mortega76
Fractal Fanatic
I had the pleasure of going over to a buddy's house (Paul) yesterday because he's got the itch for an Axe-fx Ultra and wanted to check mine out compared to his setup... as I mentioned he has a Peavey 5150 and ENGL SE with the MXR Zakk Wylde OD into both amps... his setup sounded awesome into his two identically setup Mills cabs with V30/G12K-100 in X-Pattern... I wish I would have had some time to take my two Marshall cabs with G12T-75's to compare. Paul told me that he installed a $40 German pre-amp tube that adds low end girth to both his amps... he said it's a simple mod that makes the amps sound much “meatier”.
Well, he proceeded to plug in his Les Paul Custom with EMG 81(b)/85(n) that sounded awesome! We were talking about string gauges as well and it turns out he is running .68's for the same tuning that I tune to (Dropped Bb)... crazy!!! I need to look into that because the .60 is just not cutting it anymore for me.
Anyhow... he plugged in and I was impressed with the sound of his setup, but I heard a sort of low end girth rumble that I've never heard in my Axe-fx setup so I started talking to him about it and he said he was just used to the sound... I wondered if that was what "tube amp feel" is? He played for a bit and then we switched the connections to plug in the Axe-fx/PV1500 and using my live distortion patch (Das Metall) we instantly noticed that the Axe-fx didn't have this low end girth rumble at all... it had the mids and none of the high end sizzle that I've come to notice on both of my experiences when comparing to tube amps. I looked at his settings and noticed that he had the presence set almost to full (9)!!! Paul wanted to try out a dual amp rig (in the Axe-fx) so I looked to find a dual rig patch and setup the VH4 (Das Metall) and Rectifier (New Recto) and it sounded just "ok"... I was blown away as to how much better his rig sounded that the Axe-fx. Listening to his setup I started thinking about how I really wanted to get a 5150 now because it just sounded killer! I didn’t even bother to look at the ENGL SE because it’s way out of my price range if I want to keep the Axe-fx.
So, just as I was about to say that I had to leave to practice (in a defeated stupor), I got the idea that I wanted to hear the 5150 by itself and try to mimic the 5150 with the Axe-fx's 5150 amp sim by dialing it up exactly as his amp's settings... Peavey on the left and the Axe-fx on the right so we can A/B directly... on first try it sounded close but the low end wasn't there... and surprisingly some of the great presence sizzle WAS there... not all, but some. I really like this tube amp presence sizzle that tube amps have and for whatever reason I’ve never heard with my Axe-fx. I had him play a couple of riffs while I adjusted it and much to my surprise I got veeeeery close by following Cliff's age old advise "turn down that damn master!!!" So I had the master set to about 2.5 and the level up to about 12.00 (which just never looks right to me but damn it if it didn't sound so awesome!!!) We had it sounding very similar except for a bit of mid-range growl that was in the 5150 that wasn't in the Axe-fx, so I got the idea to pop in a GEQ and kicked up the lows a bit and the mids up a bit (especially at 1k) and bam!!! We had the Axe-fx sounding BETTER than the 5150!!!! Crazy!!! But as I said, that tube presence sizzle was missing a bit.
Only thing I didn't like was that the Peavey 1500 (both channels dimed) was lighting up like a Christmas tree with its red LED's on a constant red along with the Axe-fx's output... I sure do wish we had a brick wall limiter (?:1 instead of just 20:1) but that's for another post.
In the past I had purchased a Carvin TS100 tube power amp that had a defective channel, so I've run 50-watts of tube power and it definitely was nowhere near as loud as I need for practice... not even close. But this Peavey 5150 at 100-watts of tube power was making mincemeat of my 500-watts per channel SS power amp at almost full power with all kinds of warning lights telling me to turn it down... all this and the 5150 was only running the output at about 1 o'clock!!!! Crazy!!!
One thing I did notice was that when I turned down the presence on his amps (to zero), they sounded very similar to the Axe-fx’s amp sims… so what I like in an amp is the high end presence sizzle… but as I said, for whatever reason I’ve never been able to get in the Axe-fx, I need to play with that a bit…
So in the end, Paul now has GAS for an Axe-fx Ultra... and I have GAS for the power amp section of a 5150... :lol:
Well, he proceeded to plug in his Les Paul Custom with EMG 81(b)/85(n) that sounded awesome! We were talking about string gauges as well and it turns out he is running .68's for the same tuning that I tune to (Dropped Bb)... crazy!!! I need to look into that because the .60 is just not cutting it anymore for me.
Anyhow... he plugged in and I was impressed with the sound of his setup, but I heard a sort of low end girth rumble that I've never heard in my Axe-fx setup so I started talking to him about it and he said he was just used to the sound... I wondered if that was what "tube amp feel" is? He played for a bit and then we switched the connections to plug in the Axe-fx/PV1500 and using my live distortion patch (Das Metall) we instantly noticed that the Axe-fx didn't have this low end girth rumble at all... it had the mids and none of the high end sizzle that I've come to notice on both of my experiences when comparing to tube amps. I looked at his settings and noticed that he had the presence set almost to full (9)!!! Paul wanted to try out a dual amp rig (in the Axe-fx) so I looked to find a dual rig patch and setup the VH4 (Das Metall) and Rectifier (New Recto) and it sounded just "ok"... I was blown away as to how much better his rig sounded that the Axe-fx. Listening to his setup I started thinking about how I really wanted to get a 5150 now because it just sounded killer! I didn’t even bother to look at the ENGL SE because it’s way out of my price range if I want to keep the Axe-fx.
So, just as I was about to say that I had to leave to practice (in a defeated stupor), I got the idea that I wanted to hear the 5150 by itself and try to mimic the 5150 with the Axe-fx's 5150 amp sim by dialing it up exactly as his amp's settings... Peavey on the left and the Axe-fx on the right so we can A/B directly... on first try it sounded close but the low end wasn't there... and surprisingly some of the great presence sizzle WAS there... not all, but some. I really like this tube amp presence sizzle that tube amps have and for whatever reason I’ve never heard with my Axe-fx. I had him play a couple of riffs while I adjusted it and much to my surprise I got veeeeery close by following Cliff's age old advise "turn down that damn master!!!" So I had the master set to about 2.5 and the level up to about 12.00 (which just never looks right to me but damn it if it didn't sound so awesome!!!) We had it sounding very similar except for a bit of mid-range growl that was in the 5150 that wasn't in the Axe-fx, so I got the idea to pop in a GEQ and kicked up the lows a bit and the mids up a bit (especially at 1k) and bam!!! We had the Axe-fx sounding BETTER than the 5150!!!! Crazy!!! But as I said, that tube presence sizzle was missing a bit.
Only thing I didn't like was that the Peavey 1500 (both channels dimed) was lighting up like a Christmas tree with its red LED's on a constant red along with the Axe-fx's output... I sure do wish we had a brick wall limiter (?:1 instead of just 20:1) but that's for another post.
In the past I had purchased a Carvin TS100 tube power amp that had a defective channel, so I've run 50-watts of tube power and it definitely was nowhere near as loud as I need for practice... not even close. But this Peavey 5150 at 100-watts of tube power was making mincemeat of my 500-watts per channel SS power amp at almost full power with all kinds of warning lights telling me to turn it down... all this and the 5150 was only running the output at about 1 o'clock!!!! Crazy!!!
One thing I did notice was that when I turned down the presence on his amps (to zero), they sounded very similar to the Axe-fx’s amp sims… so what I like in an amp is the high end presence sizzle… but as I said, for whatever reason I’ve never been able to get in the Axe-fx, I need to play with that a bit…
So in the end, Paul now has GAS for an Axe-fx Ultra... and I have GAS for the power amp section of a 5150... :lol: