2 channel amp. "fancy" live rigs had 2-4 heads of different varieties. Any more variety than that, and the sound man is pulling his hair out to figure out how to EQ your channel...because it keeps changing too much from one moment to the next.
 
rodzimguitar68 said:
If you subscribe to the general impression that most amps are based on Fender, Marshall, Vox, and even that Marshall is based on Fender, then it is not all that unusual to find about 3, that you like, that cover the gambit.
Click to expand...

Fender, Marshall and Vox

=

the Holy Trinity of amps.
 
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I enjoy the slightly different feel between the amps that I'm currently averaging about 1 amp for every 2 songs. Life would probably be simpler if I stuck with only 3 amps, but it's a ton of fun and heck, they're there :)
 
I think we're all in similar boats there. I haven't utilized scenes yet which would make me use even less amps probably. I currently use Orange RV50, shiva clean, 65 bassman, ac30, plexi1987.
 
I have my favourites:

Shiva clean
Vox AC-30
Dual Rectifier
EVH 5150

Then, i like to play with many other amps too, just for fun. :)
 
Keg8605 said:
I think we're all in similar boats there. I haven't utilized scenes yet which would make me use even less amps probably. I currently use Orange RV50, shiva clean, 65 bassman, ac30, plexi1987.
Click to expand...

Scenes is the shitz for gigs.

I am down to using only three presets on a gig.

I only use 5 scenes in each preset.

I have three presets set up for my humbuckers and the same three presets setup for single coil.

Depending on which type of guitar I am going to take to a gig -- I switch out the first 3 presets to match the guitar (so I always see the correct first three presets on my MFC) and I am done.

could not be easier -- except for the gig load in and load out at the end of the night.
 
To All,

I use 5. Mostly because I have 5 preset buttons. I go from super clean to super dirty.... They are.

Mesa Mark II Rhythm
Fender Twin
Vox AC 30
Marshall Plexi
FAS 5150

Cheers, Mike
 
Dirty:
Orange RV50
Cornford MK50

Clean:
CA3+
Vibroverb

Every now and again I'll swap one out for another that's similar but I would estimate I only use 5-10% of the amp models available. I'm fine with that though :)
 
yek said:
Morgan and Friedman
Click to expand...

For the win :encouragement:

morgan-oscar-reuters_420.jpg
 
I use only one because I'm still really new to a lot of these amps, and with everyone, I look up the amp model on the wiki, then match my best cab IR based on clips from youtube of the particular amp. I save the preset to a folder on my computer and if I play more than around an hour on that amp, I save the preset on the Axe for future review. The more sounds and more expressive ways to make sounds you have in your vocabulary, the better IMHO, so I am considering using two amps but then there's the CPU usage concern.
 
I think all my patches use around 10 of the models, but I could easily cut that in half and cover all the bases.
-
Austin
 
1 amp, 1 cab a guitar and 2 hands is all I need. It's fun to play with the different amps and cabs but I always come back to a clean and dirty version of the same amp.
 
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