The springs of a tremolo in a guitar can resonate...and you can hear it in the speakers...If you wrap the springs with a silk hanky you can dampen the springs a bit...Tremolos are far from perfect and there are lots of little annoyances to deal with depending on the tremolo...If you like leaving the tremolo cover on the guitar you can make a little spring pillow on the cover plate to dampen the springs...lots of approaches on that one...I have even had pickup rings and springs resonate where it could be heard...put your ear on the guitar and knock on the body with you knuckles and see if you hear something like reverb...A guitar properly setup for high gain should have little decay with a test like this...Tracing down where the noises are coming from is the fun part...

Noise...hmmm....Is this a strat? single coils...have you tried using the noise gate...You kinda need edit to tweak it...

The FBV shortboard is nothing more than a controller...everything is in the amp...Since the amp is midi controllable there is the option of programing a midi foot controller to control the Flextone...It makes the amp much more usable IMO...

There are parameters that can only be set in the Edit software...It's a must to get the amp totally dialed in IMO...You can set the FX pre/post switch without it...mic selection for the direct out is also only in the software...UNO has been the suggested interface for a long while...I have one...works fine...

Basically the amp has enough FX, but it does not have anything for gain stomps other than a compressor...Pushing the amp models with a conventional tube screamer responds a lot like the real thing...the models are fairly close...The Plexi models don't have a lot of gain...The real plexi doesn't either...

doug,

Where to start..??

Those samples I posted were recorded "live" on a 4-track; instruments, vox, bass and drums, and mixed down. They're nothing special [IMHO]. I posted them to give you an idea of how the Flex can sound in a full band mix. That situtation is different from yours.  I've IM'd you some limks to newer [un-finished] stuff.

doug95 wrote:

I'm afraid, it seems, my knowledge of setting up a good tone be it heavy metal or cool clean is a little short on the knowhow, your level of ability at this depth is too much for me and it scares me to think I would need to have your level of expertise to deliver an enjoyable spectrum of sounds that a listening audience possibly some with good ears for a tune. I would like to be able to entertain with some confidence knowing that the instrument sounds were ok.

Sounds like you think I'm some kind of pro. I've only been playing guitar for about 12 yrs and lead guitar for the last 5 yrs. Those tracks I posted were recorded 3.5 yrs ago. Yeah, I practice a lot [continuous improvement], would like to get better, but have no illusions about my limitations. But, there's nothing quite like jumping in and getting your feet wet.  And I'm 50+  If I can do it, so can you. My advice is to pull down some patches from customtone.com and see what they sound like. If its something you like, tweak the patch until you get the sound you want. Save it to your amp. That's how I started out.

You have a modeling amp... every patch you download will sound a little different from the original version, as your guitar is different. Guitar, pickups, playing style all effect the tone on teh amp. Try playing one of the factory presets with a couple of different guitars. They will all sound a little different - you get the picture.

Yes, you will have to work. The Flex will handle most of what you throw at it, but factory patches are merely a starting point.

doug95 wrote:

Don't quite grasp what you mean when you say "I have never tweaked my patches with the amp itself... because it's far to cumbersome and limiting". I may be missing the whole idea of tweaking and patch editing but I thought the amp held the digital tone patch and an edited patch would be downloaded direct to the amp from the pc or laptop, is there a better way? Can you clarify?

What I meant is that you really need to edit your patches using your computer - not sit in front of the amp and do so. You have access to more parameters using the PC editors.

doug95 wrote:

The use of fbv's is apparently a personal thing as other members of the forum are telling me I don't need one as the amp is set up to do the job. I'm not saying each opinion is right or wrong just to the uninitiated, confusing.

Those folks are slightly mis-informed.  Do you only want access to 4 patches ?  No??

Then you need the FBV.  The Flex stores 36 patches in 9 banks of 4. The buttons on the amp only let you access the 4 patches in the most recently selected bank - Line6 probably did that to sell FBV's .  You cannot change banks from the amp itself, so your are limited to those 4 patches without an FBV.  Sure, you can edit, save, access and play all 36 from your PC, but you can't get to them unless your computer is connected to your amp at all times - not really practical if you gig, but OK for home use I guess. If you plan to gig.. an FBV [or an equivalent device] is a MUST.