Power amp with real cab garbage sound

[cardinal]

Presence at 0 and treble low should do it. JCM800's are bright.

Both the amp and the Fractal here have the same settings, with the Treble at 4 and Presence at 6.

But on the real amp, if the volume has to be between 2 to 3, the Presence basically needs to be off and I have to hope I have my darkest, warmest guitar.

I think all amps do this? They are relatively warm and bassy down low and get brighter as the volume comes up and then get warmer and compressed as the volume gets way up.

I know with my 5150 and Recto, low volumes are a real struggle because they are too boomy and bassy, but they brighten up and get balanced at reasonable band levels, and then mush out and turn to garbage if you run out of headroom. The 2204 is just a starting at such a brighter/tighter place than amps like those.

 

[Lightningboy]

I always considered speaker break-in to be urban myth stuff but after experiencing it first-hand I can definitely say that there's something to it.

Same here. It wasn't until we were testing out the Celestion G12 Century Vintage Neo speaker (that we first used in the Matrix NL12 and NL212 cabs) that I heard it for myself. Neo speakers are generally brighter anyway but you could hear this top end lessen as you were playing! The difference in even the first half an hour was marked. Overnight it softened up a little more and the difference overall was huge.

 

[LeBigMac]

FWIW I can throw this up here. Axe FX III/Power Amp and a tube amp through the same cab. Just iPhone clips.

Fractal Axe FX III Brit 800/Super OD or '79 Marshall 2204/Boss SD-1. Both into the same 1960AV and the iPhone doing the recording did not move.

Fractal into the cab sounds good to me

A:


B:

Hi man, nice clips! What Power Amp did you use with the Axe Fx? I’m struggling getting the Omph with the Matrix compared with my real 5150 III. I’m considering using a Fryette Power Station instead.
In the Axe I’m using The matching impedance curve. Is that right, or should I set the low resonance freq to a different point?

 

[cardinal]

Hi man, nice clips! What Power Amp did you use with the Axe Fx? I’m struggling getting the Omph with the Matrix compared with my real 5150 III. I’m considering using a Fryette Power Station instead.
In the Axe I’m using The matching impedance curve. Is that right, or should I set the low resonance freq to a different point?

Power amp is a Crest CA9.

I just select the impedance curve closest to the cab I'm using. For the 1960AV, that has been the Bogner 4x12 curve.

I've not tried the Matrix stuff. I generally have preferred the AFXIII with solid state amps. From the clips, the Fractal is very warm (as Cliff mentioned, people truly think it sounds more tube than the tube amps), and stacking a tube power amp after it wasn't to my liking. The CA9 is just pure power.