Does the Amplifi take pedals well?

[Moderato]

I'm wondering how well the amp models work with pedals.  As great as all the modeled effects are, there are some pedals I'd like to purchase and use with the Amplifi but I'm wondering if it makes sense to do so.  Will the modeled amps respond the same way to pedals as the real amps do or will it not be that effective?  Thanks.

[phil_m]

I've plugged my pedalboard into the 150, and it worked well. I think the one thing is that with a solid state power amp, you don't get the same sort of reaction you do with a tube power amp when it comes to overdrives and distortions and "pushing" the amp hard. You can still use those pedals, but it's possible to push the amp into unnatural sounding clipping if you really hit it hard.

[Moderato]

I've plugged my pedalboard into the 150, and it worked well. I think the one thing is that with a solid state power amp, you don't get the same sort of reaction you do with a tube power amp when it comes to overdrives and distortions and "pushing" the amp hard. You can still use those pedals, but it's possible to push the amp into unnatural sounding clipping if you really hit it hard.

 

OK so I guess the amp modeling doesn't account for this?  They're just meant strictly to respond to a guitar signal input and that's it?  I'm somewhat new to this stuff, I've never owned a tube amp before.  I just recently bought an electric after playing exclusively steel string acoustic and classical for the past 15+ years.  Before that I had a couple electrics but just had some cheap solid state amps and a couple B$ effects pedals nothing too sophisticated and I didn't have a clue what I was doing now that I think about it.  I didn't even realize that overdrives and distortions added sound in two ways, both from the characteristics of the pedal and in the way the tube amp responds uniquely to the signal from the pedal.  I guess maybe certain pedals are designed to create the sound independently on their own and others are meant to "push" the tubes?  I'm guessing other pedals that aren't overdrives and distortions should work somewhat the same with the Amplifi models as they would with the real amps though?  

[Jaguar9080]

You're best to stick to DSP effect pedals (digital effects).  They work better with the Amplifi than analog pedals.  I have a DigiTech iStomp and a Zoom G5 (both DSP effect pedals) and they work very well with my Amplifi 75.

 

However, my older analog pedals break up really poorly with the 75.  There's a lot of clipping and distortion (the bad kind), even at lower volumes.  I found it really hard to reign in good tones with distortion and overdrive pedals.  I even have some of the real-world pedals that some of the Amplifi effects and Zoom G5 effects are modelled after and they don't sound as good through the Amplifi as the modelled effects do.

[phil_m]

OK so I guess the amp modeling doesn't account for this?  They're just meant strictly to respond to a guitar signal input and that's it?  I'm somewhat new to this stuff, I've never owned a tube amp before.  I just recently bought an electric after playing exclusively steel string acoustic and classical for the past 15+ years.  Before that I had a couple electrics but just had some cheap solid state amps and a couple B$ effects pedals nothing too sophisticated and I didn't have a clue what I was doing now that I think about it.  I didn't even realize that overdrives and distortions added sound in two ways, both from the characteristics of the pedal and in the way the tube amp responds uniquely to the signal from the pedal.  I guess maybe certain pedals are designed to create the sound independently on their own and others are meant to "push" the tubes?  I'm guessing other pedals that aren't overdrives and distortions should work somewhat the same with the Amplifi models as they would with the real amps though?  

 

I'd say the modeling does react well in general to overdrives and distortions. It's just that it's possible to clip in different places along the signal path in this sort of amp compared to a tube amp. It really shouldn't be an issue in most cases, but if you want to really boost the level with the pedal, it could be a problem.

[Moderato]

OK great, thanks for all the advice everyone.