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First of all, I'm not even going to call this a review, because I wouldn't put my self in the same category as a lot of the experts around here. I'm just someone who (for the most part) has been using tube amps for the past 17 years and is of the opinion that solid state does not even come close to anything with tubes.
I have a POD XT that I use for recording trough my computer/Alesis Monitor ONE MK2 speakers. I have always been impressed with the POD. I never felt it could keep up with a tube amp, but it's pretty damn close and it beats miking a cab at high volume every time you want to throw a track down.
After gigging with my current band for about 3 months, I started considering using a modeling amp since we are a cover band. Sure I can get a killer tone from my single rectifier, but it's very one dimensional and a pain to lug around with my Mesa 4x12 halfback and G-major/power supply in a two space rack bag. How cool would it be to have a combo that could do it all in one package.
Well, I bought Brads Vetta combo. I had it shipped to my place of work. It came Friday and I plugged into it late that night after a long day so I wasn't in the mood to noodle much. From just flipping through the user patches that were already there, I know I was going to switch to the modeling dark side. I couldn't believe the bottom end it had. Un-frickin-believable!
I spent a good couple of hours starting to set up my patches today. I like to tweak and this thing is all about the tweaking. If you are a plug and play kind of player, don't bother. It's easy enough in my opinion, but there is a lot to it and if you don’t have the patients, you'll never make it past the factory presets. I particularly like to start from scratch although there were a few good user patches that I started from (thanks Brad!).
I like using line 6 edit through my PC for editing, but it's easy enough without it. It's amazing how you loose the concept of time while going through all the models, effects, output settings and such. There is so many ways you can go.
As far as the sound? Like I said, I'm not a tube purist or expert for that matter, but this is a damn good imitation. Of course if you put them side by side, I'm sure the tube amp would win, but only on pure tone. The Vetta kills anything in its price range on versatility alone. No, it's not going to replace your Uber, Plexi or Twin Reverb, but it comes close enough to have all of those in one package.
A few things I didn't like......
There is a little hesitation in switching patches. This is very minor and not really bad at all, but I'm used to the G-major which is pretty seamless in changing patches.
I also find it a little cumbersome to adjust the levels of the individual patches if you are stacking amp models. If you have two different amp models in on patch each one has there own level. Actual this is a way of mixing the two models to get a desired tone (very cool BTW). If you need to lower that patch to match another patch, you have to lower both masters the same amount to retain your desired mix. Again, this is nothing too huge. It would just be nice to have a volume for each patch over the individual amps.
This wins over my single Rectifier for gigging any day of the week. Now if I were in an original band that would be a different story. For the original bands I've been in, I preferred to create my own sound and go with it. If it's a cover/original band, same thing. Then I don't mind using "my" tone for the covers because it's my original band doing some covers. It's my opinion that a cover band should try and do the covers justice as best as they can. That’s what the people came to hear. I've had one tone for my current band and that’s ok if you are only covering one genre of music. I want to be able to go from Cheap Trick to Metallica as accurately as possible. Will the people notice? Maybe not, but I will and If I'm happy, I sound better and play better.
Will I sell my current rig? I may, but only because I usually don't like to sit on gear that I don't use. I don't see the Vetta spending much time out of use!
Of course, the real test will be with the full band this week, but I can't this thing not sounding good with the full band.
I hope this doesn't turn into a Modeling vs. Tube thread. This is just one armature’s story. Someone who can see that advantages of both. For me, the Vetta fits the bill. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
I have a POD XT that I use for recording trough my computer/Alesis Monitor ONE MK2 speakers. I have always been impressed with the POD. I never felt it could keep up with a tube amp, but it's pretty damn close and it beats miking a cab at high volume every time you want to throw a track down.
After gigging with my current band for about 3 months, I started considering using a modeling amp since we are a cover band. Sure I can get a killer tone from my single rectifier, but it's very one dimensional and a pain to lug around with my Mesa 4x12 halfback and G-major/power supply in a two space rack bag. How cool would it be to have a combo that could do it all in one package.
Well, I bought Brads Vetta combo. I had it shipped to my place of work. It came Friday and I plugged into it late that night after a long day so I wasn't in the mood to noodle much. From just flipping through the user patches that were already there, I know I was going to switch to the modeling dark side. I couldn't believe the bottom end it had. Un-frickin-believable!
I spent a good couple of hours starting to set up my patches today. I like to tweak and this thing is all about the tweaking. If you are a plug and play kind of player, don't bother. It's easy enough in my opinion, but there is a lot to it and if you don’t have the patients, you'll never make it past the factory presets. I particularly like to start from scratch although there were a few good user patches that I started from (thanks Brad!).
I like using line 6 edit through my PC for editing, but it's easy enough without it. It's amazing how you loose the concept of time while going through all the models, effects, output settings and such. There is so many ways you can go.
As far as the sound? Like I said, I'm not a tube purist or expert for that matter, but this is a damn good imitation. Of course if you put them side by side, I'm sure the tube amp would win, but only on pure tone. The Vetta kills anything in its price range on versatility alone. No, it's not going to replace your Uber, Plexi or Twin Reverb, but it comes close enough to have all of those in one package.
A few things I didn't like......
There is a little hesitation in switching patches. This is very minor and not really bad at all, but I'm used to the G-major which is pretty seamless in changing patches.
I also find it a little cumbersome to adjust the levels of the individual patches if you are stacking amp models. If you have two different amp models in on patch each one has there own level. Actual this is a way of mixing the two models to get a desired tone (very cool BTW). If you need to lower that patch to match another patch, you have to lower both masters the same amount to retain your desired mix. Again, this is nothing too huge. It would just be nice to have a volume for each patch over the individual amps.
This wins over my single Rectifier for gigging any day of the week. Now if I were in an original band that would be a different story. For the original bands I've been in, I preferred to create my own sound and go with it. If it's a cover/original band, same thing. Then I don't mind using "my" tone for the covers because it's my original band doing some covers. It's my opinion that a cover band should try and do the covers justice as best as they can. That’s what the people came to hear. I've had one tone for my current band and that’s ok if you are only covering one genre of music. I want to be able to go from Cheap Trick to Metallica as accurately as possible. Will the people notice? Maybe not, but I will and If I'm happy, I sound better and play better.
Will I sell my current rig? I may, but only because I usually don't like to sit on gear that I don't use. I don't see the Vetta spending much time out of use!
Of course, the real test will be with the full band this week, but I can't this thing not sounding good with the full band.
I hope this doesn't turn into a Modeling vs. Tube thread. This is just one armature’s story. Someone who can see that advantages of both. For me, the Vetta fits the bill. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
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