I had an Axe Fx II Mark II for many years. Close to a decade. Loved it. Created all kinds of music with it. Recorded a bunch with it. Was always in awe of it whenever I fired it up.
Then something happened. Life. Too much to do with family, work, house, blah, blah, blah. I am an OCD fiddler and every time I fired the Axe Fx II up, I did more fiddling than playing. I couldn't stop myself. Pretty soon, I wasn't playing as much. I was getting grumpy. I had my few presets, but was always looking for more. Pretty soon, I stopped playing altogether. It was then, that I decided to get rid of the whole rig and start fresh. So I did.
Sold it all, and pretty much had enough to buy just about anything. Well, within reason that is, but definitely could try some higher end stuff that I could never have afforded. Truth by told, I sold everything I had to afford the Axe Fx II back when, so I new that once sold, I could really stretch out a bit. So I did.
I was never a fan of the high gain boutique stuff, as that's not really the kind of stuff I play, but always had an ear for Mesa Boogie Amps. So I tried them. Just about any one I could get my hands on. I had finally tried the last one I really wanted to try, which also happened to be the newest. The Fillmore 50 seemed to be what I was looking for. Until I tried it. My ears deceived me. I couldn't get the sound I was looking for.
So I hit YouTube, and really liked what I heard in the HT V-40. Two channels, with two voicings per channel. Took my #1 guitar, a 2000 American Standard Strat with me to try it out, and basically decided right then and there that I had to have it.
What intrigued me was this "two voicings per channel" business. The clean channel has both an "American" voicing and a "British" voicing. The "American" voicing is supposed to sound like a clean Fenderish Amp, and the "British" voicing is supposed to sound like a clean, but slightly broken up Voxish Amp. I've owned both Fender Amps and Vox Amps and the voicings don't sound like either. Which is actually why I like it. I set up the first voicing to sound clean and pure and the other voicing sounds more to me like an edge of breakup Fender, and both sound absolutely great. If you buy the 5 pedal footswitch that Blackstar offers for these amps, and hit the boost on the footswitch...WOW. Amazing sounds galore. I only have a Strat and Tele, so not sure what it would sound like with Humbuckers. With the Fender guitars, I get the nice chimey clean to the nice chimey edgy sound as well.
Channel 2 is a bit of an anomaly to me. It also has two voicings, one which is supposed to be more for crunchy rhythm, the other with a touch more gain for lead work. Blackstar also has this patented ISP knob which is supposed to make the sound more American on one side and British on the other, but they don't really sound like that to me. I'm still tweaking, but all it sounds like to me is a bit brighter to a bit darker on the knob. Not really a "sound" difference per se, but more of just dark to bright. Also, the voicings are quite a bit different. The higher gain voicing is MUCH brighter. The lower gain voicing isn't really muffled, but definitely darker sounding. The boost switch on the 5 switch pedalboard makes the sound on both voicings brighter, so I'm still adjusting things.
Interestingly, if you watch a bunch of YouTubes about this amp, they mostly talk about the Gain channel and say that's what it's really designed to do, but I like the clean channel and the voicings on it better. What I might do is really boost the gain on the Gain channel to get a little more of an aggressive sound and then use pedals on the clean side for my less dirty stuff. Thinking a TS9 and maybe a Suhr Eclipse. I REALLY want to try that one out. Sounds incredible on YouTube.
One thing to mention also, is there is a little switch to change the wattage on the amp. The amp is rated at 40W, and it is LOUD. When you hit the switch, it drops down to 4W, which is certainly NOT 10% power. It's still LOUD, but more manageable for bedroom and practice volumes.
I am constructing and still gathering a bunch of effects pedals to use with the amp, but I like the amp very much so far. For the price, I think it's really quite a steal.
Even though it has two ways to record the amp digitally, I'm hoping to record some playing through an SM57 and 2i2 into Garageband to see what it sounds like live and analog. Maybe even do a A/B/C with the three recording methods from the Amp.
Then something happened. Life. Too much to do with family, work, house, blah, blah, blah. I am an OCD fiddler and every time I fired the Axe Fx II up, I did more fiddling than playing. I couldn't stop myself. Pretty soon, I wasn't playing as much. I was getting grumpy. I had my few presets, but was always looking for more. Pretty soon, I stopped playing altogether. It was then, that I decided to get rid of the whole rig and start fresh. So I did.
Sold it all, and pretty much had enough to buy just about anything. Well, within reason that is, but definitely could try some higher end stuff that I could never have afforded. Truth by told, I sold everything I had to afford the Axe Fx II back when, so I new that once sold, I could really stretch out a bit. So I did.
I was never a fan of the high gain boutique stuff, as that's not really the kind of stuff I play, but always had an ear for Mesa Boogie Amps. So I tried them. Just about any one I could get my hands on. I had finally tried the last one I really wanted to try, which also happened to be the newest. The Fillmore 50 seemed to be what I was looking for. Until I tried it. My ears deceived me. I couldn't get the sound I was looking for.
So I hit YouTube, and really liked what I heard in the HT V-40. Two channels, with two voicings per channel. Took my #1 guitar, a 2000 American Standard Strat with me to try it out, and basically decided right then and there that I had to have it.
What intrigued me was this "two voicings per channel" business. The clean channel has both an "American" voicing and a "British" voicing. The "American" voicing is supposed to sound like a clean Fenderish Amp, and the "British" voicing is supposed to sound like a clean, but slightly broken up Voxish Amp. I've owned both Fender Amps and Vox Amps and the voicings don't sound like either. Which is actually why I like it. I set up the first voicing to sound clean and pure and the other voicing sounds more to me like an edge of breakup Fender, and both sound absolutely great. If you buy the 5 pedal footswitch that Blackstar offers for these amps, and hit the boost on the footswitch...WOW. Amazing sounds galore. I only have a Strat and Tele, so not sure what it would sound like with Humbuckers. With the Fender guitars, I get the nice chimey clean to the nice chimey edgy sound as well.
Channel 2 is a bit of an anomaly to me. It also has two voicings, one which is supposed to be more for crunchy rhythm, the other with a touch more gain for lead work. Blackstar also has this patented ISP knob which is supposed to make the sound more American on one side and British on the other, but they don't really sound like that to me. I'm still tweaking, but all it sounds like to me is a bit brighter to a bit darker on the knob. Not really a "sound" difference per se, but more of just dark to bright. Also, the voicings are quite a bit different. The higher gain voicing is MUCH brighter. The lower gain voicing isn't really muffled, but definitely darker sounding. The boost switch on the 5 switch pedalboard makes the sound on both voicings brighter, so I'm still adjusting things.
Interestingly, if you watch a bunch of YouTubes about this amp, they mostly talk about the Gain channel and say that's what it's really designed to do, but I like the clean channel and the voicings on it better. What I might do is really boost the gain on the Gain channel to get a little more of an aggressive sound and then use pedals on the clean side for my less dirty stuff. Thinking a TS9 and maybe a Suhr Eclipse. I REALLY want to try that one out. Sounds incredible on YouTube.
One thing to mention also, is there is a little switch to change the wattage on the amp. The amp is rated at 40W, and it is LOUD. When you hit the switch, it drops down to 4W, which is certainly NOT 10% power. It's still LOUD, but more manageable for bedroom and practice volumes.
I am constructing and still gathering a bunch of effects pedals to use with the amp, but I like the amp very much so far. For the price, I think it's really quite a steal.
Even though it has two ways to record the amp digitally, I'm hoping to record some playing through an SM57 and 2i2 into Garageband to see what it sounds like live and analog. Maybe even do a A/B/C with the three recording methods from the Amp.