My first amp and guitar. I have the guy at the shop play for me. If it sound good in his hand, that give me confidence that with enough practice I should be able to get in to sound good too.
My first amp sounded like shit, I know this because I knew what sound I was looking for, and my amp and guitar couldn’t produce it, but my brother’s old marshall could.
Of course you know if your amp sounds good. Because you’re comparing your amp sound to the music you’re trying to emulate. You also know your playing sucks because you can’t hit the right notes or if you can you can’t make them sound right.
The noise complaint issue is relatable - I am exclusively using plugins at home now for the same reason. But even without that, virtual amps are such a great practice and recording tool, and a great way to inexpensively explore more tones than you would be able to in the "real" world. As evidenced by the pro-quality tones you pulled from a $700 guitar and a $100 plugin, it is a great time to be an electric guitarist!
I am speaking purely from the perspective of a bassists here, but virtual amps are top notch these days. Like for example the Ampeg plugins, those are pretty awesome. If you use a high quality plugin not a single person in the audience will be able to tell that it's not a real amp. Another option is to go hybrid. Use a preamp and DI it into your PC via a USB interface. That opens up a whole lot of possibilities, as there are a lot of very nice tube preamps on the market. And you can still keep that volume in check.
I'm 61 and have been playing for 52 years, most of those years as a pro studio and touring guitarist. I love your humor videos, but you dropped some serious knowledge on your contemporaries with this one. Big ups!
First amp I've owned was also a Roland Cube... the clean sound and built-in effects were actually pretty good given the price tag. As a matter of fact, I know some pro musicianers (mainly jazz cats) who still use that tiny amp for gigs.
Roland cube was my first Amp. Pretty sweet if you dialed it in. The Roland Jazz Chorus was monster Amp. My Friend Pihana Tahepehi used two live and best strat tone I ever heard.
I got a Cube 60 several years back and put a quality speaker in it. I still gig with that amp. I play R&B, Blues, and Fusion-y Jam gigs with that amp, and it covers it all like a champ (not a Champ 😉).
Just looking at a cube makes me feel like I'm 12 years old rocking my first guitar again. Lovely beginner amps. Indestructable too, used to bike my amp to friends and did occasionally drop it and it would only accumulate the slightest bumps
I have a Roland cube in a wooden chest. I use it when i am watching tv sitting on the couch. It sounds good by itself, but in the chest it has more resonance and quiets the high end a bit.
You are quickly becoming a favorite YT follow. The content is quality, but you come across like a real person wanting to share real experiences. Much appreciated.
I learned with a $10 irig, the free tonebridge app, and a $75 Amazon strat knockoff. Got tones that someone from 15 years ago would pay thousands for, learned quickly, and did it all on a shoestring budget. What a great time for us.
An amp is an amp, whether its digital, solid state, or tube. There's pros and cons to each, you just have to know how to work with what you have. At home, I like to play through my collection of tube amps during the day and through digital stuff like NeuralDSP and Bias FX at night. When I jam with friends, I tend to use whatever is laying around in their practice space which is usually some kind of digital solid state combo like a Line 6 Spider or Boss Katana.
Have you tried something like the Two Notes Torpedo Reload, Ox or similar? Buy a good one and your pretty much set up, even for playing in the wee small hours in the room next to your partner :) There's lots of useful info out there in YTland etc.
The first (electric) guitar I ever used is sitting right next to me along with the first amp I ever used. My parents brought me to a shop when I was 10ish and asked me to pick out a guitar I thought looked cool, (from a wall that only had cheapish guitars) and I selected a ceramic blue SGR superstrat thing(unaware that I was actually making a big choice). A few weeks later I unwrapped the beauty for my birthday, along with the original fender mustang amp(not the guitar it's a modeling amp). I love them both and use them every day, even after getting more expensive gear recently.
In the last couple years, I started learning and using plugins. For decades I used room sound. You can see on my video history how recent it has been from jamming to something with a room amp, and a mic propped against it, to using plugins that can get any amp and effect sound I want. The room sound sometimes sounded good.
Amp sims are a game changer for metal especially. It's possible to get good tones for cheap, but it's certainly not easy. Save for a small handful of notable exceptions, solid state stuff doesn't hold up well at high gain. But now I can just plug into my interface, pull up the Fortin Nameless Suite and melt faces pretty much instantly. So much clarity and punch, the kind of tone you'd need to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars chasing with actual gear.
Hey, I played acoustic guitar and bass before and now I am about to buy my first electric guitar for metal purposes. Beside a sound interface and virtual amp sims, which speakers do I need for them? Would be my razer soundbar speakers good enough for the beginning? or do I need studio monitors or something else? Would be glad if you would share your experience with me :)
@@Reynoldzx Most interfaces have left and right 3/4" outputs on them as well as a 3/4" stereo headphone out. In the beginning, you can absolutely just pick up a 3/4" to 3.5mm conversion and then use an aux cable to plug into whatever speaker or headphones you have. For the best quality sound, though, it's a good idea to pick up a pair of active studio monitors to plug into those left and right outputs. I got Presonus Eris E5s for $150 each and I have no real complaints with them.
@themightymcb7310 oh so I can go right in the headphone output with my 3.5mm stereo speakers, too ? thats dope man, I thought I would have to go in R or L output and I ordered a 3,5mm to 6,35mm converter, but it looks like I can send them right back :) Thanks for the quick answer and sharing your experience budd!
@@Reynoldzx you also have to make sure you change the default audio device in your computer's settings to your interface, that way all sounds produced by your computer will come out of the headphone send. This will let you continue to use those speakers for other purposes besides guitar
I love my 5150 II . Here is also something you can do with loud amps. Get yourself a JHS little black amp box. It’s an attenuator and you put it in the loop. I basically use it as a master volume/tone knob. You get all the gain and feeling, but can play as quietly as you want.
My go to amp has always been my 77’ Princeton reverb, I have had it since 1991 and it has worked for me playing at home or playing in concert. I play a 91’ American made Strat and a Takamine acoustic electric thru it. When playing on stage I play thru a Lr Baggs para acoustic DI into the house system.
For me it's a convenience issue. I'm tracking all day for composers (film, game and TV) as well as producers and for my own writing. It's easier to save settings, saving them to folders for each composer or project. I am going through an API 512c into an Apogee convertor. I wrote and played Justin Bieber's ETA direct into a basic Guitar Rig amp with a $99 Squier Strat. I will track fairly loud though paying attention to the nuance between my fingers/pick and the strings.
@@nikephorosmostropus4606 I played the guitar on Justin Bieber's acoustic version of Baby on the My Worlds Acoustic record. If that is what you are asking.
I love tube amps...i build tube amps from scratch, just because I enjoy it. Virtual amps are great too, but understanding that you are running through multiple pre-amps (interface preamp, and virtual amp preamp stage) is critical.
Lol I just made a very similar comment. I build tube as well as solid state amps, pedals and restore vintage radio receivers. My last amp build was a Fender Champ style amp that I borrowed some ideas for off of the Mesa Blue Angel schematic. So the champ inspired clone has a switch thats connected to the 6v6 cathode and also at the cathode of an EL84 so it can select either 6V6 or EL84 for the output section. It also has a bright boost and mids switch that selects between the two mid resistor values Fender used in the champs over the years. I absolutely love that little amp. My other main amp is a Marshall DSL100HR that I've had since launch that I've modded a bit as well. I added a plexi style choke to it but left the stock resistor on a switch so that I can select either the choke or the resistor. I personally think modelers and plugins etc are fine for practice but I would never ever play them live or record with them. It cheapens the experience and they just don't have any soul. Tube amps and even good ss amps just feel so much better to play through in my experience.
Actual thing that added to the problems with virtual amps in the past… The first gen Focusrite Scarlett were often malfunctioning where the “INST” input is too hot no matter what guitar you use. Until I fully switched to the LINE mode (and applied high shelf on eq before all the virtual amps and such to compensate for the impedance difference), I was struggling BAD to try and figure it out, like why is it clipping… And just by how popular those interfaces were and pther testimonies, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one with such conundrums. Nowadays everything works better.
Hey man, sorry you've got that damn idiot doing his bogus telegram "you're a winner" replies. This is a real reply...Wow. haven't used a Focusrite Scarlett but what a drag on the INST input being too hot and clipping! I wish these companies would think about the PTSD they cause us guitarists with these issues out of the gate. Glad to hear that you were able to work through the problem and solve it. I have an IK Multi-Media AXE i/O that works pretty well. We shall see down the line if it's the one I'll stick with.
My first was a solid state Guerilla... and it was horrible, but I was too, so it helped me learn. My first good amp was a Marshall and it was great, but not for the type of music i was playing at the time. There are good solid state amps, modelers, and plugins, but there is nothing that sounds and feels like a great tube amp in the room... So Now I have a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special and a Morgan MVP 23, with a pretty absurd stereo pedalboard, and I couldn't be more pleased.
I started out on a little gorilla amp as well;God that thing was horrible, but it did the job. Fast forward almost 40 years, and I'm a tube snob: tweed deluxe, princeton reverb, dumble clone.
@@spunkytheozinho I can appreciate that, especially for those living in apartments or townhouses. There are some great attenuators, load boxes, & amps with line or headphone outs so you have the best of both worlds. The Morgan Power scaling is exceptional & far better than old master volumes & attenuators. I can get some really great tones from it at bedroom volumes. The Lonestar also has some lower watt options, for reasonable volume tube saturation.
My first amp was an Ibanez bass amp that came from a kit. It definitely made a sound. After that I got a Bassbreaker 007 combo which sounded good, but it had to be loud to sound awesome so I got rid of it and got the Neural DSP Cory Wong plug-in. That's currently my sound (apart from my pedalboard and whatever amp the rehearsal room or venue has).
My entire rig consists of a Mooer GE100 multiFX pedal and a Fender Champion 100 amp. (I have a soft spot for the number 100.) Guitars are an Epiphone Les Paul, Squier Affinity Strat and Teles, and Chinese-made ES335 and SG copies. And headphones to plug into the Champion 100 for late-night practice.
As a brand new guitarist I’ve literally been looking for a video like this to explain why it sounds like I’m hearing things through a cup to my ear. The little clip around 3:00 min is basically what I’m hearing with direct to interface + random plugins
I started playing electric guitar at church 5 years ago, and didn’t use an amp for the first 4 years. I just couldn’t, it was too much to carry it out and most stages I was on didn’t have space. I had a pedalboard and just sent that straight to the sound desk, and it honestly wasn’t that bad. But this year I discovered a small pedal called a cab simulator, and it’s changed my sound immensely. I’m sure one day I may get an actual amp, but for now I’m very happy being oblivious and just using a pedal cause it sounds great.
There are amp manufacturers that are creating some fairly decent "amp in a pedal" products that combine convincing pedal versions of their preamp and a cab sim. Some even let you load your own impulse responses, so essentially an infinite choice of cab simulations. For an example, check out the Victory V4 Kraken pedal.
I know people who use a line6 spider combo and shove an SM57 in front of it but it's actually not plugged in anywhere; it's just DI out straight into the FOH mixing desk. Sound incredible and you'd never know that microphone cable goes nowhere and is just there for show.
For silent recording a tube amp the Two Notes captor and somesort of audio interface will do the job. Plugins are just great because it is easy to change settings after a recording, instead of having to also record the input signal and re-amp the track. Although plugins can sound really good it's the difference in feel and response for me that has kept me using tube amps for recording.
Just a single mic in front of the amp is all you really need, and likely get you farther than a plug in from my experience. (native instruments plug ins)
@@Art-zs6sl With the two notes software you can change the cabinets and speakers, mic distance and center. You can record silently which is great since we cannot always crank our amps at home in order to record with a mic. If you live off grid and you can crank the amp a mic will sound a bit better than an IR, but in highly populated areas you'll get the cops called on you.
@ghost mall I bet you have seen countless youtubers playing guitar with awsome tone whilst they used a loadbox, but you were not aware. A plugin uses cabsims as well, so I don't see how this is an argument against using a real amp and IR. I own a couple of plugins: Neural DSP toneking imperial and SLO-100, they sound great for what they are but a real amp recorded through a loadbox sounds way better.
@@Art-zs6sl native instruments makes okay guitar plugins, but they're far from the best you can get. I've had free amps like the Amplex NaLex, the LePou stuff, and the Vadim Taranov 5150 blow NI Guitar Rig out of the water. Plus, paid ones like Neural DSP, Toneforge, and Bogren Digital sound even better than those free options I mentioned.
One of the best ways test a rig is how it sounds when you roll your guitar volume back. This is the magic of vintage tube amps - ESPECIALLY Plexi-JMP Marshalls. Dime up your guitar vol for searing solos, then go to 7 for crunch rhythm and down at 3 it's much cleaner and still fat. I've tested high dollar digital processors but they can't deliver hard rock tone & dynamics for live performance.
@@DanielBobke Oh please. There are MANY other guitarists who do agree with me, otherwise they wouldn't be using tube amps. A lot of this has to do with the type material a guitarist plays. The difference between tubes and digital is most noticeable in material that features extended mids such as 70's hard rock and when backing your guitar volume down to cleanup the signal. Plini, Aaron Marshall and Metallica all use a very scooped out modern tone that is heavily saturated; e.g. from day one of Metallica's earliest recordings, Hammet and Hetfield backed the mid knob on their JCM 800's all the way down to ONE. Hammet sometimes increased his on his amp mid setting to 4 or 5 but only when doing overdubbs on solos for certain songs to add more CLARITY to the solo. If the only thing I ever played was scooped out saturated material, yeah sure I'd consider using a digital rig. A well made, dialed in tube amp will ALWAYS deliver more dimensional tone in general.
Thanx again Mike. I'm the old grumpy dude that commented on your string size video. I was concerned about "tone" quality for a long time also so I feel your pain. Being a rank amateur guitarist who struggled to stay in key and in rhythm "tone" always took a back seat. Take this advice for what it's worth..... Get the guitar off your right thigh and move it to your left. Tilt the neck up so your left hand becomes dominant and focus on timing and attack more so that picking. I think you will be pleased. Tone is a function best left to equipment and recording engineers.
As someone who is currently living out this exact experience can you make a video on how to properly set up your audio interface and audio software to get those tones? Or can someone point me to a video on how to do it because I have the same issues where everything just sounds like a tinny compressed nightmare when I try to go all digital.
Mike I like how you explained everything in detail , I think you would like Robin Trower , Winterland concert 1975 , You Tube . I have an Eric Clapton Strat and a 1965 Deluxe Reverb amp and OCD pedal by Fulltone . Take Care . ⚡️🇺🇸🎸✨✨✨🏆
I got lucky. A couple of months after I got my first squier, my uncle gave me one of his Twin Reverbs. It weighs a ton...but it got me through my first many bands. At school I used a Roland JC. I liked it fine too.
Great video man! I'm lucky that I live in a detached house and can crank my Fender Princeton any time, day or night. But, I'd love to learn more about the virtual stuff too. Maybe a small video series that goes more in-depth on your current setup and recording process?
I'v been fu**ing around with DI for years now and you are spot on, again, wise beyond your years, keep doing what you are doing it is much appreciated!
My first guitar amp was a Roland JC 120. My jazz teacher sold it for coke money. He was a monster player. Died at 35. I brought it over to his house one day and left it there knowing I would come back for it. A couple weeks went by and my amp went bye-bye. I wasn’t mad though. I learned so much from him.
First amp: phono input of my dad's old hifi amplifier, cranked up. First guitar amp: 15w Vox Pathfinder, a 1x8" solid state combo. First tube amp: 60w Brunetti XL" R'Evo with a 1x12" cab. Second tube amp: 50w 70's Peavey Classic, a 2x12" hybrid combo (solid state preamp, tube poweramp). Practise amp: 1st gen Yamaha THR10. Live rig: Axe FXII mkII And now I also use a tonne of plugins...
As a 70 year old guitarist, and after YEARS of playing through tube amps, I discovered the Roland Cube! I now have two Cube 30s and two Cube 60s, and they sound amazing. They're over thirty years old (!), but super reliable..... interestingly, mixing engineers prefer me to use the 30W versions, because they have more ultimate control. Most of the time, our band plays pub gigs, and specialise in hosting jams. Everyone is stunned by how good the Cubes sound!
My first Amp was the Peavy Bandit 112 (red stripe) from my Brother and it‘s hands down the best sounding amp i ever had (maybe because of sentimental reasons) I‘m so happy that it‘s still in my collection and my go to amp
I have the same. Found it at a thrift shop a few years back for $100. Gonna head to college next year, and I fully intend to take it with me. Would love a tube amp, but I don’t play in any bands, so it perfectly fine for what I do, bedroom playing.
Right, it didn't matter to me too at that time, when I was a kid. I was just hungry at playing. something I don't want to lose. That excitement. Nice video
Great video! and I totally hear what your saying. There are a lot of good things about the digital amps...But as many have said throughout the comment section, and the reality that I have come too after many years of experience is that........here is absolutely..nothing like the sound, feel, warmth, dynamics of a tube amp. In my humble opinion there is no digital tone that can replicate it. It's for that reason that I believe Tube amps will always be around, and there will always be a premium demand for them
As good as modeling is now, amps cannot be perfectly modeled. Changing speakers makes a huge difference in sound. Trying to model a speaker would be extremely hard. How would bond model cone breakup, delayed sound from the box airspace and the reflection of sound from the speaker frame going back through the cone, resonances in the cone suspension etc. my preference is tubes, but digital has its place too.
Ancient 70 yr old player here... Awesome Mike!!! I always enjoyed your short vids and humor. But this is still you and the content I seek for meat and potatoes progress. Thanks a bunch... player for 60 years, just a really slow learner!
I love my Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister, but my Boss Katana also sounds amazing. Most notably, either of them sound good when I focus on playing well, and playing to the settings on the amp.
First amp I used was a solid state Orange Crush 50w bass amp that I had been using for my electronic drums lol. Sounded like the most bland, clean, reverbless solid state amp you could ever imagine. A buddy of mine who kinda stopped playing guitar had a tiny little 1x8 Behringer solid state amp that had distortion on it that I used for a little bit. Then a few months later I got a 40w fender mustang modeling amp and used that one for two or so years. When I actually got serious about playing I got a Vox AC15 and still have that bad boy. Still sounds absolutely phenomenal and I still use it at a jam session I go to every week. Started my first band in college and wound up getting a 40w Tweed Blues Deluxe 1x12 that I used for everything up until a few months ago. I also now play in a club band most weekends, and after wanting something with a bigger cab, I finally decided on going with the Fender Tonemaster Super Reverb. It is an absolutely great amp and I really love everything about it. The built-in attenuator lets me get a great tone at seriously any volume level, plus it only weighs 30 pounds. So I went from solid state to digital to tube, and now regularly use a mix of digital and tube. Haven’t delved into the plug-in realm yet, but I’m sure I’ll dip into it at some point. I think I’ve always been pretty open minded towards amp technology, so I’m not really ruling anything out. Especially now since I am a true believer in the Tonemaster series. The technology has gotten to a great point and is basically becoming impossible to ignore.
this makes me very grateful that I'd done a lot of audio production before I ever used amp simps, sure it sounded a bit like shit at first but it was always acceptable and then got to being really good over time as I improved. Good video, enjoyable watch. Using plugins is so convenient and easy, especially at night or if you get the urge to play out of nowhere.
Bro, I met your channel a little while ago and I've already become your fan hahah, I hope I can jam with you someday 😝🎸 (sorry if my english is not that good 😂)
My journey went the opposite direction. I started as more of a metal player and was super into modeling amps and stuff I had a helix and positive grid and all that jazz. Then one day I plugged into my buddys ac30 and it changed everything all at once for me. I went out and bought one a week later and haven't looked back since. Super versatile and capable of whatever I'm looking to do with my pedals I've started collecting. Great video!
Tbh yeah, ac30 is great and it was my first purchase when I was 18. I always do my research before buying, and I ended up with it. Although I would now want a pure tone amp, to not interfere with the pedalboard, ac30 really got me for a long time and some friends.
@@juliancasablancas3367 I play an ac50cp2 combo now. Super cool mix of vox cleans and Marshally gain channel. Have you ever seen the matchless amps I think they're called? Supposedly have huge head room and are great pedal platforms
Virtual amps do take some fiddling to get a good sound out of. But, man, having dozens of sounds and effects at your disposal for the prices is amazing. I can play whole shows on a boss gt1 multi effects pedal and play any style so long as I've tweaked them into decency.
It dawned on me when I saw the outlaws in a very .. very small venue and both guitarists were using pedal boards direct no amps. As old school players they had killer tones on tap. These guys used volume knobs, tone knobs and achieved everything they needed. I agree virtual amps can come close enough the rest is in the players hands and simple controls of the guitar. I dug out my old rp500 and with an open mind, ears dialed in a bunch of basic killer tones. I used to try to make the unit do it all when simply rolling back the volume knob and or tone knob set the palette just like on a tube amp with an overdrive. But the palette of possible tones is endless including ...... realllllly bad ones as well it can be easy to get lost stacking all the effects on tap.
When I first got an Axe FX I was confused for a few months and only used presets that only sounded okay to me. Then I really started getting an idea of how to dial in the tone. In hindsight, it wasn't hard to learn at all, I can throw together patches in minutes, but that initial hump had me thinking I wasted my money.
You are forgetting those of us raised by boomer dads, who owned tube amps and would sit around drinking beer at night and jam with us classic rock and roll and we cut our teeth on our dad’s tube amp and classic guitars with our dad teaching us classic rock riffs. It was just how we grew up, and all we knew was dad had that awesome guitar amp that sounded really cool when you turned up that one knob that said “gain” and when you bumped the amp it sounded like a loud thunder sound (the spring reverb). Ahhh, I guess not everyone has that experience……
1. Overloud TH-1 was released somewhere around the year 2008. Even back then you could achieve any tone with it. Virtual guitar amps didn't get night-and-day better since then, they just started to come with better presets and pre-processed impulse responses that eliminate most of the work, which, back in the day, you had to do yourself. 2. Solid state amps are legit insane. Sometime in the future they'll get fashionable and everyone will be after that solid state tone quality.
My 1st was a David Bogen tube p.a. amp. 12ax7 preamp and twin 6L6 based. It was 25 or so watts. Cranked it had a P.T./Leeds tone when I used an old LPB-1. The amp was from the late 50's with a (if I remember correctly) Electro-Voice speaker. It was my dads old accordion amp. He changed the input jack for me. This is where I learned to re-wrap the flat copper windings of the output trans. To this day, I wish I still had it. I had 2 other tube amps in my 62 years o' life. One was a 100 watt Peavey 2 x12 when I was in a local band. I didn't like the metal cone drivers, and didn' t know about trying different tubes to get more warmth. Had a nice phase shifter. Got out of the band and traded it for my 1st real Strat (needed work, but when I 1st picked it up, it just felt perfecto!) and a small silver faced Fender 10-15 watts with a tremolo in it. I cut the head off and drove a separate, better cabinet. My roommate just started playing and always borrowed it, so when he got engaged I gave it to him. Other than that, I've had solid-state. All I can say 'bout them is if you can get components cheap/free, replace the green chiclet caps with film type, and the carbon resistors with metal ones. Makes a world of difference. And find a better speaker.
Mine was some old 90s solid state Fender 1x8 or 1x10 that sounded pretty decent tbh. The other day I hauled my old Ibanez Thermion TN120 out of the closet, hooked it up to my bass 4x10, and then blew my hair back and went "how the hell did I ever play this thing this loud??" lol... thanks for sharing! I love your Strat and I normally dislike most "bursts" but I think the maple neck really makes it :D I've considered getting a DI like the Walrus Canvas; I use a 3rd gen Focusrite 18i20 and while it has an improved instrument DI over the previous gen, it's still just part of a $500-tier interface vs a dedicated $250 Neve DI. The 18i20 is useable, but there are times when I clip the input with especially spicy instruments even with the pad engaged. My Zoom B6 has a DI output with 4 emulations of various DIs and it works magic on my bass :D
Outstanding video! I’m 68 years old, been playing electric guitar nearly 60 years. Tried every amp out there, big and small. Don’t like lugging big, heavy gear especially at 3AM after consuming a few adult beverages. Been using Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb about 3 years. All digital and only 23 pounds. Sounds great! Use Fulltone OCD for high gain tones. The best overdrive/distortion pedal out there in my opinion!
I grew up with everyone coveting Marshall stacks. I just hope that these bedroom/basement guitarists, who are by all rights extremely good guitarists, will experience even something small like a Fender Blues Jr. at full crank. Listening to myself play guitar through headphones has never had the same effect as when actual AIR is being pushed into your chest by the amp.
Exactly The best musical feeling I've ever was standing on the stage with a full Super Lead stack with the sound pulsating thru my body, and when the music stops you kinda fall backward toward the amp When I die fighting the good fight on stage, hollow out my speaker cabs to be used as a boat on my journey to Vahalla and set me and my les paul on fire as I prepare to meet Hendrix, Zappa, Montrose and the boys as we raise our mugs for another beer! Party on Garth! Bring on the Wild Stallions. As I dream of seeing drummers riding shotgun in the sky. I hope Lemmy is in tune!
Cool stuff. I use some old rack mounted guitar amps. Line 6 pod and a 11 rack. Between the two the options seem limitless. Live I use Marshall’s and Mesa amps. I have Fender Mustang 40 that is great for practice. Folks think I’m playing through one of my stacks. It has a great foot pedal with a built in looper also great for practice and stacking harmonies and riffs. Great video buy the way. Passion.
I have this Fernandes FA15 solid state amp that is single channel with a built in effects loop that is enough to piss the hell out of my neighbors without even cranking the volume up. It may not be a great amp for most players but knowing it's my first amp, it really did help me learn electric guitar stuff like dynamics and articulation. Great one Mike I wish you the best.
My first good amp was also a Fender Champion 20 and I really liked it, and while I do still use a lot of physical amps when rehearsing with my band at for college (the rehearsal space my college uses has a Vox AC30 (which is usually the amp I go for because I love the sound of those amps), a Marshall JCM900 (which I also use sometimes when I'm not on the Vox), Fender Deluxe Reverb (which is what our instructor plays through sometimes) and an Orange Rockerverb 30 but because I do a lot of recordings on Logic Pro I always use the visual amps. There's such a great selection of tones from Vox AC30s to Marshall, Fenders, Orange, Hiwatt, Mesa Boogie and plugins for a Diezel VH4, ENGL, Ampeg, GK and the list can go on. I guess long story short what I'm trying to get at is that whatever situation you're put in (be it playing through physical amps or recording with virtual), there's always something for everyone that's looking for the tone they want for that song
Man I love all those tube amps. Have had a few myself. Still want a rockerverb. I have Logic and find the plug ins both stock and non stock unbearable. Use a strymon iridium when going direct.
My first real amp was a Roland Jazz chorus…so yes, my first amp sounded amazing. These days I use tube amps for larger band gigs and an Ampero Stomp II in my solo looping rig. The tube amp def sounds better when you can play live, but sometimes it’s just too impractical.
I had the same problem, spend way too much time fiddling with my mustang amp, now I just plug into a 2 knob 15 watt tube amp and a few pedals and play, I dont have more sounds, so I have to make them work, and I do.
I started off with a Roland Cube then tube amps then amp sims. Still wasn’t 100% happy with my tone. Went to a Boss GT-1000 then an FM3 and now, finally, settled down with the Quad Cortex. Never been happier with my tone. I realized through all of this that I don’t enjoy being attached to a computer when I’m playing guitar.
I'm looking into these and other options. I'm 55 now and my arthritis has gotten HORRIBLE. I've lugged around a big Polytone 104 for years... It's always been a great amp. PLENTY of clean headroom and it's got reverb to rival any Fender tube offering. It's got a PERFECT built on Tremolo effect. But it weighs like 975 pounds and I just can't lug it around anymore.
My first amp was a Traynor YCV40. So... A great sounding amp. That said, I have a ton of sims and I love them. Pro tip : get a Tone Captor and crank your tube amp through it.
@@anthonypanneton923 Somewhere in between a Fender and a Marshall. Like a ballsier Fender on roids. Dude, that is LOUD. The clean channel is really fun, as it gets dirty with the volume starting from 2-3ish, and goes up into ACDC sounds when you really crank it. A boost in front gets you into pretty high gain territory, and the OD channel can sound quite 80s thrash too. For the price, they are awesomely built, really sturdy amps !
@@mvyper for a while in the '70s I had two of the 50W heads (can't remember the model#). I played bass thru them - each with its own 2x15 cabinet. I also used them for guitar with 2x12 cabs. one was plenty for rehearsal. they were not quite enough power for bass, but in small clubs it worked. and they had great tone! in the '90s I had one of their older 15W, 1x12 combo amps - that was nice, but I sold it because I just had too much gear and needed to clear out the basement!!
I’m a big fan of virtual amps for home playing. I’m a hobbyist who plays in their bedroom in a small house. The tones you get from modeling are far superior than using a small amp that just barely is putting signal through the speaker. The technology only continues to get better. I don’t gig so I can’t speak on gigging with something digital but I would imagine it would be pretty darn close to using a real tube amp not to mention more reliable and much easier to transport
there is just one big issue. the digital stuff sounds great on its own. the moment you bring the band in you disappear. the tube amps cut through like knife through butter.
@@louiscyfer6944 That’s purely dependent on the circuit of the amp and the speakers you are using. There is no definitive way to say all tube amps cut through a mix perfectly.
@ghost mall i hate all of those, as i spend my time screwing with the sounds instead of playing. those modelers are not industry standards, plenty of bands using tube amps still.
I used a fender super champ x2 for the longest time, it had tubes in it but with digital effects. Very very cool and I still have it, I love it but it sits in the corner now. Now I have a deluxe reverb reissue and it’s an absolute dream. Great for pedals too. I’m only 21 and I already have my dream amp, I don’t need another one 🤣
For me it went the other way. Bought a Mustang Micro and pressed the buttons til it made a sound I liked. Reading the card told me I liked the 57 twin with spring reverb, so I bought a Blues Junior. Just switch it on and play.. no pedals, no second guessing, no tweaks.. The controls on the guitar are enough to push the sound to places beyond my imagination.. so far, so blown away.
Not me! I got more into tube amps than ever 10 years into my playing. Since then it has become more of an obsession over the years. Now I don’t use any 9 volt pedals and get all my overdrive from my amps. Never had better tone in my life. I am also a studio engineer and have all the latest modelllers. Having done side by side comparisons, I would never ditch the tube amps. No chance.
My first amp was (naturally) a Line 6 Spider IV. It sounded like shit but it was a very affordable way to learn about basic effects. Eventually I graduated to a lovely tube/cab setup...a Marshall Jubilee reissue with a Vox 2x12. This is my home/studio rig now. Once I started gigging regularly, I wanted nothing more than to lean out the 150+lbs and $3000+ of gear it took to make sounds in a small shitty bar. I moved to a Line 6 Helix and have not looked back since. If you're an active gigger, tube amps do not make the most economical sense. Sure, your tone is slightly better with them. But once you're in a mix playing live those extra 2 pennies of tone don't make up for the back pain it takes to schlep those big heavy amps.
a tube amp doesn't have to be heavy, and why would you get backpain from carrying an amp, time to hit the gym. i don't know what you had to get to 150lvs of gear. as far as 3000 dollars, i take about 15k in gear with me to gig.
Marshall JMP-1 or Mesa Boogie triaxis into a ENGL e810. Less than 20 lbs and just 2 rack spaces. And I also agree that the back ache is not worth it playing in a bar with a $100 SM-57, and a1/2 drunk “sound person” . I actually like the Blu Box cabinet simulator. Hell, just pump it through the monitors.
For the average Joe, playing in average venues (Bars, small clubs) a virtual setup is more than sufficient for you...and the crowd (most of them will honestly not notice the difference). However, for all the Guitar Greats, you'll find that the sonic benefits and, crucially, the dynamic interaction of player+amp means that they'll pretty much all be using a good tube amp setup. Virtual setups (improving all the time), of course, have their many use cases - but for the virtuoso (actual or aspiring) a 'real' setup is, by far, most inspiring for them, and their discerning audience. However, and agreed, real amps can be a pain to get sounding 'right' at times. I used to play live a lot (semi pro) in the past, and still have a Fuchs TDS 50w combo and JMP-1 (previously Triaxis/2:90, some Fenders etc). For home convenience (and for the fun of all those presets) I also have a lot of virtuals e.g. Bias, Schuffham, Tone King etc - and they're good sounding in a mix and....damn convenient to use!
@@ChrisM541 ken andrews from failure is probably known as the greatest guitar and bass tone guru in the world. He uses ZERO amps. All fractal axe fx.Less pros use tube amps than ever. Tube amps are great.. but u just don't need it anymore. Fractal, line 6, boss. They all do a great job in the right setup
@@nichreynolds7712 As I'm sure you'll agree, tone is incredibly subjective. You'll also not object to the guitar tone heard on the entire catalogue of 1960's - 1990's music (/pre-amp sim/modeler). If you're saying that every classic 'sound' of that era is now perfectly reproduced on today's modelers/sims, as both an exact tone and (crucially) as a perfect 'live' player/guitar/amp dynamic reproduction, then that - as I'd hope you'd agree - would be incorrect. Musicians use the Axe-FX/Kemper etc because they're 'damn convenient' for them and the sound engineer, and that's ok! However, almost every 'great'/virtuoso playing is using a real amp set up. If you can't hear the difference, that's ok too. However, they definitely can...and so can most/all of their audience. Ken Andrews is a great player and has a great sound, and that's good!
I have a Vox VT40X amp that I tried the amp sims with. I still prefer running pedals (MXR Classic Distortion and MXR Classic Overdrive and a Cuvave Fuzz - for now I am just using the modulated effects in the Vox amp for reverb, flanger, tremelo etc) into the Vox VT40X and turning off the amp and cab sims and run it as a straight hybrid amp. I like the organic feedback I get from playing through a speaker. Back in the 90's when I was gigging in my original band, I played a Music Man HD 130 2x10 open back combo amp and sat it on a 2x10 Music Man extension speaker cab that was ported. That amp had a SS pre amp and a tube power section. It had the nicest loudest cleans with NO break up and my RAT pedal for dist, my MXR OD for mild crunch, and the a variety of modulated effects pedals (all analog) and that set up sound AMAZING. No virtual amp can hold a candle to that amp literally and figuratively. I was in my 20's back in the 90's and could manage hauling that heavy equipment around with no problem. Now, I am almost 52 y.o. I pair the VOX VT40X (which does have a 12AX7 preamp tube in it to give it the tube warmth and chime) with a Fender Rumble 40 bass amp and run out of a Morley AB foot switch and run both amps simultaneously. It sounds pretty close to the Music Man amp set up I had back in the day. I gave my entire pedal board with all my old pedals (the RAT, MXR OD and the modulated pedals) to my 15 y.o. son who plays guitar now. He plays those pedals through a Fender Vaporizer tube amp for the moment, but we are about to pick up from Guitar Center a used Kustom HV100 2x12 hybrid (Tube pre with SS power) and that Kustom is truly the closest thing to the Music Man amp I have ever played through. LOUD cleans that THUMP your body when turned up with decent volume. And the analog pedals through it will sound amazing no doubt. While digital modeling has come a long way (digital anything in the 90's sounded like horse shit). Again, there is an element to real amps that just doesn't compare to virtual amps. There is a symbiosis with the sound coming from the amp and the pickups from the guitar that you don't get from virtual amps. So, while I did enjoy your video, the title is misleading. Not all guitar players prefer virtual amps to real amps. I, for one, am one of those guitar players. So is my son. And I am sure there are plenty of other guitar players out there who agree with my stance.
I agree, as an apartment dweller, I’m considering letting go of my 75 twin reverb, and a fairly large (half stack) Marshall valvoline), and just pick up a smaller solid state combo. I’m mostly done playing live, so I don’t need volume. Good video!
I had the opposite approach. I started with a "beginner's amp". A Crate 1x10. No one ever told me that a tube amp sounds better. They told me to learn more and just keep playing. Now that I have 11 years of guitar under my belt, I have played virtual amps. I have played nice solid state amps. I have played great tube amps. The truth is that tube amps are always going to sound better. Virtual amps are nice if you don't know what you are doing (in the recording and video-over aspects especially), but a tube amp will always sound the best live.
Absolute truth. All about dynamics. Most digital amps/modelers/plug-ins sound lifeless to my ears. I think convenience of use causes lots of players to accept what they are hearing as acceptable and they convince themselves that it's actually comparable to valves.
I Would have to agree here. I have used Amplitude for years and gotten great results... But, having a tube amp in a good sounding room with great mics taking advantage of the air in that room will always be punchier and have that dynamic response that you'll never get out of a digital emulation.
DSM & Humboldt’s Simplifier is really good if you spend some time with it (I have the DLX) and Quilter amps are amazing. I love my Quilter Micropro Mach 2 stack. Both are fully analog with the exception of reverb and take pedals exceptionally well. I still own tube amps, but I only use those amps for their specific characters.
The first amp I ever played through was my Dad's jcm 900 on his old '70 sg, it was such a special experience at the time for me ,even though i had no idea how to play, just the feeling of the kick of that huge amp is what ended up making me want to play guitar forever. I think headphones and preamps are such a useful thing (I use an old beat up line6 pod xt) nothing to me can compare to that huge gut punching power of a tube amp with a ton of bass and a tone bender
I was learning how to be an audio engineer while learning guitar, so when I came to interfaces and plug ins, I got used to how they run. Now that I'm in a house though, I will go back to micing my amp. Not even because my tone is crafted around it, but because there is still something just slightly off about a true sim compression over mic and di balancing. Most people listening to modern music on stream sites or RUclips on their phones won't be able to tell the difference, but I do and I just hold myself to a higher standard. But amp sim tech has come a long way. Gigging wise, I would easily trust an amp sim.
I have a quad cortex and it’s great, but my go to physical amp is my JC-40, the cleans are amazing and it takes pedals like a champ! It’s solid state so I don’t have to worry about swapping tubes out and it only weighs like 30lbs so it’s extremely portable. The nice thing about it being solid state is the tone doesn’t change no matter the volume. I can get bedroom levels and still sound good, also this amp can be mega loud, like really loud. Obviously distortion and overdrive don’t sound like tube, but to my ears it still sounds really good. If you’ve never tried SS amps I’d highly recommend checking out the JC-40 or 22 depending on your needs!
Bud, I am with you. I recently went from 1000s of dollar tube amps to headrush into a power amp. I was in the same mindset and honestly, I am so upset that it took me so long LOL
I've been playing real amps for years now. I decided to buckle down and I bought a Focusrite AI, and the Tim Henson plug in and I don't think I could go back to real amps honestly. The tones are like nothing I've ever played through before, and I've played through a lot of real amps with so many different effects.
Honestly, as much as I've enjoyed playing through valve amps, I'm a solid state guy. Solid. Dependable. Long lasting. Consistent from gig to gig and band practices. What's not to love?
Tell me more please! Does tube amp really orange and mango differ from SS in tone? Like say you have 2 amps identical in everything except tubes, will you easily differentiate the tone quickly?
@@nicksonthevet they sound and feel different, best thing you can do is get out and meet other musicians and dabble in guitar shops. My favourite valve amp was a little 4 watt Vox I used to have - very loud, very basic - but great amp. When I was last out gigging I was using my Randall solid state and let the sound guys use the line out rather than mic'ing the amp which worked out great. Good for recording too.
@@AndyPlayedGuitar 4 watts tube? Is it not very low wattage for performing? I am naive of amps and I live in Tanzania East Africa, no amps to try in shops very hard to find someone to jam with
@@nicksonthevet 4 watts is plenty loud for home use and sounds great when cranked. It was too loud for bedroom use really. Ultimately I don't subscribe to chasing other people's tone, I tend to just enjoy playing and any amp that gives me an output I can work with is fine.
thank you, thank you, thank you my brother! I haven't even bought my first amp yet and have been experimenting exclusively with DI's and plugins...I've been getting close but I now know that I just need to keep dialing it in. After watching this video, now I know I can get there :)
Truthfully, I never cared about either. I was actively against tubes for the longest time because I didn't want to put up with the care and maintenance. So I went backwards in this progression. I keep my tubes for gigging and jamming, but will happily use VAs or SS amps for recording, practicing or teaching.
The most prevalent argument I see against amp sims is that they don’t “feel” good. Even if I had the money to drop on the gear I want, it turns out my fiancé and cats don’t want to “feel” my playing. Got a volt1 and Neural DSP’s Archetype Rabea and I’m set.
@ghost mall Feel in this context means that you are happy about the tone you're playing with and if it inspires you subconsciously to play better. Trust me, with the latency of an amp sim it won't just feel right even if you couldn't hear the slight difference but playing through a real amp with good settings and micing gives you power to record your tracks better.
1st amp was/is a Vox ad15vt. Still love it 14 years later. I added a fender mustang gtx100 over the winter and it doesn't sound as good but has 200 settings so playing it always fun.
Nice video and very respectable point of view. Just two comments: 1) I might be getting old but I love the feeling of turning the knob up to 10 from time to time. I just do it when my wife and kids aren’t at home 2) don’t play at 3 a.m., get some sleep and play in the daylight. I know it’s not as rock and roll but you avoid the cops no matter what! :) love your videos!
This video is very well made and made. Liked and subscribed. I own a Fractal FM3, and I have a Landry LS100G3 and a PRS MT15. The Landry has an incredible master volume on it that allows me to get very saturated tones at bedroom volumes. Even the MT15 produces great tones at low volumes. Whenever I’m home I always use my tube amps, and I’ll never give them up. I play with some local musicians in a classic rock covers band just for fun. We don’t gig publicly. When I go to band practice I always take my FM3 and a powered FRFR cab. It’s just so much easier than hauling a tube amp, cab and my big pedalboard around and setting all of that up. At home, though, it’s definitely all tube amps and pedalboard. It sounds glorious. The gear does, not my playing, lol.
Nobody will ever know if their first amp sounded good because they didn't know wtf they were doing
I Know that my first amp was a good sounding amp. But did i make it sound good? Probably not as much as i can today hahaha
My 1st amp was a bass amp, so definitely didn’t sound good
My first amp and guitar. I have the guy at the shop play for me. If it sound good in his hand, that give me confidence that with enough practice I should be able to get in to sound good too.
My first amp sounded like shit, I know this because I knew what sound I was looking for, and my amp and guitar couldn’t produce it, but my brother’s old marshall could.
Of course you know if your amp sounds good. Because you’re comparing your amp sound to the music you’re trying to emulate. You also know your playing sucks because you can’t hit the right notes or if you can you can’t make them sound right.
The noise complaint issue is relatable - I am exclusively using plugins at home now for the same reason. But even without that, virtual amps are such a great practice and recording tool, and a great way to inexpensively explore more tones than you would be able to in the "real" world. As evidenced by the pro-quality tones you pulled from a $700 guitar and a $100 plugin, it is a great time to be an electric guitarist!
What program are you using?
I can spend hours trying pedals and effects with these amp programs like Biasfx and Spark
@@nicolasarcana6139 I use Archetype: Cory Wong about 95% of the time
I am speaking purely from the perspective of a bassists here, but virtual amps are top notch these days. Like for example the Ampeg plugins, those are pretty awesome. If you use a high quality plugin not a single person in the audience will be able to tell that it's not a real amp.
Another option is to go hybrid. Use a preamp and DI it into your PC via a USB interface. That opens up a whole lot of possibilities, as there are a lot of very nice tube preamps on the market. And you can still keep that volume in check.
I have my parents i share a house with and the last thing i want is to get kicked out for cranking the volume on my amp lol
I'm 61 and have been playing for 52 years, most of those years as a pro studio and touring guitarist. I love your humor videos, but you dropped some serious knowledge on your contemporaries with this one. Big ups!
Gain staging is the most important and most annoying thing about anything digital. Definitely a good lesson to learn haha. Well done man!
First amp I've owned was also a Roland Cube... the clean sound and built-in effects were actually pretty good given the price tag. As a matter of fact, I know some pro musicianers (mainly jazz cats) who still use that tiny amp for gigs.
Roland cube was my first Amp. Pretty sweet if you dialed it in. The Roland Jazz Chorus was monster Amp. My Friend Pihana Tahepehi used two live and best strat tone I ever heard.
Cube GX was my first. One of the best Small amps I’ve ever had.
I got a Cube 60 several years back and put a quality speaker in it. I still gig with that amp. I play R&B, Blues, and Fusion-y Jam gigs with that amp, and it covers it all like a champ (not a Champ 😉).
Just looking at a cube makes me feel like I'm 12 years old rocking my first guitar again. Lovely beginner amps.
Indestructable too, used to bike my amp to friends and did occasionally drop it and it would only accumulate the slightest bumps
I have a Roland cube in a wooden chest. I use it when i am watching tv sitting on the couch. It sounds good by itself, but in the chest it has more resonance and quiets the high end a bit.
You are quickly becoming a favorite YT follow. The content is quality, but you come across like a real person wanting to share real experiences. Much appreciated.
Solid state is kinda underrated tbh, you can get them all analog and good ones have some good tones, and the ease of maintenance is really nice.
I learned with a $10 irig, the free tonebridge app, and a $75 Amazon strat knockoff. Got tones that someone from 15 years ago would pay thousands for, learned quickly, and did it all on a shoestring budget. What a great time for us.
Yeah great time to learn guitar. I paid 200 for a splinter machine that said epiphone and a peavy bandit amp in the mid 90’s.
An amp is an amp, whether its digital, solid state, or tube. There's pros and cons to each, you just have to know how to work with what you have. At home, I like to play through my collection of tube amps during the day and through digital stuff like NeuralDSP and Bias FX at night. When I jam with friends, I tend to use whatever is laying around in their practice space which is usually some kind of digital solid state combo like a Line 6 Spider or Boss Katana.
Have you tried something like the Two Notes Torpedo Reload, Ox or similar? Buy a good one and your pretty much set up, even for playing in the wee small hours in the room next to your partner :) There's lots of useful info out there in YTland etc.
Agreed ‼️
The first (electric) guitar I ever used is sitting right next to me along with the first amp I ever used. My parents brought me to a shop when I was 10ish and asked me to pick out a guitar I thought looked cool, (from a wall that only had cheapish guitars) and I selected a ceramic blue SGR superstrat thing(unaware that I was actually making a big choice). A few weeks later I unwrapped the beauty for my birthday, along with the original fender mustang amp(not the guitar it's a modeling amp). I love them both and use them every day, even after getting more expensive gear recently.
In the last couple years, I started learning and using plugins. For decades I used room sound. You can see on my video history how recent it has been from jamming to something with a room amp, and a mic propped against it, to using plugins that can get any amp and effect sound I want. The room sound sometimes sounded good.
I never had that luxury of picking a tube amp or solid state, or an actual fender Strat over a squire strat. I just had to get what I could get.
Depends on what tone and sound you are after, you simply can't emulate the sound of JBL X120 speakers or a Mcintosh Power amp with virtual amps.
Amp sims are a game changer for metal especially. It's possible to get good tones for cheap, but it's certainly not easy. Save for a small handful of notable exceptions, solid state stuff doesn't hold up well at high gain.
But now I can just plug into my interface, pull up the Fortin Nameless Suite and melt faces pretty much instantly. So much clarity and punch, the kind of tone you'd need to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars chasing with actual gear.
Hey, I played acoustic guitar and bass before and now I am about to buy my first electric guitar for metal purposes.
Beside a sound interface and virtual amp sims, which speakers do I need for them? Would be my razer soundbar speakers good enough for the beginning? or do I need studio monitors or something else?
Would be glad if you would share your experience with me :)
@@Reynoldzx Most interfaces have left and right 3/4" outputs on them as well as a 3/4" stereo headphone out. In the beginning, you can absolutely just pick up a 3/4" to 3.5mm conversion and then use an aux cable to plug into whatever speaker or headphones you have.
For the best quality sound, though, it's a good idea to pick up a pair of active studio monitors to plug into those left and right outputs. I got Presonus Eris E5s for $150 each and I have no real complaints with them.
@themightymcb7310 oh so I can go right in the headphone output with my 3.5mm stereo speakers, too ? thats dope man, I thought I would have to go in R or L output and I ordered a 3,5mm to 6,35mm converter, but it looks like I can send them right back :)
Thanks for the quick answer and sharing your experience budd!
@@Reynoldzx you also have to make sure you change the default audio device in your computer's settings to your interface, that way all sounds produced by your computer will come out of the headphone send. This will let you continue to use those speakers for other purposes besides guitar
I love my 5150 II . Here is also something you can do with loud amps. Get yourself a JHS little black amp box. It’s an attenuator and you put it in the loop. I basically use it as a master volume/tone knob. You get all the gain and feeling, but can play as quietly as you want.
NO one is going to convince me not to use my HIWATT DR103 100 WATT AMP
Clean channel still sucks though
My go to amp has always been my 77’ Princeton reverb, I have had it since 1991 and it has worked for me playing at home or playing in concert. I play a 91’ American made Strat and a Takamine acoustic electric thru it. When playing on stage I play thru a Lr Baggs para acoustic DI into the house system.
For me it's a convenience issue. I'm tracking all day for composers (film, game and TV) as well as producers and for my own writing. It's easier to save settings, saving them to folders for each composer or project. I am going through an API 512c into an Apogee convertor. I wrote and played Justin Bieber's ETA direct into a basic Guitar Rig amp with a $99 Squier Strat. I will track fairly loud though paying attention to the nuance between my fingers/pick and the strings.
yeah the ability to create and organize a bunch of presets for studio tracking purposes is a huge plus
You the guy behind the legendary baby song?
@@nikephorosmostropus4606 I played the guitar on Justin Bieber's acoustic version of Baby on the My Worlds Acoustic record. If that is what you are asking.
@@TomStrahle That's pretty goddamn cool. I can't wait to bring this up when people insist that you need expensive gear for good tone.
I love tube amps...i build tube amps from scratch, just because I enjoy it. Virtual amps are great too, but understanding that you are running through multiple pre-amps (interface preamp, and virtual amp preamp stage) is critical.
Lol I just made a very similar comment. I build tube as well as solid state amps, pedals and restore vintage radio receivers. My last amp build was a Fender Champ style amp that I borrowed some ideas for off of the Mesa Blue Angel schematic. So the champ inspired clone has a switch thats connected to the 6v6 cathode and also at the cathode of an EL84 so it can select either 6V6 or EL84 for the output section. It also has a bright boost and mids switch that selects between the two mid resistor values Fender used in the champs over the years. I absolutely love that little amp. My other main amp is a Marshall DSL100HR that I've had since launch that I've modded a bit as well. I added a plexi style choke to it but left the stock resistor on a switch so that I can select either the choke or the resistor. I personally think modelers and plugins etc are fine for practice but I would never ever play them live or record with them. It cheapens the experience and they just don't have any soul. Tube amps and even good ss amps just feel so much better to play through in my experience.
Actual thing that added to the problems with virtual amps in the past…
The first gen Focusrite Scarlett were often malfunctioning where the “INST” input is too hot no matter what guitar you use.
Until I fully switched to the LINE mode (and applied high shelf on eq before all the virtual amps and such to compensate for the impedance difference), I was struggling BAD to try and figure it out, like why is it clipping…
And just by how popular those interfaces were and pther testimonies, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one with such conundrums.
Nowadays everything works better.
Hey man, sorry you've got that damn idiot doing his bogus telegram "you're a winner" replies. This is a real reply...Wow. haven't used a Focusrite Scarlett but what a drag on the INST input being too hot and clipping! I wish these companies would think about the PTSD they cause us guitarists with these issues out of the gate. Glad to hear that you were able to work through the problem and solve it. I have an IK Multi-Media AXE i/O that works pretty well. We shall see down the line if it's the one I'll stick with.
My first was a solid state Guerilla... and it was horrible, but I was too, so it helped me learn. My first good amp was a Marshall and it was great, but not for the type of music i was playing at the time. There are good solid state amps, modelers, and plugins, but there is nothing that sounds and feels like a great tube amp in the room... So Now I have a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special and a Morgan MVP 23, with a pretty absurd stereo pedalboard, and I couldn't be more pleased.
i actually have neighbours, so……
I started out on a little gorilla amp as well;God that thing was horrible, but it did the job. Fast forward almost 40 years, and I'm a tube snob: tweed deluxe, princeton reverb, dumble clone.
Amen to that
@@spunkytheozinho I can appreciate that, especially for those living in apartments or townhouses. There are some great attenuators, load boxes, & amps with line or headphone outs so you have the best of both worlds. The Morgan Power scaling is exceptional & far better than old master volumes & attenuators. I can get some really great tones from it at bedroom volumes. The Lonestar also has some lower watt options, for reasonable volume tube saturation.
The Gorilla! I forgot about that one
I giggled when you had the wall hanger you use listed. You did say, “all”. Thank you for your videos. I enjoy the info.
My first amp was an Ibanez bass amp that came from a kit. It definitely made a sound.
After that I got a Bassbreaker 007 combo which sounded good, but it had to be loud to sound awesome so I got rid of it and got the Neural DSP Cory Wong plug-in. That's currently my sound (apart from my pedalboard and whatever amp the rehearsal room or venue has).
My entire rig consists of a Mooer GE100 multiFX pedal and a Fender Champion 100 amp. (I have a soft spot for the number 100.) Guitars are an Epiphone Les Paul, Squier Affinity Strat and Teles, and Chinese-made ES335 and SG copies. And headphones to plug into the Champion 100 for late-night practice.
As a brand new guitarist I’ve literally been looking for a video like this to explain why it sounds like I’m hearing things through a cup to my ear. The little clip around 3:00 min is basically what I’m hearing with direct to interface + random plugins
Funny, my first "real" amp was a Fender Champion 110. I actually kinda miss that amp, for what it is it actually sounds pretty good.
I started playing electric guitar at church 5 years ago, and didn’t use an amp for the first 4 years. I just couldn’t, it was too much to carry it out and most stages I was on didn’t have space. I had a pedalboard and just sent that straight to the sound desk, and it honestly wasn’t that bad. But this year I discovered a small pedal called a cab simulator, and it’s changed my sound immensely. I’m sure one day I may get an actual amp, but for now I’m very happy being oblivious and just using a pedal cause it sounds great.
There are amp manufacturers that are creating some fairly decent "amp in a pedal" products that combine convincing pedal versions of their preamp and a cab sim. Some even let you load your own impulse responses, so essentially an infinite choice of cab simulations. For an example, check out the Victory V4 Kraken pedal.
I know people who use a line6 spider combo and shove an SM57 in front of it but it's actually not plugged in anywhere; it's just DI out straight into the FOH mixing desk. Sound incredible and you'd never know that microphone cable goes nowhere and is just there for show.
Line 6 helix floor, all you need.
I started on a Zoom 505, amp in a box pedals are so much better now.
Pedal board without amp/cab sim is incomplete if you're going to send it straight to the mixing board
For silent recording a tube amp the Two Notes captor and somesort of audio interface will do the job. Plugins are just great because it is easy to change settings after a recording, instead of having to also record the input signal and re-amp the track. Although plugins can sound really good it's the difference in feel and response for me that has kept me using tube amps for recording.
Just a single mic in front of the amp is all you really need, and likely get you farther than a plug in from my experience. (native instruments plug ins)
@@Art-zs6sl With the two notes software you can change the cabinets and speakers, mic distance and center. You can record silently which is great since we cannot always crank our amps at home in order to record with a mic. If you live off grid and you can crank the amp a mic will sound a bit better than an IR, but in highly populated areas you'll get the cops called on you.
Same. A tube amp just has that sound and feel both that nothing else yet can really give you.
@ghost mall I bet you have seen countless youtubers playing guitar with awsome tone whilst they used a loadbox, but you were not aware.
A plugin uses cabsims as well, so I don't see how this is an argument against using a real amp and IR. I own a couple of plugins: Neural DSP toneking imperial and SLO-100, they sound great for what they are but a real amp recorded through a loadbox sounds way better.
@@Art-zs6sl native instruments makes okay guitar plugins, but they're far from the best you can get. I've had free amps like the Amplex NaLex, the LePou stuff, and the Vadim Taranov 5150 blow NI Guitar Rig out of the water. Plus, paid ones like Neural DSP, Toneforge, and Bogren Digital sound even better than those free options I mentioned.
One of the best ways test a rig is how it sounds when you roll your guitar volume back. This is the magic of vintage tube amps - ESPECIALLY Plexi-JMP Marshalls. Dime up your guitar vol for searing solos, then go to 7 for crunch rhythm and down at 3 it's much cleaner and still fat. I've tested high dollar digital processors but they can't deliver hard rock tone & dynamics for live performance.
Metallica, Plini, and Aaron Marshall would disagree with you. All are fully digital live.
@@DanielBobke Oh please. There are MANY other guitarists who do agree with me, otherwise they wouldn't be using tube amps. A lot of this has to do with the type material a guitarist plays. The difference between tubes and digital is most noticeable in material that features extended mids such as 70's hard rock and when backing your guitar volume down to cleanup the signal. Plini, Aaron Marshall and Metallica all use a very scooped out modern tone that is heavily saturated; e.g. from day one of Metallica's earliest recordings, Hammet and Hetfield backed the mid knob on their JCM 800's all the way down to ONE. Hammet sometimes increased his on his amp mid setting to 4 or 5 but only when doing overdubbs on solos for certain songs to add more CLARITY to the solo. If the only thing I ever played was scooped out saturated material, yeah sure I'd consider using a digital rig. A well made, dialed in tube amp will ALWAYS deliver more dimensional tone in general.
@@GTX1123 tube amps are heavy and smelly
Thanx again Mike. I'm the old grumpy dude that commented on your string size video. I was concerned about "tone" quality for a long time also so I feel your pain. Being a rank amateur guitarist who struggled to stay in key and in rhythm "tone" always took a back seat. Take this advice for what it's worth..... Get the guitar off your right thigh and move it to your left. Tilt the neck up so your left hand becomes dominant and focus on timing and attack more so that picking. I think you will be pleased. Tone is a function best left to equipment and recording engineers.
As someone who is currently living out this exact experience can you make a video on how to properly set up your audio interface and audio software to get those tones? Or can someone point me to a video on how to do it because I have the same issues where everything just sounds like a tinny compressed nightmare when I try to go all digital.
Mike I like how you explained everything in detail , I think you would like Robin Trower , Winterland concert 1975 , You Tube . I have an Eric Clapton Strat and a 1965 Deluxe Reverb amp and OCD pedal by Fulltone . Take Care . ⚡️🇺🇸🎸✨✨✨🏆
I got lucky. A couple of months after I got my first squier, my uncle gave me one of his Twin Reverbs. It weighs a ton...but it got me through my first many bands. At school I used a Roland JC. I liked it fine too.
My uncle got me my first guitar and Boss pedal machine, uncles do really come in clutch lol
One thing I love is using Orange amps simply because the headphone out has a cab sim circuit when used to DI. One of my favorite tones.
Great video man! I'm lucky that I live in a detached house and can crank my Fender Princeton any time, day or night. But, I'd love to learn more about the virtual stuff too. Maybe a small video series that goes more in-depth on your current setup and recording process?
I'v been fu**ing around with DI for years now and you are spot on, again, wise beyond your years, keep doing what you are doing it is much appreciated!
My first guitar amp was a Roland JC 120. My jazz teacher sold it for coke money. He was a monster player. Died at 35. I brought it over to his house one day and left it there knowing I would come back for it. A couple weeks went by and my amp went bye-bye. I wasn’t mad though. I learned so much from him.
Bummer
Great video. I have made the same journey myself. All over the map !
Mike, you are an inspiration! As a budding home recorder, this is extremely helpful. Thank you!
First amp: phono input of my dad's old hifi amplifier, cranked up.
First guitar amp: 15w Vox Pathfinder, a 1x8" solid state combo.
First tube amp: 60w Brunetti XL" R'Evo with a 1x12" cab.
Second tube amp: 50w 70's Peavey Classic, a 2x12" hybrid combo (solid state preamp, tube poweramp).
Practise amp: 1st gen Yamaha THR10.
Live rig: Axe FXII mkII
And now I also use a tonne of plugins...
Man… I LOVE this. And it’s so true now. The idea of taking a small pedal bag to a gig instead of a giant rig?! THE best now. 😆
As a 70 year old guitarist, and after YEARS of playing through tube amps, I discovered the Roland Cube! I now have two Cube 30s and two Cube 60s, and they sound amazing. They're over thirty years old (!), but super reliable..... interestingly, mixing engineers prefer me to use the 30W versions, because they have more ultimate control. Most of the time, our band plays pub gigs, and specialise in hosting jams. Everyone is stunned by how good the Cubes sound!
My first Amp was the Peavy Bandit 112 (red stripe) from my Brother and it‘s hands down the best sounding amp i ever had (maybe because of sentimental reasons)
I‘m so happy that it‘s still in my collection and my go to amp
I have the next generation bandit 2x12 and it's workhorse!
I have the same. Found it at a thrift shop a few years back for $100. Gonna head to college next year, and I fully intend to take it with me. Would love a tube amp, but I don’t play in any bands, so it perfectly fine for what I do, bedroom playing.
I have a red stripe and while it's got some issues and problems, it's still a great amp. Much better than anything I had before.
Right, it didn't matter to me too at that time, when I was a kid. I was just hungry at playing. something I don't want to lose. That excitement. Nice video
Great video! and I totally hear what your saying. There are a lot of good things about the digital amps...But as many have said throughout the comment section, and the reality that I have come too after many years of experience is that........here is absolutely..nothing like the sound, feel, warmth, dynamics of a tube amp. In my humble opinion there is no digital tone that can replicate it. It's for that reason that I believe Tube amps will always be around, and there will always be a premium demand for them
I HAVE A HIWATT DR103 100 WATT AMP and I will never give it up
As good as modeling is now, amps cannot be perfectly modeled. Changing speakers makes a huge difference in sound. Trying to model a speaker would be extremely hard. How would bond model cone breakup, delayed sound from the box airspace and the reflection of sound from the speaker frame going back through the cone, resonances in the cone suspension etc. my preference is tubes, but digital has its place too.
Yes, basically good digital modelling now sounds alright, but not exceptional.
Ancient 70 yr old player here... Awesome Mike!!! I always enjoyed your short vids and humor. But this is still you and the content I seek for meat and potatoes progress. Thanks a bunch... player for 60 years, just a really slow learner!
I love my Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister, but my Boss Katana also sounds amazing. Most notably, either of them sound good when I focus on playing well, and playing to the settings on the amp.
amen. the most important component in the chain is the player's ears.
First amp I used was a solid state Orange Crush 50w bass amp that I had been using for my electronic drums lol. Sounded like the most bland, clean, reverbless solid state amp you could ever imagine. A buddy of mine who kinda stopped playing guitar had a tiny little 1x8 Behringer solid state amp that had distortion on it that I used for a little bit. Then a few months later I got a 40w fender mustang modeling amp and used that one for two or so years. When I actually got serious about playing I got a Vox AC15 and still have that bad boy. Still sounds absolutely phenomenal and I still use it at a jam session I go to every week. Started my first band in college and wound up getting a 40w Tweed Blues Deluxe 1x12 that I used for everything up until a few months ago. I also now play in a club band most weekends, and after wanting something with a bigger cab, I finally decided on going with the Fender Tonemaster Super Reverb. It is an absolutely great amp and I really love everything about it. The built-in attenuator lets me get a great tone at seriously any volume level, plus it only weighs 30 pounds. So I went from solid state to digital to tube, and now regularly use a mix of digital and tube. Haven’t delved into the plug-in realm yet, but I’m sure I’ll dip into it at some point. I think I’ve always been pretty open minded towards amp technology, so I’m not really ruling anything out. Especially now since I am a true believer in the Tonemaster series. The technology has gotten to a great point and is basically becoming impossible to ignore.
this makes me very grateful that I'd done a lot of audio production before I ever used amp simps, sure it sounded a bit like shit at first but it was always acceptable and then got to being really good over time as I improved. Good video, enjoyable watch. Using plugins is so convenient and easy, especially at night or if you get the urge to play out of nowhere.
Bro, I met your channel a little while ago and I've already become your fan hahah, I hope I can jam with you someday 😝🎸 (sorry if my english is not that good 😂)
My first amp was a litte solid state Crate with a Yamaha Pacifica guitar. It was meant to learn on, and It served its purpose well
My first amp was a small 15 watt solid state Crate as well. It might still be in storage somewhere.
@@mattiisosalo918 I sold mine long ago and since upgraded to a Kustom arrow 16 and a left handed Fender Squire affinity Tele
@@MlnscBoo My next rig was Marshall Valvestate 8080, Tokai Les Paul. Later I bought Boss DS-2 and digital delay.
My journey went the opposite direction. I started as more of a metal player and was super into modeling amps and stuff I had a helix and positive grid and all that jazz. Then one day I plugged into my buddys ac30 and it changed everything all at once for me. I went out and bought one a week later and haven't looked back since. Super versatile and capable of whatever I'm looking to do with my pedals I've started collecting. Great video!
Tbh yeah, ac30 is great and it was my first purchase when I was 18. I always do my research before buying, and I ended up with it. Although I would now want a pure tone amp, to not interfere with the pedalboard, ac30 really got me for a long time and some friends.
@@juliancasablancas3367 I play an ac50cp2 combo now. Super cool mix of vox cleans and Marshally gain channel. Have you ever seen the matchless amps I think they're called? Supposedly have huge head room and are great pedal platforms
Virtual amps do take some fiddling to get a good sound out of. But, man, having dozens of sounds and effects at your disposal for the prices is amazing. I can play whole shows on a boss gt1 multi effects pedal and play any style so long as I've tweaked them into decency.
It dawned on me when I saw the outlaws in a very .. very small venue and both guitarists were using pedal boards direct no amps. As old school players they had killer tones on tap. These guys used volume knobs, tone knobs and achieved everything they needed. I agree virtual amps can come close enough the rest is in the players hands and simple controls of the guitar. I dug out my old rp500 and with an open mind, ears dialed in a bunch of basic killer tones. I used to try to make the unit do it all when simply rolling back the volume knob and or tone knob set the palette just like on a tube amp with an overdrive. But the palette of possible tones is endless including ...... realllllly bad ones as well it can be easy to get lost stacking all the effects on tap.
Roland Cube 30. From rock to Smooth jazz the cube can do it all, and it won't break back your back to gig with it.
Absolutely! Perfect for Smooth Jazz and R&B. Lite weight and built like a tank!
When I first got an Axe FX I was confused for a few months and only used presets that only sounded okay to me. Then I really started getting an idea of how to dial in the tone. In hindsight, it wasn't hard to learn at all, I can throw together patches in minutes, but that initial hump had me thinking I wasted my money.
You are forgetting those of us raised by boomer dads, who owned tube amps and would sit around drinking beer at night and jam with us classic rock and roll and we cut our teeth on our dad’s tube amp and classic guitars with our dad teaching us classic rock riffs. It was just how we grew up, and all we knew was dad had that awesome guitar amp that sounded really cool when you turned up that one knob that said “gain” and when you bumped the amp it sounded like a loud thunder sound (the spring reverb).
Ahhh, I guess not everyone has that experience……
1. Overloud TH-1 was released somewhere around the year 2008. Even back then you could achieve any tone with it.
Virtual guitar amps didn't get night-and-day better since then, they just started to come with better presets and pre-processed impulse responses that eliminate most of the work, which, back in the day, you had to do yourself.
2. Solid state amps are legit insane. Sometime in the future they'll get fashionable and everyone will be after that solid state tone quality.
And then there's the ubiquitous 80s Peavey
@@jasondorsey7110 Bandits sound awesome. Scott Putesky used one, same with a bunch of important black metal albums.
My 1st was a David Bogen tube p.a. amp. 12ax7 preamp and twin 6L6 based. It was 25 or so watts. Cranked it had a P.T./Leeds tone when I used an old LPB-1. The amp was from the late 50's with a (if I remember correctly) Electro-Voice speaker. It was my dads old accordion amp. He changed the input jack for me. This is where I learned to re-wrap the flat copper windings of the output trans. To this day, I wish I still had it. I had 2 other tube amps in my 62 years o' life. One was a 100 watt Peavey 2 x12 when I was in a local band. I didn't like the metal cone drivers, and didn' t know about trying different tubes to get more warmth. Had a nice phase shifter. Got out of the band and traded it for my 1st real Strat (needed work, but when I 1st picked it up, it just felt perfecto!) and a small silver faced Fender 10-15 watts with a tremolo in it. I cut the head off and drove a separate, better cabinet. My roommate just started playing and always borrowed it, so when he got engaged I gave it to him. Other than that, I've had solid-state. All I can say 'bout them is if you can get components cheap/free, replace the green chiclet caps with film type, and the carbon resistors with metal ones. Makes a world of difference. And find a better speaker.
Mine was some old 90s solid state Fender 1x8 or 1x10 that sounded pretty decent tbh. The other day I hauled my old Ibanez Thermion TN120 out of the closet, hooked it up to my bass 4x10, and then blew my hair back and went "how the hell did I ever play this thing this loud??" lol... thanks for sharing!
I love your Strat and I normally dislike most "bursts" but I think the maple neck really makes it :D
I've considered getting a DI like the Walrus Canvas; I use a 3rd gen Focusrite 18i20 and while it has an improved instrument DI over the previous gen, it's still just part of a $500-tier interface vs a dedicated $250 Neve DI. The 18i20 is useable, but there are times when I clip the input with especially spicy instruments even with the pad engaged. My Zoom B6 has a DI output with 4 emulations of various DIs and it works magic on my bass :D
Outstanding video! I’m 68 years old, been playing electric guitar nearly 60 years. Tried every amp out there, big and small. Don’t like lugging big, heavy gear especially at 3AM after consuming a few adult beverages. Been using Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb about 3 years. All digital and only 23 pounds. Sounds great! Use Fulltone OCD for high gain tones. The best overdrive/distortion pedal out there in my opinion!
I grew up with everyone coveting Marshall stacks. I just hope that these bedroom/basement guitarists, who are by all rights extremely good guitarists, will experience even something small like a Fender Blues Jr. at full crank. Listening to myself play guitar through headphones has never had the same effect as when actual AIR is being pushed into your chest by the amp.
Exactly
The best musical feeling I've ever was standing on the stage with a full Super Lead stack with the sound pulsating thru my body, and when the music stops you kinda fall backward toward the amp
When I die fighting the good fight on stage, hollow out my speaker cabs to be used as a boat on my journey to Vahalla and set me and my les paul on fire as I prepare to meet Hendrix, Zappa, Montrose and the boys as we raise our mugs for another beer! Party on Garth! Bring on the Wild Stallions. As I dream of seeing drummers riding shotgun in the sky. I hope Lemmy is in tune!
@@Wardell43 I'll have whatever you had.
@@Wardell43 that was hot
Cool stuff. I use some old rack mounted guitar amps. Line 6 pod and a 11 rack. Between the two the options seem limitless. Live I use Marshall’s and Mesa amps.
I have Fender Mustang 40 that is great for practice. Folks think I’m playing through one of my stacks. It has a great foot pedal with a built in looper also great for practice and stacking harmonies and riffs.
Great video buy the way. Passion.
Way overrated. The rest of the neighborhood doesn't want to hear you.
I have this Fernandes FA15 solid state amp that is single channel with a built in effects loop that is enough to piss the hell out of my neighbors without even cranking the volume up. It may not be a great amp for most players but knowing it's my first amp, it really did help me learn electric guitar stuff like dynamics and articulation.
Great one Mike I wish you the best.
My first good amp was also a Fender Champion 20 and I really liked it, and while I do still use a lot of physical amps when rehearsing with my band at for college (the rehearsal space my college uses has a Vox AC30 (which is usually the amp I go for because I love the sound of those amps), a Marshall JCM900 (which I also use sometimes when I'm not on the Vox), Fender Deluxe Reverb (which is what our instructor plays through sometimes) and an Orange Rockerverb 30 but because I do a lot of recordings on Logic Pro I always use the visual amps. There's such a great selection of tones from Vox AC30s to Marshall, Fenders, Orange, Hiwatt, Mesa Boogie and plugins for a Diezel VH4, ENGL, Ampeg, GK and the list can go on. I guess long story short what I'm trying to get at is that whatever situation you're put in (be it playing through physical amps or recording with virtual), there's always something for everyone that's looking for the tone they want for that song
Man I love all those tube amps. Have had a few myself. Still want a rockerverb. I have Logic and find the plug ins both stock and non stock unbearable. Use a strymon iridium when going direct.
My first real amp was a Roland Jazz chorus…so yes, my first amp sounded amazing.
These days I use tube amps for larger band gigs and an Ampero Stomp II in my solo looping rig.
The tube amp def sounds better when you can play live, but sometimes it’s just too impractical.
My only issue with virtual amps is too many options..I find it hard to find a tone I'm satisfied with.. I need that limitation
I had the same problem, spend way too much time fiddling with my mustang amp, now I just plug into a 2 knob 15 watt tube amp and a few pedals and play, I dont have more sounds, so I have to make them work, and I do.
Paralysis by analysis
I started off with a Roland Cube then tube amps then amp sims. Still wasn’t 100% happy with my tone. Went to a Boss GT-1000 then an FM3 and now, finally, settled down with the Quad Cortex. Never been happier with my tone. I realized through all of this that I don’t enjoy being attached to a computer when I’m playing guitar.
I'm looking into these and other options.
I'm 55 now and my arthritis has gotten HORRIBLE.
I've lugged around a big Polytone 104 for years... It's always been a great amp.
PLENTY of clean headroom and it's got reverb to rival any Fender tube offering.
It's got a PERFECT built on Tremolo effect.
But it weighs like 975 pounds and I just can't lug it around anymore.
Really like your content man, rare to find a likeable RUclips guitar vlogger !!
My first amp was a Traynor YCV40. So... A great sounding amp. That said, I have a ton of sims and I love them. Pro tip : get a Tone Captor and crank your tube amp through it.
LOVE the old Traynor amps! like a poor man's Marshall 50. I once had one of their 100W heads - that thing weighed a ton and was built like a tank.
@@anthonypanneton923 Somewhere in between a Fender and a Marshall. Like a ballsier Fender on roids. Dude, that is LOUD. The clean channel is really fun, as it gets dirty with the volume starting from 2-3ish, and goes up into ACDC sounds when you really crank it. A boost in front gets you into pretty high gain territory, and the OD channel can sound quite 80s thrash too. For the price, they are awesomely built, really sturdy amps !
@@mvyper for a while in the '70s I had two of the 50W heads (can't remember the model#). I played bass thru them - each with its own 2x15 cabinet. I also used them for guitar with 2x12 cabs. one was plenty for rehearsal. they were not quite enough power for bass, but in small clubs it worked. and they had great tone! in the '90s I had one of their older 15W, 1x12 combo amps - that was nice, but I sold it because I just had too much gear and needed to clear out the basement!!
1st amp was a 1950s Webster-Chicago record player converted to guitar use. About 10 watts, 10" speaker.
I’m a big fan of virtual amps for home playing. I’m a hobbyist who plays in their bedroom in a small house. The tones you get from modeling are far superior than using a small amp that just barely is putting signal through the speaker. The technology only continues to get better. I don’t gig so I can’t speak on gigging with something digital but I would imagine it would be pretty darn close to using a real tube amp not to mention more reliable and much easier to transport
there is just one big issue. the digital stuff sounds great on its own. the moment you bring the band in you disappear. the tube amps cut through like knife through butter.
@@louiscyfer6944 That’s purely dependent on the circuit of the amp and the speakers you are using. There is no definitive way to say all tube amps cut through a mix perfectly.
@ghost mall from the audience's standpoint it probably doesn't matter, but from the player's standpoint is still sure does.
@ghost mall i hate all of those, as i spend my time screwing with the sounds instead of playing. those modelers are not industry standards, plenty of bands using tube amps still.
Really funny and honest! I've decided to start a music-related RUclips channel and yours is a big inspiration!
I used a fender super champ x2 for the longest time, it had tubes in it but with digital effects. Very very cool and I still have it, I love it but it sits in the corner now. Now I have a deluxe reverb reissue and it’s an absolute dream. Great for pedals too. I’m only 21 and I already have my dream amp, I don’t need another one 🤣
They are great as is a Vibrolux or Basssman but even a Deluxe is loud as fuck at home.
For me it went the other way. Bought a Mustang Micro and pressed the buttons til it made a sound I liked. Reading the card told me I liked the 57 twin with spring reverb, so I bought a Blues Junior. Just switch it on and play.. no pedals, no second guessing, no tweaks.. The controls on the guitar are enough to push the sound to places beyond my imagination.. so far, so blown away.
Man, after watching Tomo play a hundred dollar guitar through a Fender 10G, I just don't care anymore.
Not me! I got more into tube amps than ever 10 years into my playing.
Since then it has become more of an obsession over the years.
Now I don’t use any 9 volt pedals and get all my overdrive from my amps.
Never had better tone in my life.
I am also a studio engineer and have all the latest modelllers. Having done side by side comparisons, I would never ditch the tube amps. No chance.
My first amp was (naturally) a Line 6 Spider IV. It sounded like shit but it was a very affordable way to learn about basic effects.
Eventually I graduated to a lovely tube/cab setup...a Marshall Jubilee reissue with a Vox 2x12. This is my home/studio rig now.
Once I started gigging regularly, I wanted nothing more than to lean out the 150+lbs and $3000+ of gear it took to make sounds in a small shitty bar. I moved to a Line 6 Helix and have not looked back since.
If you're an active gigger, tube amps do not make the most economical sense. Sure, your tone is slightly better with them. But once you're in a mix playing live those extra 2 pennies of tone don't make up for the back pain it takes to schlep those big heavy amps.
a tube amp doesn't have to be heavy, and why would you get backpain from carrying an amp, time to hit the gym. i don't know what you had to get to 150lvs of gear. as far as 3000 dollars, i take about 15k in gear with me to gig.
Marshall JMP-1 or Mesa Boogie triaxis into a ENGL e810. Less than 20 lbs and just 2 rack spaces. And I also agree that the back ache is not worth it playing in a bar with a $100 SM-57, and a1/2 drunk “sound person” . I actually like the Blu Box cabinet simulator. Hell, just pump it through the monitors.
For the average Joe, playing in average venues (Bars, small clubs) a virtual setup is more than sufficient for you...and the crowd (most of them will honestly not notice the difference).
However, for all the Guitar Greats, you'll find that the sonic benefits and, crucially, the dynamic interaction of player+amp means that they'll pretty much all be using a good tube amp setup. Virtual setups (improving all the time), of course, have their many use cases - but for the virtuoso (actual or aspiring) a 'real' setup is, by far, most inspiring for them, and their discerning audience. However, and agreed, real amps can be a pain to get sounding 'right' at times.
I used to play live a lot (semi pro) in the past, and still have a Fuchs TDS 50w combo and JMP-1 (previously Triaxis/2:90, some Fenders etc). For home convenience (and for the fun of all those presets) I also have a lot of virtuals e.g. Bias, Schuffham, Tone King etc - and they're good sounding in a mix and....damn convenient to use!
@@ChrisM541 ken andrews from failure is probably known as the greatest guitar and bass tone guru in the world. He uses ZERO amps. All fractal axe fx.Less pros use tube amps than ever. Tube amps are great.. but u just don't need it anymore. Fractal, line 6, boss. They all do a great job in the right setup
@@nichreynolds7712 As I'm sure you'll agree, tone is incredibly subjective. You'll also not object to the guitar tone heard on the entire catalogue of 1960's - 1990's music (/pre-amp sim/modeler). If you're saying that every classic 'sound' of that era is now perfectly reproduced on today's modelers/sims, as both an exact tone and (crucially) as a perfect 'live' player/guitar/amp dynamic reproduction, then that - as I'd hope you'd agree - would be incorrect.
Musicians use the Axe-FX/Kemper etc because they're 'damn convenient' for them and the sound engineer, and that's ok! However, almost every 'great'/virtuoso playing is using a real amp set up. If you can't hear the difference, that's ok too. However, they definitely can...and so can most/all of their audience.
Ken Andrews is a great player and has a great sound, and that's good!
I have a Vox VT40X amp that I tried the amp sims with. I still prefer running pedals (MXR Classic Distortion and MXR Classic Overdrive and a Cuvave Fuzz - for now I am just using the modulated effects in the Vox amp for reverb, flanger, tremelo etc) into the Vox VT40X and turning off the amp and cab sims and run it as a straight hybrid amp. I like the organic feedback I get from playing through a speaker.
Back in the 90's when I was gigging in my original band, I played a Music Man HD 130 2x10 open back combo amp and sat it on a 2x10 Music Man extension speaker cab that was ported. That amp had a SS pre amp and a tube power section. It had the nicest loudest cleans with NO break up and my RAT pedal for dist, my MXR OD for mild crunch, and the a variety of modulated effects pedals (all analog) and that set up sound AMAZING. No virtual amp can hold a candle to that amp literally and figuratively. I was in my 20's back in the 90's and could manage hauling that heavy equipment around with no problem.
Now, I am almost 52 y.o. I pair the VOX VT40X (which does have a 12AX7 preamp tube in it to give it the tube warmth and chime) with a Fender Rumble 40 bass amp and run out of a Morley AB foot switch and run both amps simultaneously. It sounds pretty close to the Music Man amp set up I had back in the day. I gave my entire pedal board with all my old pedals (the RAT, MXR OD and the modulated pedals) to my 15 y.o. son who plays guitar now. He plays those pedals through a Fender Vaporizer tube amp for the moment, but we are about to pick up from Guitar Center a used Kustom HV100 2x12 hybrid (Tube pre with SS power) and that Kustom is truly the closest thing to the Music Man amp I have ever played through. LOUD cleans that THUMP your body when turned up with decent volume. And the analog pedals through it will sound amazing no doubt.
While digital modeling has come a long way (digital anything in the 90's sounded like horse shit).
Again, there is an element to real amps that just doesn't compare to virtual amps. There is a symbiosis with the sound coming from the amp and the pickups from the guitar that you don't get from virtual amps.
So, while I did enjoy your video, the title is misleading. Not all guitar players prefer virtual amps to real amps. I, for one, am one of those guitar players. So is my son. And I am sure there are plenty of other guitar players out there who agree with my stance.
I agree, as an apartment dweller, I’m considering letting go of my 75 twin reverb, and a fairly large (half stack) Marshall valvoline), and just pick up a smaller solid state combo. I’m mostly done playing live, so I don’t need volume. Good video!
I had the opposite approach. I started with a "beginner's amp". A Crate 1x10. No one ever told me that a tube amp sounds better. They told me to learn more and just keep playing. Now that I have 11 years of guitar under my belt, I have played virtual amps. I have played nice solid state amps. I have played great tube amps. The truth is that tube amps are always going to sound better. Virtual amps are nice if you don't know what you are doing (in the recording and video-over aspects especially), but a tube amp will always sound the best live.
Absolute truth. All about dynamics. Most digital amps/modelers/plug-ins sound lifeless to my ears. I think convenience of use causes lots of players to accept what they are hearing as acceptable and they convince themselves that it's actually comparable to valves.
I Would have to agree here. I have used Amplitude for years and gotten great results... But, having a tube amp in a good sounding room with great mics taking advantage of the air in that room will always be punchier and have that dynamic response that you'll never get out of a digital emulation.
I'm 68 years old. You're cool. Keep on keeping on. Still don't know what that means. We never stop learning. Bravo, my friend.
DSM & Humboldt’s Simplifier is really good if you spend some time with it (I have the DLX) and Quilter amps are amazing. I love my Quilter Micropro Mach 2 stack. Both are fully analog with the exception of reverb and take pedals exceptionally well. I still own tube amps, but I only use those amps for their specific characters.
You’re a great storyteller. This helped me a lot.
The first amp I ever played through was my Dad's jcm 900 on his old '70 sg, it was such a special experience at the time for me ,even though i had no idea how to play, just the feeling of the kick of that huge amp is what ended up making me want to play guitar forever. I think headphones and preamps are such a useful thing (I use an old beat up line6 pod xt) nothing to me can compare to that huge gut punching power of a tube amp with a ton of bass and a tone bender
AGREED. I HAVE A HIWATT DR 103 100 WATT AMP and I'm going to use it
Yeah totally agree. You can straight up just feel what you're playing which is always an awesome feeling. Especially after a lil smoke sesh lmao
@@deegrawnz YUP. I have a HIWATT DR 103 100 watt amp, and I'll need an attenuater...but it's the BEST quality hi fidelity guitar sound you can get.
It's amazing how much working knowledge have to accumulate to do stuff like this. It's all fun.
I was learning how to be an audio engineer while learning guitar, so when I came to interfaces and plug ins, I got used to how they run. Now that I'm in a house though, I will go back to micing my amp. Not even because my tone is crafted around it, but because there is still something just slightly off about a true sim compression over mic and di balancing. Most people listening to modern music on stream sites or RUclips on their phones won't be able to tell the difference, but I do and I just hold myself to a higher standard. But amp sim tech has come a long way. Gigging wise, I would easily trust an amp sim.
Thank you for making this. I thought i was crazy here with my solid state.
Tube amps are at least repairable. Modelling amps generally aren't at reasonable cost. Discrete solid-state amps are usually pretty easy to repair.
How often does a digital amp break compared to a tube amp though
Thanks for making this video. I have been on the 'fence' to try a virtual amp.
I have a quad cortex and it’s great, but my go to physical amp is my JC-40, the cleans are amazing and it takes pedals like a champ! It’s solid state so I don’t have to worry about swapping tubes out and it only weighs like 30lbs so it’s extremely portable. The nice thing about it being solid state is the tone doesn’t change no matter the volume. I can get bedroom levels and still sound good, also this amp can be mega loud, like really loud. Obviously distortion and overdrive don’t sound like tube, but to my ears it still sounds really good. If you’ve never tried SS amps I’d highly recommend checking out the JC-40 or 22 depending on your needs!
bro has the perfect formula. Skit videos that are 1 minute long, and information videos that are 10 mintues
Bud, I am with you. I recently went from 1000s of dollar tube amps to headrush into a power amp. I was in the same mindset and honestly, I am so upset that it took me so long LOL
I've been playing real amps for years now. I decided to buckle down and I bought a Focusrite AI, and the Tim Henson plug in and I don't think I could go back to real amps honestly. The tones are like nothing I've ever played through before, and I've played through a lot of real amps with so many different effects.
Honestly, as much as I've enjoyed playing through valve amps, I'm a solid state guy. Solid. Dependable. Long lasting. Consistent from gig to gig and band practices. What's not to love?
Tell me more please! Does tube amp really orange and mango differ from SS in tone? Like say you have 2 amps identical in everything except tubes, will you easily differentiate the tone quickly?
@@nicksonthevet they sound and feel different, best thing you can do is get out and meet other musicians and dabble in guitar shops. My favourite valve amp was a little 4 watt Vox I used to have - very loud, very basic - but great amp. When I was last out gigging I was using my Randall solid state and let the sound guys use the line out rather than mic'ing the amp which worked out great. Good for recording too.
@@AndyPlayedGuitar 4 watts tube? Is it not very low wattage for performing? I am naive of amps and I live in Tanzania East Africa, no amps to try in shops very hard to find someone to jam with
@@nicksonthevet 4 watts is plenty loud for home use and sounds great when cranked. It was too loud for bedroom use really. Ultimately I don't subscribe to chasing other people's tone, I tend to just enjoy playing and any amp that gives me an output I can work with is fine.
@@AndyPlayedGuitar Thanks for your help with this information
thank you, thank you, thank you my brother! I haven't even bought my first amp yet and have been experimenting exclusively with DI's and plugins...I've been getting close but I now know that I just need to keep dialing it in. After watching this video, now I know I can get there :)
Truthfully, I never cared about either. I was actively against tubes for the longest time because I didn't want to put up with the care and maintenance. So I went backwards in this progression. I keep my tubes for gigging and jamming, but will happily use VAs or SS amps for recording, practicing or teaching.
This was great man. Can’t wait to check my gain stages now, haha
The most prevalent argument I see against amp sims is that they don’t “feel” good. Even if I had the money to drop on the gear I want, it turns out my fiancé and cats don’t want to “feel” my playing. Got a volt1 and Neural DSP’s Archetype Rabea and I’m set.
@ghost mall Feel in this context means that you are happy about the tone you're playing with and if it inspires you subconsciously to play better. Trust me, with the latency of an amp sim it won't just feel right even if you couldn't hear the slight difference but playing through a real amp with good settings and micing gives you power to record your tracks better.
1st amp was/is a Vox ad15vt. Still love it 14 years later. I added a fender mustang gtx100 over the winter and it doesn't sound as good but has 200 settings so playing it always fun.
I will never stop using tube amps! 🙃🙃🙃
Love your channel landon
I love tube amps too. I have several of them. Most are vintage and really nice, but they rarely get used because my Axe FX 3 is soooooo good.
@@Ottophil cheers!
Nice video and very respectable point of view. Just two comments: 1) I might be getting old but I love the feeling of turning the knob up to 10 from time to time. I just do it when my wife and kids aren’t at home 2) don’t play at 3 a.m., get some sleep and play in the daylight. I know it’s not as rock and roll but you avoid the cops no matter what! :) love your videos!
This video is very well made and made. Liked and subscribed. I own a Fractal FM3, and I have a Landry LS100G3 and a PRS MT15. The Landry has an incredible master volume on it that allows me to get very saturated tones at bedroom volumes. Even the MT15 produces great tones at low volumes. Whenever I’m home I always use my tube amps, and I’ll never give them up. I play with some local musicians in a classic rock covers band just for fun. We don’t gig publicly. When I go to band practice I always take my FM3 and a powered FRFR cab. It’s just so much easier than hauling a tube amp, cab and my big pedalboard around and setting all of that up. At home, though, it’s definitely all tube amps and pedalboard. It sounds glorious. The gear does, not my playing, lol.