-
Sounds great with my modeler plugged into either the effect return or into the front end. I prefer the front end in Full/Q or vintage mode because I like having real tone controls. My helix is on the pedalboard and it's painful to have to stoop down, toggle into edit mode, scroll the the amp, page to the page with the bass , treble or mid (amazingly not all on the same page) and adjust from there.
Plugged directly into the amp it sounds good too. Not as bright as I had remembered. I think my current speaker must not be as bright as the jensen stealth tornado. The reverb is barely passible but much better than DVMark. I wanted to wait until they integrated the neunaber chip in there i needed it right away.
Sadly, I can't go along with the idea that it sounds like a tube amp. It's great for clean jazz but if I run my gladio SC, kingtone soloist or fuzz in front of it, it's horrible. You really need the helix there in between the effects and the quilter to make it convincing.
Still, i'm very happy with it. Unlike my Aguilar SH-500, it's a real guitar amp with reverb so if my helix goes down, I still have a guitar amp. I also picked up a 50w quilter mini-head. The one that's discontinued. Great backup amp.
-
04-11-2023 01:09 PM
-
I'll be interesting to hear back from you about whether you continue to like this amp.
Originally Posted by jzucker
-
I don't have a choice. My aguilar TH-500 literally fried. It had been super reliable - so much so that I sold the backup. Now, the TB202 and the mini are the only amps I have. Originally Posted by John A.
With the modeler, all you need is a flat, efficient and reliable amp.
-
"Sounds great with my modeler plugged into either the effect return or into the front end. I prefer the front end in Full/Q or vintage mode because I like having real tone controls. My helix is on the pedalboard and it's painful to have to stoop down, toggle into edit mode, scroll the the amp, page to the page with the bass , treble or mid (amazingly not all on the same page) and adjust from there."
It would be a great feature if they added a "fixed" mode for the parameter knobs - say you could put one for bass, other for middle and other for treble and every time you rolled them they would go directly to those functions.
Enjoy the new amp!
-
Yeah, that would be nice. I seem to remember the fractal had something like that. Apparently if you select the amp when you save the preset, the pedal will remember the last block you had selected which at least saves you from having to scroll to the amp. In the bigger board i had (Helix LT) there 6 knobs instead of the 3 on the stomp, so at least you can adjust most of the amp from one page. Drive,bass,mid,treble,precense, channel vol. But you still need to page over to get to the master volume. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
And each pedal's organization and UI is slightly different so going back and forth between the stomp and the LT was driving me crazy. They both sound exactly the same and I eventually just sold the LT.
Honestly though, the demos of the UA '65 Dream sound better than the Helix and it runs off 9V and has dedicated controls for treble, bass, gain, master, reverb and boost. I may eventually switch to it.
-
Yeah, if I built a new rig it would probably be based on the Dream 65 - I like to have the controls ready right away! Originally Posted by jzucker
-
does it have delay or just reverb? Because if it doesn't i'd have to buy a delay pedal. And how easy is it to disable the IR? Do you have to do it with an app? Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
-
Glad you enjoy the TB 202. It such a great amp in so many ways.
One great thing is the power supply is not dependent on wall voltage. It’s super light weight, small and louder than almost any equivalent tube amp.
And while I understand Jack Z comment about using pedals.I have a different experience with various overdrive pedals.
For me ditching tube amps almost 8 to 10 years now, has been great in so many ways. Not that I haven’t enjoyed them, but the trade offs aren’t even close to worth it any longer!
-
No delay, just spring reverb, like a Fender amp. Originally Posted by jzucker
i'm not sure about the IR part, but if I understand correctly one of the "banks", the last one, is empty so it disables the cab. I guess you just use the cab switch to reach that last bank (no led means cab is off). According to the manual:
"Push this switch up or down to change the speaker cabinet and microphone. When you push the switch repeatedly in the same direction, the pedal cycles through all available speaker cabinets."
-
The difference between an overdrive going into the helix and then into the quilter (or any SS Amp) and going into the quilter alone is night and day. No comparison at all. The kind of overdrive I get out of the quilter without the helix is like "jazz player" distortion. With the helix in front of any SS amp, it's pretty much like playing through a tube amp. I did a classic rock gig a few weeks ago doing Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix and my pedals going into the helix and then an Aguilar Bass head just slayed. NOBODY knew it was a SS rig. When I play the same pedals into the quilter, it's not even close... Originally Posted by jads57
-
yeah, i just saw that in the manual. It's weird that they have 4 settings and a 3 way switch. If I remember correctly you bump the switch down an extra time to get to the 4th position so that's how you'd get to the no IR... Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
-
Yeah, it seems to be like that but the "no IR" position would actually be number 7 - there's 6 stock Impulse Responses, 3 labeled and 3 hidden. Number 7 is empty, so no cab (which would be what I'd want to). I think some forum members have this pedal, so they can confirm this is true. Originally Posted by jzucker
If you use the app, this is all much simpler, I believe.
The only two things I don't enjoy about this pedal (and assuming it sounds as good as everyone says) are no stereo reverb (it's just double mono when you use both outputs) and no ability to use 3rd party IRs. I would expect both for the price they ask.
-
Their apps and docs are disappointing. I have the kingmaker fuzz and the app is uninformative. I can't find documentation on what the various fuzz models are based on. Some are obvious like fuzzface but many have cutesie names and there's no translation table. Helix is worse but at least you can find maps. But the dumble amp is called litigator? WTF??? Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
Last edited by jzucker; 04-11-2023 at 10:14 PM.
-
hahah. Nice. Originally Posted by jzucker
-
Yeah, i feel like they nickel and dime you. They could combine their reverb, delay, modulation into a single $399 pedal. It's all software but they want the revenue so they make them separate products. At one time, I had their reverb, delay and mod pedals. That's $1200. Add a couple amps and you're at $2000. Ridiculous IMO. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
-
By the way, the clips of the quad cortex I've heard blow away anything else I've heard including fractal, kemper, helix, UAFX, Strymon... Originally Posted by jzucker
But I've heard they are struggling financially.
-
Yeah, the Quad Cortez is intriguing. Light, small, plenty of footswitches, modelling and profiling. But I actually never heard any clip that convinced me, any links?
Yeah, their pedals (UA) combined are pretty expensive. I would like to try their Golden Reverberator, although the AS1R from Free the Tone sounds better on clips.
-
Probably not your cup of tea but this is the best SRV tone I've ever heard in a modeler. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
-
but honestly, tonex seems like the way to go for modelers. Instead of having a modeling architecture in a pedal or device, you have a generic DSP System and use plugins that can work on any hardware platform.
-
Sounds great - that's the thing with profiling, when it's well done it's a great technology. The cleans of the Vibroverb he does at a point in the video sound incredible. Originally Posted by jzucker
-
yeah, but there's alround 10000 captures or something like that - too much choice Originally Posted by jzucker
-
a buddy of mine started with fractal, switched to line 6, switched to uafx and is now using tonex Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
yeah, but there's alround 10000 captures or something like that - too much choice
-
Cool, he preferes the tonex over the uafx for jazz? Originally Posted by jzucker
-
he's more of a fusion player. He said he'd spend some time with the GB-30 today and get back to me. He's good jazz guitarist too but I think his primary work is overdriven. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
-
Ok - would love to hear his thoughts, it's real?y hard to dial clean sounds on modelling gear. That's one thing I love about the BarbQ, 100% clean. Originally Posted by jzucker
Reply With Quote
Guitar Amps built into case?
Yesterday, 05:03 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos