ric1966

I think JamieCrain may have the answer. I will test and hopefully verify. I do understand the distinction between SAVE and SAVE AS; both results are happening when I execute a SAVE TO MY TONES command. Thanks to all for your help!

Can't speak so much to the Jazz tonal capability, but I am extremely pleased with Firehawk's ability to reproduce cranked up valve tones. By that I mean replicating the power stage distortion you get from a low to medium gain front end (pre-amp) into a tube power section with the master volume turned up. Think Hendrix, Page, Angus Young, Thorogood, SRV, early EVH, etc. This is a very difficult task for a modeling amp, and the HD models in Firehawk live up to the challenge via the deep editing parameters such as master, sag, bias and bias excursion. When I play clean, I use a custom Fender Twin based patch (Blackface) that is very touch sensitive and has that tube warmth that so many of us go for. The coolest thing for me is that I can get tube amp sounds at any volume. No need to crank up! The firmware update took care of stray sounds and latency when switching. There is still a slight delay, but not enough to bother me in a live setting. Not sure about set lists, but there are 32 banks of four patches, so you could use a bank for each song in a 32 song set list if you wanted to. I find that three banks is usually enough for a gig, since I use the same basic patches for many songs. I do use the smart harmonizer and more or less reverb/delay for some passages, and I build that into my banks. I connect mine to a powered monitor wedge via XLR mono out and send the mixing board an XLR signal from the monitor's link output (pass thru). Works great and gives me direct control over guitar level at my ears without affecting the main mix.

Got a Firehawk FX as a Father's Day gift. Have not gigged with it yet, but in rehearsals it sounds much better than my Amplifi FX100 that I have gigged with multiple times. When gigging, I ran the Amplifi's 1/4" mono out to my Behringer 12" powered monitor wedge and the XLR link output (pass thru) from the monitor to the PA mixing board, as if it was a mic signal. Great results, many compliments from the audience on tone quality. The HD amp models in Firehawk are noticeably more faithful to the original tube amps, and I'm looking forward to using the XLR mono out to my monitor and the XLR link to FOH. Will post an update when I try it! I'm also planning to get a better monitor (JBL EON) so that a tone dialed in on the monitor will be closer to the FOH tone, considering my band uses JBL mains.

For a clean lead patch, I would start with your existing rhythm patch, copy to a new slot and add a red comp or blue comp stomp block, found under type DRIVES AND DYNAMICS. Fiddling with the sustain and levels controls should get you there. For an overdriven lead sound, I would copy my overdriven rhythm to a new patch and just adjust the volume slider up. You would then go back through all patches and adjust their volumes to get the right difference between rhythms and leads, as well as leads to each other.

Does anyone know why the Firehawk app will sometimes overwrite and sometimes save a duplicate name in "My Tones" when you execute a "Save to My Tones" command? The green banner message at the bottom of screen will say "tone updated" when it overwrites and "toned saved" when it duplicates. I have not noticed a repeatable pattern to explain why it chooses one over the other. When it duplicates, I have to go into the list editor in My Tones and delete the older version, which is usually highest in the list. If I don't delete, I will end up with multiple tones with the same name, but different parameters. BTW, my Amplifi app does the same thing...

McB, I did some reading and experimentation. You are right, lowering the master level does reduce the overall amount of distortion. Interestingly, it does not affect my perception of volume much. When master is cranked up, it gives you a nice "tube bloom" with rich harmonics, just like a cranked up tube amp. It also makes changes in the sag, bias and bias excursion more noticeable. I needed to back off on the drive when master was set high, or there was actually too much distortion for my taste on my Brit J-800 patch. I found that drive at 72, master at 80, sag at 60, hum at 50, bias at 60 and bias excursion at 40 was a great approximation of the JCM-800 I used to own, to the best of my recollection! Best way to explain it is that higher drive and lower master give you more pre-amp distortion (like an overdrive pedal in front a low gain amp) and lower drive and higher master give you more power amp distortion. The latter is what most discerning players would consider a classic tube amp sound. I'm really impressed that the Firehawk can supply this sound at any volume!

Mcb, you mentioned that "Master alters the tone and the way the amp behaves" in an earlier post. I noticed the default settings for the HD amp blocks tend to have master cranked up for the cleans and set around halfway for the overdrives. Is this essentially an attempt to control the amount of output tube distortion in the models? It seems the higher settings deliver more headroom and less output section distortion.

Can't speak to Firehawk (yet!), but on Amplifi FX100 the volume slider in each patch will do the trick. My most used bank of patches has a spread of volume settings; 70, 50, 57 and 100. I set my lead patches to 100 and run a consistent main volume on the effects unit at about 3:00. It seems to work better with the main volume as hot as it can be without clipping the input of my powered speaker on the lead patch. If I need more volume at my ears, I'll turn up the volume knob on the speaker, not the one on the FX100. As far as equalizing volume across patches, that was done with a lot of trial and error. The more "mid-rangy" tones will cut through a band mix better, so they tend to take less overall volume. I noticed in the app that Firehawk has both a volume and a master slider per patch. Not sure which one will do what I am doing on FX100...

I had that same problem this past weekend using my Amplifi FX100. I was going from 1/4 mono output to a powered monitor and gave the sound man a link out signal via XLR. After discussing it with him, the sound man just turned down the input trim on his channel strip. I didn't have to change a thing on my setup. Got lots of comments about how good the guitar sounded out front. Sound man should be able to do the same thing on a signal straight from Firehawk.

Anyone tried the Firehawk with JBL EON 610 or 612 as a powered monitor?

Got it. Thanks FiveBass!

Can the Firehawk output mono 1/4" to a powered monitor and mono XLR to FOH at the same time? This would enable use of a monitor without a pass-through XLR output.

Great video! The tones he creates after tweaking are enough to make me want either a Firehawk FX or a Firehawk 1500. I did find it interesting that there is not much difference (to me) between the final Marshall and the Mesa tones after he adds a tube screamer to the Marshall, backs the gain down on the Mesa, and adds/subtracts the appropriate frequencies with EQ. I think he has this awesome tone in his head and gravitates on the right settings to achieve it. This is a testimony to his ear and the flexibility of the unit. I've always found it to be true that much of a player's "tone" is created between the fingers and strings and it shines through different amp settings to some degree.

Mine sounds great as FRFR through a powered 12" stage monitor, and the link output from the monitor also sounds great straight into the mains. Very simple to carry and set up. It also sounds great as a back line in stereo through my Mesa 2:50 rack mounted tube amp into two 12" Mesa ported cabs. When running into the traditional guitar rig, I use the main outs and bypass the cabinet models in the FX100; I'm just using the amp models and effects. The Mesa rig has to be cranked to get a modern hi-gain tone, but the FRFR rig using the right cab model can replicate a Dual Rec tone at just about any volume. A die hard tube purist might miss the thick saturation of a cranked 6L6GC power section, but the FRFR rig does a pretty darn good job synthesizing the harmonics. I've realized that a lot of that saturation gets lost in the band mix anyway, and I've had lots of recent compliments about how well my new lead tone cuts through. The FRFR is close enough that my playing style comes across equally with both rigs and I don't feel like I am missing anything when I practice or play live. Very convenient and great for controlling stage volume. Sound guys love it!

Welcome to the family! Let us know what you think after gigging with it.

Glad to help! Yes, that's what I've noticed when switching while connected, a slight delay between the physical pressing of the switch and the audible change in tone produced by the new patch. It's not real bad, but my RP500 never had any lag. I haven't missed using the iPad live, with the exception that its visual interface for tuning is far better than the FX100's lights around the dial. I tend to save all tone edits to my tone library when connected (not gigging) and then pre-load them into banks on the unit before a gig. This requires you to recall tones by number, but I have a scheme that is consistent for each bank I use... lower gain tones on the left, with gain and/or effects increasing as I go to the right across the row of switches. My lead patches tend to be on the rightmost switch in each bank. I typically don't do any editing on the fly during a gig.

I've gigged with mine twice. Here is the scoop... The Good: 1) The awesome TONES!!! Many compliments on how naturally the rhythm tones sit in the mix, from both fellow musicians and the audience. I have also been told about how well my "new" lead tone cuts through without being harsh. 2) The ease of setup. Last night I ran a more complex rig than the first gig - stereo, one main-out channel into a back line that was a Carvin FET450 power amp into a Yorkville 12" full range floor monitor stood up. The other channel went into a small Behringer powered floor wedge facing back at me. My original plan was to send the link output of the powered monitor to the mains, but it was such a small gig we didn't even send instruments through the mains. The other gig was just the powered floor wedge back at me, with the link output to the mains. Both sounded great! A major benefit of FRFR is ultimate control over your stage volume. And the Twin Reverb, JCM800 and Spinal Puppet models sound incredible at any volume! The Bad: 1) Maybe I have big feet, or maybe the stage was too dark... several times I fat-footed the switches and changed banks by accident while just trying to change a patch within a bank. Not good! Lots of pedal dancing to get it back in the middle of a song. Luckily the other patch it went to wasn't too far off from what I wanted. I decided I don't like the "two switch at once" method for changing banks. My RP500 had separate switches above the main row for changing banks, much better. 2) Also in comparison to my RP500; that unit lets you toggle back to the previous patch by pressing the same switch you just hit to get to the current patch. Doesn't work like that on the FX100. For example, when we played the Van Halen version of "You Really Got Me" with lots of fills, it was nice to toggle back and forth on the RP500 between lead and rhythm patches using just one switch. I could position my toe over it and I wouldn't have to look down every time like I did on the FX100 to make sure I was going left and right the correct amount to get the two patches on adjacent switches. Easy to get lost that way... 3) The tuner is very accurate, but unless you have your IPad synced and mounted on a stand in front of you, the lights on the top of the volume knob on the FX100 get shadowed by the knob unless you are right over the unit. This forces you to lean forward when tuning. I usually don't keep my IPad synced during a gig, because it seems to introduce latency in the switching speed. The bad features are not enough of a hindrance to keep me from absolutely loving this unit! It's not perfect, but I didn't think I would ever hear any solid state setup that sounds like this. I was a die hard tube amp fan until now. To me the incredible tones, control provided by FRFR and the rig simplicity are well worth the entrance fee!

Zzzang, thanks for the tip on AnyTune Pro+ Awesome tool for learning! Well worth the $$$

IPS for me too, please! With the lowest possible latency.

Yes, yes, yes to the intelligent pitch shifter. This is the only thing I miss from my RP500.

Me too. It's a minor PITA when practicing, but one could not rely on the setup for actual gigging. I wouldn't trust anything short of a hard wired connection for that.

This is from a die hard Mesa fan... I'm not sure I'll ever go back to tube amps again! I finally had a chance to hook up an old Yorkville 12" floor monitor and one side of a Carvin FET-450, straight out from the mono main on the FX-100. Didn't expect much, but I was blown away once I tweaked a few tones. Came up with a great twin reverb clean with a touch of chorus, an 80's sounding JCM-800, a modern Mesa rhythm and insane hi-gain modern lead. Man, I can't wait to hear this through the EV or QSC powered monitor I plan to pick up soon.

So, what if you are not streaming? I would think it useful to send a mono signal without cab and mic effects to your amp at the same time you send a signal including cab and mic effects out to the mains.

I was hoping this would be the answer! Loving mine so far... The tones are amazing through a full range setup.