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DarthJeebus posted:Helpful, thoughtful and articulate as always. Thanks, Agreed. I'll definitely head back to GC and look for those. My fixation with the micro-cube shows how out touch I've become over the years. Also that Orange Micro Terror sounds amazing. Quick stupid question though: I could use something like that without a cabinet right? I'll probably play with headphones like, 80 percent of the time. (I've never owned anything except combo amps) For the Micro Terror, you'd need a 'load' on the amp otherwise you'd fry the output transformer. A load being a cab, attinuator, or something that provides at least 4 ohms of resistance across the output jack of the micro terror. Plus I hesitate to recommend it as a 'quiet' amp since the volume jumps way too high too early in the volume knob to easily set a quiet volume. Plus the headphone jack sounds like butt, it doesn't have cabinet emulation like the Microcube or Vox Minis so the clipping you hear on the Terror is too brittle and fizzy. Ultimately I'd recommend it as either a loud bedroom amp for the kid who wishes he had a half-stack, or as a rehearsal/small gigging amp if you have a 4x12. It's great as a mini-sized Orange amp (it sounds about as good as a regular Orange too) but it's not practical as a mini amp. Adeline Weishaupt fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 02:49
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awesmoe posted:How do guitar pro tabs even work? Is there a free way to download and play them or is this the one thing on the entire internet that people actually pay for? I use Tuxguitar. Never had a problem with it opening guitar pro files you find on ultimate-guitar.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:50
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DarthJeebus posted:Helpful, thoughtful and articulate as always. Thanks, Agreed. I'll definitely head back to GC and look for those. My fixation with the micro-cube shows how out touch I've become over the years. Also that Orange Micro Terror sounds amazing. Quick stupid question though: I could use something like that without a cabinet right? I'll probably play with headphones like, 80 percent of the time. (I've never owned anything except combo amps) I was just worried that you'd looked at the OP and it was out of date (I'll check... yep) and you were looking at the Cube because it used to be the hotness. I mean it still could be, you just need to try them out! But there have been a lot of well received amps since then, like the Blackstar ID 10 and Yamaha's THR stuff, there's definitely a few things to try out. And I agree with... Agreed, battery amps are awesome - they're portable and last ages. I have a Bass Microcube RX and I never plug it in, it takes AA batteries and I have some high-power/low drain rechargeables (like eneloops or whatever), they'll give you at least an intense week or two, and months if you play less often. Definitely something to consider at least, you might care or you might not!
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Aug 14, 2014 03:15
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A micro cube run through a real cab is surprisingly decent.
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Aug 14, 2014 03:36
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comes along bort posted:A micro cube run through a real cab is surprisingly decent. Has anyone tried Kalium/Circle K strings? They have a 10-53 set that is MUCH more sensible than the retarded 10-52 sets that every manufacturer goes for. I don't need a loving 42 for Ab muike fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 03:39
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So I got this ModKits DIY Thunderdrive Deluxe for my birthday. It started out like this:  Then I crammed that all in the little black box. Solder solder solder solder solder. A couple hours of soldering and wire stripping later...  Tada! It actually worked without me having to re-solder anything. I just needed to put a piece of electrical tape on top of the footswitch cause it was shorting out every time I screwed the back of the metal case on. Maybe it could have been done neater but I didn't exactly study the instructions a whole bunch before I did it. 
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Aug 14, 2014 04:31
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Agreed posted:I feel like it's a mistake to pick up a Roland Microcube when the Vox portable modelers exist. To this day I still love my DA5, as it has way better sound thanks to a speaker that doesn't clip so heavily, and I understand the successors to it are quite good too. Vox DA5: Steve Vai approved. (Still the funniest picture I've ever seen. - hundreds of thousands of dollars of amps, and on top of them, a worn DA5 that clearly gets more use than half of them.) I would love to see a comparison between the Mini-3 and the new Mustang portable.
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Aug 14, 2014 14:03
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Has anyone tried the fender champion amp? I really like mine. It has a couple of nice models. I am going to try to plug my mp3 player into it tonight and see how it works trying to play along with some songs. 
RagingHematoma fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 15:18
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umalt posted:or as a rehearsal/small gigging amp if you have a 4x12. A 1x12 is way more than enough to gig or practice with, ESPECIALLY if you're mic'ing the cab. 2x12 is damned near the perfect cab for pretty much any situation as far as I'm concerned.
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Aug 14, 2014 15:43
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iostream.h posted:Only real issue I have with your statement is this, really. a 4x12 looks so much cooler though
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Aug 14, 2014 16:00
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muike posted:God Bless Roland I used to use Circle K for bass strings before I stopped using roundwounds. They're good.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:17
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I picked up a Fender Mustang II last weekend. There's a lot of stuff packed on board and so far I've found the sound to be versatile but also kind of chintzy, which is disappointing to me considering how many places I saw recommend the Mustang. I have to dive into it a lot more, try and play around with the Fender FUSE software (also my Telecaster having a little hum post-surgery doesn't help me evaluate the amp's sound) but I'm considering some other amps: Fender Superchamp X2 Orange Crush Pix CR35LDX Vox AC15 Marshall MG30CFX Blackstar ID:30TVP Basically looking for a good all-around amp, mostly for practicing but also for studio experiments (running other gear into it like synths). Built in FX, amp modeling, etc are not necessary but if it's a good implementation than it couldn't hurt. A good sound and drive is more important to me than being able to emulate a bunch of effects pedals. Budget is like $500. The Orange amps really interest me. Vox too. Fender is a good all-rounder from my understanding. Marshalls are good too but geared towards a particular sound. I know nothing about Blackstars.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:45
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Dotcom Jillionaire posted:I picked up a Fender Mustang II last weekend. There's a lot of stuff packed on board and so far I've found the sound to be versatile but also kind of chintzy, which is disappointing to me considering how many places I saw recommend the Mustang. I have to dive into it a lot more, try and play around with the Fender FUSE software (also my Telecaster having a little hum post-surgery doesn't help me evaluate the amp's sound) but I'm considering some other amps: Before you dump the Mustang download the Fuse software and try tinkering with it. You can get some utterly phenomenal results if you have the patience to work the settings to the sound you like. The majority of people who dump Mustangs never bother with anything except the fairly mediocre factory presets. Fender's Fuse site also has a litany of user made patches which are often quite good. Unfortunately with the II you have to be connected to a laptop to really do this with any ease.
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Aug 14, 2014 17:32
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Hmm Vox also makes a Mini 3 and Mini 5 modeling amp. Maybe I should pick one of those up for cheap and keep it as a portable tone machine and get a less frilly tube amp for more serious guitar duties. Goodbye money!
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Aug 14, 2014 17:42
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Hundred bucks-ish for a stupid useful tool is getting off light, in my view. My pedals, my preamps, nearly damned everything is gonna be out of commission for at least a month or so while we finish getting set up (for reference, JUST found my preferred guitar audio interface and one of my preamps, so that's something!). You get SO much value out of a portable amp, it's insane. I bet the new ones are even easier on batteries. I keep mine in .05W mode and its speaker is efficient enough that I can stop conversation in a large room easily - bringing it up to 5W, well, anyone who has ever looked at speaker efficiencies knows that the answer is "loud as hell, no seriously it's super loud." Not "keep up with a drummer" loud, but easily gonna cover your range of desired volume for practice and dicking around. Hey, idea, anyone with one of the newer models want to coordinate a bit and see if we can compare some of the old models on the DA5 to the new ones on the Mini 5? I would be super down for that, to the point that if I get a "nope!" I'll probably just buy one myself because that's interesting to me!
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Aug 14, 2014 17:52
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Dotcom Jillionaire posted:I picked up a Fender Mustang II last weekend. There's a lot of stuff packed on board and so far I've found the sound to be versatile but also kind of chintzy, which is disappointing to me considering how many places I saw recommend the Mustang. I have to dive into it a lot more, try and play around with the Fender FUSE software (also my Telecaster having a little hum post-surgery doesn't help me evaluate the amp's sound) but I'm considering some other amps: There's some very good demos/reviews of the ID15 and ID30 on youtube. You can pull an amazing amount of sounds out of them. It's modeling, just a different way of thinking about it. You're not tied to "Entire amp voice and power section sound model 001" and then just adjusting gain, bass, treble, effects on that unadjustable root model. Instead you can muck with anything in the chain: voice, gain, cabinet volume, equalization, geographic timbre (ISF), tube choice, effects. The easiest example would be setting up a Fender 68 Twin Reverb model: Clean Warm Low gain Low "volume" Neutral Bass Neutral Treble ISF all the way to the left ("American" side) 6L6 tube emulation Ok, neat... but what if you might want a bit more mid out of that setup, a bit more focused bite? Leave everything else alone and turn the ISF to 12 o'clock or all the way over to the "British" side. You just re-voiced the pre-amp, changing nothing else. Also, for studio: you can re-amp with the ID30 and your DAW will see it as an input device. Reaper saw it immediately.
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Aug 14, 2014 18:19
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dxt posted:a 4x12 looks so much cooler though That's what dummy cabs are for. 
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Aug 14, 2014 18:25
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comes along bort posted:That's what dummy cabs are for. Also a good place to keep your spare drummer
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Aug 14, 2014 18:37
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Agreed posted:Hey, idea, anyone with one of the newer models want to coordinate a bit and see if we can compare some of the old models on the DA5 to the new ones on the Mini 5? I would be super down for that, to the point that if I get a "nope!" I'll probably just buy one myself because that's interesting to me! Gimme a week or two and I can help with that. I think I'm definitely sold on the Mini 5 since it's so small and has all the built-in features I could want, features which I don't think I'd use on a larger amp in a performance situation. Plus, built in rhythm section  I'd rather throw a bit more money at a quality tube amp in a few weeks/months than settle for a 40w jack-of-all-trades solid state practice amp. That being said, I still intend to tinker with the Mustang a lot more (the presets are all I've been testing, and yeah, they sound pretty meh) but now I feel like I have more options to pursue. I'm not a great guitarist (yet) but maybe I'll even record demos of all those amp model presets in the Mustang for further tone comparison fodder Dotcom Jillionaire fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 19:39
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no one here likes to do big  everyone's going to be real disappointed when I post me 200w bassman coming in
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Aug 14, 2014 20:11
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Smash it Smash hit posted:no one here likes to do big You kidding? We nearly have an aneurysm in the new gear thread anyone posts a famous name 100W+ amp. I remember iostream's SLO getting a hell of a lot of admiration 
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Aug 14, 2014 20:19
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just wait until I'm not a poor and get a herbert
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Aug 14, 2014 21:46
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muike posted:just wait until I'm not a poor and get a herbert  Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
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Aug 14, 2014 22:24
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When I am not a bitchmade scrub I will have a Dwarvenaut stack and when I have real money I will buy a Fender SuperSonic 100 stack or a Hiwatt cloneSmash it Smash hit posted:no one here likes to do big I got an 80 watt combo it can shake some walls E: I've actually got 160 tube watts in my living room to go with 220 watts of Peavey solid state bass goodness
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Aug 14, 2014 23:42
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Just pulled the old Subhuman out of its case for the first time in a year. "Oh, that's lighter than the Red." "So that's what a fast neck is like." "Okay maybe I shouldn't have put my amPhones on 10 when I took them off last time. Ow." "... lemme try that again." "(insert Back in Black here.)" "Okaaay, this works." Surprisingly comfortable for a pointy guitar. Still very satisfied.
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Aug 14, 2014 23:49
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Declan MacManus posted:I got an 80 watt combo it can shake some walls I don't remember if I ever mentioned it here, but recently had to replace all the preamp tubes in the SLO and dropped by my tech to have the bias checked and just a quick once over to make sure I haven't knocked anything loose or whatever. We started talking about output and all (the conversation was actually why mid-scoop players bitch about not being heard in the mix) and he started talking about his bench setup. He put my SLO on the bench and it's average output on not 'quite' 11 (he said he was a little uncomfortable maxing it after seeing how quickly the wattage ramped up) was 193 watts on the clean channel and 218 watts (average, sustained, not peak) output on the overdrive side. Next is to throw the Jubilee and then the Granger (and probably the AC30, just for giggles) and whatever else on there to see what happens.
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Aug 15, 2014 00:05
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Since I am such a newbie, I apologize for the basic question. What is the real difference between tube and electronic amps from a sound perspective? Is it something you don't start to notice until you go into some of the bigger setups? I ask because when I bought my fender practice amp, the guy was trying to upsell me hard on a tube practice amp (a Blackstar I think) which was a lot more money. He said it was better because it was a tube amp. I just dismissed it as a salesman taking advantage of a ignorant beginner.
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Aug 15, 2014 01:20
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Declan MacManus posted:When I am not a bitchmade scrub I will have a Dwarvenaut stack and when I have real money I will buy a Fender SuperSonic 100 stack or a Hiwatt clone Our lead guy runs a Peavey Classic 120/120. Big ol' monster of glass.
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Aug 15, 2014 01:29
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RagingHematoma posted:Since I am such a newbie, I apologize for the basic question. What is the real difference between tube and electronic amps from a sound perspective? Is it something you don't start to notice until you go into some of the bigger setups? I ask because when I bought my fender practice amp, the guy was trying to upsell me hard on a tube practice amp (a Blackstar I think) which was a lot more money. He said it was better because it was a tube amp. I just dismissed it as a salesman taking advantage of a ignorant beginner. As a tube amp still has electronics, by electronic do you mean modelling or just non-tube? Solid-state and modelling are pretty different. Sound wise, the main words you will hear to describe a tube amp are dynamic and reactive. They react to your playing better than solid state stuff. IMO all the new little tube amps, like the blackstar, sound really great. HAVING SAID THAT, I think for newbies cheap modelling stuff is great because it lets you try out a bunch of sounds and effects so you know what you are after when (if) you move towards a tube amp and pedals setup. E:Also, if you do the majority of your playing clean there are good reasons to stick with solid state. I still like to use my nameless solid state amp over my tube amp for jamming on some Cure tracks or something, for instance. E2: Goddamnit beaten VVV field balm fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Aug 15, 2014 |
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Aug 15, 2014 01:34
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RagingHematoma posted:Since I am such a newbie, I apologize for the basic question. What is the real difference between tube and electronic amps from a sound perspective? Is it something you don't start to notice until you go into some of the bigger setups? I ask because when I bought my fender practice amp, the guy was trying to upsell me hard on a tube practice amp (a Blackstar I think) which was a lot more money. He said it was better because it was a tube amp. I just dismissed it as a salesman taking advantage of a ignorant beginner. It just depends on what you're trying to do. The Jazz Chorus is a pretty awesome amp for clean tones.
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Aug 15, 2014 01:36
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If I could ever find the perfect solid state head for a clean platform I would buy and never go back to tubes. The market just isn't there though. Not gonna lie and say I've looked very hard.
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Aug 15, 2014 01:38
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RagingHematoma posted:Since I am such a newbie, I apologize for the basic question. What is the real difference between tube and electronic amps from a sound perspective? Is it something you don't start to notice until you go into some of the bigger setups? I ask because when I bought my fender practice amp, the guy was trying to upsell me hard on a tube practice amp (a Blackstar I think) which was a lot more money. He said it was better because it was a tube amp. I just dismissed it as a salesman taking advantage of a ignorant beginner. Functionally they're basically the same thing- a circuit which boosts a signal's voltage (preamp) and current (power amp), except one uses vacuum tubes to amplify the signal and the other uses a combination of other components. Where the difference lies is what's called clipping. A pure sine wave looks like a curved line on a graph. When you amplify it, the peaks and troughs increase to a point where they get flattened, which is known as the headroom. The harder you boost a signal, the sharper the cutoff is, where it resembles more of a square rather than curves. The lower the headroom, the lower the volume at which clipping begins. Of course a guitar signal isn't a pure sine wave but a combination wave of multiple frequencies, but the principle is the same- the peaks get cut off as you turn up the volume and gain knobs. The way tubes work is they ramp up the signal voltage/current in a more gradual fashion, which creates a smoother cutoff at the peaks, and the amount of boost or gain applied to the signal increases or decreases corresponding to the level of signal coming into the amp i.e. how hard you hit the strings. In comparison, solid state amps boost the signal more uniformly, and quicker owing to their more efficient design (which is why PA systems and pretty much everything but guitar amps and high-end audio electronics use some form of solid state design), which can create a harsher sound with little difference between a soft and harder attack on the strings.
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Aug 15, 2014 02:29
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Solid State vs Tube these days is entirely down to taste regardless of what guitarists say. Solid state is great for really really clean jazz and funk sounds and utterly filthy hi gain metal, plus it's light, cheap, convenient, reliable and will sound the same everytime you turn the amp on. It won't have the same dynamics as a tube amp, or react the same way to pedals. You might like that or you might not. Tube is 'better' at in-between breakup sounds, certain types of dynamic playing and old school vintage tones. A 40 watt tube amp will blow the ears off a 40 watt solid state amp because of how headroom works and how we perceive certain harmonics. They weigh a lot, can cost a lot to maintain and are the subject of a huge amount of bullshit and voodoo on the net because most guitarists are massively resistant to any type of change. I have a custom built amp based on a Fender Vibrolux which is my main gigging amp, it's 40w tube, loud and clean and the reverb is stunning. I really love playing it but its a oval office to transport and I play four instruments at each gig these days so space and weight are an issue. I also recently bought one of the new Hotone British Invasion mini amps. It's 5w solid state head, fits in the palm of my hand or in my pedal case, powers a 4x12, takes pedals amazingly well and most importantly cost about a tenth of what my Vibrolux did. My new favourite trick is running it at the end of my pedalboard straight into a cab and watching people try to work out where the hell the amp is.
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Aug 15, 2014 02:44
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What is the general opinion on Guitar Rig 5 vs Amplitube 3? I'm not interested in high gain stuff, looking for crunchy bluesy sound and weird effects stuff (pog like sounds). Is there any other worthwhile option?
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Aug 15, 2014 03:10
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Kilometers Davis posted:If I could ever find the perfect solid state head for a clean platform I would buy and never go back to tubes. The market just isn't there though. Not gonna lie and say I've looked very hard. Have you tried any of the amps made for jazz players? I really liked the ones I played at a local shop, but they were too expensive for me.
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Aug 15, 2014 03:35
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Kilometers Davis posted:If I could ever find the perfect solid state head for a clean platform I would buy and never go back to tubes. The market just isn't there though. Not gonna lie and say I've looked very hard. Just get a jc combo dude
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Aug 15, 2014 03:37
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RagingHematoma posted:Since I am such a newbie, I apologize for the basic question. What is the real difference between tube and electronic amps from a sound perspective? Is it something you don't start to notice until you go into some of the bigger setups? I ask because when I bought my fender practice amp, the guy was trying to upsell me hard on a tube practice amp (a Blackstar I think) which was a lot more money. He said it was better because it was a tube amp. I just dismissed it as a salesman taking advantage of a ignorant beginner. It's all about the Haunting Mids.  But seriously, it DOES depend on the rig in question because a lot of digital rigs are GREAT at emulating tubes and their response (I'm looking at YOU Mr. AxeFX). And that's really what it is, while tubes have a different style of distortion (in general, for the sake of this I'll exclude extremely high-end emulators like the aforementioned AxeFX), tubes generally have a richer, less 'compressed' distortion sound than does solid state, as a couple of examples: Here's an old solid state Crate combo and while granted, solid state tech has come a LONG way since the early 80s (side note: this is the first amp I ever owned) it's a pretty good example of the traditional SS distorted sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50jQ5nuaOLY This one was a little more traditional. It's a replica of a Marshall Super Lead Tremolo (and just to shill for my friend and utterly amazing amp guru, it was made by Curt Granger of Granger Amplification, the GNR-10036) with the Tremolo circuit removed and an additional gain stage added (a replica of the mysterious amp used on GnR's 'Appetite for Destruction' album incidentally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bol_cZ_2s4 Tried to go with a relatively similar amount of gain and maybe the best description I can think of is 'granular'? Now, to me, the biggest difference between SS and tube amps (and really, for the sake of accuracy, I'm REALLY talking about tube PREAMPS, since it's rare for anyone but a headliner in a huge venue to actually benefit from the distortion produced by pushing a tube AMPLIFIER section hard) is in how they react to volume changes from the guitar itself. I've often mentioned how being a knob monkey is great for really varying your tone while playing and tube amps react MUCH more to those varied settings than do most SS amps. As an example, onstage I RARELY (and really, only if I'm running a MIDI switching setup which just depends on which venue I'm at) actually switch to a clean channel. Even on a traditionally 'clean' song I can usually clean my tone up enough by rolling the volume back, dropping the tone a bit, clipping a coil (depending on which guitar I have) and that's pretty much it. On a SS amp it just basically gets a little quieter, without the distortion changing its characteristics. Other than that big rear end wall of text, SS amps are a lot more forgiving with regards to having a load on them, it's pretty easy to frag the output transformer of a big tube amp if you fire it up without a speaker/load connected, whereas a SS amp really doesn't care a LOT about that. Impedance mismatches as well, SS amps are just more forgiving overall. That said, in this day and age, there's not always a huge difference between them anymore. Some SS amps are absolutely phenomenal (I'm looking at the Randall stuff), most people using tube amps are using some form of SS boost or preamp in FRONT of the amp for added 'umph', the lines are blurring so much (and again, I'll point at the AxeFx) that I really believe that the days of tube superiority are numbered, and honestly, I'm not going to be to upset about it. I've gigged the 11 Rack by Avid as well as an AxeFx, I've got friends running the Kemper Profiler and several guys I know are running POD's and the GSP1101 by Digitech and they all love it and the biggest thing, the crowds don't notice a difference at all and, depending on your situation, that's what really matters in the end.
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Aug 15, 2014 03:53
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Kilometers Davis posted:If I could ever find the perfect solid state head for a clean platform I would buy and never go back to tubes. The market just isn't there though. Not gonna lie and say I've looked very hard. Agreed has mentioned the Quilter Labs stuff before, and if anyone in Vancouver gets them in so I can try one in person there's a good chance I'll be done with tubes for good. The demos sound good to me, and the light weight would be amazing for taking transit to and from gigs. Not quite ready to buy one without plugging all my stuff into it first though.
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Aug 15, 2014 04:55
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Honestly, I'm really thinking the perfect platform for gigging (and pretty much studio too) is the AxeFx. Freaking fantastic amp simulation, huge goofy rear end toolbox of effects, incredibly flexible and ultra-portable. The only real 'negative' is the lack of a back line, but that's easily rectified with a powered monitor (and even less of an issue with IEM's), I dunno, there are some days I'm 'THIS' close to dumping my analog stuff and snagging one and being done with it, but I look at all those little lightbulbs in a row and just can't seem to make myself do it yet.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:02
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iostream.h posted:The only real 'negative' is the lack of a back line That and costing an arm and a leg, two arms and a leg if you get the pedalboard. Also lol at running it straight to PA. Relying on dipshit sound guys just got even more fun.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:12
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