I’ve been looking for a Vox sound to incorporate into my setup and the digital models have left me wanting more. The Winfield Typhoon that I already had worked best with single coils, sounded best clean, and its EF86 preamp was a different vibe than a top boost or normal channel.
My first inclination was to fire the AC15 up with a Tele. I was immediately hearing the “chime” that is present so many famous songs. The amp seems like it will be a great fit for all my oddball single coil guitars. I am already enjoying being able to dial the Top Boost channel with my darker sounding Gretsch G5420T. The amp of course pairs well with my Strat and Tele guitars. The AC15 sounds great at the top range of its gain as well. It took me a while to get used to the voicing, but I've come to like the Top Boost channel cranked with humbucker guitars.
I am a fan of its clean, breakup, and cranked sounds. When recorded, it doesn't have that crackly sound that can appear with sustained notes. There are usable sounds at every gain level.
The master volume is a very useful feature and allows for saturation at sane levels when I am sitting near the amp. It works well to balance levels when recording.
Edit - 9/12/24 - I spent about a month making captures of the amp in NAM and got a good feel for the amp along the way.
I've been able to approximate several tones from albums that featured the AC30. I was able to do this by combining the AC15 with updated impulse responses of my Weber Ceramic Blue Dog speaker.
I’ve been wanting a Peavey 5150 on and off for years, and finally jumped at the new Peavey 6505 Original 1992 model. The 5150 is a classic amp in hard rock and metal, and I wanted to experience the real thing after playing through the various digital models of it over the years.
A quick clip of my Epiphone Les Paul through the Lead Channel, first through a V30, then a CL80:
I’ve been focusing my time on the Rhythm Channel, with Crunch and Bright settings engaged, to dial in rock rhythm sounds. The most useful sounds to me on this channel are with the Pre-Gain at 6-7, EQ at moderate settings, Resonance 5-8, and Presence around 8. From reading various forums, a popular way of running the amp is boosting the Rhythm channel with the Pre-Gain around 6.
The Lead Channel is much higher gain. Setting the Pre-Gain at 3-4 is where I top out at. It is a tighter and thinner sound compared to the Rhythm channel.
As I dug deeper into the 6505, I wanted to try the ubiquitous Fredman mic technique. I initially thought I would just set up 2 mic stands, but I was too lazy. I ended up buying a mic clip from Fredman Digital to do it the right way. The intended angle of the off-axis mic is apparently 55 degrees. I didn’t have a second SM57, so I used a Shure 545SD instead. I can see why it was such a popular way to record the Peavey 5150.
Fredman mic clip.
I ended up capturing the amp for NAM with settings I would typically use. I set the amp up at 4 gain levels on each of the channels, boosted and straight in. A few sound samples are below.
Although the 5150 is typically paired with Vintage 30s, I am enjoying the recorded tone more with my CL80 and V-Type speakers.
I decided to check out Neural Amp Modeler out of curiosity, and the fact that it is free. I've been wavering about purchasing IK's ToneX, but will probably eventually join the ecosystem.
I immediately tried to capture my Plexi circuit amp through a Suhr Reactive Load. I used the provided v2_0_0.wav file to reamp into my typical settings. I am still trying to get a grasp on ESR and number of Epochs for a sufficient capture. Other users on the NAM Facebook group informed me that 1000 Epochs for high gain and 500 Epochs for lower gain was typical.
Using the Google Colab set up by NAM, training a 1000 Epoch model takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes. I am surprised that a 290kb NAM file can contain such a detailed snapshot of my amp. I also like that the plugin is straightforward, laid out without bloated effects and features.
1986 and 1987 (5000pF) capture demo.
Fender Pro Junior IV capture demo.
5E3 Capture Demo.
I've found a lot of useful captures of amp types on ToneHunt and the NAM Facebook group that I don't have in my collection. The amp selection is skewed towards high gain amps (Mesas, modded Marshalls, 5150s) , but there are some lower gain varieties as well. Some users have provided the dBu calibration information, which makes it as close to virtually connecting to someone's setup as it can get.
I recently downsized my HX Stomp pedalboard, after establishing my workflow with the unit. I went to a battery powered solution for both portability and convenience. The goal was to be able to quickly set up the Stomp for playing or for mobile recording without having to think about finding an outlet nearby. Another desire was to take advantage of the Stomp's small size to play through it as much as possible.
HX Stomp with battery concealed underneath.
The Fix Pedalboards FP-7X Pedal Riser (6.75" x 5.125" x1.5") is approximately the size of the HX Stomp. I was able to comfortably fit an Anker 10,000 mAH battery, a Mission Engineering 529M power converter, and a USB coupler underneath the Stomp.
HX Stomp with Pedal Riser.
The 5V 3A current rating of the Anker Powercore 10000 PD Redux is sufficient for the HX Stomp through USB PD, and provides about 3 hours of power.
The 5VDC out of the PD output of the battery is converted to 9VDC using the Mission Engineering 529M. I went with the Mission 529M due to the Ionic Audio 5V to 9V converter being unavailable for purchase for an extended amount of time.
Battery cabling under Riser.
The 2.1mm center negative output of the 529M needed a combination of Truetone CYR (reverse polarity) and CL6 (2.1mm to 2.5mm, reverse polarity) adapters to interface with the 2.5mm center negative input of the HX Stomp.
A USB coupler is used to reduce wear and tear on the HX Stomp's USB port.
I keep the HX Stomp in an Apache 2800 case from Harbor Freight.
I hear less background noise through my headphones when the Stomp is running on batteries. Whatever noise I was getting previously was likely due to dirty power, desktop fans, sharing a power strip with multiple pieces of equipment, etc. I don’t know if it comes through on recorded DIs, but it is a much more pleasing experience to be monitoring my signal with less noise.
Edit - 11/1/21 - I was successfully able to power my Steinberg UR44 audio interface using the Mission 529M set on 12V. The UR44 requires center positive DC, which was achieved through a polarity inverting cable. The UR44 is not buss powered through USB2, but the 529M along with the Anker battery should provided hours of operation with phantom power engaged.
Going forward, I plan on doing remote acoustic recording with the UR44 and DI recording with the HX Stomp into my iPad Pro. I can do both without the need for an AC outlet nearby.
I bought a Line 6 HX Stomp to get myself into the latest generation of hardware amp modelers. I decided to go with the HX Stomp over the Fractal Audio FM3. The smaller size of the HX Stomp is much more favorable at this point, but I do intend to try the Fractal Audio modeling one day.
I was a bit underwhelmed by the modeling in the Line 6 POD HD desktop for years, but started to warm up to its modeling recently. Before getting the HX Stomp, I was playing through the preamp models into a VST plugin chain: Ignite Amps TPA-1 power amp and impulse responses in Redwirez MixIR2. I also started using the POD as a hardware insert for its effect models in Reaper.
My main draw to a new hardware modeler was a standardized input into the digital realm. Gain staging is inconsistent between different brands of VST amp modelers. Furthermore, each interface manufacturer has their own line level input levels. My original reference setup was a Waves/PRS Guitar Interface (gain at minimum) into a Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 Line Input (maximum level +28dBu). I was recording bridge humbucker DIs with peaks at around -10 to -12 dBFS. Kazrog Thermionik amp sims required 6-12dB trims on the inputs, while Scuffham S-Gear required significant boosts (maxing out the input trim at +6dB). I was getting reacquainted with the recording unaffected DIs through the POD HD recently, and it warmed me up to the idea of the Helix family of modelers.
The HX Stomp allows me to record DIs on my desktop or iPad/iPhone at the consistent levels that are appropriate for the Line 6 amp models. Helix input levels were about 3dB lower than my Waves/PRS Guitar Interface - Saffire setup.
Reamp routing with the HX Stomp.
I can record an unaffected direct signal into my DAW while monitoring through the HX Stomp. I can then take the dry unaffected signal and reamp it through my amp using one of the the HX Stomp's loops to fine tune the sound. I like that this sort of reamping can be easily moved from location to location, with my iPhone serving as the DAW.
USB reamping comparison with real amp and Brit Trem Brt model.
I immediately gravitated towards the Brit Trem Brt model, as this sounded most like my Plexi amp build set to early Lead Spec (split cathode, V1b 0.0022 coupling cap, no V2a bypass cap) with no bright cap. Despite the differences in circuitry, the Treble, Middle, Presence, and Gain knobs were in the same ballpark. The behavior of the Bass knob on the HX Stomp did not scale the same way as the real amp, but I am able to dial in the two sources to be very similar. With the amp's bass on 2, the equivalent Helix setting is about 7. The Brit Trem Brt was modeled after a shared cathode '68-'69 1987 Tremolo with bright cap, which would explain the major difference. The noise floor is much better with the Helix model when compared to the real amp, which is a major plus.
A comparison between the HX Stomp Brit Trem Brt and Brit Trem Nrm models against my Plexi buildwith the bass set on 0.
I have a Dunlop DVP4 mini expression pedal and Mosky single footswitch assigned to EXP1 and FS5 inputs respectively. To get the DVP4 working, I had to flip the internal dip switch to Expression, and set the HX Stomp's expression polarity to Inverted.
