Throw away-sell ALL your amps

[Guitarplyrjvb]

You can now get a 12 year old Fractal Ax FX Ultra for $600. Is it worth it to get one of these or has modelling progressed to the point of making this unit obsolete? Apparently, you can download edit software which makes it easier to edit the sounds. There's also apparently lots of user patches available for download. I am really tempted to get one of these even though they're no longer supported.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

My Zoom 9050 just gave up the ghost and I replaced it with a Line 6 Pod X3 for $100. Wow! You can go down a rabbit hole with this thing. Cabinets, heads, mic's, effects........ I find it easier to scour the presets that everyone else has done and then tweek one of those to my liking. It's really damned amazing what these things do. The technology in this unit is 15 yrs. old, but hell, it sounds pretty damned good for the money!

[MudShark22]

Our guitarist was using a line 6 pod back in 98/99 and it was amazeballs then!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[hFx]

These modellers are getting really really good and many established artists swear by them, not the least on the road but also in the studio and not only HiGainMetalHeads. Though the better Fractal, Kemper, NDSP Quad Cortex and Line 6 Helix are as expensive as a boutique combo or head. The older models are still quite good though.

[Gizmotron]

I do it all…clean sounds though my Hughes & Kettner amp, dirty, modeled sounds through it (it has it built in), traditional pedals, and also a Line 6 POD XT Live.

Life is too short to cut an option out.

[kreiff]

What's the consensus on the best amp modeler these days? Neural Quad Cortex, Line 6 Helix, Kemper Profiler, Fractacl Axe FX III, something else?

I've been lugging my Mesa DC-5 and a 2x12 around for a decade...but I'm turning 40 next year and considering making the jump to a modeler. The Neural QC peaks my interest the most, but curious to hear what other folks are using. I think my biggest concern is really just the set up. I think the sound quality is pretty well established at this point - but how annoying is it to set up a full pedal board / amp combo?

Let me know your experience and what you're using!

[Pekka]

I've used a NUX Solid Studio Power Amp & IR modeller for a few years now both on stage and for recording. It does not contain any bass cabinets but can take third party IR's and I've been using Dr. Bonkers IRs, usually a Gallien Krueger 4x10 for bass and Hiwatt 412 for guitar. I also have an Acoustic 301 folded horn cab for JPJ and Jaco sounds, works great for guitar too.

It resides at the end of my pedal board and my "preamp" is a DOD Milk Box compressor and DOD Bi-Fet FX10. I also usually have a Boss LS-2 engaged with an old Digitech Tone Driver in one loop providing slight overdrive and Broughton Low & High Pass Filter in clean loop ensuring I still have my low end intact and also I can cut high end from the clean sound as I feel a straight blending sounds usually a bit artificial with the bass.
The Nux acts like a DI box for gigs and yet no sound engineer has asked me to provide a straight clean DI without a cab emulation.

So the IR technology has helped me a lot. I can have an amp sound without twisting the arms of the sound men to beg them to mic my cab and also it has enabled me to record at home as using an amp at home isn't an option.
That said, I still use my amp and cab (Hiwatt DR103 or Lab Series L2 with Ashdown ABM410) on stage. Even 'though I mostly use IEM's I still want the feel of the real amp behind me and usually others want it too.

If I wanted one box to do it all the NUX SS wouldn't be my choice as it's pretty limited but as I prefer tweaking the pedals instead of programming it has worked out fine plus I don't have to get rid of my obsolete pedals but instead can buy more.

The following track has all the basses and guitars recorded with that system.

[Czyszy]

I use free or low budget ampsims (LePou, NaLex, Nembrini, Kuassa). I think the role cab Impulse Responses play in the final guitar sound is much bigger than the ampsim. But IMHO mixing amped guitars is also very important. EQ, compression et al. applied to the already amped and cabbed guitar sound is a crucial element to achieving the perfect tone. It's a shame people on guitar forums don't talk about it much and focus mostly on the pedals/amp/cab part of the chain.