Should I ditch my half stack and go digital?

JohnnyGtar

JohnnyGtar

Well-known member
I don't play live anymore. Thinking of ditching my halfstack, maybe I'll keep my combo. Tired of needing cap jobs, tubes, etc. I'm disabled and can't afford that stuff anymore. The thing is, digital sounds so good now and back in the day, I'd have sold my left nut to get some of the sounds that are possible today with digital.

Whaddya think? PS, playing really loud to get the air moving isn't an option where I live.
 
I'm not for or against your decision Johnny as long as you enjoy yourself. GL!

rottingcorpse said:
Might as well. The only reason nowadays to have real amps is enjoy moving air.
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Pretty much this I would guess for a lot of people. I love my tube amps, because feeling is 90% of my hearing. Although y'all still have me chasing tones. :ROFLMAO: WTB: ENGL Fireball 100
 
JohnnyGtar said:
Thanks, Lisa! How ya doin'?
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Not too bad! My son's motorcycle got stolen the other night which is kinda frustrating not because of the cost or the aholes that took it, but because he spent hundreds of hours fixing it and he's heartbroken.
 
JohnnyGtar said:
Glad you're doing well!

It stinks that your son's motorcycle got stolen.
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Just one of those things. It wouldn't be so bad if it we could just buy one at the dealership to replace it, but it's a vintage cafe yamaha that him and his father have been working on since last year. It's like steal all of my guitars, no worries, please just leave my heirlooms alone kinda thing. I hope you get to recovering. You have any good therapies or treatments you're working with? Has it been super hot there this week? Holy! In the high 90s here, which seems dumb to complain about, but I just wanna sleep in some snow right now.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
Just one of those things. It wouldn't be so bad if it we could just buy one at the dealership to replace it, but it's a vintage cafe yamaha that him and his father have been working on since last year. It's like steal all of my guitars, no worries, please just leave my heirlooms alone kinda thing. I hope you get to recovering. You have any good therapies or treatments you're working with? Has it been super hot there this week? Holy! In the high 90s here, which seems dumb to complain about, but I just wanna sleep in some snow right now.
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They found something else, so I have another head and neck MRI next month. Not doing any therapies. I'm waaaaay up on a mountain, so we rarely get hot up here.
 
JohnnyGtar said:
They found something else, so I have another head and neck MRI next month. Not doing any therapies. I'm waaaaay up on a mountain, so we rarely get hot up here.
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Other than the weather it seems like you can't catch a break. Godspeed. Hopefully everything turns out well ❤️
 
@JohnnyGtar sorry to hear about your situation. Sending positive mojo your way.

As from half stack to digital. I still have some expensive tube amps (3 Mesa), speaker cabs, a huge pedal collection, attenuators and loads to be able to play my amps at low volumes... I also have some digital gear... And to be honest, for what I do these days, I could switch to fully digital and be very happy with it.

And what I have are not an expensive unist such as Quad Cortex, Helix, Kemper or Fractal. Just my Katana amps, some Zoom pedals (Multistomps which offer plenty of good effects) and recently got a ToneX one from the Prime deals day. If you have a decent computer with a low latency USB interface, I'd suggest you to try out the free NAM stand alone software or even the ToneX free (limited but gives an idea). Try them out and see if you could live with the sound and then, go with your budget. My coworker has a QC and he swears by it. When I tried it, I enjoyed it too but was just not ready to put that much money into getting one, the reason I got that affordable ToneX one.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
I used to have the bigger tube heads and 4x12s and had two hernia surgeries in 2012 and 2014 and decided to go smaller. I still have one 20 watt Marshall tube head but mostly using Orange transistor Super Crush 100 combos.

I just got a Seymour Duncan Powerstage and I'm thinking I mighDont get a good modeller next year. I was a Fractal guy for years but I've heard nothing but good things about the Quad Cortex, Tonex, etc. I think it is could find something that sounds great id be happy.

Don't pass on the solid state combos and small tube amps, etc. There is more out there than just getting a huge library of modelled amps.
 
I'm trying to avoid accepting the fact that I am in the same place as the OP and have been for quite a while now. I find that I am hanging onto my heads and 4x12s out of nostalgia. And I agree completely that the sound you get from digital these days is nothing short of incredible. I may try to get brave and pick one head and my 2x12 - sell the rest of the heads and 4x12s - and get excited about learning the Tonex / Fractal stuff.

In the words of Bruce Lee: "Evolve or Perish."
 
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