Scott Henderson Discussion

[Scott Henderson]

Both BB King and Albert King played transistor amps and got great tones out of them! I'm sure there are guys who's personal tone comes from amp modelers, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, people like me who are used to the sound of vintage tube amps and get their personal tone with them aren't going to be happy with amp modelers, at least not yet.

[countandduke]

Really Pete!?

I think Big Al has played many a "real" amp, my favorite tone of his is the REH instructional tone around the Wardenclyffe Tower era... But he's had that really smooth legato sound for a while and manages to get it out of solid state shit now so who knows...

I'm not even sure I could tell the difference between a Fractal and a plexi but to be honest I've never played them side by side... I grew up in the 80's-90's so my first amp was a Rocktown POS! Then I got a Peavey Renown 2x12 with some pedals, then when I moved to Illinois I had the good luck of getting a Marahall JMP-1 preamp, Rocktron Intellifex and Rocktron Velocity 150 power amp into a 5150 straight cab. That would be "My" tone for quite a number of years... Since then.... I've played TONS of amps and the 3 that REALLY stick out in my mind as having a FANTASTIC tone were:

A 60's blonde bassman into the 2x15 cabinet it came with. Or was it a 2x12 cab, whatever it came with. GLORIOUS clean tone, I didn't play it too much and never tried to PUSH the amp but even playing my crappy Digitech RP-10 through it, it sounded unbelievable!

Custom Audio SH/SE. The best blackface cleans I've ever heard and great "pushed" tones on channel 1. Channel 2 is just the best modded Marshall tone I've ever heard. Very open sounding with TONS of gain on tap. Probably THE BEST 2 channel amp I've played.

Bogner XTC, great cleans, great overdrive, slightly more compressed sounding than the Custom Audio but very very nice amp. It has SOOOOOOOO many switches and tonal options too. My favorite Steve Vai live tone was when I saw G3 at the Aragon (spelling?) Ballroom mid 90's and he was playing an XTC...

A runner up was a Fuchs modded amp that I got from Andy which I think was his bench "test" amp...

Best,
Chris

[paskiainen]

I think real amp is a amp which is itself. Solid state, tube or digital, it doesn't matter.
Fake amp at least to me is one which is trying to emulate the real thing. By definition it's an amp which is not 100% real but trying to get there.

I think Yamaha has done well in creating new digital amps and not modeling them on any spesific amps (or at least not telling us).

Of course digital domain is always more fake than analog. But in the end it really doesnt matter what goes between your guitar and amp and what does the manipulation from input to output. Only that counts what is the quality of the transfer, not how it is done.

[pbognar]

[quote="countandduke"]Really Pete!?

/quote]

Chris, I like to stir things up.

Scott nailed it on the head - it all depends on how you get your personal sound.

I started at a young age with a couple of tube amps and at 19 I got a Boogie Mark IIB with a strat. Great clean sound, but I couldn't have clean and the kind of dirt I wanted without a dirt pedal. A dirt pedal into a Boogie? I couldn't reconcile this. If it would have had two sets of tone stacks, things would have been different, I hate compromise.

Fast forward, and after futzing with stomp boxes, I ended up with a series of Boss mfx units: ME-5, GT-5, and GT-100.

I may get an HRDx in the future, for a real Fender clean, but I'm also considering a Red Stripe Bandit.

It's funny, no matter what gear I get, I manage to get pretty much the same tones.

[paskiainen]

I really like the Yamaha THR amp for that it is a real amp, just digital. You woulnd't know it's digital if you didn't look inside (apart from the weight etc. of course).

One ridiculous criticism against it was that what's the point of having digital amp if you don't get lots of effects onboard? Well, what's the point of having a marshall if you don't get flanger and some cheap chorus and some annoying wheel knobs with it?

[Scott Henderson]

I'm not meaning to sound like a snob here, because everyone is entitled to like whatever they like. But, your statement "You wouldn't know it's digital if you didn't look inside".... sorry, but if you heard it on an amp switcher next to a Plexi Marshall, you'd know it's digital, and you wouldn't need to look inside.

That doesn't mean it doesn't sound good - the only bad thing I've said about digital/modeling amps is "I can't get my personal tone with them." That certainly doesn't mean that other people can't.

[paskiainen]

Well, I'm sure that since I have only triaxis/2:90 and bugera v22 tube amps I don't know how a really great tube amp sounds. And that's for sure that your amps can't be matched by the new yamaha, not even close. It's very good though. Many wouldn't know it hasn't tubes in it.

But Scott (one of the greatest guitarists ever, can't really believe I'm communicating with you) you sure agree that it's very welcome development to have at last a digital amp which is not trying to model any spesific real amps and has a user interface which is just like in real amps? No menus, no onboard effect hassles, just the basic amp functions and knobs just like on real amps.

Please call yamaha to send you one for practise and judgement that it sucks, big time
(and have the dual amp version, which is really convenient way to get wet/dry settings etc.)

[Scott Henderson]

I remember when Allan was using digital amps (Yamaha, Hartley Thomson, etc.) and getting great tones from them. I'm not sure if those were digital amps or transistor amps, and to be honest I don't even know the difference... anyway, I'm not the guy to ask Yamaha for an amp. I use the Korg Pandora and I like the way it sounds for practicing and writing - and it fits in the palm of my hand. I don't want to establish any kind of relationship with other amp companies because I'm a Suhr endorser and I love the amps they make for me.

[paskiainen]

I totally understand. But if you ever cross paths with one please do give it a quick try. it's light years above the yamaha DG amp stuff. I'm quite certain that you would like it lot more than any other digital style amp, kemper or fractal. As a tube saver it's really something. Loud marshall type sounds from guitar speakers with no tubes at all.