Funny really. From mid-1996, I added a 1960's grey panel Top Boost AC30 to the Marshall JMP 2203 half-stack I was already using for a relatively busy gigging schedule with a noisy alternative rock band. Both of them on all the time in rooms that were big enough. A couple of years later I managed to land myself an earlier cherry panel non-TB AC30, and used the Brilliant channel in the same guise to even better effect. I had a lot of amps before and after, and foolishly sold the non-TB AC30 too early. The Top Boost's Brilliant channel was just too resonant and sibilant in character really, but the Marshall and Vox combination was pretty awesome with either. The Top Boost AC30 did get used for a lot of other bands over the years, and the Marshall 2203 is still with me as the last tube amp I'll ever sell.
But before I drift off topic too far, does it surprise me that the "sonic nirvana" elements I enjoyed when I was just turning 30 turns out to take positions 1 and 2 in a poll of favourite modelled amps? Well not now, it doesn't, because the models are there, and doing a great job of sounding like my favourite amps. So I am completely
unsurprised, in the same way as I was
surprised to hear an FOH engineer say he wasn't going to bother putting my amps into the mix back in early 1997. 200ish person venue, and he didn't want me to turn down on stage because it sounded and felt so good out front. So he just mixed the rest of the band to work with what was coming out of my guitar rig on stage. Once in a lifetime, will never expect that to happen again, but it was an amazingly enjoyable experience to flap my own trouser legs in that way. Sounded and felt amazing.
Monumentally good sounding amps, and clearly monumentally well-modelled in the Axe FX. I'd be feeling more inclined to recreate that old rig in the Axe FX III if I needed to play obnoxious, overpowering and occasionally downright offensive guitar nowadays. Maybe I should be actively seeking the opportunity.
Liam
