AXE-FX Tube Poweramp vs Solid State

[Gainfreak]

Aloha Bruddah!! Im finding that a 4 space axe rig is suiting me just fine these days!! Im way to fat and old to be lugging stuff to gigs lol

YOU OWN!!

tell you what...IF i had a axe i'd love to check out the 60 watt tech 21 power engines...two of those gtr voiced powered cabs with celestions, all the EQ controls and recording direct outs.....sounds pretty ideal....anyone try these?

I use two Powere Engines but not like you plan to. I use them with a Suhr ISO in a wet dry rig and I think they work great. My set up right now is a VHT Deliverance into a Bogner OS 2x12 and an M13 using the 4 cable method with the post preamp effects going stereo out to the Power Engines. I have a couple of G12H Celestions that I thought of putting in the Power Engines just to see if I liked them better than the Lead 80's on the PE's but that would be just for messing around because I think they sound good as they are. I've used them with several heads and they have worked great with all of them.

I found a great deal for these on line and got both for about half off.

AWESOME!!

 

[Gainfreak]

Hmm - I'm more than sceptical, but of course I do trust your ears, Ralph.
Is there anything special about those Carvins? If not, I will give it a try with our PA power amp.

Nothing special about the Carvins Olaf other then they are cheap and great for the Money. You could try it with your PA poweramp for sure. The few things that Ive noticed is to keep the presence down on the amp sim, mess around with the SAG control and boost the overal volume of the amp. All my presets were set to a low voume for some reason. My live rig wouldn't get loud until I had the volume on the axe almost full up! I changed the volumes now and on 4 its blistering loud

I did this more out of making the rig more portable. I wouldn't have bothered if I wasn't so lazy lol

 

[duesentrieb]

Thanks for the tips, Ralph. I'll try it soon.

Have a great weekend my friend !

 

[Gainfreak]

Thanks for the tips, Ralph. I'll try it soon.

Have a great weekend my friend !

Let me know what you think Olaf!! Don't get me wrong, I love what the 2:90 does but having to worry about a tube going, the added weight and having to re-tube the thing now getting expensive, and after what I heard back to back, the SS solution was the way to go!!

Have a great weekend Brother!!


Ralph

 

[rsm]

Not too surprised at all! Congrats on slimming down your live rigs! When tweaked well, the Axe-Fx can get much of the nuance of tubes, great tones and dynamics. Adding tube anything to this chain will color the tone which for me, was not necessary. I like power amp coloration, but I'm so used to getting my tones from the preamp stage, I don't really miss it. Now: 1500W, so 750W per side? ohms?

Before I started modernizing my rig, both my guitar and bass rigs were tube/ss preamps, ss power amps, I was using all ADA for both rigs. When I got my Ultra, it went through the ADA B200S ss power amp. To use the cab sims, I went with a Bose L1 (ss). Sold all my ADA gear except one MP-2...

With the Ultra gone, I'm using Tech 21 SansAmps into the Bose L1, and its working great for me. I've the Liverpool, British pedals and PSA 1.1 rack unit for guitar, and for bass I have the Programmable Bass Driver DI. (My ToneLab LE, JMP-1 and ADA MP-2 all sound great with the ss Bose).

I got good sounds from my Ultra, but it took me waaayyyy too long to dial the tones in, and I always thought I could make it better, so I found myself tweaking all the time. The preamps I have now are straightforward, easy to dial in good tones, so its working out for me.

 

[Gainfreak]

Not too surprised at all! Congrats on slimming down your live rigs! When tweaked well, the Axe-Fx can get much of the nuance of tubes, great tones and dynamics. Adding tube anything to this chain will color the tone which for me, was not necessary. I like power amp coloration, but I'm so used to getting my tones from the preamp stage, I don't really miss it. Now: 1500W, so 750W per side? ohms?

Before I started modernizing my rig, both my guitar and bass rigs were tube/ss preamps, ss power amps, I was using all ADA for both rigs. When I got my Ultra, it went through the ADA B200S ss power amp. To use the cab sims, I went with a Bose L1 (ss). Sold all my ADA gear except one MP-2...

With the Ultra gone, I'm using Tech 21 SansAmps into the Bose L1, and its working great for me. I've the Liverpool, British pedals and PSA 1.1 rack unit for guitar, and for bass I have the Programmable Bass Driver DI. (My ToneLab LE, JMP-1 and ADA MP-2 all sound great with the ss Bose).

I got good sounds from my Ultra, but it took me waaayyyy too long to dial the tones in, and I always thought I could make it better, so I found myself tweaking all the time. The preamps I have now are straightforward, easy to dial in good tones, so its working out for me.

Ive learned to Keep my live sounds the same now and the tweaking is only done for fun when I'm bored!! I almost roped myself into the "I can get a better tone" situation with the axe-fx and I stopped trying to one up myself because it was getting to insane lol!!

 

[ejecta]

Aloha Bruddah!! Im finding that a 4 space axe rig is suiting me just fine these days!! Im way to fat and old to be lugging stuff to gigs lol

YOU OWN!!

tell you what...IF i had a axe i'd love to check out the 60 watt tech 21 power engines...two of those gtr voiced powered cabs with celestions, all the EQ controls and recording direct outs.....sounds pretty ideal....anyone try these?

I use two Powere Engines but not like you plan to. I use them with a Suhr ISO in a wet dry rig and I think they work great. My set up right now is a VHT Deliverance into a Bogner OS 2x12 and an M13 using the 4 cable method with the post preamp effects going stereo out to the Power Engines. I have a couple of G12H Celestions that I thought of putting in the Power Engines just to see if I liked them better than the Lead 80's on the PE's but that would be just for messing around because I think they sound good as they are. I've used them with several heads and they have worked great with all of them.

I found a great deal for these on line and got both for about half off.

AWESOME!!

Yeah I've actually been needing smaller grab and go rig so I was thinking since I had the PE's already getting a pre to put in front of it. The Axe has crossed my mind but to be honest Im so ADD and hate tweaking Im afraid it would just frustrate me. Also to be honest there have been so many mixed reviews with the thing it has me worried I wouldnt like it.

 

[MrDan666]

Very cool Ralph!! Good to know, incase i go the AxeFX route in future

Now for the big question.... How do you think it would do in a real amp rig, if the Carvin poweramp was being used as the slave in a Wet/Dry/Wet system?

I use a Peavey Classic 60/60 and its friggin heavy!! If i could get good results using the 1500w Carvin, i would absolutely go that route without a second thought.

Maybe you could test it when you get your Carvin and see how it sounds when using it to slave an amp head?

 

[mentoneman]

Its funny that you should say that Pat because I was going to go that Route. My bass player plays in another band and his guitarist uses 2 of the power engines and I was going to ask him to try them. I didn't go that route because of $$$. The new Carvins are pretty cheap and buying 2 power engines is not in the cards at this time! Im still thinking about asking him to try it out though!

great minds

but please do ask to try it out--i'd love to hear your feedback and i know the extra feature of eq on the power side like the power engine offers could be a huge benefit

and yeah more wattage for ss power amps is good...i'm running a peavey 600 wps into my EV 12L 1x12 and mesa greenback/75 cab which is way more power than those speakers should be accepting but i live on the edge

and i do hear and feel the benefit of the added headrooom of the amp, versus the powerblock i used to use.

 

[dfrattaroli]

On a side note, Bruce Egnater is supposedly coming out with a 30 watt, single-space, all tube, rack power amp for less than $1000. I can't wait to see what this turns out to be like.

 

[Gainiac]

Hmm - I'm more than sceptical, but of course I do trust your ears, Ralph.
Is there anything special about those Carvins? If not, I will give it a try with our PA power amp.

Nothing special about the Carvins Olaf other then they are cheap and great for the Money. You could try it with your PA poweramp for sure. The few things that Ive noticed is to keep the presence down on the amp sim, mess around with the SAG control and boost the overal volume of the amp. All my presets were set to a low voume for some reason. My live rig wouldn't get loud until I had the volume on the axe almost full up! I changed the volumes now and on 4 its blistering loud





+1 But, EQ! EQ!!!!!!EQ!!!!!!
so what I'm trying to say is, mess w/ the eq.

 

[fek]

What cabs and speakers are you pushing with that much wattage?

 

[Jakem]

Very cool result, Ralph! I'm very interested in the MarkV head so I'm possibly selling my rack rig. The thing is that I got bought my 2:90 new for a very good price and because it's such a killer poweramp I dunno if I can sell it!

-Jaakko

 

[digwhisper]

I'm glad you guys came to the same conclusion I did. I switched over about a year and a half ago and haven't looked back. I'm running a Carvin DCM 600 and it's doing me just fine. There are times when I wish I'd gone for more watts but at most of the gigs I do I still have plenty of headroom. Now you guys have got me wondering about the new light weight Carvins though.

 

[cliffc8488]

You guys wouldn't know good tone if you sat on it. I know tone and you don't get it with your damn Axe-Fx and a solid-state amp. Just ask my mother, she heard me rocking out some Jimi in the basement and commented on how the Axe-Fx could never sound that good. Oh, and the next time you have a gig I'm going to show up and kick your ass.

Carl

 

[Code001]

You guys wouldn't know good tone if you sat on it. I know tone and you don't get it with your damn Axe-Fx and a solid-state amp. Just ask my mother, she heard me rocking out some Jimi in the basement and commented on how the Axe-Fx could never sound that good. Oh, and the next time you have a gig I'm going to show up and kick your ass.

Carl

 

[ejecta]

You guys wouldn't know good tone if you sat on it. I know tone and you don't get it with your damn Axe-Fx and a solid-state amp. Just ask my mother, she heard me rocking out some Jimi in the basement and commented on how the Axe-Fx could never sound that good. Oh, and the next time you have a gig I'm going to show up and kick your ass.

Carl

 

[Gainfreak]

What cabs and speakers are you pushing with that much wattage?

Im using an Earcandy ported 2x12 Loaded with MC90 speakers but Im not pinning the volume. Im only using that much wattage because of the headroom

 

[Gainfreak]

Very cool result, Ralph! I'm very interested in the MarkV head so I'm possibly selling my rack rig. The thing is that I got bought my 2:90 new for a very good price and because it's such a killer poweramp I dunno if I can sell it!

-Jaakko

Jaakko!!

I love the 2:90, Its just so freaking heavy!! Im not getting rif of it, I'll just put it to use elsware!!!

 

[Gainfreak]

I'm glad you guys came to the same conclusion I did. I switched over about a year and a half ago and haven't looked back. I'm running a Carvin DCM 600 and it's doing me just fine. There are times when I wish I'd gone for more watts but at most of the gigs I do I still have plenty of headroom. Now you guys have got me wondering about the new light weight Carvins though.

Sup!!! The DCM600 is fine. i don't think that you need to go up if the DCM is working for you. That's the Poweramp we used and it worked great. I only went with the new one because the price was right and it was a few lbs lighter!!