My quest for a new start and my discovery that may help others

rizzo

rizzo

Inspired
I've been an Axe FX II user for almost 2 years now. I thought I'd share my experience in the hopes that it at least may help 1 other person.

I recently began a new musical endeavor and before starting recording wanted to tweak with my tone and really delving deeper into the unit. After 2 nights of trying every amp/cab combo I decided to pretend I owned only 1 cab just like when I owned a real amp. When that was the case, if I bought a new head, I was forced to make that amp work with that cab by "dialing it in".

Last night I discovered something. I chose the Über 75/30, which is very similar to the Bogner 4x12 I owned for years that I had loaded with Vintage 30s and Heritage 80s. I dialed several of my favorite amps according to that cab it made it much easier for me to get tones I dig. This may not work for all users but it's another way to look at things for anyone struggling the plethora of choices.

I am currently using the Brit Super, Friedman HBE and Hot Kitty with the Über 75/30 cab and they all sound killer. For some reason I owned a Bogner XTC for years but I can't seem to get that model in the Axe FX to sound the same. Maybe it is because it is based on the Anniversary model which is 6L6 and voiced a bit different than my older 101B/EL34 model.
 
I have also done the same thing instead of listening to a cab with the same settings try changing around your as amp settings to get the best sound out of it you can. I have found cabs I didn't think I liked sounding pretty good. Very nice tip you had there!
 
I'm not what you would call an "amp guy"... lacking the $$ for exposure to a lot of different amps. I would just make the best of what I had. That being said, I tend to pick an amp/cab (on the axefx) quickly and just stick with it making minor adjustments over time.

I gravitated to the bassman, then the badger when it came out and was very happy. I eventually (after a year) tried the euro blue (bogner xtc)... and that is hands down my favorite amp in the kit. If I were to go buy an amp, that would be the one.

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that you weren't happy with it compared to the 101B. After using it for a while I started checking the bogner group at rigtalk forums to look into other user settings, and have heard mention of the 101B. I will have to look for some vids on it.

Cheers!

No real point to this post other than I'm a fan of the xtc in the AxeFX.
 
I have been playing around with the cabs as well recently. I noticed that it is not enough to just change to a different cab. People should also be adjusting the high and low end within the cab settings and messing with the motor drive, air, and other settings. It really does make a difference.
 
I had my XTC for 6 years. I actually sold it to be able to buy the AxeFXII. If I could have kept both I would have. Best tube amp I have ever owned and I've had first year Dual Rectos, old 70's JCM800s, some newer Marshalls, plus several other monsters. I had an Ampeg VL-1002 (Lee Jackson) that is probably a close second but the XTC was a motherf*cker. The XTC 101B is just voiced differently than the Anniversary. It's an ear thing. I'm sure if I messed with it enough in the AFXII I could get much closer but I just seem to lose patience if it takes me longer than 5 minutes to get what I want. Plus the longer it takes the more the good old ear fatigue ends up being an issue.
 
i did the same thing when i first got the axe a few months ago. i also picked the same cabinet. i quickly realized that may heads do not sound "good" with that cabinet....which was fine, i just wanted to see what the amps would sound like through a cabinet at my house.

latter i gravitated to using two cabs: t75 and any v30. i liked the semi stereo sound it added to the mix. in headphones it sounded a lot more like what my real cabs sound like at home.

recently, i tried the cabinets that Cliff suggested with each amp, and that resulted in some golden tone that i would have missed by staying with my favorite cab.
 
romanianreaper said:
I have been playing around with the cabs as well recently. I noticed that it is not enough to just change to a different cab. People should also be adjusting the high and low end within the cab settings and messing with the motor drive, air, and other settings. It really does make a difference.
Click to expand...

More power to anyone who can delve that deep into the settings. I can't even get that deep into the amp settings. The most I've done, other than treble/bass/mid/drive changes is lower the depth on on the HBE amp model. I would drive myself batsh*t crazy if I started messing with motor drive, sag, etc. Haha.
 
What I've done is chosen a few cabs I like and stored them in global settings with close x/y alternatives. These are always my first ports of call now.

I agree it's good to choose one amp and stick with it for some considerable time as if you owned the actual amp. Choose one that seems to speak to you and only move on when you really can't get the tone you're looking for from it or when you feel you've really got to grips with it. This has worked well for me anyway. I spent far too long disappearing down rabbit holes. I tend to use the 59 Bassman, Dr. Z, AC30 and Vibrolux at the moment - though the other day I was goofing about and really enjoyed the Gibtone Scout. Not a high-gain guy as you can probably tell!
 
Those are all good tones. I usually have my Y set to clean Fender tone. I'm not always in the mood to crush heads. I always liked bands that had those clean moments in a song and then just hit ya over the head a minute later. Like this...

http://youtu.be/F3wAtWywrP4

I'm actually surprised Billy Corgan hasn't jumped on the Fractal train yet.
 
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