I've just spent the last 2 days building a Kemper based guitar rig, where I profiled my Matchless Lightning Reverb and Matchless Laurel Canyon amps and recreating as many of the effects that I use.
I've been gigging a lot lately and sometimes the stage volumes have meant I haven't been able to turn the amps up to where they are really working. Also it was a bit of an exercise to see how close I could get.
Initially I was really happy with what the Kemper was doing and then I A/Bed the Kemper rig against the Matchless amps plus my pedalboard.
No contest and it wasn't even close.
The Kemper sounds great in isolation.
The models sounds pretty similar to what they are modelling but there is just none of that 'this sounds so good I just can't put it down' feeling i get with the real amps.
I think I am just going to go back to using the amps plus pedalboard, possibly with an attenuator.
Comments
I agree there's nothing that compares with a real amp in the room turned up enough that you're getting the best out of it.
However, I'm very impressed with the sounds out of my Helix after some tweaking, and for live use the audience won't be doing what you're doing and comparing the sound of the real amp with the profiled amp in quick succession.
For me the convenience of the Helix outweighs the fairly small sonic compromise in a live setting.
I can bring literally everything I need in 2 compact cases (my guitar case and a live-in flight case for the Helix) instead of adding a head and cab to that, and the speed of setup, consistency of sound to the board (no need to worry about mic placement etc) and the fact that to get the same range of sounds I regularly use live on the Helix I'd need to bring at least 3 amps with me are all big advantages.
Obviously if I had a crew to set up for me I'd be bringing the 3 amps and my pedalboard
At the end of the day, I'm firmly of the belief you can get most of the way with modelling and seeing the pro guys doing it means obviously they work. A lot of the time for them though and as mentioned above, it's consistency, ease of setup, less reliability issues and shipping costs that make the difference and even then they can go wrong.
I've not gigged with an amp for about 10 years so maybe things might change, but the way I see it, it's amp, pedalboard, guitars.... It's not absolutely loads compared to Helix, Speaker and guitars.
The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes...
I suppose that, unlike a lot of people, as long as I can get 95% of that one sound for rhythm and one for lead, and it cleans up nicely with the volume control, everything else comes down to quality-of-life stuff...and that's an area where valve amps will never be able to compete with modellers/profilers - especially with stuff like the ToneX ONE on the market.
I found having a combo blasting into my back helped (even if the crowd couldn't hear it)
I play in 4 bands and have to spend a fair amount of time learning songs and going to band rehearsals so the last thing I'm going to get into is writing patches on a modeller that I can achieve in seconds with the gear I already have. The convenience isn't really there for me either. I often go to gigs in an Uber and my Hotrod, pedalboard and 2 guitars fits in the boot. I have a foldable trolly that fits in the back of the Fender so I don't even have to carry the amp to my gigs.
I've never struggled to get a good enough sound at low volume. I'm not saying I can make a Fender at a low volume sound like a cranked 100 watt Marshall but using some pedals and a Lion tamer it's close enough and to my ears, better than the moddlers version of a Marshall IMHO.
There's not even a price advantage for me. I paid £340 for my Hot Rod and about £150 for my pedals. I doubt I could buy a used Helix for £500.
Longevity and reliability. There's nothing any tech can't fix on a Hot Rod or any valve amp. Most repairs are very easy and some, like a valve gone bad you can do on the spot. i have changed a power transformer on one and even a PCB on another but these repairs are rare and these amps had been thrashed for years at a rehearsal studio for years with no maintenance.
Modellers are a different story. You can change some parts very easy. I've just done a scribble strip on a Helix but if there's a fault with PSU then that can be quite tricky. A fault with the main DSP will be very tricky and not because it's SM and all BGA chips but because there will be no boardview and schematic software to help tell what's what and no supply of pre coded chips.
I use a combo again now, and I got myself a ToneX One, so I can do either or both, depending on the gig.
Plus no faffing about trying to get the sound guy to run XLRs to the board - just mic it up, same as for everyone else.
Ultimately, as good as IRs and cab profiles can be for recording, at gig volume nothing beats a real speaker. That was the best of both worlds for me - digital amp, physical speaker. I'm baffled as to why more people don't do it that way.
For me, I've always had to compromise something with regard to getting my tone from valve amps. Whether that's a lack of convenience (tapdancing), buying more pedals and a bigger board to make it do what I want, or just living with the fact that the amp doesn't quite give the right sound on both channels, or the rolled-off clean is too quiet...there's always a compromise somewhere along the line. With a good modeller, I've genuinely never had that problem.
Frankly, they won’t, but they also won’t notice the bum note, the bit where you messed up the solo etc. However, you’ll know you did it and you’ll also know when your tone isn’t right.
The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes...
Of course I'm also looking at panning that to one side and a HelixNative-reamped signal to the other side as initial experiments suggest that sounds MAHOOSIVE.
I'm quite sure that a loud Matchless and Plexi in stereo would have been better, but logistically I'm ok with where I am.
Still want a Matchless, mind you. How good is the master vol on the Laurel Canyon...?
Now, with the ToneX ONE, I've got everything I want in a single board with just pedals. I don't have the no-tapdancing bit, sadly, but then...I'm not gigging at the moment anyway. I also have the one thing I've always wanted but could never have...an ADA MP-1 without the hassle of a rack rig.
Go too far forward at a pub where there's no monitors and the bands using modellers and all you hear is the drum kit !
In a small venue the PA is there for reinforcement, turn off the PA and the drums. bass and guitars should still sound balanced. in a large venue it's all PA and rightly so.
The bass player turned up with his bass stack thinking that since we were outside this was his chance to re-enact The Who at Chartlon Athletic football ground in '74.
I had my Hot Rod Deluxe on a stand behind me (to lazy to bring additional speaker but hopes of cranking the power section for once).
Soundcheck - I'm a third or so the way up on my HRD (sounds quite reasonable - loud but not punishing). No mics on the guitar or bass speakers.
IMMEDIATELY me and the bass player get told to turn down - we're drowning out the vocals.
Friends agree.
We reluctantly do so - and get this - me and the bass player proceed to play the gig un-miced with an SM57 hanging over the drumkit and the vocals going thru the PA.
(the sound guy even turned off the DI feed from the bass player cos there was enough signal already from the stage).
I love valve amps - but it would be nice to actually do a gig where I could get the things warmed up.
That's the opposite of what I'm saying. When I switched from a massive pedal board and expensive valve amp to an inexpensive modeller through the PA I got loads more complements on how good my tone was than I ever got before.
I actually had similar when I gigged a POD 2.0 into a PA at a big venue VS someone else who was using an Orange stack and 4x12