A solid state modeler has improved my playing

  • Thread starter Thread starter indespise
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indespise

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After a long hiatus with several short attempts, I've gotten back into playing guitar, and find myself playing more than I have in over a decade. Aside from just having the desire (which has popped up a few times since I damn near stopped 6 years ago), I've found that the biggest drivers in keeping me playing a ton are accessibility and convenience. I bought a VYPYR VIP 2 combo to keep in my office, and later a more more standard shaped guitar that can be played sitting down (only kept my LTD V, sold my other guitar after stopping). Now I find myself grabbing the guitar constantly, and I have no concerns about firing the amp up for short sessions- something that I prefer to avoid with my tube amps for fear of shortening the power tube life. It also helps that this amp sounds pretty damn good for what it is, much better than the POD XT practice rig I tried this with before. So yeah, if you find yourself playing less than you'd like, see if a more convenient practice rig (that sounds good) located in a commonly used room changes things, it sure did for me.

I still want plenty of high gain tube goodness upstairs though. :D
 
Yeah, modelers are a great solution for practicing. I have a GSP 1101/power amp/cab, that I use all the time. Glad it's working for you.
 
That is kind of what I am going for with my MK V 25 watt amp, and a 112 cab. A new set of power tubes is $30-$40 so if the life is short it doesn't matter as much, but it does give me all the high gain goodness, and can still get plenty loud!!!

I went down the modeler road a bunch of times, and could never get along with them. Even the AxeFx didn't do it for me.
 
I haven't played on any of the newer gen high end modeling stuff like Kemper or Axe FX- they sound really good based on the recordings I've heard, but as much as those cost I'd rather just buy the amp I'm after. The older Line 6 stuff just had a buzzy quality that drives me nuts, I think what makes the vypyr different is the fact that its gain has Peavey's transtube tech worked in somehow, it's not completely digital from what I understand.
 
That is cool, I tried Line 6, and boss modellers back in the day, but didn't really like them, the AxeFx was good, but something was missing, and I spent way too much time tweaking. It is always good to have something that you can just plug into, and play that puts a smile on your face. I wish I could get along with a small modeller, but I gave up on them quite a while ago.
 
Yeah, I can see than happening very easily with an AxeFX or Kemper- give a guitar player 1500 parameters to tweak and most of us will go nuts trying to A/B everything. Keeping things simple leads to more time playing. This recent market move towards smaller, lower powered tube heads like your Mark V is a good one in my opinion, 20-40 watts of tube power is still generally enough to have a sound guy bitching.
 
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