(UPDATED for new FW!) EVH amp vs Axe Fx, QC and TMP...

[SwirlyMaple]

Tribalism on the internet has always been big. I mean we do have some favorite and less favored brands here on TGF as well so we are certainly not above it.

Some people make their choice of phone, game console, sports team, polical party, guitar modeler brand etc a way too big part of their personality to the point that it's a major trait rather than just one facet or a thing they like. So when someone criticizes that, they get defensive because it seems like a personal attack on them.

These people can be safely ignored because they have dug a trench deeper than Mariana.

Well said. The tendency to associate our identity strongly with a brand, image, person or ideology is one of humanity’s most exploitable flaws, IMO.

It blinds people to objective reasoning and brings out some of our most divisive traits, just to satisfy our innate need to feel like we’re part of something.

 

[fretworn]

Well said. The tendency to associate our identity strongly with a brand, image, person or ideology is one of humanity’s most exploitable flaws, IMO.

It blinds people to objective reasoning and brings out some of our most divisive traits, just to satisfy our innate need to feel like we’re part of something.

This is not aimed at you, because I believe the observation is true.

However, I believe the root-cause is due to unsettled and misplaced priorities in one’s life.

If one’s priority is the craft, you generally don’t worry a whole lot about the tools once you’re a journeyman.

I like fine tools, but I’m not a product of them. I simply need them not to get in my way.

 

[timbuck3]

Tribalism on the internet has always been big. I mean we do have some favorite and less favored brands here on TGF as well so we are certainly not above it.

Some people make their choice of phone, game console, sports team, polical party, guitar modeler brand etc a way too big part of their personality to the point that it's a major trait rather than just one facet or a thing they like. So when someone criticizes that, they get defensive because it seems like a personal attack on them.

These people can be safely ignored because they have dug a trench deeper than Mariana.

THIS is true..watch sports fans. Its wierd and cultish. I have preferences with some things but not a fan boy of anything.

 

[fretworn]

THIS is true..watch sports fans. Its wierd and cultish. I have preferences with some things but not a fan boy of anything.

Just can’t make a decision one way or the other?

… bummer … must hurt your balls sumpthin’ awful

 

[Elric]

Well said. The tendency to associate our identity strongly with a brand, image, person or ideology is one of humanity’s most exploitable flaws, IMO.

It blinds people to objective reasoning and brings out some of our most divisive traits, just to satisfy our innate need to feel like we’re part of something.

Totally. It is an absolute shame and the worst part of it all: it is blinding so many people to the fact that Fractal rules over all others... Sometimes I cannot sleep at night thinking about all those poor souls unknowingly suffering with Kemper's, TMPs, QCs, Line 6, and other, lesser, gear; denied the ultimate toanz solely due to blind allegiance to some inferior product. It breaks my heart. If only there was something we could do.

 

[Gearzilla]

 

[timbuck3]

Just can’t make a decision one way or the other?

… bummer … must hurt your balls sumpthin’ awful

i bought a gt1000 and sold it a year later...i liked the x amps but too few in the unit and fell out of love with it. Still use my adrenelinn3 and the amp models arent bad..Effects are fun. My older tonelab se and ad120vtx amps are still fun to play and have a very tube feel to me...the cybertwin se 2-12 combo still sounds good as does mt spider valve mk2- 2-12 combo. So i have plenty that sounds good to me now...and will jump in again one day. As i said to buy one of each flagship makes no sence for me as i want to stick with 1 platform.

 

[DrewJD82]

i bought a gt1000 and sold it a year later...i liked the x amps but too few in the unit and fell out of love with it. Still use my adrenelinn3 and the amp models arent bad..Effects are fun. My older tonelab se and ad120vtx amps are still fun to play and have a very tube feel to me...the cybertwin se 2-12 combo still sounds good as does mt spider valve mk2- 2-12 combo. So i have plenty that sounds good to me now...and will jump in again one day. As i said to buy one of each flagship makes no sence for me as i want to stick with 1 platform.

That sounds like it could be a helluva W/D/W rig, right there!

 

[Desertdweller]

So this was interesting and surprising! I wanted to compare my EVH tube amps (50w EL34 and LBX 5150 III) to some EVH based amp models in the NDSP Quad Cortex, Fractal Audio Axe Fx III and Fender Tone Master Pro. Especially the fact that the Fender has the officially licensed EVH models made me excited to put this together. Needless to say it didn't go as I expected. The results speak for themselves I guess? Check it out:

Hey the Fender one sounds really good.

Or my ears are totally blown out.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

i bought a gt1000 and sold it a year later...i liked the x amps but too few in the unit and fell out of love with it. Still use my adrenelinn3 and the amp models arent bad..Effects are fun. My older tonelab se and ad120vtx amps are still fun to play and have a very tube feel to me...the cybertwin se 2-12 combo still sounds good as does mt spider valve mk2- 2-12 combo. So i have plenty that sounds good to me now...and will jump in again one day. As i said to buy one of each flagship makes no sence for me as i want to stick with 1 platform.

That’s reasonable. But remember, if you’re always waiting for the best thing to appear, you’ll never have anything new (which is fine too). Things are always improving so you just have to throw your hat into the ring at some point if you want to try new stuff.

 

[laxu]

i bought a gt1000 and sold it a year later...i liked the x amps but too few in the unit and fell out of love with it. Still use my adrenelinn3 and the amp models arent bad..Effects are fun. My older tonelab se and ad120vtx amps are still fun to play and have a very tube feel to me...the cybertwin se 2-12 combo still sounds good as does mt spider valve mk2- 2-12 combo. So i have plenty that sounds good to me now...and will jump in again one day. As i said to buy one of each flagship makes no sence for me as i want to stick with 1 platform.

That's understandable, but I think you need to approach it from a different perspective than waiting for the absolute perfect device. Because it's never going to exist. Consider which compromises are ok for you and pick a device based on that.

As much grief as I give Fractal about their onboard UI, I still use their devices because there's so much they do right. All the sound related stuff is great, the routing is very flexibile, the footswitches highly configurable, Axe-Edit works well and so on.

As much as I liked the Helix Floor, I wanted something more compact. I considered swapping it for a used Helix Rack + Helix Control at one point because I didn't want to crouch to the floor to adjust things. Went with the Axe-Fx 3 instead.

QC had great potential and worked well for me, but it still had so many things that needed work that I sold it and was going to reconsider it if NeuralDSP could fix all the problems. Still hasn't happened, maybe after this year it will finally be close to what I wanted it to be at release.

For the record I'm a fan of the original blue Vox Valvetronix stuff. When the AD120VT was released in 2001 (2003 for AD120VTX), it was IMO the first significant improvement in modeling since the late 1990s Yamaha DG/H&K Zentera/Cybertwin era. The Valve Reactor poweramp was a novel idea in an era when preamp modeling was already pretty good but poweramp modeling was not.

 

[the-trooper]

@timbuck3 Don't give into peer pressure! Buy nothing! Wait for the perfect one!

 

[Lysander]

@timbuck3 Don't give into peer pressure! Buy nothing! Wait for the perfect one!

No, BUY! Don't be scared! This is one of the biggest moments of your life coming up, you cannot get nervous now. Because if you do it'll be a disaster. A DISASTER!

 

[OrganicZed]

Why does anyone care what Timbuck3 does or does not buy? Isn't that his business alone?

 

[jellodog]

Why does anyone care what Timbuck3 does or does not buy. Isn't that his business alone?

Where have you been all this time?

 

[OrganicZed]

Where have you been all this time?

If you see my post count, I'm fairly new around here. I gather from context that he has said that he is going to buy product X or Y on numerous occasions but never follows through, but I don't understand why that matters to anyone.

 

[Mongillo19]

If you see my post count, I'm fairly new around here. I gather from context that he has said that he is going to buy product X or Y on numerous occasions but never follows through, but I don't understand why that matters to anyone.

It doesn't but when he blatantly goes out of his way to ridicule others about buying too much gear, but then asks people to buy gear to do shootouts so he can make a decision that will never actually happen, to making sweeping generalizations about different cultures. And this is just within the past week.

Could we all just let it go, sure, but this is the internet, and some people deserve the needling imo. When you post your business (nonstop) on a social platform you are leaving it open for discussion and other people to put their thoughts on it.

 

[JiveTurkey]

It doesn't but when he blatantly goes out of his way to ridicule others about buying too much gear, but then asks people to buy gear to do shootouts so he can make a decision that will never actually happen, to making sweeping generalizations about different cultures. And this is just within the past week.

Could we all just let it go, sure, but this is the internet, and some people deserve the needling imo. When you post your business (nonstop) on a social platform you are leaving it open for discussion and other people to put their thoughts on it.

Annnnnd there we have it!

 

[GTR37]

If you see my post count, I'm fairly new around here. I gather from context that he has said that he is going to buy product X or Y on numerous occasions but never follows through, but I don't understand why that matters to anyone.

It’s honestly more of an ongoing joke( that he is in on and taunts back )
We mean no harm , it just funny
We all know he is not a quick or impulse buyer

 

[OrganicZed]

As long as he's in on the meme and is a good sport about it then there's no harm done. I just genuinely didn't get it.