Real amps vs modelling and plugin amps

[zerocrossing]

I recently got a Butler Tube Driver, and I find it one of the most difficult pedals to control. It's like the tone stack is active and before the drive circuit and it makes the whole thing super sensitive to minute changes. I almost sent it back, but I persevered and now that I'm used to it, I love it. Great for high gain stuff.

I think he's referring to one of the Tube Driver amps. Imagine using your pedal with a mediocre solid state amp.

Oh, I didn't even know he made amps. Now I'm curious. Did they really suck?

[Naillerz78]

the Johnny Marr patches were fantastic..

Shouldn't that be enough? But I hear you on the noise, that's no good.

Yeah I did go debate it for a while cos of those presets. 100W 2x12 was just too much tho. I’m gassing to check out a Mustang LT25 for practice.

I visited the same 2nd hand gear shop this week. to sell 2 budget LP style guitars (bored and of that going back to fender style axes now ..again ) whilst consigning them in, I asked the shop guy his opinion on digital gear and modelling. He’s been there 10 yrs , guitarist and they try /test all the gear coming in. (A ton of turnover)

He rated the BOSS COSM modelling stuff the best for FX. And specifically mentioned a BOSS Fuzz which did “what he never thought could be done” “re - digital and Fuzz . I think it was an FZ-5 or 7(?)

He mentioned a bunch of other digi fx pedals he liked. the older line 6 mod factory type pedals.

I asked re amp modelling and he grew contemptuous (lol) talking about big transformers, magnetics etc and saying “ it needs IRON! Lots of Iron! Weight! BIG transformers.They need to be heavy AF!”

His opinion re Boss COSM fuzz got me thinking of the Boss GT-1 I owned a few years back and the awesome demos I saw by this Boss clinician guy named Josh Munday. (Aussie)

He pulls some fantastic sounds from the Boss multifx units. I think I’m gonna buy a cheap 2nd hand one and try to replicate. Altho it didn’t work first time I owned one. Only sounded as close to his videos through a big PA system at a rehearsal space

He’s got some good tutorials on building the tones he uses in clinics .may get another one cheap
How does he get it to sound so good tho??
I saw in one video he had a Friendman half stack behind him.. suspect!

Compared to say a Tonex this has expression pedal. Pitch shifting, Tera-reverb/delay, *pickup modelling** (wicked) etc
Way more useful imo. And $150-$200 AUD 2nd hand..

[YnJ]

I'm using the power section of a 5F6-A Tweed Bassman. I had a Mesa/Boogie 20/20 before, it wasn't as good.

That's an expensive power amp, if it is the same amp I found when I looked it up it's twice as much as a second hand Mesa or new Engl poweramp. What's wrong with Engl btw? I have no experience with any of their amps at all

[tapper mike]

Apparently I've been lying to myself all these years and you guys as well. Honestly I thought it was a Butler Tube Driver amp. It was an amp labeled as Tube Driver and made by a company called Tube Works

tubedriver.jpg

It was designed by Butler but not built by Butler

[tapper mike]

I'll also say that it was loud as all get up. Not only from the stage but from the back of an 800 seat packed bar. It was also boxy and punchy. My musical tastes would never let me play another one now.

I'd rather have a REVV with IR's for the cab.

[zerocrossing]

Apparently I've been lying to myself all these years and you guys as well. Honestly I thought it was a Butler Tube Driver amp. It was an amp labeled as Tube Driver and made by a company called Tube Workstubedriver.jpg

It was designed by Butler but not built by Butler

Oh crap, holy nostalgia. As soon as I saw it, I remember that it was the amp that Ithaca Guitar Works had in the room that I used to demo my Steinberger GMT-4. I don't remember it sounding bad... I did buy that guitar and I still have it. I guess I didn't come back for the amp. I couldn't find a decent demo of it, because evidently, people on YouTube have no idea how to mic and an amp and think phone mics are fine. Is it so bad?

[Uncle E]

His opinion re Boss COSM fuzz got me thinking of the Boss GT-1 I owned a few years back and the awesome demos I saw by this Boss clinician guy named Josh Munday. (Aussie)

There's another Boss clinician from Australia named Alex Hutchings who also can do amazing things with their pedals. I think he was using the ME-80 when I saw him, run through a couple of tiny little speakers hanging right above him. Mind you, it was at NAMM, so not exactly an accurate listening environment, but it sounded awesome to me at the time.

The Boss ME-90 is absolutely flush with knobs. Personally, that's the one I'd get.

[tapper mike]

It was loud I'll give it that much. Loud punchy piercing and boxy. I didn't like the tone, my bandmates didn't like it and the audience who were mostly followers didn't

I was also picking up side gigs as a bassist and had a Traynor Bass Master (I forget which model it was modded had Mid and Presence
That amp did everything for me and did it in spades.

[Uncle E]

I was also picking up side gigs as a bassist and had a Traynor Bass Master (I forget which model it was modded had Mid and Presence
That amp did everything for me and did it in spades.

That's a fantastic amp. Basically a Tweed Bassman with awesome transformers. Very few modern amps can measure up to it, including tube amps. Boutique level.

[Naillerz78]

His opinion re Boss COSM fuzz got me thinking of the Boss GT-1 I owned a few years back and the awesome demos I saw by this Boss clinician guy named Josh Munday. (Aussie)

There's another Boss clinician from Australia named Alex Hutchings who also can do amazing things with their pedals. I think he was using the ME-80 when I saw him, run through a couple of tiny little speakers hanging right above him. Mind you, it was at NAMM, so not exactly an accurate listening environment, but it sounded awesome to me at the time.

The Boss ME-90 is absolutely flush with knobs. Personally, that's the one I'd get.

Never heard of that one , I thought only went to ME-80. Must check it.. I do prefer to fiddle with knobs. Had an Me-50 , it wasn’t bad, but a bit of a tone sucker .

[zerocrossing]

Call me crazy, but in the 90s, for bass guitar, I was all about some Hartke wedge shaped thing. I thought it sounded fantastic. Imagine Gordon Freeman from Half Life with a Steinberger Q bass in read and that Hartke bass amp. That was me. I wanted some SWR, but I couldn't afford it.

[stoopicus]

Hartke have some gems. These days most serious bass players are probably still in to various Ampegs or Gallien-Krugers for real rigs; lots of beginners love the Fender Rumble combos and some pros like the 500 combo for convenience. I'm not a huge fan of the Fender scooped mids so they would not be for me - I mean I have owned one but I wouldn't buy another.

And then there's Darkglass too of course, and lots of folks still love SWR, Genz-Benz, Markbass, etc.

The biggest change in the last 10 years has probably been Class D power amp modules making big amps cheap now.

[Uncle E]

SWR had a tiny amp called the LA 10 that theoretically would make a great FRFR. Imagine putting a stereo pair of these wide across a stage:

[YnJ]

Never heard of that one , I thought only went to ME-80. Must check it.. I do prefer to fiddle with knobs. Had an Me-50 , it wasn’t bad, but a bit of a tone sucker .

It's the most recent model, replacing the ME-80 I guess. I was thinking of getting an ME-90, I got the Line 6 multieffect pedal first though and was dissapointed with it as all the overdrives and distortions sounded the same, and then the GX-700 with analogue overdrives and distortions turned up, and I got that instead. If you guys think the COSM digital modelling of dirt pedals is good now, I might reconsider getting an ME-90 though

[Uncle E]

Ironically, someone ended up selling us an ME-90 yesterday. I’ll test it out when it gets here.