Should I ditch my half stack and go digital?

JackBootedThug said:
Me or Jonny don’t play out…. Takes to much away from our male stripper careers…
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I bet your ass is booked.

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Racerxrated said:
I'd keep your fav tube amp if you MUST sell or downsize. Most people I know that have sold everything off, regret not keeping 1 tube amp around as they still sound/feel best in a direct comparison.
1 amp, 1 cab. Then pick your digital poison so to speak.
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+1

Downsize to an oversized 2x12 for more friendly low volume playing (half the SPL but great low end) and your to die with tube amp. Sell the rest. Go digital with a decent set of FRFR monitors.

This will let you compare the modeling stuff to the tube equivalent for a sonic baseline so you don’t end up in the weeds off the beaten path of what you know you like to play.
 
I've been back and forth with real amps and digital. I'd sell my real amps, regret it, buy them back, rinse and repeat. Now I have my real amps and my QC. I really quite like capturing and playing my amps with the QC, adding pre and post effects with their plug ins. I've also been a long time Fractal user, love the tones, but it gets a bit exhausting tweaking.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
Other than the weather it seems like you can't catch a break. Godspeed. Hopefully everything turns out well ❤️
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Doc thinks I have Narcolepsy and something else going on that they haven't identified yet. I'll bet the Doc is correct. I'll be wide awake, then boom, I have to sleep, as in feeling so tried it's like I've been up for a week. LOL I call those "sleep attacks", because they hit instantly and there have been times a sleep attack hit me and I could barely make it back to the bedroom.
 
I’d keep the amps or your favorites and get a Reactive Load and Studio Monitors.
There’s still something about the amps that feels good. I am a long time owner and lover of the Fractal AxeFx gear and Line 6 before that and they sound great. But even through a reactive load and monitors the amps still have a feel and organic sound that’s not worth ditching
 
PDC said:
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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I'd keep a head and cab in the beginning and slowly adjust. In fact maybe keep a 4x12 and that way you can run a power amp in wirh a modeller maybe?
 
Floyd Eye said:
I wouldn't, but I'm not you. I also have no band or no reason to have the gear I have when I could just as easily play through a little SS combo amp. I like vintage tube amps though and if I couldn't play through my amps I probably would just putz around on an acoustic guitar occasionally and call it a day.
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Nothing wrong with that either. 🤘🤘🤘
 
I’d say if you’re considering moving it give the plugins a shot on the free trials to see if it’s going to keep you content - feel and sound wise. I do enjoy them for firing up quickly but when I sold everything off to go to a QC I just kept playing the same captures of the same amps and decided to do a hybrid rig and scoop up some deals on heads. Got a load box and some ok studio monitors and have been extremely happy with it. The digital stuff is getting really damn close. If you’ve got some harder to find amps, I’d get something that can capture your favorite tones before flipping it.

My kids are little so I’m tethered to headphones for a hot minute.
 
You can go the reactive load box route and use that with your current amps and future amps, which lets you play them in their sweet spot into headphones is you need to.

As for getting rid of the amps and move to digital... unless cost is an issue and you would have to sell to get the modeler, I would get the modeler and just use it for a while, if you don't use your amp for the next year or so, you probably wont end up regretting selling it. Besides, the used market is kinda doo-doo right now for selling stuff.
 
I ditched my real amps years ago. It's strangely liberating to show up to a gig with nothing but a modeler in the backpack and a guitar in-hand.

Of course, I'm not stupid. I still have at least a few great tube amps at home that I crank up when the mood strikes.
 
JohnnyGtar said:
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.
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If you have nearfield studio monitors and an audio interface, you can download free trial versions of various guitar plugins before you go full digital...


Some of my favs: PolyChromeDSP McRocklin Suite, and Nunchuck; Neural DSP Petrucci, Plini, Henson, Mesa IIC+; BlueCat Audio Axiom; Helix Native,...
 
buddachile said:
More speakers does not equate to more volume. Volume depends on amp wattage and speaker sensitivity.
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For mouse fart volumes, you want to reduce the number of efficient drivers and increase the secondary load impedance so that the speakers can be driven by the power source more effectively and produce a quiet tone that’s more pleasant. A crazy high inductive load that you’re not going to begin to drive with enough current will sound absolutely awful across a low impedance load as compared to a single driver at very low volume also being driven with low current. It’s all about efficiency and frequency response of the OT relative to the load. Match the load to the wattage you expect to play at. It’s actually better to use super inefficient drivers for low volume so that you can turn the amp up more without significantly increasing SPLs.
 
I have been thinking about the same thing. I hated playing through the computer for years but have made some real progress this year with ToneX, and NAM. These newer capture softwares are on another level. I have been using Fractal for years, but always preferred it into a poweramp and cab. Mixing my own IRs have helped a lot also. I even made a capture of one of my tube amps, and I mostly use the digital version of that.

I dont play out, and dont really play very loudly. It has me questioning how much I need all the hardware. I have racks of tube amps, rack effects, and pedals. The plugins are super cheap, super flexible, and a lot of fun to play with. I recently bought some Valhalla Delay and Reverb plugins that are easily Fractal quality and cost $50.

I say if you have a computer and a decent interface, download some of the trials and free programs and see if you are happy with jamming them.
 
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