gearmana

Hey, all!

I got my HX Stomp and PC+ 212 in recently.

I'm curious, why do the built in speaker models sound so freaking good?  What sets them apart from the Stomp speakers or IRs?  It just sounds WAY more amp like to my ears.

I find myself just building all my presets around the PC+ models. :)

Bonus pic of my new setup!

Correction - decided to go with the Tech 21 Deuce Deluxe, instead.  A big part of that was simply my loyalty to Sweetwater.

That, and I just overall prefer Tech 21 as a company.

Will post my thoughts early next week when it arrives. :)

5 hours ago, loydall said:

 

I actually went the other way round - initially really liked FRFR with its polished sound and all the options I had with IR and Cab blocks... but after a while I missed the "real" amp sound (plenty of discussion on this topic and it's all personal preference). 

 

Also - you say "Things felt so limited with the Power Amp -> Cab setup." - in the end it was this simplicity that I really liked. I still have the effects/amp/preamp blocks to play around with in helix but much of the time I keep things simple and I think things sound better for it.

 

I wouldn't go selling that PowerStage 170 too quickly - that thing is killer and you may miss it after the honeymoon period with FRFR is over... 

 

Then again you may go FRFR and never look back - it's all personal preference and really.

I'm going to hold onto it a bit longer, for sure.  I actually have been holding off on the FRFR because I wanted the little Laney LFR-112 but it wasn't in stock anywhere... until this morning!

Checked Zzounds and they had 2.  I went ahead and ordered it and it should be here tomorrow.

Looking forward to doing some back and forth with the two. :)

Oh man, I DEFINITELY prefer FRFR after messing with it today.  I think I just absolutely love getting new IR's and trying them out.

Things felt so limited with the Power Amp -> Cab setup.

Officially selling my Power Stage 170 to fund some stereo FRFR goodness. 

27 minutes ago, rd2rk said:

 

Yes. No. Maybe.

What do YOU want from life?

You know, there ARE Guitar Centers near Philly. They WILL order in whatever you want to try. They have a GREAT return policy.

Order a 108. Try it. Maybe you'll want two. Maybe you'll want to upgrade to a 112. Or a Yamaha or QSC.

They WILL NOT give you a hard time if you return the 108, and they ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT give you a hard time if you trade it in for an upgrade. 

You can't lose anything but gas money.

*squints

There is... wisdom in this man's eyes.  

10 minutes ago, loydall said:

I run my HX Stomp into a power amp (Orange Pedal Baby) and then into a 2x12 cab so very similar setup.

 

I've never liked the sound of any patch with a cab block in it through this set up. But - I pretty much always build my patches up from scratch so every block I add serves a purpose for the poweramp-cab set up... as in - all my patches are tailored for that set up rather than hoping a pre-made/demo patch will sound good.

 

For a while I've been using an amp block in my chain (not amp + cab, just amp) and adding other blocks/effects around that. Originally I compared using a pramp block vs an amp block and always thought the amp block sounded "better" than just a preamp block - they gave a fuller sound....

 

But - I started playing around with the preamp blocks and, with a bit of work, I'm finding I get better (to my ears) results in the end. The preamp-only route feels like a cleaner base to work on - i get a more manageable tone from it.. there was something about the amp blocks that I found harder to tame - it was very subtle but if I wasn't careful the amp blocks could get a little wild.

 

I'll have another go with Cab blocks tonight but I've never heard one that sounded great going through a poweramp and then onto another cab.

 

Give preamp blocks a go and slowly and carefully build your tone up around one.

Right on, man!

I messed around a bit more last night, and I think maybe my ears were just adjusting to the Stomp, because after a while, I found myself much preferring the cab sims off.

That said, I haven't messed with the pre-amps yet.  I'll give that a go today!

I'm tempted to grab a Powercab Plus just to see how it compares to the power amp + cab method.  

Something tells me this is going to very quickly lead to me getting a Helix Floor. :|

9 minutes ago, rd2rk said:

If it sounds good TO YOU, then it IS good!

No rules!

 

For sure.  I was just curious as to why that may be.

That said, I am off to create presets officially now. :)

Greetings!

So, I decided to dabble in the digital world a touch.  I went ahead and avoided FRFR for now, since I already have a 2x12 Lonestar cab with C90s in it.  

I followed Line 6's video for going to Power amp and then Cab.  Basically, hooked it up and changed the output to line level.

I decided just to go through some of the presets (the DIR ones) like the Litigator, Archetype, etc...

One thing I've read is that you should either disable the cab block or change from A+C to just amp.  I've noticed that, at least for the presets, getting rid of the cab block simply makes it sound like a can of bees. It actually sounds BETTER in every single preset with the cab enabled.

I'm sure there are 1000 factors here, but this just seems odd since I figured it would be the opposite. 

I still have hours and hours of playing with this thing to do, so no biggie, but I figured it was worth at least bringing up.

Time to build some presets from scratch, methinks.  :)