As I said in my earlier post, this is exactly how I would set up the real 1987X that I had. Bass almost off and everything else dimed (or close anyway). That's how this amp sounds good and not shockingly it's also how this model sounds good.
This is very interesting, however it doesn't reflect my experience at all, unless your talking about the normal channel which is fairly dark. It is my understanding that this sim is based on the bright channel and my experience with it would indicate that it is indeed a bright channel.
I find that cranking the output vol to about 9, gain about 4-6, rollback on the treble and mid's a little, increase the sag, low cut about 200, hi cut around 5k, and use some rolloff on the guitar freq gets me a sound that is very close to a 1987 with jumpered channels. I haven't done a direct comparison yet, but I played this amp for many years and have modded them, fixed them...done just about everything imaginable to them. I feel like I know this sound very well (and I say that with all humility, knowing that the psychacoustic phenomena is real, but I literally know the schematic and variations simply by memory). I am playing a strat into a Maudio delta 1010lt soundcard and into some Sampson resolve 80a monitors (that may be my problem
). I am also setting the low cut to around 200 and high cut at about 5k - even lower will work depending on how much tone cut you use on the guitar. I am also using a fairly low volume so more treble might need to be cut even more as the volume goes up to gig levels.
I am getting a real nice top end, very crisp and snappy (one thing I love about the marshall top end on the bright channel) and also getting a nice bottem. I refer to it as grok, ...i know what the heck is grok. It just refers to that low end you get from a nice marshall into a 4x12, tight but thick and dark, with a sense of power behind it...wish I could describe it better.
I could gig very happily with this sound; I consider it to be a great marshal tone; sustains very well -articulate with rudeness to it. The amp cleans up very well, just like a real one; that crispy top end enhances the sense of cleaness. The one thing that is not quite there for me yet is this; in my experience with the real deal is -as you crank the guitar volume and the power amp starts working harder, that snappy top end starts to get muted; the amp darkens up. While there are many ways to compensate for this in the axefx, I am not quite getting the degree of power amp darkness I seem to remember from my marshall (any of them). I have noticed this with the fenders also.
Any ideas about this would be appreciated and any thoughts on how I am running this sim would also be appreciated. And please note that I am note saying anyones methods are wrong, if your getting sound that inspires you, then you are successfully programing this unit, period (imho)
Almost forgot, I using the 4x12 30 watt cab - settings would definately be different with a different cab