Relying on Amp-Sims as many recordists do and for good reason, I have longed to bring some “moving air” of the analog into my sound. The availability of small tube amps has been a boon to guitar players but even One Watts can be very loud for an apartment dweller. My goal was to create a classic Rock tone with some boost on the “front end” to create good crunch to somewhat beyond medium overdrive with a great dirt pedal and an attenuator on the “back end” to choke down the power tubes to get REAL AMP OVERDRIVE and the compression you want. I wanted a nice “slap-back”which the TC “ Echoplex” clone does in a very classic way thats controlable yet “untamed” (paradox) . The “ X-Blender “ is essentially a buffered FX loop that keeps the guitar signal true yet has both Eq and boost ( yet another paradox) I have the slap back in that tames some of the feedback so I can drive the delay harder without excessive repeats to get that beautiful SWELL of the old tape echo units. The Wampler is one of the most useful dirt pedals which is actually 3 pedals in one with vastly different gain characteristics to drive the preamp while not pushing the “tone stack”. The “ Cherry on top” that makes it all come together is the Bughera PS-1 power soak, an attenuator that puts a load on the output section of the amp allowing me to get REAL tube distortion from the amp at listening levels.
I am so happy with this rig. I can get authentic tones from Humbuckers, P90s and Fender Pickups at all levels of overdrive with amp sounds that emulate Marshalls, Mesa Boogies and Fenders. I have my very musical “Dumble” tones that clean up with the knob of my guitar and very aggressive Power distortion as well, all through an 8” speaker. The MXL mic has 2 tranducers with a mix control to record this thing into . I'll be on this rig for weeks to come. Amps are expensive, take up a lot of space and are way too loud for how I use them. I have DREAMED of a rig like this one. Modeling amps are great but this has that mysterious tube magic , the “hair” , the compression that make those tones the ones everyone is trying to emulate.
I'm proud of this one ...
The Ham what AM...
