Hotone Ampero II Stage MP-380

The foot switches are nice. They feel solid and they're quiet.
Not twitchy like the mx5 at all ..no crappy encoder?.....sorry, I just need to know if I'm going to sink upward of 500 for a thing.
 
Not twitchy like the mx5 at all ..no crappy encoder?.....sorry, I just need to know if I'm going to sink upward of 500 for a thing.
Hotone definitely uses better switches than Headrush. With MX5 there were initially problems as they used cheaper switches (basically… not the worst by any means). But they fixed everyone that had problems for free (I had such a unit) at least.
 
Hotone definitely uses better switches than Headrush. With MX5 there were initially problems as they used cheaper switches (basically… not the worst by any means). But they fixed everyone that had problems for free (I had such a unit) at least.
I purchased my own, as I didn't experience real issues until after I was out of warranty. I work around it now ...until I either fix the switches...or get a new unit.
 
Hotone is an interesting player they are kind of the Cadillac of the smaller unknown brands IMO and they are likely maybe one generation away from creating some major waves

The 2 biggest issues is CPU
The flagship units is only slightly more powerful than a stomp , the HD models take a lot of resources so if they are going to update all the models to those specs they definitely need more juice

#2 they have to fix some latency issues especially with the cab block as it goes from reasonable and competitive with an IR to way out when adding the cab blocks

I have no doubt that they will continue to improve this as there are now single chips more powerful than a full Helix so a little more power and work on cpu allocation and reducing latency and they do stand to become a bigger player

Once again we are talking 500-$600 vs units costing twice that
The feature set is great
The GUI is perfect pretty much already
 
The flagship units is only slightly more powerful than a stomp

^^ Note sure if you are referring to the Ampero 2 Stomp or the HX Stomp ?

The Ampero 2 Stage Flagship and the Ampero 2 Stomp have the exact same processing power and exact same agorithms .... the *only* differences are fsw / hardware casing / connectivity.

The exact same preset run on the Stage will sound and use the exact same resources as the Stomp 2.

Ben
 
^^ Note sure if you are referring to the Ampero 2 Stomp or the HX Stomp ?

The Ampero 2 Stage Flagship and the Ampero 2 Stomp have the exact same processing power and exact same agorithms .... the *only* differences are fsw / hardware casing / connectivity.

The exact same preset run on the Stage will sound and use the exact same resources as the Stomp 2.

Ben
Ampero stage compared to HX stomp
 
I haven't tested the capture feature because I no longer have any real amps. Even without the capture stuff, the Stage absolutely KILLS the MX5 in every way (except no expression pedal of course). I would say the Stage sound somewhere between an HX Stomp and a Fractal. Closer to Stomp with better definition and amp sim quality. And the UI can't be beat.
Nobody tried the capturing feature yet??

Not a single video or review out there. Really curious to know how good (or bad) it is.
 
Hey all - I’ve owned all the major modelers and a boatload of amps over the years and my main setup is an AXE FX III but for my basement rig I’m using the Ampero Stage. I love everything about it, but one thing. Does anyone else feel like palm mutes sound really choked and plinky? I do not have a gate on. I have messed about with the input gain and that helps to a certain extent but not enough. I’m not even talking about chugs but just standard palm mutes. Just feels like there’s no body to it.

It’s not the guitar either as I’ve tried multiple and like mentioned before, I have had all the major modelers. For me, it’s keeping it from being perfect.

Just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this? I’ve tried an EQ before the amp block too. Just feels like I’m missing something.
 
Hey all - I’ve owned all the major modelers and a boatload of amps over the years and my main setup is an AXE FX III but for my basement rig I’m using the Ampero Stage. I love everything about it, but one thing. Does anyone else feel like palm mutes sound really choked and plinky? I do not have a gate on. I have messed about with the input gain and that helps to a certain extent but not enough. I’m not even talking about chugs but just standard palm mutes. Just feels like there’s no body to it.

It’s not the guitar either as I’ve tried multiple and like mentioned before, I have had all the major modelers. For me, it’s keeping it from being perfect.

Just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this? I’ve tried an EQ before the amp block too. Just feels like I’m missing something.
I experienced this, too. The amp modeling isn't quite QC/Helix/Fractal quality. It's good though. Better than Headrush. Maybe check your cab settings.
 
Ok I’m just glad to hear I’m not crazy. I’m using York Audio IRs on high quality. Tried normal quality too to see if that improved things but it was the same. Using a drive block to boost the amp helps but you should be able to get a solid palm mute without gobs and gobs of gain/saturation.
 
Ok I’m just glad to hear I’m not crazy. I’m using York Audio IRs on high quality. Tried normal quality too to see if that improved things but it was the same. Using a drive block to boost the amp helps but you should be able to get a solid palm mute without gobs and gobs of gain/saturation.
Does it do it with stock cabs? Experiment with moving the cab mic close / far.
 
It’s funny because I owned the Ampero II Stomp at some point as well and I feel like I didn’t experience this issue with the stomp. Hmm
 
Ok I’m just glad to hear I’m not crazy. I’m using York Audio IRs on high quality. Tried normal quality too to see if that improved things but it was the same. Using a drive block to boost the amp helps but you should be able to get a solid palm mute without gobs and gobs of gain/saturation.

I might've missed it but what amp models are you having the problem with the palm mutes? I don't like some of the models, but have no problem finding ones I do like. I have no issue at all with palm mutes, as long as I've programmed the DYN pedals or DIST pedals to match right with my amps. Same with my tube amps and pedals of course, they have to match and be dialed in to work well. I'm just your basic bar-band rock guitarist, and not a djent /modern metal virtuoso! :) Anyway, for hi-gain I've mainly used the Friedman HB model and Petruchi model.. The Bogner Red models sound great. The JCM800 sounds very good. The 4x12 and 2x12 Celestion IR's that are included sound great. I own the "Classic Rock" series by Ownhammer and those all sound great. I bought the Scott Henderson/Kerry Wright York pkg, and didn't like them, and much prefer the ones I mentioned above. For CABS, my favorite is the MESSE 4x12 B, and with MIX2 for mics, and mic placement depends on which headphones or cabinet I'm using.

Anyway, I have no latency issue using the "Cab" block vs IR. I wouldn't even have known about it being an issue, before reading the past few posts on this thread. It's 0 issue for me.

Also I use a Gate on all the medium-hi gain patches I've written.

We're all different, but I love this thing, and am not sure if I'll ever start using it with my band, but I sure love it at home and use it daily. I'm still gigging with a Splawn amp and 2x12 cabinet but prefer many of the programs I write with digital tools like this, just am on auto-pilot with my current gigging setup. Early this year I gigged regularly with my Fractal AX8 into an EV monitor and programmed that to sound fantastic. No palm mute difference with that or this for what I write. Again though there are definitely models on this I don't use, and ones I do
 
the tone catch on the SLO Crunch channel is pretty solid here IMO, definitely in the ToneX quality , its about 11:10 in

 
Sounds very good, I hope they optimize the DSP usage though. It seems crippled when using "catches" for sure.
 
Back
Top