Hi all, my fist post here so be gentle with me. Anyway the point of my post is this, last night I was noodling away at low volume on with a strat and Mustang 1 amp. I selected the Deluxe Reverb amp and happily spend an hour jamming and found myself really getting into the tones I was getting. It was responsive, inspiring, articulate etc everything one would want from a great tube amp tone (albeit at low volume). Now many of the amp models and FX in the Mustang 1 are quite poor, especially at the dirtier end but it does do Fender cleans rather well.
It got me thinking maybe I've been misjudging the whole point of modelling amps. I tend to judge them in their entirety, like if 8 of the 10 amp models are poor then I label the amp as being a 'poor amp' despite the fact that 2 of the amp models may be fantastic. I recall seeing an interview with The Edge once where he said most multiFX will do at least one thing really well, it's just a matter of finding what it does well and use it.
A second hand Mustang 1 can be bought for peanuts and ok it might not be fantastic at everything but if I bought a single sound traditional amp and it gave me that same deluxe reverb tone I'd be raving about it. So my question is what are the best modeled amp tones out there? - not necessarily the best modelling amps.
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Bassman. One of my favorite cleans, and my go to for low gain/light crunch. Make sure you try it through the 2x12C cab!
Brit 60's (AC30). As presented, it's a rather nice tone. Wind the gain knob up, and holy shit! Excellent drive sound!
Brit 70's (Plexi) The more I use this, the more I like it. Lovely fat drive sounds, and red hot leads.
Brit 80's (JCM) This one's a peach, too. Really makes the amp roar.
Tweed Deluxe
Champ. Very old school vintage sounding- esp with the small room reverb wound up a bit, and some slapback!
Jazzmaster. This is a nice clean tone. STAYS clean, too no matter how you push the gain.
Obviously, the Princeton, Twin Reverb, and deluxe Reverb are all nice clean sounds. They all make good foundations for pedals, too.
Super Sonic. I have to revise my earlier opinion of this one. I gave it another go yesterday- just the stock preset ( Super Sonic burn, I think), and quite liked it.
** One caviat: I've never actually played through any of the real amps. I'm simply judging each on it's own merits as to whether it sounds good or not. I have no idea if they sound just like the real thing, and frankly, don't care.**
For FX.
Fender's reverbs on both amps. Love em! The spring can go from a lil bit to a cavernous echo. The room reverb is very convincing. The Large Hall really makes me feel like I'm playing in a large empty hall! Two thumbs up for the digi reverbs on these amps.
Also, I find GarageBand is shit except the Hiwatt model, which I adore
I also keep a 90s Zoom 2100 just because I like the envelope filter in it.
My favourite though is an Alesis Nanoverb. I have a rack full of much classier units, but thats the only one with a flanger which you can stall at any point through its sweep. Marvellous!