Tips for more natural feel & tone w/ power amp and cab ?

Goldtop57

Goldtop57

Inspired
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I'm using the axe fx through the power amp of a 100w 6L6 Two-Rock, through a Two-Rock 2x12 oval back cab. I'm struggling to dial in satisfying tones. They usually feel too direct and strident, and the high end is weird (a lot of fuzz around the notes, much more so than my analog rig).

I've tinkered with all the advanced parameters (to no avail), but I was wondering if there are any must do changes when using a tube power amp and cab ?
 
Ok thanks. Is there an alternative to turning it off ? I'm a vintage tones kind of guy and would hate to lose the power amp breakup.
 
will have to try the GT1000FX then.

Would you recommend a SS power amp over a neutral tube power amp like the Fryette Power Station for the most tube like feel and tone with the Axe FX ?
 
The problem is that you have the Axe-Fx's virtual power amp break-up going through your Two-Rock's power amp break-up. You kinda have to pick one or the other? It's like using a cab+mic sim into a real cab and mic.
 
Goldtop57 said:
will have to try the GT1000FX then.

Would you recommend a SS power amp over a neutral tube power amp like the Fryette Power Station for the most tube like feel and tone with the Axe FX ?
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Yes. There is no such thing as a "neutral" tube power amp.
 
Cliff, sorry for all my questions, but the search for a power amp is a real headache and I could definitely use some help...

Is that (no tube power amp is neutral) because it interacts with the cab and boosts the lows and highs, and if so,
Is turning off the hf and lf resonance to 0 an equally good alternative to using a SS power amp ?
 
That would assume the rest of the curve is flat, which unfortunately with any tube amp it is not, and changes depending on which valves you use. Matrix SS is really the best way to go for the best authentic sound and feel. Trust in the Axe !!!!!
 
there is no reason why you cant use the two rock and cab. I use my axefx through different backline amps all the time on fly away gigs anything from marshal, fender, vox etc. I find that different amps need to be approached differently, either by using the return on the loop or pluging straight into the front of the amp. The key that i find is a Parametric EQ at the end of you chain and use High and Low pass filters to control the bottom and top end. depending on the amp and room i will cut the low at around 100hz and the high end around 6000khz. this will kill that fuzzy high end sound that you say that you are getting. hope that helps.
 
^ it's true ...

I've had good results but have to work the eq, mainly cutting highs. Still, only some amps seem to work well like this. I also leave the power amp on, but turn the speaker compensation off.

It would be nice if there was a way, quick and easy filter or setting for us non frfr users to quickly dial in tones... All I can say is it takes a lot of tweaking to get there.
 
D.B. Walker said:
It would be nice if there was a way...for us non frfr users to quickly dial in tones.
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There is. Turn off power amp modeling, turn up the Axe until you're hitting your tube power amp hard enough to get the breakup you want, and adjust Bass, Mid, Treble and Gain to taste.

The thing is, you have to accept the high volume. And you have to accept the flavor of your tube power amp and cab, because those things aren't going away. You can "dial around" to try to eliminate those flavors, but that will always be imperfect. Whether it's good enough is up to your ears to decide. And as you've discovered, that takes time.
 
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Rex said:
There is. Turn off power amp modeling, turn up the Axe until you're hitting your tube power amp hard enough to get the breakup you want, and adjust Bass, Mid, Treble and Gain to taste.

The thing is, you have to accept the high volume. And you have to accept the flavor of your tube power amp and cab, because those things aren't going away. You can "dial around" to try to eliminate those flavors, but that will always be imperfect. Whether it's good enough is up to your ears to decide. And as you've discovered, that takes time.
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I try not to play at really high volumes, the venues I work are small and I don't want to break the customers :) So I'm not getting a lot of power amp grit from my rig.

I find the Bass and Mid are easy to dial in, I have to work with the Treble / Presence / Bright / Depth / Neg feedback most ... I've also found that leaving the power amp on seems to help with some, if not most, of the models. So many of the models rely on the power amp for tone and feel... however, some just don't work and sound fizzy and fake no matter what I do.
 
It would be much easier to buy a solid state power amp for a few hundred bucks. That's the only way you can have power amp distortion/compression according to your taste at low volume using your 2x12 cab.

EDIT: at the moment I'm considering the Palmer Macht, which was designed especially for the use with a modeller/profiler.
 
I use my Axe FXII with a mesa 2:fifty and 2x 1960 V30-GB Marshall cabinet.I set all the 6L6 amp/preset without Amp Modeling (because my power amp) and i have a great tone;if i use some amp/preset with EL34 or other tubes (just for example) i leave amp modeling on;like some said tone looks like "overprocessed" in that way but if i set the Transformer Match very low or in the right "spot",tone stay great again.
 
I might have missed it but did you turn off cab modelling too? If you are using the return on a two rock head & cab you'll need to turn off poweramp & cab modelling in the AxeFX global menu. I do this with a Mesa 50:50 poweramp & 2x12 and Axefx sounds very close to my Mesa Studio Preamp. I also use a matrix GT1000FX with amp modelling on into a variety of cabs and that works great too.

Oh, and since quantum I usually don't bother tweaking anything but typical gain and tone controls anymore!
 
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I was initially running my Axe through the loop of my Orange OR100, but setting it up was PITA (for me). The whole reason I got the Axe was to simplify my setup. I ended up getting a Matrix power amp and couldn't be happier.

I understand if you don't want to dish out the cash for another piece of gear, but you should definitely entertain the idea.
 
Thanks guys, I'm going to try out a Matrix GT1000FX in a few days and see how that sounds.

I actually used to have a matrix about a year ago but it sounded so shrill and strident that i'm almost positive it was defective.

I know i'll have to adjust the lf resonance frequency to match the cab, any other tweaks recommended with a matrix and cab setup?
 
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