I only use a Quad Cortex for all my amp needs, but if I lived in a house I could play amps loud at, I would probably get a power amp and an FRFR cab or something along those lines.
You can also play with headphones using a tube amp, although it's much more unwieldy with having to run an attenuator and still producing all the heat and such, so personally I don't feel like it's a "loud amp vs. modeler" comparison. It's a "loud amp vs. headphones", and "modeler vs. tube amp" is separate from that.
I use headphones when I have too. But I would never want to live in that world permanently. Maybe it's the old man in me but there is nothing remotely appealing to me about digital amps and FRFR cabs. Having a house that you can play loud in and doing that is like being Cameron's dad.
I only use a Quad Cortex for all my amp needs, but if I lived in a house I could play amps loud at, I would probably get a power amp and an FRFR cab or something along those lines.
You can also play with headphones using a tube amp, although it's much more unwieldy with having to run an attenuator and still producing all the heat and such, so personally I don't feel like it's a "loud amp vs. modeler" comparison. It's a "loud amp vs. headphones", and "modeler vs. tube amp" is separate from that.
I do not know why heat would be an issue for a gentleman from Finland!
Here in Minnesota I appreciate the extra heat the tubes give off, especially on days below zero haha.
The solution that works for me is a attenuator cabinet simulation combo, and the best is the OX Box:
The attenuator itself is only slight worse than Suhr Reactive Load but the cabinet simulator portion is unparalleled. I am a DAW guy, so next to my rig I have a DAW with 10s of thousands of dollars of audio software, RME Babyface Pro FS , etc. I don't even have any real cabs at the moment(!!!). the output of the Ox hits my stereo board and then the Babyface which is configured to route that input directly to the output so there is no AD-DA conversion or lag before it goes to my monitors: Focal Shapes and a Focal Sub One (100W sub).
Chances are if you listen to a guitar "pro" on youtube you have heard the Ox. The reason is simple, it sounds great with little effort. Here's the big but: It sounds like a pro recorded guitar rig, like on the "hit records", not like you are in the room with the cab.
The Ox Box has wifi and I connect wirelessly to my two Ox Boxes. The software is fantastic and features are huge:
You get a great selection of cabs, mics, EQ per mic, master EQ, the great UA 1176 sim, delay, and plate reverb. 6 presets on the front dial. I actually hardly touch the software. It sounds alive, not flat like an IR. The cab sims are the reason the UA amp sims sound so great IMO.
The next big but is price. We all can't be "rich bitch!" lol. These have been around for a while and you can find them used at decent prices. I bought one new (on sale), and another used. The other option, and what I started with, is the Ox Stomp and a separate attenuator. I have one of these too, paired with a Suhr Reactive Load. The software app for the Ox Stomp isn't as pretty, IOS and Android, and connects via Bluetooth but it has all the same features as the Box.
Anyway... it's a great setup if primarily want to record, the barriers to record are way way smaller, you don't have to be a audio engineer for it to sound great, and it can as quiet as you like - I like fine French made studio monitors in my face paired with a big sub haha.
I have been watching the local used market places for a cool empty Marshall 4x12 to hide my sub in.
As much as I love having my reactive load and york audio IRs, a cabinet will always be better, even at lower volumes. I'm gonna pray to the riff gods to forgive your sins
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As much as I love having my reactive load and york audio IRs, a cabinet will always be better, even at lower volumes. I'm gonna pray to the riff gods to forgive your sins
The recorded cab sounds vs cab in the room is a big difference and takes a little getting used to, but it's much easier to get used to when it sounds like Eddie Kramer's trusted assistant setup the mics and the desk haha. My cats say I sound just like the rock gods (if the rock gods were wearing mittens).
That said, never say never. I have to build head cabs for amps I built and I have been toying with building matching cabs for at least the Model T, GT120, and Dumble ODS.
I use headphones when I have too. But I would never want to live in that world permanently. Maybe it's the old man in me but there is nothing remotely appealing to me about digital amps and FRFR cabs. Having a house that you can play loud in and doing that is like being Cameron's dad.
I use headphones when I have too. But I would never want to live in that world permanently. Maybe it's the old man in me but there is nothing remotely appealing to me about digital amps and FRFR cabs.
I traded off my last tube guitar amp about 7 years ago and have rarely even touched my electric guitar since then. Bought a Spark 2 earlier this year for my acoustic stuff, thinking it might do for the electric as well, at least enough to get me playing it a little again. Big nope so far, although the Fender clean sounds are actually pretty cool for jazzy tunes, which are a big part of what I do. Once I finally get my tube bass amp done I have some AC30-ish power amp parts tucked away and I’ll do my own high gain front end, as I’ve never been all that much of a drive or fuzz pedal fan at all, but do love some sustainy fusion sounds. I’ve been very spoiled by having places I can get very loud in for many years, but if our projected next move happens that may finally go away. Enjoy it while you can!
I traded off my last tube guitar amp about 7 years ago and have rarely even touched my electric guitar since then. Bought a Spark 2 earlier this year for my acoustic stuff, thinking it might do for the electric as well, at least enough to get me playing it a little again. Big nope so far, although the Fender clean sounds are actually pretty cool for jazzy tunes, which are a big part of what I do. Once I finally get my tube bass amp done I have some AC30-ish power amp parts tucked away and I’ll do my own high gain front end, as I’ve never been all that much of a drive or fuzz pedal fan at all, but do love some sustainy fusion sounds. I’ve been very spoiled by having places I can get very loud in for many years, but if our projected next move happens that may finally go away. Enjoy it while you can!
It’s a 4 x EL34 power amp with a transformer driven inverter section. Based on a friend’s early 00s commercial guitar amp, he set me up with a NOS power amp board and power trafo. I added a Heyboer Hiwatt DR103 clone output transformer for a change of pace from my usual Fender based builds.
Preamp is my own design, w/one 12SL7 and two 12AU7s in a Tubecad Aikido config. It’s a hybrid active Baxandall/Fender mashup for the tone controls, based on a couple of rack tube preamps I made a decade ago. I ran the new power amp with one of those rack jobs and then a fairly uptown DIY solid state preamp for quite a while with good results, and just need to buckle down and wire up all the long built turret board submodules into the also long done chassis. One of these days…
I only use a Quad Cortex for all my amp needs, but if I lived in a house I could play amps loud at, I would probably get a power amp and an FRFR cab or something along those lines.
You can also play with headphones using a tube amp, although it's much more unwieldy with having to run an attenuator and still producing all the heat and such, so personally I don't feel like it's a "loud amp vs. modeler" comparison. It's a "loud amp vs. headphones", and "modeler vs. tube amp" is separate from that.
It’s a 4 x EL34 power amp with a transformer driven inverter section. Based on a friend’s early 00s commercial guitar amp, he set me up with a NOS power amp board and power trafo. I added a Heyboer Hiwatt DR103 clone output transformer for a change of pace from my usual Fender based builds.
Preamp is my own design, w/one 12SL7 and two 12AU7s in a Tubecad Aikido config. It’s a hybrid active Baxandall/Fender mashup for the tone controls, based on a couple of rack tube preamps I made a decade ago. I ran the new power amp with one of those rack jobs and then a fairly uptown DIY solid state preamp for quite a while with good results, and just need to buckle down and wire up all the long built turret board submodules into the also long done chassis. One of these days…
The recorded cab sounds vs cab in the room is a big difference and takes a little getting used to, but it's much easier to get used to when it sounds like Eddie Kramer's trusted assistant setup the mics and the desk haha. My cats say I sound just like the rock gods (if the rock gods were wearing mittens).
That said, never say never. I have to build head cabs for amps I built and I have been toying with building matching cabs for at least the Model T, GT120, and Dumble ODS.
I had been recording direct and using plugins for amp sim and cab sim for years because "it's so easy to get a great sound." Then I invested in a set of Cascade Fathead II ribbons mics. SM57 up close with a Fathead a few inches back and slightly off-axis instantly sounded better than anything I had done previously, without even adding EQ or compression.
Nowadays I've starting using an Aston Stealth instead of the SM57, and I've added a small diaphragm condenser a couple feet back to get some more "air" from the room.
