"Tone Made Easy" seminars- Just an amplifi propaganda session?

[stumblinman]

Got the email from L6 about this event at my local Guitar Center, and it sounded promising.

 

At first.

 

After reading about it more, it appears to strictly cover using amplifi to find tones in the cloud of custom tones instead of actually TEACHING anything. "Mimic any tone in 3 seconds". Really?

 

I'm still going, because I want a shot at a free sonic port, but I'm skeptical of the actual value of the material to be presented. Anyone else signed up for the Portland Oregon session? Would be nice to put some faces to internet names.

[stumblinman]

I'm going.  Trying to convince my singer/guitarist to come too.  He needs some help and he admitted it lol.  I'm honestly quite happy with the tones I get, but since it's only a 40 minute drive and I get a shot at winning something and messing with gear it's well worth it.

 

There's a ton of them scheduled, so hopefully someone else from the boards goes to one and can give a heads-up long before I go.  If nobody else does, I sure will though.

[skinnerm]

Not at all. I went to the one a couple of days ago at Ken Stanton Music, a cool independent music store outside Atlanta. Maybe the clinic was a bit oversold as "get any tone you want in three seconds," but I did learn a lot of stuff I didn't know.

 

He went over the four basic food groups of amps and what makes them sound the way they do. We learned about effects, with an emphasis on why the order they're in makes such a big difference. And he showed us how to use the new firmware upgrade to get the amp to do some things I didn't know it could do.

 

Plus, they gave away a Sonic Port (the new one) as well as some other door prizes. And if you were thinking about buying a new Amplif, you can get a free coupon for $50 off.

 

All in all, a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. And you can't beat the price. I'd encourage all Amplifans to take advantage of this free resource.

[stumblinman]

Not at all. I went to the one a couple of days ago at Ken Stanton Music, a cool independent music store outside Atlanta. Maybe the clinic was a bit oversold as "get any tone you want in three seconds," but I did learn a lot of stuff I didn't know.

 

He went over the four basic food groups of amps and what makes them sound the way they do. We learned about effects, with an emphasis on why the order they're in makes such a big difference. And he showed us how to use the new firmware upgrade to get the amp to do some things I didn't know it could do.

 

Plus, they gave away a Sonic Port (the new one) as well as some other door prizes. And if you were thinking about buying a new Amplif, you can get a free coupon for $50 off.

 

All in all, a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. And you can't beat the price. I'd encourage all Amplifans to take advantage of this free resource.

Thanks for the update! So it is mostly aimed at amplifi users eh? I kinda had that feeling. I was hoping it was also some Pod HD stuff. I'll still go just to try for free stuff I guess. I appreciate the update!

[stumblinman]

Mine is tomorrow. I'll post my take on it soon after.

[stumblinman]

Well, not that anyone checks this thread, but I thought I'd post my opinion on the Tone Made Easy seminar.

 

It was OK.

 

Some basic information if you really haven't messed with amps and effects much, but nothing really earth-shattering.  A few basic starting points for various amp manufacturers, then some effects explanations, then the amplifi demo portion.  I must admit, the amplifi did sound better than I expected though.  But still not for me.

 

Pluses:

My singer/guitarist won the Sonic Port!

Got to meet Joe Butterfield

 

Minuses:

Not in depth enough.  I can't knock too hard for this, as it's just an hour and a half and there's a lot of stuff to cover, but I left feeling "hungry" for more.

Almost seemed as if they were purposely talking "around" the Pod HD series.  Talking up amplifi FX100 and the two amps, as well as talking about the multiple footpedals available to control the amplifi series, and talking about Pod Farm and Pod Mobile.

Hell, they even talked about the Pod 2.0 but didn't mention HD once.  Just seemed deliberate.

 

 

All in all, it was pretty much an amplifi sales pitch with some guitar amp history thrown in.  I did enjoy it though just to see what amplifi was actually capable of in person.

[stumblinman]

Thanks for your report. Not surprised with their agenda for these events, Amplifi is their new baby and it hasn't been out a year yet. I wouldn't expect much talk about the HD line, I think that their future plans involve a strong mobile platform connection.

 

Did you ask any questions? If so, what? and What was their reply? Was there a comparison of the Amplifi 75 and 150 with respect to audio performance? Curious how they compared side by side, big difference in speaker and cabinet size.

 

Pod Farm? Talk about something that's long overdue for a major renovation.

There wasn't much time for questions. He went over stuff quick but said you could stick around after to ask questions and try it out. I left right away because I had to get to Voodoo Doughnut and back home at a decent time.

 

He used a 75. Not much low end to speak of. Sounded very "boxy". He didn't use a 150. He just did a cursory spec comparison. It didn't sound bad, just small. Audio playback sounded very good though.

[stumblinman]

Bacon Maple or Diablos Rex?

Hehe just bought a voodoo dozen to bring to work. I'm an instrument tech at a paper mill and we had a shutdown yesterday so I thought I'd bring the guys on my crew a treat.