Sweepstake on how long it is until I sell this M13 I just bought!

Grumpyrocker · October 2013

I think the odd switching comes from the clean channel being added late in the development of the Ironheart. Originally it was a two channel metal amp - crunch and lead. You can get a surprisingly good almost clean sound out of both dirt channels. In fact this week I discovered that the lead channel was brilliant for getting a fat, bluesy, slightly broken up sound - and all this time I'd been using that channel teh brutalz.

The switching makes sense when you see it as a two channel amp with one of the channels have a dual mode. There are ways round the switching - as well as the din-lead and footswitch that comes with the amp, there are regular 6.5mm jacks for switching so you can use a 3rd party switching system and set it up however you like.

Drew_TNBD · October 2013

digitalscream;69052" said:
Sorry, having a bad day, brain be absent

Line6 are just like all the other manufacturers. There isn't single one which makes a unit that doesn't have just enough flaws to make it unusable.

Hell, I'm at the point where I'm looking for a good, relatively low-priced 3-channel amp. The one I really want, purely because it sounds exactly right, is an Ironheart...probably the IRT Studio...but then Laney had to go and fuck it up by using a totally retarded switching mechanism (which is completely different to anything else they produce). Mental.

Currently considering a GSP1101, which is great...but it doesn't support relay switching. Gawd.

Yeah, prior to my JVM I looked at the Ironheart, and the switching was the reason I didn't buy one back then!!

ddlooping · October 2013

Sorry for the off-topic question but, Drew, how come you got rid of the Kemper?
It seems like a unit that would meet most of your needs.

Drew_TNBD · October 2013

I liked it, but didn't want £1300 tied up in a pure recording solution, and at the time to make it a live performance solution seemed like I'd have to spend even more money. It is a good unit, but isn't perfect - at the time it was subject to some of the same issues that I dislike with amps and effects - gaps of silence between patch changes, inability to run a reverse and digital delay in series.

So yeah; I do see the slight irony of then spending £800 5 months later on a valve amp!

ddlooping · October 2013

Drew_fx said:

I liked it, but didn't want £1300 tied up in a pure recording solution, and at the time to make it a live performance solution seemed like I'd have to spend even more money.

Good point, I hadn't thought about that.

Drew_fx said:

So yeah; I do see the slight irony of then spending £800 5 months later on a valve amp!

GAS and irony go together hand in hand.

Drew_TNBD · October 2013

Also the other thing that put me off slightly was that the cab bypass isn't 100%, and I'm really not into FRFR monitoring - feels fake and unresponsive to me. An amp is as much an instrument as a guitar, and I do use feedback musically quite a bit in our music. I find feedback through a FRFR type solution is not as musical sounding - can't quite explain it. But doesn't feel right.

ddlooping · October 2013

Drew_fx said:

Also the other thing that put me off slightly was that the cab bypass isn't 100%...

I didn't know, thanks.

ragingben · October 2013

Interesting about the Kemper issues - people (fanboys) gloss over these on the official forums. I'm thinking of saving up and getting the power head version and using my 112 as a monitor for live, main outs to the PA. Thing is like with any multi/digital solution or whatever I know I'll end up missing my stomps, and GAS!

ICBM · October 2013

Drew_fx said:

Also the other thing that put me off slightly was that the cab bypass isn't 100%, and I'm really not into FRFR monitoring - feels fake and unresponsive to me. An amp is as much an instrument as a guitar, and I do use feedback musically quite a bit in our music. I find feedback through a FRFR type solution is not as musical sounding - can't quite explain it. But doesn't feel right.

Totally agree. One of my pet bugbears - sound engineers who insist on you turning the amp down too low, then when you say "I want to use feedback, I can't get it if the amp is quieter than this" say "don't worry, I'll give you more in the monitors". It always sounds wrong and is far harder to control properly.

There is something about an electric guitar going through a conventional amp and a conventional speaker which 'just works'. I really wish it wasn't so in many ways - I'd love to be able to be all modern and carry next to no equipment, but for anything rock-oriented I've just never been happy with my sound any other way than the old way.

Si_ · October 2013

Speaking as someone who'd spent the last 24 months with an AxeFX (in one form or another).. I'd never go digital again. Played my first proper band rehearsal last night with a proper valve amp rather than my AxeFX II and it's just miles better, feels better, plays better, sounds better..

Drew_TNBD · October 2013

ICBM said:

There is something about an electric guitar going through a conventional amp and a conventional speaker which 'just works'. I really wish it wasn't so in many ways - I'd love to be able to be all modern and carry next to no equipment, but for anything rock-oriented I've just never been happy with my sound any other way than the old way.

Agreed! It's a bit like the difference between white noise and pink noise. Pink noise is infinitely more musical sounding and more usable, whereas white noise is just painful. A guitar cab shapes the sound of the amp, and shapes the sound of your feedback, and it's all interactive. You don't get those interactions with digital, because essentially it's a set of static filters running in series.

thomasw88 · November 2013

Not wanting to hijack

digitalscream;69052" said:
Sorry, having a bad day, brain be absent

Line6 are just like all the other manufacturers. There isn't single one which makes a unit that doesn't have just enough flaws to make it unusable.

Hell, I'm at the point where I'm looking for a good, relatively low-priced 3-channel amp. The one I really want, purely because it sounds exactly right, is an Ironheart...probably the IRT Studio...but then Laney had to go and fuck it up by using a totally retarded switching mechanism (which is completely different to anything else they produce). Mental.

Currently considering a GSP1101, which is great...but it doesn't support relay switching. Gawd.

Not wanting to hijack the thread but have you looked at the hughes kettner statesman head. Effectively two channels plus 2 boosts on the drive channel.

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Sweepstake on how long it is until I sell this M13 I just bought!

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