Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

[anewdefguitarist]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

unless im mistaken the mesa 20/20 is only a preamp - not a full fledged amp. so hes not really running it through an amp, ya know?

i would go ahead and run it through the preamp and then run it through a good quality cab or straight to the PA. i know a guy who used to run that setup and it sounded just fine. kind of in the middle of good solid state and good tube. that mesa should thicken up the overall sound and the modeler should give you the rest just fine.

 

[Animal]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

Nah mesa 20/20 is a tube power amp. A unit like the 20/20 should be a great candidate for amplifying a digi-pre.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

This should work perfectly if you're running straight into the poweramp.

A modeler in that instance is basically acting as a preamp - you don't want to run one preamp into another - that's gonna sound like crap.

For something like a PODxt, this is what you do:

Run your guitar into the PODxt input, and send the PODxt output to the Receive jack of your amp's effects loop.

Make sure you have the POD's cabinet simulation turned off. You don't need to simulate a cab, right? You're using a real one.

If more people did this, I think they'd be surprised by the results.

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

Go through the PA.

The problem with going through a PA is that physically you have to re-learn how everything is going to sound.

Even with a good monitoring setup the interactions between the guitar and the amplification system just doesn't act the same way. It's like you're playing guitar, but not.

You lose alot of the way the guitar sounds and reacts to things.

This is why I MUCH prefer the Atomic amp over the other options.

 

[devastone]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

The Digitech 1101 through a 20/20 should be a great setup, just make sure you have the cabinet sims turned off when you are running through the Mesa and cabs, and turned on if you are recording directly or going straight to the mixer/PA out of the 1101.

I don't know much about the 1101, but you may be able to do both if it has 2 sets of outputs.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

I tried a modeler in front of my Twin Reverb. It made it sound even worse ni my opinion. Beyond which, if you have a tube amp, why do you want a modeler? My amp + a multi effects + a versatile guitar already proved that it can do everything I need, even that one time I did a bunch of almost karaoke stuff with that one band at the last minute.

 

[Animal]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

Make sure you have the POD's cabinet simulation turned off. You don't need to simulate a cab, right? You're using a real one.

If more people did this, I think they'd be surprised by the results.

I think dynamics are way better when cabinet simulation is turned off with modelers however the tone just gets extremely buzzy and no longer sounds like it's modeling anything, except for maybe cheap diode clipping. Even with the presence and treble all the way down. I've tried this through a number of good cabs and it doesn't really seem to improve. That's my experience anyways.

I like to leave the cab sims on, usually modeled on a british quad. While the dynamics mostly suck and you'll probably get eaten alive in a mix, the tone sounds much smoother. After playing for a while in one sitting I usually forget what I'd be normally missing out with a "normal" amp anyways. Although throwing a BBE sonic maximizer in the loop can help bring some punch into an otherwise 2-dimensional sound.

If an amp designer could come up with cab simulation that didn't suck a lot of the dynamics out, I'd be all over it.

 

[milkbone]

Re: Modelers in front of tube amps? Your input needed!!!

As mentioned, the 20/20 is a power amp with EL84s. I would be running the 1101 into a BBE and then into the 20/20 and then a 1960A. I'm just wondering how far modeling has come in the "feel" department. I didn't really like the line6 stuff so I don't know how I will like the 1101. I guess the best way is to lug the rack and guitar to the store and try her out. The 20/20 is a nice, clean power source and should do fine. I know in the manual it is suggested that it can be used for HiFi applications also so I would assume that it would work. Wonder if I can get a Triple Rec. in Dolby digital 5.1?