Amplifi - Brand New User

[jackmarshallUS]

Hi all.

 

I just bought my Amplifi FX100 last night. I have been using a combo of HD500, GR-55 and 6 Boss stomp boxes til now. All are satisfactory, but nothing really moves me. The wee Amplifi seems to have a lot of potential for fun, creativity and live performance uses.

 

I'm looking for any advice or suggestions from folks who have been using the Amplifi for a while and wish they had known at the start what they know now.

 

Cheers for any and all comments!

 

Jack

[cbrillow]

Congratulations on your purchase! I have both an FX100 and an Amplifi 30, and they are both a lot of fun. I use the 30 as a practice amp, streaming mp3s of our band's rehearsal recordings from my phone along with my guitar signal. It's the next best thing to playing with them!

 

You didn't mention whether you intend to use your new toy with an Apple/iOS or Android device. There are subtle differences between the Amplifi Remote app on the two platforms, but both work well. (for me, anyway...) Make sure you've updated the firmware to the latest version, especially if you're using Android. Instructions for doing that are found here on the Line 6 support pages.

 

I would recommend learning how to edit and save patches to 'My Tones', and also to save them to specific locations on one of the banks. This can be confusing, as it's possible to have two different tones with the same name and different settings if you're not careful, and it's also possible to spend a lot of time tweaking a tone and then losing it, because you haven't saved it properly. This can be a little confusing, so I'd spend some extra time figuring this out before trying out a lot of wholesale changes to the factory presets.

 

I would caution you to avoid, at least at first, hastily saving a tone to 'Favorites'. I've read here on the forum that it's difficult, maybe not possible, to delete tones from this list. Until I learn differently, I'm staying away from assigning favorites.

 

You'll soon find that the output levels of patches are all over the place. Some are rather quiet, others, balls-to-the-walls. There are reasons for this, but it makes it difficult to store patches in ready-to-stomp-on switch positions for live performances. In general, you'll have to adjust the output level in the Amp section while editing to sort-of even these out.

 

One thing I've done that helps, after trying to equalize the output levels, is to reduce the range of the volume pedal. It defaults to 0 - 100% of the signal.That means it's pretty sensitive, and covers the entire range from no sound to full blast. I rarely need that! So I have most of my patches set so the minimum output level is about 60% and the maximum is 100%. That way, I can set up my amp to give me playable levels with the volume pedal at minimum, and then give my guitar a boost, if needed, by stepping down on the pedal.

 

Have fun!