Say you can't afford an AXE FX, then what?

[Shawn Lutz]

I do too Bill. I like raw guitar tone that cuts. I only use chorus/delay on clean parts that require it. I don't mind a hint of reverb. I don't know why guys thinks shit sound great with so much delay or gain.

[horns666]

Well Shawn, I think many players including myself used to hide our slop in it. My tone's been clean and sober for 10 years now. I can feel what I play. Every note bent to pitch. I like that.

[holycross1]

Check out the Rivera Rock Crusher.
Its the one piece of gear that can save you having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your tone.
Its an attenuator and a speaker sim for direct to P.A. sound. Its a dummy load to. Save your sound. It is "Your" sound.

[Trem]

I HATE 80's guitar tones soaked in delay and reverbs. Ahhhhhhh as soon as I hear that I'm like Fuck you!!!

Those tones didn't age well. I'd much rather have early Mick Mars' tone. Gimme somethin' to punch somethin.

I do too Bill. I like raw guitar tone that cuts. I only use chorus/delay on clean parts that require it. I don't mind a hint of reverb. I don't know why guys thinks shit sound great with so much delay or gain.

Same here. When i got an Axe FX, as kick ass as it was, i realized i don't need all this shit. Well, at least in practicality. I've never used effects. Any time in my life i ever tried fucking with them my ADD had me pulling my hair out, and i just rip the cords out and plug straight in and all is well again. So while i was digging the Axe FX i was also thinking what a huge waste - for me - as i'm not using a 10th of this thing. I wanted to really get on with the Wah, but it wasn't that great in the AFXI, so it was kind of a let down there. Since i just play at home, i can add all that shit in post if i want if i'm recording and play with a straight signal. So it's win win.
But i'll probably still get an AFXII one of these days.

[horns666]

Yeah man. All that stuff is required for certain tones. Like Shawn mentioned. I dialed up a great blues tone with reverb for my kid with his Peavey combo. He's dabblin' w/ bluesy stuff because I keeps bustin' his chops about his vibrato and pitch. His fingers are getting stronger. He hears the pitch..just has trouble pushing it there sometimes. He's getting very good.

If you're in a cover band and want to make it sound true to form..sure that stuff is required. Dweezil's Eruption AXE FX is a perfect example. Sounds exactly like the record. People want to hear it like that...and he plays it to a T.

I use ONE tone, one channel for everything. I back off my knob, and use pups for various stuff. I'm a one trick pony. So I require a one trick tone. I could plug a TS-9 / SD-1 into a bass amp and get by.

Hey, Uli Jon Roth cranked his old Marshall and and Framus combined, in a small club. He put the miced Framus off stage facing the wall. Old school, tried and true. IMO, Less is more. Less shit to F up when you need it most. Everything works perfectly at home. Soon and you unplug something...Oooh Ohhh..what happened. Is a dummy load passive? could that not take a dump? Yes..one more thing to go wonky...including more patch cables.

[horns666]

Many spent their lives tone shaping, just to bury it in wetness. It doesn't sound good. It sounds like a HAARP conspiracy!

[hunter1970]

GT-10 works good for me , but in the end I like my amp tone without anything except a clean boost out front.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

Same here. I used an Alesis multi-fx unit for a few years but all it did was hide my poor playing and slow my growth. These days all I want is a boost, an old school Marshall, and nothing else. I've tried a few delays over the years and I can't stand even that for a few minutes.

[Twitch]

Have your tubes slightly over biased. That's what I've always done. You'll hit the sweet spot just soon enough to not be too loud in most situations. Your tube life will be decreased but not much. I ran my jcm900 that way for years and never had a you're too loud complaint or a your tone sucks complaint.

[siggy14]

Im with the crowd of I don't like a lot of effects on my dirty channel, mostly I just boost it with a TS9, wah sometimes on solos and sometimes delay for solos, slight delay that is.

I have been thinking of getting the 11 rack for home playing though, I live in a townhouse and not easy to crank it without killing my one set of neighbors, my other set are deaf so that works in my favor.

[mr426]

I have played clubs for 20+ years with 100 watt tube amps. I dont see the problem using them live? You set the stage volume and the PA volume and your done. Tube amps sound great at low volume and at high volume as well, so Im sure what your using now is fine.

[Robert Burns]

From what ive read on the Fractal forum...the 11R wins the "2nd place award" usually... Boy do i love my Ultra !! This is probably why im rarely here
anymore...to busy playing !

[wilkinsi]

Boss GT-10 here.

[SausageofPower]

I snagged an Eleven Rack myself and am happy with the purchase. I may snag an AXEFX II at some point, but for now I can't justify dropping $2k on one. The Eleven Rack will be my bridge to doing that eventually, perhaps.

[Electric]

I just got an Eleven Rack as well. For $699 I think it's a great deal. The full version of Pro Tools 10 software alone is $699, and it comes bundled with the Eleven Rack. I bought it from Sweetwater and they had a promo going on for a nice bundle of plugins as well.

I haven't had a ton of time to explore it yet, but the interface seems pretty easy to work with and the tones seem to be very solid and usable.