‘Studio Diary’ is an occasional series where I talk about building a home recording setup for hobbyists and enthusiasts like us. I share my personal experiences, and the thinking behind some of the decisions that I’ve made along the way.
Fractal Audio have recently overhauled their amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 / FM-9 / FM-3. And my recent dive into the Orange Getaway Driver has shown me that I need to revoice my signal chain. I’m taking this as an opportunity to re-evaluate everything about the pedal preset I’ve built for the Axe-FX 3.
I recently took a look at Umbrella Company’s Hitchhike Drive tweed-in-a-box overdrive pedal. The whole blog post ended up being rescued by the Axe-FX 3’s Deluxe Reverb amp model. Since then, I’ve tried it with a couple of other pedals and had a similar experience.
A single ’65 Clean’ pedal platform patch clearly isn’t enough. I need to split it up into two separate flavours.
Series Tracker
This is the 15th blog post in this series.
You can see the full list of these blog posts over on the dedicated FW 25 Pedal Platform Preset page.
Table of Contents
- Series Tracker
- My Personal History With The Deluxe Reverb
- Why I’ve Favoured The Princeton Amp Model Until Now
- Splitting Up The 65 Clean Pedal Platform Preset
- Introducing My ’65 Vintage’ Pedal Platform Preset
- Final Thoughts
My Personal History With The Deluxe Reverb
Putting My Experience Into Context
This, ultimately, is a story about my love affair with Fender’s Deluxe Reverb Re-issue (DRRI for short) amp. And it starts with a caveat that will become very important further down: my experience with the real amp is limited to playing just the one example for a month or three, many years ago.
Growing up in the UK, Fender amps were as rare here as Marshall amps were in the USA. Even today – when Fender is the dominant guitar brand in UK shops – I can’t remember the last time I walked into a Fender dealer and they had a Deluxe Reverb valve amp on the shop floor to play through.
My local shop did have a single Deluxe Reverb Reissue for a bit. And man, what an example it was.
The One That Got Away
Let’s rewind to 2017. The home hobbyist guitar community is just hitting its stride over on Twitter (thanks to Steve and Lisa), and this blog isn’t even a twinkle in my eye yet.
My local guitar store has this Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue (DRRI) on the shop floor. And we’re all in love with it.
It’s not just me. The shop puts on a series of evening clinics and events throughout the year, and at least one of the demonstrators comments on just how good this particular amp is. It has that sound.
I’m in love with it partly because of that, and partly because dirt pedals sound simply phenomenal through it. I’m playing Strats quite a bit, and this amp is the first one I’ve used in a long time that makes a Strat sound like a Strat should. That mid-scooped sound isn’t just for Strats, though. Plug in a Les Paul and a drive pedal, and it balances out the Les Paul’s mid-range push in exactly the right amount.
This particular DRRI is probably more responsible for my love of drive pedals (and, by extension, this entire blog) than any other piece of gear. Back then, I wasn’t aware of the concept of a “pedal platform amp”. The explosion of affordable valve amps was yet to come. “Oh, and it takes pedals well too” was the more common refrain for the amps of the time.
So why didn’t I buy it? Why did I let it get away? Unfortunately, it was just too large to fit into my house.
Compared to Americans, we Brits live in tiny houses. Most of our housing stock is old and small (originally built to house factory workers or miners), and for reasons (our country’s relationship with housing swings from unhealthy to outright certifiable!), newer houses are getting even smaller and smaller.
Like many home tone hobbyists, I don’t have a dedicated room for music. My gear has to fit in the corner of a room. And, sadly, the DRRI was just too big for me to squeeze in at the time.
I made a mistake. I should have bought it. The memory of that amp has haunted me ever since.
That amp started me on a journey that led me through the Kemper, my Synergy rig, a couple of Marshall amps, a Blackstar amp, and finally to the Axe-FX 3. And when I got to the Axe-FX 3, it wasn’t the Deluxe Reverb amp models I went with, it was with the Princeton amp model instead.
Why I’ve Favoured The Princeton Amp Model Until Now
I Couldn’t Get The Sound I Remembered
I remember that DRRI having a mid-scooped sound to it. The Deluxe Verb models in the Axe-FX 3? I’m getting a mid-pushed sound out of them, with more mids than any of the pedal platform amps I’ve owned. That’s not the Fender blackface sound that I’m chasing.
But there is an amp model in the Axe-FX 3 that does give me the sound I remember: the Princeton Reverb model.
The Princeton Amp Model Sounds Amazing …
I can’t say enough good things about the Princeton Reverb amp model in the Axe-FX 3.
No matter what amp models I try, it’s the one that I keep returning to. I’ve been using it since I started using the Axe-FX 3 for pedals. It’s the basis for both my 57 Vintage and 65 Clean pedal platform presets.
It’s got that “blackface” sound that I’m trying to replicate from my memory of that DRRI and from the pedal-platform amps that I’ve had. It takes my drive pedals really well, and I find the EQ section to be perfectly voiced for when I’m trying new (to me) pedals.
It’s ‘home’ for me on the Axe-FX 3.
… Until It Doesn’t
As I learned with Umbrella Company’s Hitchhike Drive, the voicing of my 65 Clean preset doesn’t suit every pedal that I get to try.
I’m not talking about pedals that are voiced for boosting dirty Marshall plexi amps or JCM800’s – that’s a completely different thing. I’m referring to pedals that seem to be designed for Fender amps … but I can’t seem to get my 65 Clean preset to give them what they want.
After a bit of head-scratching, I think I’ve worked out why. And it’s all my fault.
So What’s Going On?
Since I waved goodbye to that DRRI back in 2017, I’ve owned a couple of amps that offered a “blackface-voiced” clean channel. But, thinking back, they have a far more “modern” sound (the mid-scoop is stronger, and there’s no vintage-style upper-mids emphasis) than the Deluxe Reverb models in the Axe-FX 3.
And, because there was some overlap in ownership, I reckon I ended up dialling in a more modern clean tone while thinking that I was still chasing that DRRI sound.
Now that (I think that) I understand my mistake, let’s do something about it.
Splitting Up The 65 Clean Pedal Platform Preset
’65 Clean’ Becomes The ’65 Modern’ Preset
My 65 Clean preset isn’t going anywhere. I’m just going to give it a name that more accurately reflects what it really is.
After my experience with the fantastic LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 this summer (and the excellent MP Audio Blue Brit!), I might tweak it a little by dialling back the low-end a bit. After fixing the low-end build-up from my delay and reverb effects, I need to try a few more pedals before I’m sure about making more changes.
The rename also creates a bit of space for me to add a second pedal platform preset inspired by Fender’s blackface amps from 1965. Alongside the ’65 Modern’ preset, I’m going to add a new ’65 Vintage’ preset that’s built around the sound of the Deluxe Reverb amp models.
Introducing My ’65 Vintage’ Pedal Platform Preset
This preset isn’t going to follow the same structure that my 57 Vintage and 65 Clean (now 65 Modern) presets do. After some experimenting, I’ve decided that this preset needs to do things differently to suit my needs.
Built For Strats And Teles
My original pedal platform presets have 3 scenes in them: one each for
- brighter guitars (e.g. bridge pickups),
- darker guitars (specifically the neck pickups on my Paul’s Guitar and Fender Journeyman Telecaster),
- and a general voicing that seems to suit most guitars most of the time.
I’m not doing that with my new ’65 Vintage’ preset.
First and foremost, I’m voicing this preset to bring out the best in my Strat and my Tele, both with and without pedals. I want the cleans to sound great (especially with my Klon KTR), and I want overdrive pedals to sound complementary rather than competing.
I’m honestly not fussed if this preset doesn’t suit a Les Paul. [In the next blog post in this series, you’ll hear that it really does! – Ed]
Norm Or Vibrato Channel? Why Not Both!
While researching how Deluxe Reverb owners use their real amps for pedals, I learned that owners fall into two main camps:
- those who run pedals into the Vibrato channel,
- and those who use the Normal channel because of the bright cap on the Vibrato channel.
There’s a bit more to it than that (the two channels are voiced differently; the Vibrato channel doesn’t always like being boosted with a pedal; disabling the Vibrato channel’s bright cap is a common mod), but those seem to be the two main schools.
Neither channel is objectively better.
- Some pedals will work better with the Normal channel,
- some will work better with the Vibrato channel,
- and some will work better with the Vibrato channel once the bright cap has been clipped.
It’s going to take me years to work out which I prefer – and I’m willing to bet that no one channel will suit me 100% of the time.
So I think the sensible thing to do is to create scenes for all three:
| Scene | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scene 1 | 65VN Normal | Deluxe Normal amp model, no bright cap |
| Scene 2 | 65VM Vibrato Mod | Deluxe Vibrato amp model, no bright cap |
| Scene 3 | 65VB Vibrato Bright | Deluxe Vibrato amp model, bright cap |
Thing is, that’s not going to be enough. You see, I have a problem with the matching DynaCabs …
Using Third-Party Impulse Responses
My strong preference is that my guitar tones do not sound like someone has thrown a blanket over them. I want them to have presence and plenty of top-end detail.
For me, Fractal Audio’s Deluxe Verb DynaCab IRs deliver the opposite.
I find that the Deluxe Verb DynaCab IRs have too much mid-range content in them. When I use two or three of them together (especially if I’m using the Condenser IR), I find that the mids just stack up so much that it chokes off the top end of the signal.
I want to use DynaCab IRs in the preset because every Axe-FX 3 owner will have them. So I’ve done my (limited!) best to dial in the DynaCab IRs so that the mids aren’t too stacked up. As I get more familiar with the amp models and the official IRs, I’m sure I’ll get better sounds out of it.
But I’m already getting sounds that I prefer by using third-party IRs instead.
Regular readers may remember that I bought a whole bunch of official Celestion impulse responses some time ago. I’ve loaded some of them into my Axe-FX 3, and I’m pretty happy with my initial results.
I’m using a blend of the Celestion A-Type and Celestion Blue speaker IRs. The Celestion A-Type is giving me the sonic width that I want, while the Celestion Blue is filling in the detail very nicely.
(I have a pair of real 1×12 cabs at home, fitted with an A-Type and a Blue. It’s a speaker combination that I’ve really grown to love over the years.)
Granted, it’s not an authentic speaker pairing. As long as it sounds good, I don’t think it matters.
So my preset will have three additional scenes:
| Scene | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 65VN Hermit’s Cave | Deluxe Norm amp model, Celestion A-Type & Blue IRs |
| 6 | 65VM Hermit’s Cave | Deluxe Verb amp model, no bright cap, Celestion A-Type and Blue IRs |
| 7 | 65VB Hermit’s Cave | Deluxe Verb amp model, bright cap, Celestion A-Type and Blue IRs |
Final Thoughts
I’ve spent over two years auditioning (what became) my 57 Vintage and 65 Clean presets with guitar pedals. It’s as much about learning to listen to what’s actually there as it is trying to dial in the desired tone.
So I’m quite nervous about introducing a new pedal platform preset, because it has yet to go through that same long-term auditioning and evolution.
However, this whole pedal platform preset journey started precisely because a pedal showed me that I needed to revoice my signal chain. And, time and time again over the summer, I’ve tried pedals that also showed me the same thing.
The whole point of a hybrid rig is that I’m not limited by one amp and/or one speaker cab. I don’t have to neg on a pedal because it needs a different amp; I can try a different signal chain to see if that brings the best out of the pedal.
There are practical limits to this. I don’t have the time (or the skill!) to build a bespoke signal chain for every single pedal that I try. That’s why I’m building pedal platform presets that play the odds, by chasing the kind of tones that the pedal might have been designed through.
With my new 65 Vintage preset, I’m hoping to fall in love with a few more pedals than before.