fretmeister

Alas none of my heads run that low!

My Super Twin goes so damn loud I actually worry about the health and hearing of people who use one at full throttle instead of using the PA. It has a silly amount of low end too. In most venues I'm using the amp EQ to lower the bass rather than boost it. My Markbass AG1000 has the low control at 65hz and that's a good choice for removing some low end. Then I boost a bit at 100hz (with a jazz bass anyway) so there's still plenty of fullness happening but without any mud. Every now and again I think about swapping the Super Twin for a a BF Two10. I don't really need anything bigger. The Six10 would probably be easier to live with because of the wheels but it's overkill, and the Four10 is too heavy for me without wheels, so that leaves the Two10. I wish Alex would make a vertical Three10 with tiltback wheels. That would be perfect for me. Nice and slim for a small stage footprint, high enough to hear when standing close to it (could even tilt the top cone a bit in the baffle). I know getting 3 speakers to hit 4ohms could be an issue but Ashdown have managed it with their vertical 3x10. Presumably with adding a resistor or 3 rather than redesigning the speakers themselves to be 12ohms each. Anyone know? I'd order that on the day it was announced. Even, and I say this with dread, if the wife said no! In fact, I'm going to buy a Euromillions ticket. And if I win I'll custom order one from @alexclaber. He might start by refusing, but if I've won that jackpot I'm pretty sure we'll come to an arrangement quite quickly! Introducing the fretmeister signature cab, the GronkygrizzgrindywallopThree10... * * Optional extra for £100 is to remove the name of the cab... and the chromaflare neon paint job.

I was only half serious with the descriptions for sound but as I wrote it, it seemed to make some sense at some level. Whether my gronky is the same as another player's gronky is a completely different kettle of grizzgrindywallop.

I don't know if it's my age, but I'm increasingly moving towards a P bass with an Ampeg sort of approach to everything. It's like my changing tastes are violating everything I hold dear!

I've got 2 weeks off. Quite nice to not have to put up with trombones at 9.30 in the morning!

Those Warwick Red labels had £10 shipping though!

If a rock band can all re-tune their instruments by the same amount then the approach is practical. Happens a lot when a new singer has a lower register. Nice and easy to tune to D standard for everybody, but for ease of reference that D chord is still referred to as E so everybody knows what you are talking about. But if you add any other instrument where that tuning choice is not possible then that approach just doesn't work because the player of that instrument needs to actually play differently. Piano / brass / reeds etc etc can't be detuned like a guitar can. The fact that many brass and reed instruments are transposing makes it even more of a pain. I know some modern keyboards can have Middle C reset to a very wide range but every keys / piano player I've ever met would rather fosters on the power supply than take the cheating option. So it can be very practical. Doesn't mean it's musically correct. Sounds like the OP's mate would have a meltdown in a band full of transposing instruments. I know I did the first time I joined a big band!

There's a whole bunch of Bottesini double bass tunes where he's really messed about with the tuning. I suspect he did it to enrage the other DB players of the time who were already having a hard time believing he could play that way.

Yes. If the tune was in E flat major, by tuning it up he'd be playing it in E major. E flat major has 3 flats in the key signature. E major has 4 sharps.

Loads of difference! Different drivers, different bracing / construction, power handling. Some are really two 4x10 that are joined together. Some are really eight 1x10 where each speaker is in it's own little box. Some are just a giant barely rigid shell. If you are going to go full madman with this (me, jealous?) then save up and get the Barefaced. Then you get 1 column that have been LPF'd to get as much dispersion as possible, you get the lowest weight, and unlike the old heavy ones nobody wants, it will keep far more of it's value. Do it once and do it properly.

That's very clever!

These are a couple of Helix tone tests I did for 2 new songs I've written. Drums are from EZD2 and all guitars and bass are Helix. I think they sound pretty good. They are not mastered and only barely mixed. https://soundcloud.com/user-107940438/voice-of-derrière-riff-test/s-a3AKWXWGXue?si=40238d6462954e53b4e9d3a669c4a713&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing https://soundcloud.com/user-107940438/specific-ocean-tone-test-1/s-uYCoJKFUgcE?si=40238d6462954e53b4e9d3a669c4a713&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

I've not tried the newest Boss units but the demos sound great. I don't think any of the latest generation modellers are bad. They've all got little things that a player might like more, but you really can't go wrong with any of them.

the rehearsal studio PA system, whatever it is. I did have a Yamaha DXR10 for a while as a personal monitor and that was very good for guitar and bass but tech has moved on and I’m sure there are more modern units. A few guitarists I know really like the Red Sound powered units but they are guitar only. Not tried one myself yet. I’m in the process of exploring forming a new rock band with some friends and I’m thinking of helix with a power amp into a Barefaced cab. The 12inch cabs are suggested by Barefaced to be a great choice for modelling units as they are very flat response. I have a Super Twin but I’ve never actually tried it with the helix yet! Haven’t needed to. But for the rock band - probably going to be a power trio - I might want a physical cab for feedback options instead of IEM. But we haven’t decided what to do about PA yet. Buy or hire as needed etc. Or just try for support gigs for a while to use the headliner’s PA to see if the band actually lasts!

The golden age of amps was also the most random. 2 same model amps built next to each other sounded different. Component tolerances were nowhere near as good as they are now. For all the latest modellers there is a Plexi, or an SVT, or a B15, or a Twin that sounds identical to the ones in the modeller (when mic'd up) because that's what was used as the reference amp. The reason why a Helix Plexi sounds different to a Fractal or Kemper Plexi isn't because 2 of them have got it wrong - it's because their reference amps sounded different in the first place. This is also why those who get the best results out of a modeller throw away consideration of a model based on what inspired it. Just because the real Dual Rec I had was amazing doesn't mean that the Helix model of a Dual Rec sounds the same and I might get a better result with a different model, and as it happens I do. Ignore the model names and trust the ears.

Definitely a matter of taste and they do need learning more than an old fashioned rig. I don't think a warning is needed against something that isn't claimed. It's clearly not an amplifier. If anything most people think of the modellers as a multi-fx and that is wrong too. And it will sound like an amp and cab that is mic'd up. With many bands moving to In Ear Monitors the people on stage are only hearing a mic'd up sound anyway. I don't think it is any more difficult than using other kit that was designed this century. PC plug-ins / DAW / Tablet controlled PA systems etc. But it still needs a bit of time I swapped to Helix very soon after launch - so about 6 years ago. I use it for almost everything live guitar and bass, sometimes live vocals. The only gig I don't use it for is my jazz big band because we don't have a PA at all. 20+ trumpets, trombones, saxophones, clarinets, etc etc + drums and an electric piano is very loud without needing a PA. I take a head and cab for that. But everything else is helix - it's also my recording interface and my day-to-day sound card. I don't even own a guitar amp anymore and in the past I was the guy that always bought a JCM800 or a Mesa Dual Rec even for a 50 person Tuesday night gig! I think it's amazing but that doesn't mean it's the right thing for everyone. The main bits of advice I can give for people struggling with it are: 1: Design your sounds at full gig volume. The stuff that sounds great in the house will sound like crap at gig volume mixed with other instruments. Have a rehearsal specifically for getting that right. 2: The HPF and LPF controls are often where the magic is found. They remove the flub and the fizz. 3: Professional FOH engineers who work in a lot in a location will keep records, or if the kit is modern enough, save their basic settings for a specific venue as a starting point. All the new generation modellers have more than enough memory slots to save venue specific patches. When you take a Marshall from the 250 person pub gig into a 1000 person hall you don't use the same settings so you can't expect that from any modeller either. But unlike the Marshall, if you play at that venue a lot, you can save a template for that venue to make soundcheck far easier next time. I love standing in front of a big amp with a big cab. It's a great feeling. But some amazing cabs that retail at £1000 or more can be bought for peanuts on ebay because the world has moved on. Everything goes in the PA, IEM keep the stage volume down, and the FOH guy can make a far better mix when he hasn't got to deal with mic spill and unwanted feedback. It might not be as rock n roll as it used to be, but the audience get a far better sound than ever before. Our hearing might last a bit longer too.

Not a new one!

ported- more boomy bang sealed - less boom more gronky grindy squidge

Can you stretch to a Barefaced 6x10? Even on their website it says "get the 6x10 instead of the 8x10" There's been a couple come up on here over the last year. Never seen a BF 8x10 on here though. Sealed cabs do sound quite different to ported ones. Ampeg sound is a lot to do with the sealed cab. Not sure you'd be happy with a ported one.

Honestly - when you have that flexibility (I have 4 external loops on my helix and can place them anywhere) you can try it all. A physical rig might limit you to putting a pedal between the preamp and the poweramp / cab, but you can try it after the cab if you want. Depending on what the multi is, you can even build it all backwards. Bass into cab, into FX, then into the amp dead last. There's some amazingly fun / utterly useless sounds to be found this way!

Sorry - we don't have them. Closest we have is a grade 2-3 arrangement of "On broadway."

A lot of the misunderstanding about modellers is shown by the last post ^. Modellers do not claim to be the same as an amp in the room. Only an actual amp can do that so far. Modellers generate the sound of that amp after it has been mic'd up. That is a massive difference. A raging JCM800 in a room sounds like a bomb going off. A raging JCM800 with a couple of mic's in front of it and then into the PA (or into a recording setup) still sounds great, but doesn't have that visceral feel that you get when standing in front of the speakers. Modellers are designed to get the best recording sound or the best Front of House live sound. They are not designed to give the "amp in the room" thing because that's just about impossible at the moment because of the nature of cab sims and IRs. Cabs / IRs are made by using microphones and thus whatever sound you get it has been through a mic set up. That is where the difference is. You can get more of an amp in the room feel if you are willing to do it halfway. Modeller, into a valve power amp, then into a traditional speaker cab for your on-stage tones, and then use other outputs with an IR / Cab sim to the desk. You won't be able to change the cab on your stage sound but you will for the FOH sound, DSP permitting. The on stage rig is your monitor and you can have that gutterall feel, and the crowd still get the best mix due to the more controlled modeller / IR signal path. Loads of pros do it this way - even Metallica who do direct to the PA all the time now with the Fractal units still have a power amp and a couple of 4x12 cabs on stage for personal monitors and for feedback generation. IRs and cab sims are not single items. They are a multi parameter signal chain of their own. Say (1) V30 into (2) Royer 121 mic set (3) 1 inch from the cone but (4) at a 45 degree angle aimed at (5) the edge of the dust cap. Until there is a physical speaker that can change characteristics to move from an old Jensen to a V30, to an EV etc the best that can be done is a simulation of the cab with a load of different mics and mic placements. Even if this fantasy speaker could ever be built you still wouldn't want the same microphones (for the FOH desk) for all the possible settings, just like you might like a SM57 on a V30, you might want a 121 on a Jensen.

You got lucky with something then.