New to Fractal coming from Tube amps

ibrockin

Member
I’m pretty old old school, tube amp, drive pedal, chorus pedal sometimes , wah pedal occasionally. Classic Rock and blues are my favorite genres. But I like music from Johnny Cash to Metallica.

So far, I made a Blues preset and rock preset that I am very happy with. Took about 20 minutes to get blues preset and about 45 minutes to do a rock one.

Here are my suggestions that might help those that are new to fractal:

1. Cooper Carter and Rosh Roslin how to videos are full of great tips on making presets.
2. Fm3 to my ears, accentuates different pickups more than the tube amps I am used to working with.

I am mostly a Strat player. If I dial in a preset on Strat with noiseless pups, then try it with lace sensor Strat, it sounds way different. If I try it with humbucker Strat, I might as well start a new preset…where as on a tube amp I would tweak the bass, mid, treble and be done. With Fm3, I tweak the bass, mid, treble, change cabs and mics.

while I have not been able to get this thing to sound exactly like one of my tube amps, it gets amazingly close and sounds better than some tube amps on the market. On the other hand, there are so many sounds in this thing, it is amazing. The effects alone would justify the price.

Pros:
plethora of useable sounds, cabs and mics
effects are top knotch
Could replace a whole pedal board
Everything is adjustable even bias settings
No tubes, caps or fuses to change
No attenuator required to play at reasonable volume
Lots of forums, videos and chat rooms for help

Cons:
Takes some time to understand how to get “your” sound out of it
I have to program a different set of presets for each guitar I use.

Recommendations: buy one. It has inspired me, might do the same for you.
 
Coming from tube amps?
Very best advice, you should return to your tube amp
if your looking for authentic valve tone that we all hear and love
on so many of our favorite songs played by our favorite guitar gods
very, very few guitarists of note use the Axe Fx 3 or any Axe Fx for that matter for the
primary emulation of amp model
What is used in the trade from my personal experience as a studio and touring professional musician for more than 40 years are the many
quality FX (thus “AxeFx”) and routing options available as well as the portability, Axe Edit, Fc controllers and the many updates all with the attempt to reach that goal of really emulating the world most sought after amp tones
Fractal is the closest imho compared to everything else I own including, cortex, helix and Kemper
But! The tube warmth is still a prize to be obtained, so if you love your tube amps but need or want more
then buy more tube heads, Marshall, Friedman, Vox, Fender..whatever your preference for the real tone by the real amp
add a torpedo captor x or OX box and you will not be disappointed
But if you want quality and power with many, many choices and are satisfied with close enough for the price then enjoy the latest in the field of amp, cabinet, Fx modeling and everything else you will get with your new fractal
 
I’m pretty old old school, tube amp, drive pedal, chorus pedal sometimes , wah pedal occasionally. Classic Rock and blues are my favorite genres. But I like music from Johnny Cash to Metallica.

So far, I made a Blues preset and rock preset that I am very happy with. Took about 20 minutes to get blues preset and about 45 minutes to do a rock one.

Here are my suggestions that might help those that are new to fractal:

1. Cooper Carter and Rosh Roslin how to videos are full of great tips on making presets.
2. Fm3 to my ears, accentuates different pickups more than the tube amps I am used to working with.

I am mostly a Strat player. If I dial in a preset on Strat with noiseless pups, then try it with lace sensor Strat, it sounds way different. If I try it with humbucker Strat, I might as well start a new preset…where as on a tube amp I would tweak the bass, mid, treble and be done. With Fm3, I tweak the bass, mid, treble, change cabs and mics.

while I have not been able to get this thing to sound exactly like one of my tube amps, it gets amazingly close and sounds better than some tube amps on the market. On the other hand, there are so many sounds in this thing, it is amazing. The effects alone would justify the price.

Pros:
plethora of useable sounds, cabs and mics
effects are top knotch
Could replace a whole pedal board
Everything is adjustable even bias settings
No tubes, caps or fuses to change
No attenuator required to play at reasonable volume
Lots of forums, videos and chat rooms for help

Cons:
Takes some time to understand how to get “your” sound out of it
I have to program a different set of presets for each guitar I use.

Recommendations: buy one. It has inspired me, might do the same for you.
Welcome to the forum. I’m glad you’re inspired by your new gear! It does take a while to wrap your mind around it, but it’s worth the effort. Thanks for sharing.
 
very, very few guitarists of note use the Axe Fx 3 or any Axe Fx for that matter for the
primary emulation of amp model
tenor.gif
 
Prove me wrong grinch
Let’s see a list
Metallica sure every heavy chunk chunk sounds the same they are not known for their quality of tone
I’m talking Vai, Eric Johnson, Van Halen, Nick Johnston, Satch, Slash, Jeff Beck,
Andy Timmons, Greg Howe, Steve Howe,
Thurston Howe the third, Malmsteen, Iron Maiden, Pete Thorn
 
Prove me wrong grinch
Let’s see a list
Metallica sure every heavy chunk chunk sounds the same they are not known for their quality of tone
I’m talking Vai, Eric Johnson, Van Halen, Nick Johnston, Satch, Slash, Jeff Beck,
Andy Timmons, Greg Howe, Steve Howe,
Thurston Howe the third, Malmsteen, Iron Maiden, Pete Thorn
It goes on and on and on it’s heaven with tube amps, oohhh yeah
Oh yeah Sabbath
 
One of my YouTube favs
“Players gear and rig rundowns”
Easy to be educated regarding players gear when they are on vid breaking it down,
Just keeping it real
No offense to the tribe
 
G'day @ibrockin

Welcome!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree - The unit is a beast!
Look forward to your contributions in the future.

Pauly

I’m pretty old old school, tube amp, drive pedal, chorus pedal sometimes , wah pedal occasionally. Classic Rock and blues are my favorite genres. But I like music from Johnny Cash to Metallica.

So far, I made a Blues preset and rock preset that I am very happy with. Took about 20 minutes to get blues preset and about 45 minutes to do a rock one.

Here are my suggestions that might help those that are new to fractal:

1. Cooper Carter and Rosh Roslin how to videos are full of great tips on making presets.
2. Fm3 to my ears, accentuates different pickups more than the tube amps I am used to working with.

I am mostly a Strat player. If I dial in a preset on Strat with noiseless pups, then try it with lace sensor Strat, it sounds way different. If I try it with humbucker Strat, I might as well start a new preset…where as on a tube amp I would tweak the bass, mid, treble and be done. With Fm3, I tweak the bass, mid, treble, change cabs and mics.

while I have not been able to get this thing to sound exactly like one of my tube amps, it gets amazingly close and sounds better than some tube amps on the market. On the other hand, there are so many sounds in this thing, it is amazing. The effects alone would justify the price.

Pros:
plethora of useable sounds, cabs and mics
effects are top knotch
Could replace a whole pedal board
Everything is adjustable even bias settings
No tubes, caps or fuses to change
No attenuator required to play at reasonable volume
Lots of forums, videos and chat rooms for help

Cons:
Takes some time to understand how to get “your” sound out of it
I have to program a different set of presets for each guitar I use.

Recommendations: buy one. It has inspired me, might do the same for you.
 
Joker that’s just the endorsement page from the fractal site
One only has to look at the rig rundowns to know where Steve Vai (for one) gets his tone live as we know his namesake carvin legacies are studio staples
but live it’s
4 Synergy hardware hand wired preamps 1 for Friedman licensed tone into Fryette power amps the AxeFx is for routing and Fx patching controlled via a fc12, no modeling
As I said is my original post
Fractal has much to offer but realistic modeling isn’t the draw for name players
It’s not a put down I own the fractal products
It’s just the reality and the folks with handles like “Fractal Fanatic” take offense when they are exposed to real use scenarios
I don’t get it
 
Joker that’s just the endorsement page from the fractal site
One only has to look at the rig rundowns to know where Steve Vai (for one) gets his tone live as we know his namesake carvin legacies are studio staples
but live it’s
4 Synergy hardware hand wired preamps 1 for Friedman licensed tone into Fryette power amps the AxeFx is for routing and Fx patching controlled via a fc12, no modeling
As I said is my original post
Fractal has much to offer but realistic modeling isn’t the draw for name players
It’s not a put down I own the fractal products
It’s just the reality and the folks with handles like “Fractal Fanatic” take offense when they are exposed to real use scenarios
I don’t get it
Not taking offense at all. You asked for a list, there's the list. Fractal doesn't pay for endorsements, artists comments are not solicited. True, not every artist on the list uses the amp modeling but to say 'realistic modeling isn't the draw for name artists' is simply untrue. A lot of the artists have made the change to FAS gear because of the modeling.

Metallica, Def Leppard, John Mayer, Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), Matt Bellamy (Muse), Neal Schon, Guthrie Govan, Devin Townsend, Joe Satriani and Steve Stevens, to name a few from the list, use the amp modeling live or in the studio. There are videos of John Mayer, Neal Schon and Guthrie Govan in particular either playing through an Axe Fx Live or showing their 'rig'. Do a bit of research and educate yourself unless you just want to argue.

BTW, the 'Fractal Fanatic' moniker has nothing to do with anyone's thoughts or opinions on, nor any 'devotion' to FAS products. It's based upon the number of posts by a forum member.
 
I have to program a different set of presets for each guitar I use.
I don't. I let each guitar shine in the preset. The only thing I'll change is the global gain, which I added to my Global Performance settings, if I'm not getting quite the amount of distortion I want, given the type of pickups.

Like tonight, I was using a Strat that's set up with '59-like single-coils so they're not too hot, so I nudged that global up to 1.8 so they started to push everything a bit harder. The single-coils sounded great. Two friends with humbuckers who played on it later loved it too when I forgot to turn it back to 1.0. :)
 
Joker that’s just the endorsement page from the fractal site
One only has to look at the rig rundowns to know where Steve Vai (for one) gets his tone live as we know his namesake carvin legacies are studio staples
but live it’s
4 Synergy hardware hand wired preamps 1 for Friedman licensed tone into Fryette power amps the AxeFx is for routing and Fx patching controlled via a fc12, no modeling
As I said is my original post
Fractal has much to offer but realistic modeling isn’t the draw for name players
It’s not a put down I own the fractal products
It’s just the reality and the folks with handles like “Fractal Fanatic” take offense when they are exposed to real use scenarios
I don’t get it
Yes you are absolutely correct. Amp modeling sound has nothing to do with the popularity of an amp modeler. The only name players using axe modeling are nasty and gross like Metallica. Ewwww
 
I don't. I let each guitar shine in the preset. The only thing I'll change is the global gain, which I added to my Global Performance settings, if I'm not getting quite the amount of distortion I want, given the type of pickups.

Like tonight, I was using a Strat that's set up with '59-like single-coils so they're not too hot, so I nudged that global up to 1.8 so they started to push everything a bit harder. The single-coils sounded great. Two friends with humbuckers who played on it later loved it too when I forgot to turn it back to 1.0. :)
Unfortunately, I’m not that lucky. My four favorite guitars have drastically different pickups. One has single coils, plus a 25db mid boost, one has lace sensors, another with noiseless single coils wired in parallel and one with 490 humbuckers. I have another guitar that has the S1 switch wiring. It has 10 pickup settings instead of 5. Usually it has at least one setting that works with about any preset. I just haven’t bonded with that guitar yet.
 
Unfortunately, I’m not that lucky. My four favorite guitars have drastically different pickups. One has single coils, plus a 25db mid boost, one has lace sensors, another with noiseless single coils wired in parallel and one with 490 humbuckers. I have another guitar that has the S1 switch wiring. It has 10 pickup settings instead of 5. Usually it has at least one setting that works with about any preset. I just haven’t bonded with that guitar yet.
Ah, the usual menagerie. I used to have guitars from four different brands but got tired of having too much variability. Pre-modelers, when using a pedalboard and amp, I always had a little boost immediately after my tuner, usually an EP-1, that I’d twiddle to bring the guitars’ output back to my liking.

I got tired of having to fuss with it eventually so I consolidated my Strats so they now use the same pickups, bridges and harnesses and now it’s the wood that gives them their different voices. Their output is consistent, which is great. My other guitars are now only PRS and they can cover the same ground as the Strats and my humbucker/“Gibson” side of things sound-wise, and they’re pretty consistent output-wise too.

The end result is it’s now pretty easy to adjust for them. With two basic types I originally had a switch to step on that adjusted the Input block’s level to compensate for their pickup output, similar to what the EP-1 did, but then I was playing the PRS the majority of the time and removed the switch and reverted to using the global gain in the global performance screen.
 
Unfortunately, I’m not that lucky. My four favorite guitars have drastically different pickups. One has single coils, plus a 25db mid boost, one has lace sensors, another with noiseless single coils wired in parallel and one with 490 humbuckers. I have another guitar that has the S1 switch wiring. It has 10 pickup settings instead of 5. Usually it has at least one setting that works with about any preset. I just haven’t bonded with that guitar yet.
I also have guitars with a wide range of pickups:
Schecter- Suhr SSH/Seymour Duncan Jazz; Ibanez- Dimarzio Mo'Joe/Pro Track and another w/ Bareknuckle Black Dogs; PRS- TV Jones Power 'Trons; Reverend- Revtrons; Tele- Fralin High Output Split blades, another with Fender CS Nocasters; Strat- Kinman Blues set, another with Dimarzio Virtual Solo/Virtual Blues/Virtual Blues.

The only thing I've ever felt the need to do with presets is adjust the Amp block Level to compensate for the difference in output between the pickups. This provides me with the feel and tonal differences I am looking for when selecting a guitar for a certain song or style. I don't believe I've ever read that someone needs to go as far as changing IRs when changing guitars. The natural, characteristic tone of the amps doesn't change in my experience. Yes, there is a noticeable tonal difference but nothing unexpected or unwanted.

Maybe post a preset or two, explain the guitars you're using and what the issue is when changing guitars that is causing you to want to change IRs or drastically change amp settings.
 
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