I’m lucky enough to own a physical Tweed Deluxe amp. I also think that a Tweed Deluxe amp rig for home use has become so expensive in 2023, it’s difficult to justify. So I’ve started looking at alternatives, to see how they compare to the real thing.
Last time out, I sat down and built a preset for my Axe-FX 3 that gets pretty close to the speaker emulation in the UAFX Woodrow amp+cab sim pedal. My real Tweed Deluxe amp sounded really good through that.
Today, I want to continue tweaking the preset, to see if I can get my real amp sounding even better.
Table of Contents
- Why Are You Doing This?
- A Quick Recap: The Sounds So Far
- What I Want Out Of Tweed Tone
- Taming The Highs And Adding Back The Foundational Lows
- Does The “Ideal Cab” Setting Translate Well To The Woodrow?
- Final Thoughts
Why Are You Doing This?
The more I do these #TweedTone comparison blog posts, the more I’m learning that my real Tweed Deluxe amp has a sound that I can’t quite get from anything else.
I’m not saying that all the other gear I’ve tried is somehow “wrong” or “worse” (except for the Kemper …). It’s just different, just like how two analogue Tweed Deluxe amps will be different from each other.
And it’s a difference that’s really growing on me.
A Quick Recap: The Sounds So Far
Here’s how my Tweed Deluxe amp sounded, when I run it through the ‘Woodrow Matched Cab’ setting that I built last time:
For comparison, here’s where I started from. This is the audio demo of my Tweed Deluxe amp, taken from my Axe-FX 3 comparison post:
I think that the ‘Woodrow Matched Cab’ setting is a big improvement over what I dialled up before. In particular, I’m hearing a lot more definition to the note attack, and lot more note clarity in the chords. I definitely over-cooked the low end when I built my first preset for my Tweed Deluxe amp!
Thing is, as much as the ‘Woodrow Matched Cab’ setting is a huge improvement, I think it’s lost something that matters to me.
What I Want Out Of Tweed Tone
There are several things that I personally look for out of tweed tone:
- rounded attack
- thick mids
- foundational lows
I’m looking for a warm, laid back sound that growls, with enough thickness to suit my love of dyad note phrasing (double-stops instead of full chords) even on single-coil guitars.
My ‘Woodrow Matched Cab’ setting doesn’t quite tick all those boxes – even though I bet UAD voiced the Woodrow’s JP12 cab setting to sit really well in a mix.
- The attack is a little too sharp for me, and
- the foundational lows just aren’t there at all.
Thankfully, both of these are pretty easy to address in the Axe-FX 3. I’m going to solve them both by introducing a second virtual microphone.
Taming The Highs And Adding Back The Foundational Lows
Leon Todd – Ragdoll’s guitarist and probably the best Fractal educator on YouTube – has a fantastic technique for taming the high-end in the Axe-FX 3.
If we introduce a second virtual mic, we can move the two microphones out of phrase just ever so slightly – 10 to 20 ms – and that has the effect of smoothing out the top-end without losing too much low-end.
And that’s great, because I need to introduce a second virtual microphone anyways to bring back the foundational lows that I am sorely craving.
The ‘Woodrow Matched Cab’ setting uses a single virtual SM-57 microphone. To get the foundational lows back, I’m going to add a virtual R121 microphone as well. The idea is that the R121 will fill in the low end, and I’ll use Leon’s out-of-phase technique to smooth out the top-end.
Dialling in the right amount of low-end is very tricky in a home tone setup. I’ve got my setup in a spare bedroom. It’s small, it’s boxy, and I imagine that it’s about as far away as you can get from being an acoustically great space to work in.
So this time, I’ve tried to be very sparing in how much of the second virtual mic that I’m using. You’ll have to tell me in the comments below whether or not I’ve overcooked it again!
Playing it back while I write up this blog post, I’m happy with the “Ideal Cab” setting that I’ve put together. It’s still got a lot of the character of my “Woodrow Matched Cab” setting, while also giving me those tweed-tone characteristics that I’m after:
- the top end sounds a little rounded now,
- the mid-range has thickened up a little,
- and the foundational lows that everything sits on are now back.
I think it lets my amp sound more like itself, if that makes sense?
Does The “Ideal Cab” Setting Translate Well To The Woodrow?
Question is, though, how much of this “Ideal Cab” setting is the virtual mic tweaks that I’ve made, and how much of it is still down to my amp’s own tone and character?
To answer that, let’s go back to the UAFX Woodrow once more. As a refresher, here’s how the Woodrow sounded with my Axe-FX 3 “Woodrow Matched Cab” setting:
and here’s how the UAFX Woodrow sounds with my new “Ideal Cab” setting:
Well, that’s interesting. (At least, I think so!)
I much prefer the sound of the Woodrow through my “Ideal Cab” setting. That’s a far more satisfying sound to me. It’s still a bit too cutting (I probably need to turn the tone control down on the Woodrow to address that), but those foundational lows work very nicely for me.
Final Thoughts
I’ve got two main takeaways from this little rabbit hole.
First off, I’m continually impressed by how useful a tool the Axe-FX 3 is. I’m using it to solve far more guitar tone puzzles than I ever expected. And I’m just a home hobbyist, learning (and failing!) as he goes. I can only imagine just how good a tool this must be in the hands of an actual pro.
Secondly – and I may have already said this before – I am starting to fall in love with my Tweed Deluxe amp all over again. Before, I was viewing it as this great education tool; as a way to feel more confident about writing about tweed tone on here. That’s why I bought it.
Now, though, I’m also viewing it as a tool that I can use at home to make music with (which definitely wasn’t the case until now). Still got a ways to go for sure (can it win a shootout against my beloved Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive?!?), but things are definitely shifting for me.
I’m so glad I started this tweed tone comparison series.