Tell me what amps you DON'T prefer!

Billbill

Power User
Hello all, been awhile I have been off the forum last few weeks selling/buying house and doing preventive maintenance!
Anyway, are there any amps in the AxeFx that you just can't jive with? For high gain players, amps you just cannot get to sound right or clean up/clean out some noise issues? We all talk about what we love about the machine, but just curious as to what amps you just can't work with. For me, it's the Engl2 model I cannot get rid of some nasty high end frequencies and when I cut them, the amp is dead! Any thoughts? Thx
 
I wouldn't say I gave the amps enough exploration to fully say that I can't work with them, but when I once tried the Engl Powerball, i thought it was so harsh it was unusable. Might have changed with firmware updates, haven't tried.

Other than that, I think most amps are usable, and they sound great, but I just don't really have a use for them.
I'm a metal guy, but I am trying to get the sound in my head for my band, which is not a traditional metal tone at all.
I'm looking for something powerful, british, moderate gain and clear... So far, the closest I got is with the JCM 800.
So, right now I have no use for a 5150, or the Mesa amps, though I really like them.
 
Similar to what @FreeMind said, it’s really all about what sounds you are looking for. And the IR is such an incredibly important part of the sound, that you need to discuss them together. When people write things like “the Rectos sound great” or “the Fenders are just killing it in this update” I always take it to mean those amps paired with certain IRs. No offense to factory cab 1, but the 1x6 Oval may not make those Rectos sound great (though it may work nicely for other amps).

A lot of the time the differences are subtle. I wanted to make a hard rock preset with a fair amount of gain and thickness. I decided to try the Friedmans. I picked cab 55 and the first Friedman, made a loop, and then selected between the various Friedmans. I made four presets of the ones I liked the best, then did some additonal EQ tweaks. Between those four I ended up liking the Hbec 45 the most. I left it for a day to check them all again, and still went with the Hbec 45.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Friedman 2018, HBE V1, or any of the others aren’t fine amps. There was just some intangible that hit me for the sound I wanted. And I don’t always want that sound. When my band does Black Friday, I’m going to my Plexi 50 (cab 34). For our bluesy songs, I use Jr Blues (can’t remember the cab). For other originals I use Brit 800 with cab 42, a pairing I accidentally stumbled upon when I first got my XL+. That happy accident showed me that every amp had potential use.
 
I don't get along with the Splawns, Bogners... actually I think this is a bit like "the glass is half empty". Would much rather concentrate on the amp sims that really shine. F.ex. many people rave about the Trainwreck amp model but I have never gotten a usable sound out of it. Personally I judge amp sims based on how much effort it takes to make them sound good. So amps like Friedman, EVH, JCMs and Plexis etc. are pretty high on that list because you can't get lost.. then again the amps that I'm most familiar with in real life are Mesas and those are probably the hardest to tweak but once you have them set "correctly" they're amazing. So I would say the Mesa amp sims are not as good as the Friedmans for example but I'll use Mesa most of the time while I wouldn't recommend someone without experience to even try them out. :) It's a difficult question. Many of those combo amps in the unit are a bit "meh" and I believe that you'd need an IR from that combo to make them work like they were designed.... I'm rambling...
 
To me its pretty much the same as real life same with fx drives
I personally do not care for your pawnshop prizes lol like Supro
Gibson scout i cant remember the others but those type of 1950 combo

I also hate FUZZ and bit crusher
Ring mod effects that degrade the signal but again thats me
 
I'm straightforward, a boosted Marshall for higain, a Fender Twin for clean and fuzz, the occasional AC-30 for U2 and Radiohead tones and the occasional Mesa Boogie to double up for recordings. That's all I use, the rest, I don't bother with and I don't plan to bother with. I sometimes see posts here of where you guys discover a new amp, or get a new one with a new update. And then you guys have a good time by playing for hours. Wanna know what gives me a good time by playing for hours? When inspiration strikes me and I come up with new riffs and songs. Different amp model on the other hand? Meh!
 
I had the Axe Fx II XL since firmware 17 and now the III. To be honest I have never spend the time to rehearse all the amps yet (and probably will never do that).

Actual music making gets in the way ... :eek:
 
Bogners...

really you dont like the Bogners?my favorite Bogner Amp is the XTC,i think all depend in the music people like to hear,in your case you like to listen extreme heavy metal like Periphery,,my favorite music style is melodic hard rock and aor,to be honest im not really a mesa amp guy,i am more a Marshall guy,
 
As a non-owner, the Diezel models seem fairly underused and as such it's a struggle to find many videos that sound as good as their real counterparts.
 
Anything other than high gain I pretty much just pick one in the ballpark and roll...usually the shiver clean and one of the oranges for crunchy stuff.

High gain...like others have said it’s not so much about the models as it is the tone I’m after. I can tell the marshalls and Friedman’s are good models and are capable, but the tone and feel just doesn’t do it for me. I want to like the Bonner’s and diesels so much but I just can’t get them where i want them. Sometimes I like the powerball but that usually only lasts until I compare it back to the savage.

Basically all of the high gain models I like, but then I compare them against my savage preset and never switch back. Still waiting for something to dethrone the savage but I just don’t think it’s gonna happen.
 
really you dont like the Bogners?my favorite Bogner Amp is the XTC,i think all depend in the music people like to hear,in your case you like to listen extreme heavy metal like Periphery,,my favorite music style is melodic hard rock and aor,to be honest im not really a mesa amp guy,i am more a Marshall guy,
Actually I'm more of a rock guy myself although my IR's are being used in the djenty genres. I'm more about Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Kooks, Killers, Foo but sure also alternative rock and metal and nowadays also djent at times. I think this is a good example of what I was trying to say, some people will not like certain amps that some people absolutely love. It's very subjective.
 
I’ve never been able to get a usable sound out of the Energyball model. Maybe I just don’t know how to dial Engl’s or something since I have seen people say they like the model.
 
Paired with the right cab, I don't think I have found an amp that I didn't like at least some sound coming out of it.

Then again I view tones like a carpenter views tools, which is the correct tool to use to accomplish a given job.

Just as a carpenter can't say, "Hammers are the best, I don't like saws," I feel similarly about the tools of this trade.

Like I wouldn't try to drive nails with a saw as a regular habit, I wouldn't try to play doom metal with a JC 120 into a 1x6 cab, unless there really was an effect I needed for a certain song part.
 
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