Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah the humboldt is high up the list... seems to have all the right features I'm interested in. Stereo is neat but mostly niche for me, but you never know I might use it occasionally. IDK sometimes I think I don't need one at all or just a cheap preamp / DI box for the routing stuff (having guitar go to amp and also direct in at the same time is important - as is capability to run line level etc, pre-post EQ is neat blah blah blah). But today I did some stuff with a compressor pedal into my interface and amp/cab sim plugins and it sounds pretty damn great with a bit of tweaking!

One thing I've noticed with the cab sims in this is that they seem to be where most of the character and color comes from, not from the selected amp type, which seems to make less difference to the final sound than the cab. Just about turns the amp into an extra/auxiliary gain stage that isn't always necessary; especially if there are other dirt pedals already on, sometimes just a cab at the end is enough.

Yeah I hugely agree with this. I almost exclusively run pedals straight into my interface and just use a cab sim (two notes wall of sound) for 90% of demos and a lot of real recordings. I try amp modellers too but they don't generally add as much, it's clearly the filtering/impulse of the cab that makes a much bigger difference. Which isn't surprising I guess. But interesting.

Thanks for the suggestions! Will take it all into account.. got a lot of thinking to do over whether I'm really doing something helpful or just buying stuff to solve a problem I don't have? I just want a consistent solution that is pretty easy, portable and works nice with all my pedals - currently the interface preamp REALLY doesn't like some of them. As it is now, I can get good tones, but it can sometimes take more fiddling than I would like?

Ultimately can't buy anything till January because of Satan so plenty of thinking time

[D.o.S.]

I don't see "Sell all your pedals and buy a JCM" as an option in this post?


I am also in preamp lust mode: mostly because I never actually bought a Rusty Box and that lust has never really gone away. I've never really been that happy with the grindy tones that I can get at home compared to the records that I listen to and dig... but that's mostly because I like having loads of sustain and using my left hand as little as possible, and obviously a lot of classic grind is the attack. It's a conundrum.

This is "the tone quest", which is probably never going to be 'perfectly solved', but that's where the lust is now.

[backwardsvoyager]

I just want a consistent solution that is pretty easy, portable and works nice with all my pedals - currently the interface preamp REALLY doesn't like some of them.

Sounds like you'd get good mileage out of a dedicated analog preamp for the end of the chain to smooth everything out?
Also depending on what kind of interface you're using, upgrading that could make an even bigger difference. Going from a Scarlett to an Audient iD14 was a huge improvement in direct guitar toan for me. RME and UAD preamps are top notch for DI guitar, too.

The thing with a lot of hardware cab sims is they're seldom doing anything that can't be done better with plugins. I love the Two Notes CAB M for being able to get really consistent sounds across different situations, but for recording it makes more sense to go preamp > interface > Wall of Sound since you can tweak after recording and blend as many IRs as you want across the stereo field that way.

[JTurbide]

This is in part why I dove in the rackmount world. I mean, yes a standard amp is great and all but I really like the idea of having a solid power amp or two and having the ability to try different preamps into them. Gives alot of options and while it is more expensive than having just one amp. You can get like 3-4 preamps and a power amp for the price of two amps (obviously depends on what exact pieces of gear we are talking about). Also, you can run into a preamp straight to your computer (or with a cab sim in between) without having to think about having a speaker load for you power amp section. That also gives you multiple preamp option for that if you have a few. Much less expensive then having the same amount of actual amps. Then again you can get something like a kemper and basically have any sound on tap...

Just rambling at this point...

[coldbrightsunlight]

I just want a consistent solution that is pretty easy, portable and works nice with all my pedals - currently the interface preamp REALLY doesn't like some of them.

Sounds like you'd get good mileage out of a dedicated analog preamp for the end of the chain to smooth everything out?
Also depending on what kind of interface you're using, upgrading that could make an even bigger difference. Going from a Scarlett to an Audient iD14 was a huge improvement in direct guitar toan for me. RME and UAD preamps are top notch for DI guitar, too.

The thing with a lot of hardware cab sims is they're seldom doing anything that can't be done better with plugins. I love the Two Notes CAB M for being able to get really consistent sounds across different situations, but for recording it makes more sense to go preamp > interface > Wall of Sound since you can tweak after recording and blend as many IRs as you want across the stereo field that way.

Yeah I think realistically decent preamp / better interface is the play. I need a new interface cos mine is a little broken anyway. I don't want to go super high end because let's be real my needs aren't super complex or high end. But maybe I could get something in budget that still sounds a bit nicer direct. Definitely agree a simple little guitar preamp might just do some good - plus might come in handy for playing round and about and potentially using different amps around practice spaces/gigs if those ever happen again. I totally agree about the cab sim hardware vs software. My only thought is it might be neat to have a device with a very limited cab sim in hardware format, purely for like, emergency gig situations where an amp dies. But do I really gig enough to worry about this? No so that's probably not a REAL consideration and a preamp is the right play.

[Paul_C]

Pink Beebo arriving tomorrow.

*sigh*

[cosmicevan]

Pink Beebo arriving tomorrow.

*sigh*

Awesome!!! Just know your serial number as some of the earlier units have different MIDI TRS setups

[Paul_C]

Pink Beebo arriving tomorrow.

*sigh*

Awesome!!! Just know your serial number as some of the earlier units have different MIDI TRS setups

No worries there, it's a brand new one from a shop which has only just restocked (I bought my blue one from the same place). The silver one is from 2020 and only a few steps away from the blue (832 and 892).

My next challenge is a deeper dive into the modular side of things to get my head round the bits I haven't got a clue about, at the moment it's very much a trial and error approach and I'd like to have a better understanding of what I'm doing.

[JTurbide]

Received it !!!
Pickups are unlabelled so I can't figure out what they are
So far so good, certainly feels a bit weird playing but not too weird. No buzz, good action, bridge screws to adjust the action seems to have been filled with some powder ot something, they wont move so good thing the action is good. Could order replacement ones for cheap I guess.
Other than that and a plastic (replacement) shaft on a knob (don't really mind it) it is in great shape!

[coldbrightsunlight]

Very wacky

[JTurbide]

Are those bill lawrences?

So I emailed warwick and according to Hans they OBL (Bill Lawrence humbuckers). He also wrote that the electronics were passive MEC, but I have a battery

Edit: still make sounds without the battery!!?
What the hell is going on.

[qersty]

could be lights or something like that? onboard boost or similar that is disengaged? remnants from emgs?

nevertheless, you gotta change your avatar now

[JTurbide]

HAHAHA, definitely taking that avatar.

I tried with and without and I hear absolutely no difference... Yeah maybe remnants from emgs but Hans Peter at Warwick seemed to tell me the pickups were original... Maybe I misunderstood or something. Maybe something that has to be engaged somewhere else? No clue

[Tall Walls]

could be lights or something like that? onboard boost or similar that is disengaged? remnants from emgs?

nevertheless, you gotta change your avatar now

Hey, I have that little wooden Yamaha amp! For a while it was my main amp.

[goroth]

could be lights or something like that? onboard boost or similar that is disengaged? remnants from emgs?

nevertheless, you gotta change your avatar now

Leif Pragotsky, is that you?