macfly
Inspired
I'm on my third AX8--bought, got frustrated, sold, lather, rinse, repeat. Third time seems to the be charm for me.
My problem has been that I will, over the course of days and weeks, create a patch and then edit it to death. Its something about my personality that I go DEEP down the rabbit hole--months go by and I've barely played because I'm just futzing around with sounds. The first step on the road back was running my real 2204 head through a Two Notes Torpedo Live. My ears are bad after 40+ years of LOUD, so I have no choice but to use IEMs so I can control everything. Nothing beats a nice amp in a room but that's just not a possibility anymore...I tried "controlling" my environment, but it only took one night that I couldn't to send my tinnitus to the next level. That said, the Torpedo helped because it limited the amount of stuff I could tweak...really only had cab and mic to choose. I A/B'd it with the mic and eventually realized that i like the Torpedo better. Long story short, that caused me to try the AX8 one more time...if it's all coming through an IEM, why drag all of that gear around?
THIS TIME I'm using @austinbuddy Dream Rigs and that has made all of the difference. I have a bunch of those presets loaded up and as I tweak to my preferences, I go back to the original AB patch and use it to reference level and tone. In a couple of occasions when I went back to reference, I realized that I liked the AB sound better so I just copied the amp and cab into my preset and I was done. In the end, this has also helped me to branch out and enjoy a lot of other stuff...I'm a JCM800 nut since 1980, and that is my go-to on the AX8, but I am now using a Matchless Chieftain and a brownface Super Reverb really often, as well as an AC30, Friedman BE, and a BF Deluxe on occasion. Most important, I'm not tweaking any more and am able to enjoy playing guitar without feeling a need to obsess over minutia.
My problem has been that I will, over the course of days and weeks, create a patch and then edit it to death. Its something about my personality that I go DEEP down the rabbit hole--months go by and I've barely played because I'm just futzing around with sounds. The first step on the road back was running my real 2204 head through a Two Notes Torpedo Live. My ears are bad after 40+ years of LOUD, so I have no choice but to use IEMs so I can control everything. Nothing beats a nice amp in a room but that's just not a possibility anymore...I tried "controlling" my environment, but it only took one night that I couldn't to send my tinnitus to the next level. That said, the Torpedo helped because it limited the amount of stuff I could tweak...really only had cab and mic to choose. I A/B'd it with the mic and eventually realized that i like the Torpedo better. Long story short, that caused me to try the AX8 one more time...if it's all coming through an IEM, why drag all of that gear around?
THIS TIME I'm using @austinbuddy Dream Rigs and that has made all of the difference. I have a bunch of those presets loaded up and as I tweak to my preferences, I go back to the original AB patch and use it to reference level and tone. In a couple of occasions when I went back to reference, I realized that I liked the AB sound better so I just copied the amp and cab into my preset and I was done. In the end, this has also helped me to branch out and enjoy a lot of other stuff...I'm a JCM800 nut since 1980, and that is my go-to on the AX8, but I am now using a Matchless Chieftain and a brownface Super Reverb really often, as well as an AC30, Friedman BE, and a BF Deluxe on occasion. Most important, I'm not tweaking any more and am able to enjoy playing guitar without feeling a need to obsess over minutia.
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