I use a direct box that goes between the cabinet and the power amp, so it's capturing the tone of the power amp in addition to the pre.

well that's what Eric suggested I do with my Weber Minimass attenuator, that Weber makes more of a difference than most people understand. Probably why my iso cab doesn't sound like garbage or boxy, you see it has one little feature that makes all the difference in the world. It has a 3db/6db treble boost (or no boost of course), Other Webers allow you to attenuate the highs separate from the lows (labeled Low/mids and Mid/high) and if I turn that off it's not very good sounding at all (of course that is a bit relative because I'm use to it with the boost). That's the problem with using youtube for demos (which I also do a lot), you're stuck listening to someone else's techniques, the key lies in knowing what you can do something about and what you can't.

If an iso cab sounds too boxy it's my firm belief that the blame should be put on the player and not the cab. Not to sound like I have a big head or anything but if I am not happy with my sound I'm hard on myself because I have failed. I think ZC said it all without even knowing it when he said he liked the Rivera iso cab the best, of course it sounded better...unlike the randall and jet city it has accommodations for two mics. When I mic my 4x12 I use two mics, Dean has a warehouse full of mics in front of his cab and his cab has 4 different speakers. susiwong has a similar set up, you see it's not the jet City that sounds bad or the Rivera that sounds good, it's about taking the time to work out the best configuration.

I'm fortunate because I have no dreams or deadlines, I have all the time in the world to experiment and the knowledge I pick up along the way is more important to me than a song. I learn from trying different things, I learn things from my mistakes and most often I learn things by mistake because I get results I didn't expect.

Miking is just one technique that is not as simple as it sounds and I'm sorry but sims still have not imho nailed this, just because you can move and choose mics in sims is not enough. So if you go with a live rig you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time working on just that. One thing is beam blocking, I am going to build a round grill to go over the speaker in the iso cab so I can tape it with duct tape. When you said that the Jet City sounded boxy I chuckled because one of my issues with it is the "ice pick to the head" effect, not boxy. I could buy a Weber Beam Blocker cheap but with it it's all or nothing. With my 4x12 I have tried different patterns of tape on the grill, different sizes and of course different placement of the pieces of tape and get many different tones. (SRV did this a lot) The iso cab does what I want, it keeps the outside noise out and keeps the noise level down so I dont bother others, that's what I wanted when I bought it...how it sounds is in my hands and my hands only.

So yeah, there are a lot of techniques and some people want to flip a switch, select a preset and maybe do some tweaking and that's all well and good. People are going to hear a cab, an amp, a guitar or whatever and think "that's how it sounds". I am a craftsman from head to toe and I look for what I want from a piece of gear and what I can do to modify it better to my liking. (having a strong background as a machinist helps, there are times in a shop you will spend more time building a jig that you will destroy just to do one operation than it takes to do the operation itself so you start off thinking this way) The only results that matter are the results that matter to me and what I am after, not what other people like. I really enjoy that part of playing and it has always been a part of who I am, and the end of the day I can "own" my sound

Nothing to see here, just an in so I can remember to look at this later.

I just discovered the thread, want to look at it later, don't want to forget......but not in the mood to deal with it currently

Damn it, why isn't Hibidy ever in the mood?

While it's true that as you get to a certain price point there's a point of diminishing returns, you also get what you pay for. Also, nothing is perfect and there is always compromise, As you might know, I've been a pretty big proponent of modeling software... well, hardware too if you consider the fact that I ditched real amps years ago due to flexibility reasons. I'm not sure what my first amp modeler actually was... I think an ART SGX2000. I even managed to get some great sounds out of it... but that might be the nostalgia talking. Anyway, I've been though a lot of high-tech guitar gear including stuff from Line6, though I must admit I never fell in love with the distortion stompbox modeler... the yellow one from years ago... I did love the Vox Tonelab though. That seemed to be a more "natural" sound to me.

But even the Vox had issues. So-so effects that didn't sync to a MIDI clock made me to to a Boss VF-1 (who's amp modeling was piss poor) for it's pretty decent digital effects. I was pretty happy...

I had no good bass solution and that's what led me to Amplitube SVX. God I still love the way that software sounds. The rest of it too. I only almost all their models at this point, though I have to admit the Jet City stuff didn't do much for me. YMMV as Susi Wong would say.

But Amplitube is a compromise as is an HD500. Frankly I've been listening to a TON of Line6 demos lately and IMO they do nothing that isn't available in Amplitube or S-Gear in terms of quality. Don't get me wrong, they're capable of sounding very good. I consider Amplitube and S-Gear top of the line in terms of software amp models.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcJ-uxfPTAE&feature=relmfu

But I doubt I'd ever be fooled into thinking it was an actual tube amp. I went with the Kemper because in all honesty the very first time I heard the demos something "snapped" in me that I didn't hear in any other amp modeler including the very expensive Axe FX. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that the Pod HD500/DT combo blows away the Axe FX.

So I'm not just wowed by some new tech or I would have been gaga for the Axe FX. I wasn't. Still don't see what the big deal is. Even when I had a chance to play with one in person I thought, "That sounds good." When I heard the Kemper demos I thought, "HEY! That sounds like a good amp!" (I also thought this about the DT25/HD500, though to be fair it is a real tube amp with digital help) Note I used the word "like." I'm fully aware that in the right conditions most of us wouldn't even be totally fooled by the Kemper... but I think it's as close as we'll get without using a system that pushes AC out of tubes into a box with a speaker. And trust me, if I found an iso cab that was fairly priced that I liked the sound of, I would have gone HD500/DT25, which btw, is more expensive than the Kemper. But the Kemper has one thing on it's side and that's it's small and totally silent.

And, without having to spend over $2k on the DT25/HD500/SilentSister combo, I actually have enough scratch left over to augment it with an HD500, which I've pretty much decided I'm going to grab.

Thanks sir! Maybe I'll break into your studio in the night and profile all your amps like some sonic guitar tone Vampire.

I hate you



gas gas gas gas gas gas gas gas..........

That's it. I'm officially resigning as president of the Hibidy fan club.

On a serious note I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it.

My thing is I'm so solitary I have nobody to go profile So it would be all about the profiles provided.

You can subscribe to threads on the bottom left of this page.

Does a subscription mean getting spammed with emails? I know for example you can't UNSUBSCRIBE from a thread in the literal term so not sure what the advantage is (other than saving one post, it's different on other forums as far as I can tell)

I use the "all my forum posts" for checking on what is going on, it's where my bookmark takes me.

Totally agree on the Axe FX. I had the latest one and sold it within a month. None of the patches came anywhere near giving me the experience of standing in front of an amp.

When I first played the Kemper, it was immediately after playing the Burriss Royal Bluesman. I was totally blown away by the Royal Bluesman's dynamics, it's probably the most dynamic tube amp I've ever played (Deluxe Reverb clean to cranked 18W Marshall grind by simply adjusting pick attack). So, when I discovered the dynamics knob on the Kemper and was able to dial in nearly the exact same dynamics control out of it (plus, with a much wider tonal selection available with those dynamics), I was sold.