NGD: Finally got myself a tube amp! Need tone help with Axe-fx

Its OK to not have a load on the amp if it's in standby. Nothing is gonna happen to the amp. Even if you accidently turn the amp all the way on briefly without a load, it's not going to instantly fry your amp. If you are plugging into both your 8 ohm cabs (I'm assuming they are both 8 ohm as is typical with Mesa) at the same time, use the 4 ohm outputs. If using just one cab, use the 8 ohm output.
 
mhenson42 said:
Its OK to not have a load on the amp if it's in standby. Nothing is gonna happen to the amp. Even if you accidently turn the amp all the way on briefly without a load, it's not going to instantly fry your amp.
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it depends on whether there's a signal present. If your amp is on with no load and, for example, someone touches the live end of your guitar cord, your amp will try to push current through an infinite impedance, which means it will momentarily try to generate infinite voltage. Of course, it can't do that. It's possible that something will fry first.
 
from my personal experience or should I say inexperience, I found out the hard way with my Ampeg VT-22 ,..
An amp is turned on with disconnected speaker(s) = shorted/burnt out transformer among several other major issues! Not to mention, I could not find a repair tech who had a clue how to fix it, so now it has been sitting for years collecting dust.
 
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Randall d said:
The Master on the Axe works very differently than a Master Volume on an amp. Read up on it in the manual.
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Not really. The taper is not an exact match for all the models, but the function in the circuit is basically identical. Biggest functional difference from the Axe II's Recto model is that the real amp has two master volume controls in series: one for each channel for balancing levels between channels and one for overall level control. The end result is the same (attenuation of the signal going into the power section of the amp), but at different settings compared to the models.
 
mhenson42 said:
Its OK to not have a load on the amp if it's in standby. Nothing is gonna happen to the amp. Even if you accidently turn the amp all the way on briefly without a load, it's not going to instantly fry your amp. If you are plugging into both your 8 ohm cabs (I'm assuming they are both 8 ohm as is typical with Mesa) at the same time, use the 4 ohm outputs. If using just one cab, use the 8 ohm output.
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Hi there Matt, so if I'm running two 8 ohm cabs I plug them into the two 4 ohm outputs instead of the two 8 ohm outputs?
 
I used the Recto1 Orange Normal (?) with the high maxed and the set the
"Dynamic Depth" to 8.5 and man what a difference that made. Still not 100% but definitely more meatier. The "low resonance frequency" sounded like it was just farting out when I was dialing it in with palm mutes so I just defaulted it instead. Today the amp sounded a bit different than it did last night, but overall I don't like the 3rd channel and the clean is just OK. The 2nd channel in Vintage mode with the highs maxed is just killer. With the highs at noon it's really dark. Definitely excited to try this out tomorrow at practice. Next I'm going to try the 4-cable method. Thanks again for the input fellas...
 
mortega76 said:
Hi there Matt, so if I'm running two 8 ohm cabs I plug them into the two 4 ohm outputs instead of the two 8 ohm outputs?
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Yes. That is correct. Use the two 4 ohm outs when using 2 8 ohm cabs. Use the 8 ohm out when using one 8 ohm cab. If you have two 16 ohm cabs, then you'd use the two 8 ohm outs.
 
So I just got home from my first practice with an actual tube amp.

It was spectacular.

I plugged into my new Mesa 2x12 and it sounded really good on channel 2 Vintage mode. I tried it on Channel 3 and I initially didn't like it but I changed some of the settings and then I was able to find a really good settings in Raw mode. I had previously taken my Genz Benz 2x12 and Marshall 4x12 with V30's to the jam room so I went ahead and plugged the Triple Recto into those. First the Genz, it sounded very thick with a lot of meat but still a bit too dark for my tastes. Luckily my other guitarist has been in love with my Genz Benz since he first laid eyes on it so he proceeded to offer me some cash for it and I reluctantly said yes. Actually right before I said yes I had first plugged into my Marshall 4x12 with V30's and I was completely blown away. With my Axe-fx into any of the previous power amps I've ever tried the Marshall always sounded thin. With the Triple Rec it was even better than the Mesa 2x12!!! I was in disbelief. I don't know what the hell to do now. Should I sell my some of my other cabs and the Triple Rec and buy a Matrix Power amp? How much better will it actually be if two Carvins, a Peavey and some off brand all pretty much sounded the same?!?!? Should I sell what I can and just buy a tube power amp?

Should I sell the Axe? :-\

This was the first time that I was cutting through the mix even with cotton in my ears... it was crazy. Dammit.
 
mortega76 said:
What am I doing wrong with my Axe-fx?
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I spent a lot of time today trying to get my Axe/CLRs as close to my BE100/Cab. I can get it about 90% there where it sounds really good. Absent A/Bing it directly with a tube amp, I couldn't ask for more. I just don't think in a head to head comparison it'll ever sound exactly like a cranked tube amp and 412, but it'll sound good enough.
 
Raab90 said:
This.


What power amp are you using btw?

Anyways, consider that rectos and friedmans' tone differs a lot between years. So my guess it that you hit a winner, but there's nothing that tweaking the advanced parameters won't do. Play with the impedance curve a bit more.
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I've used several power amps and they've all generally felt/sounded the same. I've used a QSC GX5, (a buddies) QSC RMX 2450, Carving TS100, Carvin F1200 (same as Cliff used to use), Carvin D1504L, Peavey PV2600 and now I'm using some no name brand ATL-AUDIO CRX450 that sounds no different than all the other power amps except the Carvin TS100 which sounded great but since only one channel worked sounded very low. I want to avoid having any kind of tubes if at all possible.
 
To add to this, every time there is a major firmware revision update I run a reset system parameters... And every firmware update I reset amp sims to defaults by pressing/hold the bypass button. Thoughts?
 
mortega76 said:
To add to this, every time there is a major firmware revision update I run a reset system parameters... And every firmware update I reset amp sims to defaults by pressing/hold the bypass button. Thoughts?
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I think maybe you are trying too hard? It's not difficult to dial in a close to exact tone. I feel the power amp and guitar cab make a lot of difference. My rig is AXE FX (newest model, latest firmware), Mesa 2:50 tube power amp, mesa over-sized 4 x 12 loaded with Celestion Creamback 65s. I came from several mesa tube guitar amps and lastly a Triaxis/mesa 2:90 setup. I do not miss them at all. I have the best cleans, crunch, distortion, effects and tone.
The only thing I have been struggling with is getting the same tone to FOH, without micing the cab. But I'm getting real close. With all this said, try what all the GURUS suggest here. Do not try to modify a preset, but rather start from scratch, pick a familiar amp and cab, then shape your tone. One thing I learned real fast, my guitar, amp and cab are different than the guy that wrote a perfect sounding preset, so my tone is not at all like his. Once I followed the suggestion of starting from scratch, I was nailing killer tone. Also do everything at stage level. Because if you create a preset at bedroom level, it will sound bad when cranked. I would not give up yet, because the AXE is a tremendous piece of gear, with some learning curve.
 
Tommy Tempest said:
...I always wondered why, if they were truly switching between the AXE and the guitar amp, why did the AXE meters always show a signal?
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They were switching between the mic feed and the Axe's direct out, not switching the guitar between Axe and amp. Signal to the amp and the Axe was continuous.
 
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