What was your first Digital Modeler?

Hughes & Kettner Zentera. God i loved them. I still have 2 heads and a combo.
Sadly too expensive to get them serviced or I'd still be using them
 
Not the first, but my favorite device for many years:

peavey-tubefex-262649.jpg
Switching sucked as it had a digitally controlled mechanical slider that changed preamp settings. Also, a system battery that leaked and destroyed circuit boards.
 
I watched the same video...then looked them up on reverb... I agree. I still keep my GNX4 as a backup...it still sounds decent enough to get me through a service ticket.
I mean, I was really shocked at home decent some of the tones were in that video. dated for sure but for almost 30 year old tech, very good.
 
My first was a Tom Sholtz Rockman, back when they were first released in the '80s. I bought it mostly for the novelty of it all, but a few years later I actually used it as my amp a couple of times when sitting in (on electric guitar) with an acoustic guitarist. Ran it direct to the PA and it worked fine for what was needed. By the late '80s I'd bought ADA MP-1, but had quit gigging by then, so I only played it at home, plugged into a mid-60s Deluxe Reverb or my Teac 4 channel cassette "studio".

Picked up my first true modeler in the late '90s when I got an original POD bean. Upgraded to the POD XT Live a few years later, and later bought an M-Audio Black Box. When I started gigging again after a long hiatus, I used the XT Live for about a year until I heard a local guy playing an Axe-Fx Ultra live at a local bar. I was sold after one hearing and ordered my first Axe-Fx II shortly thereafter.
 
Rocktron Chameleon was my first venture into digital modeling. Bought it as soon as it was available in Norway around '93 IIRC.
Chameleon -> Rocktron Velocity 300 power amp -> Marshall 4x12 (wired in stereo) was my rig back then.
 
PodXT. If it wasn't for the PodXT there wouldn't be an Axe-Fx.

Bought a Dual Rectifier and hated it. Store wouldn't refund my money so gave me store credit. I used the credit to buy a PodXT. Tried for several weeks to make the thing sound good. Couldn't.

I thought the concept was great but I just couldn't get a usable sound out of it. So I set out to make something that actually sounded good.

Same! The concept was so cool and it was so practical. I had just moved out of my parents house and into an apartment and obviously couldn't crank up an amp. I got the PodXT and really had fun trying out all the different amps and effects, because up until that point I was mostly an amp with a couple pedals guy, and I never really used vintage amps before. But the amps always sounded funny and I never got along with any of the virtual cabs, so I had to wait several years to make the switch to digital.
 
PodXT. If it wasn't for the PodXT there wouldn't be an Axe-Fx.

Bought a Dual Rectifier and hated it. Store wouldn't refund my money so gave me store credit. I used the credit to buy a PodXT. Tried for several weeks to make the thing sound good. Couldn't.

I thought the concept was great but I just couldn't get a usable sound out of it. So I set out to make something that actually sounded good.
Funny thing about the Dual Rectos, guys either loved them or didn't. I played through a Tremo verb once thought it was pretty cool, Tried a Dual Recto and didn't care for it. I'm more of a Marshal / Vox circuit type.

Interesting info on the PodXT! I thought I would never appreciate Line 6.
 
The year was 1993 and this was, for me, the greatest thing on Earth. (Digitech GSP21 Pro)


I used to run it into a Peavey power amp into a floor monitor. I was a kid, didn't know what I was doing LOL!
Used that rig for maybe a year and then went back to amps and pedals. I would check out the latest greatest digital amps as they came out over the years, but nothing grabbed me until the Iridium, which I still think sounds great for what it is. Tried a Stomp for two weeks and just couldn't bond with it. And then came my FM3, the only digital device I actually like better than using my amps. Game changer for me.
 
It may sound like I'm kidding but I'm not. There are very few I didn't own at one point or another. Made possible by eBay. After giving uo on them, including the original Axe Fx, I went the amp/loadbox route for a long time until I heard and saw clips and demo's of the AX8. Went to buy one only to find they were discontinued, and put myself on the waitlist for the FM3.
 
My first amp sim was the Johnson J-Station. I loved that thing! Then I got a Carvin Legacy half stack that I didn’t know how to make sound good so I ran the J-Station into it. Lol I ended up trading the Legacy for a line 6 Flextone 3 2x12 combo that i had for ever. 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻 I wish i could go back in time..
 
First: GSP-21 PRO, though I only used it as an Multi Effects unit. Ran it into my Crate G40C, I don't know which one sounded worse
Second: POD HD-500, sounded good enough to me for noodling at night with headphones on and kids in bed
Third: FX8, I know it's not an amp modeler, but it modeled all of my effects I used at the time
Fourth: AX8
Fifth: Axe-Fx III
 
Good lord, I think I actually still have mine hidden away in the attic somewhere. What a hideous piece of crap that was. Bought that as a backup for my first modeler.

Anybody remember the ORIGINAL AX2 from------Line 6? That was my first one.


1998-08-line6-1-Wb7JngJi7p5Kbtvef8uYxwz0lRwzsV9n.jpg

That was my first one too! A friend of mine had it and didn't like it. Offered to swap it for my solid-state Fender Princeton! Really got some good tones out of it for what it was.
 
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