AXE FX lead tones all the same?

[dominus]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

Cool, that means I can just run my amp into its iso cab and run the send to my audio interface for whatever cab modelling I want.. Need to try that. .

But the redbox has the tube saturation built into the line out.

Definitely try it with and without the power amp sim. It really depends on the IR file itself. I've found some that sounded better on their own, as they were probably captured on a tube power amp.

 

[aleclee]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

Here's a vid of a couple guitar solos from this evening's Brit Floyd concert at Red Rocks.

 

[Top-L]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

There is a demo download on the Revalver page. http://peavey.com/products/revalver/index.cfm

 

[Top-L]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

Playing with the demo, this is better than Guitar Rig 4. Looking forward to this. Its highly tweakable.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

But honestly, if I was gigging, I would just use the Mustang floor into a tube power section and control everything from the floor, no need to worry about midi for switching the amp channels, and honestly the Fender Mustangs, cleans and mid gain blow away anything I have heard from a high-gain head.

I guess that would depend on what you consider to be a "high gain head". If you consider a Bogner XTC Classic, Bogner Twin Jet, Bogner Shiva, VHT Pitbull Ultra Lead, Elmwood Modena M60, Lickliter Rage, etc to be high-gain heads... I dunno. If you were to play those amps (I have owned and/or gigged all of them) live in a band situation... and A/B them in that same situation with a Fender Mustang... and conclude that the Mustang was superior in two or more of those tone categories (clean, crunch, and lead/high-gain)... I would question the health of your hearing. It's all subjective, but there's a reason that people spend thousands on those amps and it's not just because of name recognition and exclusivity. ;-)

 

[Top-L]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

I guess that would depend on what you consider to be a "high gain head". If you consider a Bogner XTC Classic, Bogner Twin Jet, Bogner Shiva, VHT Pitbull Ultra Lead, Elmwood Modena M60, Lickliter Rage, etc to be high-gain heads... I dunno. If you were to play those amps (I have owned and/or gigged all of them) live in a band situation... and A/B them in that same situation with a Fender Mustang... and conclude that the Mustang was superior in two or more of those tone categories (clean, crunch, and lead/high-gain)... I would question the health of your hearing. It's all subjective, but there's a reason that people spend thousands on those amps and it's not just because of name recognition and exclusivity. ;-)

Look at it like this. Lets say you have a rock set, half of it is medium to high gain, the other songs are clean or low gain. And with the Mustang floor you get to choose from any of their classic amps, even if you have a high gain head with a great clean, I guarantee you can find something better to suit each of the songs with the Mustang. The great thing about the Mustang clean channels is that they are more configurable than typical clean channels. You have several dimensions of saturation, bias, sag.

And when played through a tube amp and a proper speaker, they sound pretty amazing. The power and the speaker is the important part of the equation, digital has pretty well modeled the pre amp stage. While its not digital, Peavey had modelled tube pre gain with its solid state transtube stuff for 20 years. The preamp is the easy part of the chain.

I havent played all those amps, but I suspect neither have you played a Mustang run through a proper half stack.

And who gives a crap about the last 5% of tone if you have to worry about your amp all night. With the mustang you can always run direct in a pinch, or just leave your amp at home and use in ear monitors.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

If you're going to suggest to this, or any other online gear crew that the Fender Mustang is in some way a replacement for a tube amp


If you continue this line of reasoning, despite louder and louder responses to the contrary


You may feel like you're right and somewhat justified in your POV...and you actually may be (as I tend to agree with you), but arguing with tube amp players, especially ones who've played hardcore setups with the idea that the 5% of difference is negligible in any situation...well,

 

[Valbert]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

Here´s an interesting lead tone example from Exivious´ Liminal album, starting at 1:35:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkaLwZePdKM

Tymon, who played and recorded that solo stated that he recorded it with his Axe-Fx Standard, using the Fender Brownface sim with a Tube Drive in front of it for the lead tone. The pickup used is a neck position SH-2 in coil tap mode, If I remember correctly. I think it´s a really refreshing kind of lead tone - I´ve really heard more than enough overly-compressed, undynamic lead tones with too much gain.

 

[Top-L]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

Here´s an interesting lead tone example from Exivious´ Liminal album, starting at 1:35:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkaLwZePdKM

Tymon, who played and recorded that solo stated that he recorded it with his Axe-Fx Standard, using the Fender Brownface sim with a Tube Drive in front of it for the lead tone. The pickup used is a neck position SH-2 in coil tap mode, If I remember correctly. I think it´s a really refreshing kind of lead tone - I´ve really heard more than enough overly-compressed, undynamic lead tones with too much gain.

Sounds great.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

I havent played all those amps, but I suspect neither have you played a Mustang run through a proper half stack.

No, but I have played (and gigged) my Eleven Rack (which I consider to be superior to the Mustang) through a half stack and it sounded and responded great. But it still wasn't "brimming with life" like a purring tube rig is. Look at it like cars... a Ford Mustang will get you to the store same as a Ferrari 458 Italia. But [having ridden in both] I can tell you which one I'd choose to take a ride in nearly every time if given the choice!

 

[Top-L]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

No, but I have played (and gigged) my Eleven Rack (which I consider to be superior to the Mustang) through a half stack and it sounded and responded great. But it still wasn't "brimming with life" like a purring tube rig is. Look at it like cars... a Ford Mustang will get you to the store same as a Ferrari 458 Italia. But [having ridden in both] I can tell you which one I'd choose to take a ride in nearly every time if given the choice!

Eleven rack is discontinued. Fender Mustang is the best selling amp in the world. Mustang > Eleven rack

 

[Hank-]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

^Actually the 11R is still having the edge of TrueZ input(wateva it's called) which used to give it an edge over the original AxeFX Std & Ultra in terms of dynamic response, the AFX II & Kemper(not sure) came with that tech. So in terms of realism I'd say the 11R>[Roland Cube,Mustang,Vypyr SS, Pod, Flextone, current gen floor units from various brands, etc.] Having said that the current crop of floor modelling units are quite good, as well as the current modelling amps that are coming out are also quite more than usable. The Tech21 Character series were/are still fantastic, they also came out recently with the Fly Rig 5 which seems to be a great tool to have. There is a bunch of software available these days too like S-Gear, BIAS, Revalver(peavey 5150 sims are fantastic), etc. which can work with great results.

Another problem with running a external preamp through the fx loop of a given tube amp is basically if whether the loop is 100% serial, which in most cases isn't. Even then when you find one & start using it through the loop & get the external preamp to sound the same as the current tube amp, there is the guitar volume pot behaviour being different than when running to the front of the said tube amp. That's considering the tube amp is very dynamic, usually single channel type amps have high dynamic range. I've been there, done that, motive was to get the preamp hiss level next to zero by using a modelling unit(not the 11R/AFII/KP) but meh not satisfied enough with the end results, sure I was able to match the preamp sound but couldn't get along with the behaviour of the guitars volume pot unable to provide the same interaction as the actual amp when rolled down.

 

[Oinkus]

Re: AXE FX lead tones all the same?

I sent back the mustang , lots of options did not play well with my computer. Only reason to have an amp like that was to use it to record straight into my computer. Also had a bunch of crappy sounds , very little in it was usable to me. Just because something sells does not make it good or better,only makes it popular and for the most part popular does not = good.