John Cordy Stomp + Friedman IR X Video

Not gonna lie. Thinking of grabbing one of these and pairing it with my MX5 via 4 cable type of dealio. I have never played a single Friedman product that I thought sounded bad. My Pink Taco was a great amp just wasn't quite the kind of balls I need. That was my fault. I have learned that low watt amps (after trying 5 or 6 of them) just aren't my thing period.

As far as Cordy goes yeah he's a great player but when I watch gear videos, I watch for the gear. I skip his little intros.
 
Yeah, not gonna lie, definitely been in the back of my mind to pair an IR-X with my Stomp XL and mission expression pedal, on a pedalboard, to replace the size/weight of my Helix.

I keep looking for that, "well, it doesn't ALWAYS sound amazing" moment, and it just isn't happening.
 
F*** me.
Seriously, each and every demo of the IR-X I've seen/heard (at least as long as it's coming from some decent players) is killing me. Add to this that (as some of you fine folks might know already, *cough*...) that I just dig my main sounds to be exposed WYSIWYG style.
Guess I just *will* have to rethink my floorboard finalizing plans at one point in time.
 
AFKAEjay said:
hypothesis:
Cause this pedal has an IR it draws attention from modeling users, which is interesting cause the actual usecase is possible with a plethora of preamp pedals made since the 90s.

Not to discredit this pedal in anyway, seems to sound great, IR married to tubes…nice option in the market.

As for pairing analog preamps with modelers in general…I like it a lot.
- switching amp sounds becomes separated from efx (old school ampswitcher + multiefx)
- if combined with relayswitching or looper you still have a lot of the benefits of “presets“.
- quick analog access to sounds/levels
- when you are a bit creative with eqblocks/clean boost/cleancut in front of the analog stage…you can get a whole lot of sounds out of one gain channel.
Click to expand...

Most analog preamp pedals are just 1/3rd of the puzzle. (Preamp but no power amp sim or IR) So you have to inject the poweramp mojo from somewhere else in addition to the cab sim.

One of the more useful aspects of the IRX is that they modeled the BE poweramp. So you can run it just as a tube preamp, preamp + poweramp, or preamp+poweramp+IR. It can be used 100% analog or the entire backend is digitized if you want it. It’s kind of nifty in that respect.
 
Sascha Franck said:
F*** me.
Seriously, each and every demo of the IR-X I've seen/heard (at least as long as it's coming from some decent players) is killing me. Add to this that (as some of you fine folks might know already, *cough*...) that I just dig my main sounds to be exposed WYSIWYG style.
Guess I just *will* have to rethink my floorboard finalizing plans at one point in time.
Click to expand...

It's really good and worth a try.

There's a lot of cool uses for this pedal. It can be a preamp that is run into an effects loop of a tube amp, or driving a power amp into a speaker cab, or run direct into "FRFR", or run it through a pedalboard, or use with existing modelers, etc.

WYSIWYG function works perfect, but you can also use MIDI programs if you like to do more complex switching.

Sonically it sounds as good or better than any of my modelers for the particular tones it shoots for, and I've got Axe FX 3, Kemper, Helix, and Boss GT-1000.

It also seems to take pedals really well and work well with effects (especially effects placed after it).

Only downsides are no CC MIDI which would have been really useful, and the boost function is kind of dumb in its layout (IMO). Would rather have the gain knob on the face of the pedal instead of the side.

AFKAEjay said:
hypothesis:
Cause this pedal has an IR it draws attention from modeling users, which is interesting cause the actual usecase is possible with a plethora of preamp pedals made since the 90s.

Not to discredit this pedal in anyway, seems to sound great, IR married to tubes…nice option in the market.

As for pairing analog preamps with modelers in general…I like it a lot.
- switching amp sounds becomes separated from efx (old school ampswitcher + multiefx)
- if combined with relayswitching or looper you still have a lot of the benefits of “presets“.
- quick analog access to sounds/levels
- when you are a bit creative with eqblocks/clean boost/cleancut in front of the analog stage…you can get a whole lot of sounds out of one gain channel.
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly what the power amp simulation does, but it sounds really good. It's basically all the benefits of an old school tube preamp (tube/analog tone, MIDI, knobs) with new school features like IR loading, power amp simulation, small pedal format, etc.

I always used to say my dream setup was a really good rack preamp like a Synergy or Demeter TGP-3 into an Axe FX 3 for effects. This is a way to do that at $500 instead of the $2000 that a good preamp setup would run.
 
Whizzinby said:
Most analog preamp pedals are just 1/3rd of the puzzle. (Preamp but no power amp sim or IR) So you have to inject the poweramp mojo from somewhere else in addition to the cab sim.

One of the more useful aspects of the IRX is that they modeled the BE poweramp. So you can run it just as a tube preamp, preamp + poweramp, or preamp+poweramp+IR. It can be used 100% analog or the entire backend is digitized if you want it. It’s kind of nifty in that respect.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%
Jarick said:
I don't know exactly what the power amp simulation does, but it sounds really good. It's basically all the benefits of an old school tube preamp (tube/analog tone, MIDI, knobs) with new school features like IR loading, power amp simulation, small pedal format, etc.

I always used to say my dream setup was a really good rack preamp like a Synergy or Demeter TGP-3 into an Axe FX 3 for effects. This is a way to do that at $500 instead of the $2000 that a good preamp setup would run.
Click to expand...
Agreed 100%

As a guy who has used tube preamps before, this is a godsend.

With my AMT SS-11a, there was no midi, so, it was on an all analog board, so, tapdancing, plus there was no poweramp sim nor IR loading, so I kept that setup strictly in the analog domain.

With my old trusty Peavey Rockmaster, obviously there's no midi, I needed a rack, there is size and weight, no poweramp simulation, no IR loading, etc.

With both though, I LOVED PLAYING through them, more than modeling itself. No need to get into that convo, but it is what it is.
 
AFKAEjay said:
hypothesis:
Cause this pedal has an IR it draws attention from modeling users, which is interesting cause the actual usecase is possible with a plethora of preamp pedals made since the 90s.

Not to discredit this pedal in anyway, seems to sound great, IR married to tubes…nice option in the market.
Click to expand...
I've said the same thing, Tube preamps + IR = happy place. Hang onto those old rack preamps and pedals, and then breathe new life into them.
I'm shocked there aren't more amp makers building tube preamp/IR devices right now.
 
FuzzyAce said:
I've said the same thing, Tube preamps + IR = happy place. Hang onto those old rack preamps and pedals, and then breathe new life into them.
I'm shocked there aren't more amp makers building tube preamp/IR devices right now.
Click to expand...
I think I still have an old rack tube preamp I actually use to run my acoustic through for my bar gigs. it really warmed up my sound since I did not use any pedals. Let me see if I can find it and try it, hope the wife didn't throw it out or donate it to goodwill or something.
 
@FuzzyAce - I found it, and not sure if it will add a lot but I'll probably throw it in the effects loop of my Stomp XL this weekend and see what she will do. Anyone play through one of these back in the day?

Peavey T.G. Raxx with Super 7 12AX7's

PXL_20231107_122053632.jpg

PXL_20231107_122419888.jpg

PXL_20231107_122557168.MP (1).jpg
 
FuzzyAce said:
I've never tried that preamp, so curious how it works out for you. The Rock Master always got a lot of love -- maybe this has some of that DNA?
Click to expand...
Not sure, but I know they made a bass on too T.B. Raxx. When I ran my acoustic through it I only used it to warm up the tone a little, never tried the gain side if it so we'll see.
 
Byrdman said:
Anyone play through one of these back in the day?
Click to expand...

Oh wow, almost. Had a Rock Master borrowed for some months (unfortunately the owner didn't want to sell it and then moved out of town and remembered I was still having it...), which should at least be somewhat similar as in sharing a pretty much identical DNA. I remember it to sound quite nicely, and given that Andy Timmons used to use those as well, that's not too unlikely.

Speaking about old tube preamps, the one I still own is a Soldano SP77. Unfortunately it needs some serious servicing (shouldn't be a big deal due to the pretty simple circuitry, but I still need to find someone...), but I need to get it done one day anyway, especially as I just noticed they're still selling for a good chunk of money. Otoh, I could just slap a small rack together, running the Soldano into the power amp sim of my AMT Pangaea (which is doing a better job at that than I thought, checked it with some HX preamps already), the driven channel has always been something to almost die for...
 
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