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Eargasm Inducing Combos


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That's the purloined term I'm using to describe the audio state of bliss I encountered this AM  (heck, pretty much on any given day) via my HEL Standard/Interceptor through the Fractal AFX III and the HeadRush FRFR 112. Sweet Jeebus on a pogo stick! That is one kickass combo! Certainly one of the best in my microcosm of first hand experience. The only downside is the lack of visual cool factor inherent in a big wattage head on a stack of  4 x 12's. Just for shits and grins, I'ma play a gig with dummy/fake cabinets and head on stage and have pics taken for use in subsequent  promotional/marketing efforts. 😆

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What's your personal fave ax/amp/cab combo?

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At this juncture, I am loving my Gibson R8 through my pedalboard into my '83 Mesa MK III. I usually bring four guitars to every gig, but the Lester is currently when I get the hair standing up on the back of my neck. The Mesa goes into a plexiglass box on stage so that I can turn it up without neutering our drummer.

 

 

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My purple holoflake Strat into the Fractal and a KSC powered monitor. The Strat has the second tone knob set to work the middle and bridge pickups (Texas Specials) and I found that if I keep those pickups really low, use a "hot" amp model, and use the tone knob I can get jus' 'bout any sound I need.

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I’m with you Jim.  I just love the AFX 3.  I use a Friedman ASC-12 as you know.  The ASC-12 provides some “cab factor” and feels like it moves some air but nothing beats 4x12’s aesthetics.

Even walking into the local guitar store I’m still wowed by heads and 4x12’s.  But the size and weight...

As for the preferred guitar I swing between my Virt and Super-C as go-to’s but every single one of my guitars sounds great.  The best ones don’t sound way better than my least favourite just different. 

 

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2 hours ago, DBraz said:

 

As for the preferred guitar I swing between my Virt and Super-C as go-to’s but every single one of my guitars sounds great.  The best ones don’t sound way better than my least favourite just different.

Agreed. It's a state of flux thing- one day the Spitfire sounds amazing, the next, it's the C3. The next day, one of my beloved LE's will reign supreme. I was intent on including the caveat about pretty much any of my guitars sounds great thru the AFX 3 but I got sidetracked with the dummy cab angle- 😆

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Love the Marshall/Les Paul combination but it has been a long time since I’ve had it out, needs room to breathe. And then there is the barber chair.  

The little Boogie is good with any guitar, as is the MKIIA.  And a Hamer!

 

 

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I purchased this 1965 Melody Maker for $650.  It was stock and well played.  I had it refretted and "done up" just like Pat Travers' guitar made famous by Pat and on the Putting It Straight album by my luthier Peter Taylor of Chellee Guitars.

The 1959 Fender tweed Deluxe is all original except the speaker came from elsewhere, but is period correct.  The amp sounds great with any guitar, but this combo is one of my favorites that I have a picture of!

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For a long time, I’ve relied on my Tech21 Power Engine 60. Whatever I amplify through it, it gets beautifully reproduced —though louder, of course.

Here’s an example of a configuration I used to love:

An all-mahogany guitar (in this case an 84 Hamer Vector —which I no longer own, sadly) —> treble booster (a BBE Freq Boost) —> Pignose Piggy-in-a-box (as a preamp) —> Tech21 Power Engine 60.

I’ve also used it with only a modeller. In the picture below, you’ll see a Digitech RP250 too. Back then, I had programmed it with just three tones. 

Everything there is very simple and modest, I know, but it’s also reliable and highly effective.

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Stock Echotone straight into my old '64 Vibrolux in the dining room of our house. The combination of guitar, amp and room was pretty amazing.

My Hamer Junior straight into a current Vox AC10. Those two love each other. I'd gig all night with that.

Anything plugged into the SuperChamp X2, the amp built by God himself. It's glorious.

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True, there's nothing like a 4x12 and a cranked amp head.  But these days, there's also nothing like having to not haul that around.  In the 80s, I had a Peavey VTM120 head into a Peavey 412F cabinet with casters.  Cripes that stuff was heavy.  The cab was too large and heavy for one person to carry.  

These days, it's a Helix into a powered speaker, which varies.  

 

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1 hour ago, scottcald said:

True, there's nothing like a 4x12 and a cranked amp head.  But these days, there's also nothing like having to not haul that around.  In the 80s, I had a Peavey VTM120 head into a Peavey 412F cabinet with casters.  Cripes that stuff was heavy.  The cab was too large and heavy for one person to carry.  

These days, it's a Helix into a powered speaker, which varies.  

 

+1 

Had a VTM 60 and a matching 4 x 12 cab thru which I ran a BC Rich ST III and/or a Charvel Model 2 or my trusty modded/super-ized CBS Strat. Hell, up until last Dec. 8th, I was lugging around a Marshall JVM 205H and an old 1960 B cab with casters. And this doesn't even include the guitar rack or gig bag with cables, mics, batteries, strings, power strips, etc. It was real fun getting the cab up (or down) the basement stairs unaided. :P

The Axe FX 3 is in a SKB soft rack carrying case over one shoulder, the foot controller in a Gator pedal board carry case over the other, the Head Rush amp in one hand and the guitar in the other. Getting up stairs is a bit dodgy but I can now literally carry the bulk of my stage gear in one trip from the vehicle.

But utility aside, if my amp/cab rig could get the tones I get outta the AFX3, I'd still be using it.

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29 minutes ago, scottcald said:

Yeah, my 4x12 wasn’t the matching one,, but the one in the photo below.  Weighed a lot more than a Marshall 4x12.  If I had roadies or it never moved, I’d probably still have it   

 

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