I knew you'll love hearing your old moniker!
Good memories! I haven't registered an account back then, was only a teenager appreciating guitar related music online and I remember liking your songs, too, which is why the name stuck with me even after almost 15 or so years.
I totally get what you mean, your ear will guide you to that specific tone in your head no matter what gear you're using. At the end of the day, it's all about making music, gear is only there to facilitate this process. Glad you ultimately also found your tone on the Axe FX II. Are you using pre-quantum Axe FX II firmware? Which is your favorite firmware version?
It IS you! Hahaha! Always loved your playing and ideas. We sure did spend a lot of time hanging out back then, didn't we? It was a fun time....cam's with dropped frames in slow motion, mono audio....haha!! Sure is great to hear from you. I always wondered what happened to you and some of the others. I'm still friends with a few from there.
Yeah sometimes the ear guides us, but the hardest thing for guitar players is, you spend a lifetime getting that tone you absolutely love, only to find out it's good for an "all alone" sound, and not good with a mixture of other instruments. I became pretty good friends with Beau Hill, the dude that produced Ratt, Dweezil, Alice Cooper, Warrant, Europe, Winger etc. I asked him one time to do an interview with me for my old message forum I used to have. He agreed to it and one of the questions I asked him was about the tone on "Lay It Down". He said Warren could play through a pignose and still sound like Warren. Same with Kee Marcello from Europe and Reb Beach from Winger.
He said he got that "Lay it Down" tone where he wanted it pretty much, and then when the band kicks in, it was probably automated differently to fit the mix. He couldn't really remember because it was so long ago. He was flattered people even loved those tones as much as they did. I think a lot of players miss this aspect when trying to create their "ultimate tones". Another bad habit is guitar players are always going for thickness and over use bass and too much gain. Once you can feel the low end pumping, you're using too much. Once you sound like a run-on sentence, you're using too much gain. Anything under 80hz to me usually sounds like "whoomf" and starts masking with the bass. All of the above is just my personal opinion though.
Anyway, I've always liked the earlier versions of the FW even though you may not get the best options. To MY ears, some of the later stuff just sort of had more of a transistor tone, sound wise. It behaved more like tubes, but something just
sounded artificial. Like most of the guys that create slamming EVH tones on here. Listen to their pinch harms. They don't do those screams EVH did like, Intruder, or at the Meanstreets solo. Listen close now that I've pointed it out to you. All the pinch harms on user presets have that synthetic, transistor sound to me. If you were able to download and try my VH preset for the Ax8 using the right FW where it was created, you get that scream I'm talking about. Some got EVH tones way better than me, but I had the important elements that had the core tone pretty darned close. Getting the sound is easy....getting the elements will always be the challenging parts.
In earlier FW, it is my personal belief that the 12AX7 tones were stronger and more precise. Cliff once explained it to me as a "starved plate" type effect. We sort of drifted away from that, and to me, that was one of the qualities I needed in a tube rig. The output tubes aren't as important to me using a high gain tone than having that 12AX7 front end rip my nuts off. Fractal, in my opinion, has always been at the forefront for that particular sound. But for me, it lies within some of the older FW even if it isn't the BEST choice. It has been for me and what I personally need and look for in a tone.
As far as faves, I got some of the best live tones ever with FW 15 pre quantum. It just sounded so insane there. BUT, there was a hint of that transistor thing I was talking about along with how it FELT. Quantum 1 for me was tough to warm up to. Q2 blew me away! I felt the tube element was insanely good, the feel was there, and by Q4, with the FW adjustment option built into AXE Edit, I was personally in heaven because it never hosed my sounds and I could use multiple FW in one update. Anything after that just wasn't for me. However, the latest 10.1 in my AX8, is fantastic and I get everything I need from it. The same FW on my XL+ or my regular AXEII, and it just doesn't get the same sound. It's a bit loose to where I can't tighten it up like I can in Q2-4.
And, if I copy the patch I love in my AX8 in the AXEII using identical settings, it sounds so different, it's mind boggling. Most of the time, all my patches I've shared between the two are so close, it's not worth comparing. But for some reason, I'm not even close and I can't get whatever the AX8 is doing that the rack aint! LOL! It's good, I just like what I have already. There's something with the older FW using the 5 amps I use that just sings to me. For me, the object is to get the best tone, not to get the FW with the most bells and whistles that forces me to rework everything I've slaved over.
Being older with less patience, I don't have it in me to start over unless the benefits obliterate what I have. Remember the posts with people crying about redoing their tones due to an update and the masses responding "well, don't update!"......I was one that cried all the time. One day I listened to the masses and just stuck with what worked for me. I might have had more friends around here if I would have just listened to the masses over crying every month when an update came out. But I too wanted the latest and greatest. I'm actually sorry that I cried about it as often as I did. But I also can't help that I'm human and just wasn't on the train with everyone else all the time. Glad to see you're still around man. Stay healthy and safe!