Good guitar modeling amplifier?

[Nostril Cheese]

In keeping with guitar stuff today, my Line 6 AX2 212 just bit the dust after 20 years of hard use.

Time to get something new. Figured I'd ask the collective. Not much of a purist, I've got a late 60's Deluxe Reverb for that. I've always liked the JCM Marshall sound but don't need a stack. How are modern Fender (Mexico) amps these days? I had a Hot Rod Deville that had an electrical fit a while back and never really sounded right again.

I figure a good 2x12 50-100w modeling combo should do the trick. I'm not real big on super complex setups, something simple. floorboard is a plus too.

I play stuff from Tool to Hall and Oates.

Anybody have any ideas?

[Gogar]

I've heard all of it; the clear winner to me is the Kemper Profiler.

If that's a little too spendy for you, I'd say that the New POD stuff is leaps and bounds better than your old one. Like, waaaaay better. And, it might be a little more familiar to get around on, since you're used to the Line6 way of doing stuff.

[Rick Lee]

I have a Roland Cube 80x that totally kicks ass. I have three Fender EVH heads, all made in Mexico. I had a problem with one, but the other two are solid. Both my Hot Rod DeVilles were made in USA and were awesome.

[Nostril Cheese]

$2K is way to much to spend on an amp right now.

know anything about the Vox Valvetronix? I like what I'm hearing on youtube.

I also really like the Egnater. Although thats not what Im looking for.

[campbellcj]

I'd also check out the Blackstar stuff. I just got two of their little tiny portable amps and they are super cool. No experience with their larger amps though.

If you really want vintage Marshall JCM tube tone without going to digital modeling, I have two solutions for that. One is a little 1x10 combo, a 1W 50th Anniversary JCM-1C. Sweet little sucker, pricey but, nicely-made in the UK. Then I have a Friedman Smallbox 50 which is a 50W EL34-based, basically a Plexi on one channel and a JCM 800 with additional gain on the other channel. There is a 2x12 combo version although I got the head + a 2x12 cab for versatility. Phenomenal tone and will play loud as fuch if that's your aim. All the Friedman stuff I've seen or heard is kick-ass.

[Rick Lee]

A Cube 80x in new condition ran me $265 delivered. I had a Vox Valvetronix 50w and just sold it a few weeks ago. It was ok, but I was too lazy to learn all the settings and buttons. I like the Cube because it has knobs for all the effects and no programming. It does everything and I can get just about any sound out of it. Or buy my EVH 50w head for only $800 shipped. It will blow your house down.

[Cajundaddy]

Very subjective depending on the stuff you play. I play in the tonal realm of Robbie Krieger, SRV, David Gilmour, Clapton, Mike Campbell, Brian Setzer, Robben Ford.

A few I like:

Vox VT- useable voices and especially accurate Vox chime.

Roland Cube- Surprisingly good tone for a low cost amp with straightforward controls.

Fender SuperChamp X2- Really good Fender, Vox, Plexi tone in a small 15w tube combo. I have one and regularly take it on small gigs. Enough beef to run with a drummer and tone mojo.

I am old school so the menu-driven stuff tends to annoy me. Pod and Vox Tonelab are pretty good as pedal driven modelers though.

[Rick Lee]

My next purchase will be an old beater Fender Bassman head for under $500. I have heard you can come very close to the VH I brown sound by running a Tube Screamer through it. And that's a dirt cheap alternative to all the boutique Plexi builders (Bray, Metropoulos, Suhr, etc.).

[IROC]

I would check out the Roland Cube stuff for sure. I've had a MicroCube for years and am impressed how good it sounds for what it is - I wish it had a speaker out to run to my 2x12.

I bought a Marshall DSL15C a couple of years ago and still love it. It nails the classic Marshall sound for $600 or so.

[T77911S]

i heard one of the marshall DSL amps the other day. soundd real good.

cant believe i am saying this, you could also get a good (choke) solid state amp and use a line 6 pedal board.

i used one when i played at church and played at home so i could run it thru my mixer along with my computer and use head phones.

it was easier than dragging an amp to church 3 times a week

[Don Ro]

What's a modeling amp?

[Rick Lee]

I'm not sure of the precise definition, but it's generally an amp with programmable settings or pre-programmed sounds. Say you want a Fender Twin Reverb sound, a modeling amp would either have a patch for it or you could create one and store it. I'm a simple-minded player, so I don't like too many buttons with digital displays. My Roland Cube has a knob with settings for classic, metal, British, American, clean, etc. and then knobs for effects like phaser, flanger, reverb, chorus, delay, etc. I can do just about anything I want with those, though I can't program specific settings to switch back to instantly.

[Don Ro]

[72doug2,2S]

12" woofer Blackstar does an amazing job of modeling. Nothing really is alive like a tube, but it does sound great for solid state.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by Gogar

I've heard all of it; the clear winner to me is the Kemper Profiler.

Kemper is good. Darn good. I'm pretty partial to the AxeFX though. Cliff (the designer) is insane when it comes to firmware updates. It gets better and better.

Here's a couple of recent firmware clips.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by WolfeMacleod

Kemper is good. Darn good. I'm pretty partial to the AxeFX though. Cliff (the designer) is insane when it comes to firmware updates. It gets better and better.

Way overkill for home tho, Wolfe. Guy in my band was using one for while. Very complex, patches for this and that. Sounded good, but never quite right. He gave up and went back to a Freidman Marsha BrownEye and an analogue board. I saw Dweezal Zappa using one, and he sounded arse.

Modelling is the future, however.

[Cajundaddy]

Some guys get good results with AxeFX, some don't. It doesn't work well for me.

I have been a fan of Neal Schon since the early Santana days and always liked his guitar tone, style and technique. Last year we saw Journey at the Hollywood Bowl and Neal was running through the Axe. Just awful! We can probably blame tinnitus more than the modeling technology in this case but... Oh my, it hurt me to hear this magnificent guitarist play.