Category: Amp It Up

The magical beast that turns potential into sheer tone!

Posted on

Studio Diary #41: Revoicing The Axe-FX 3 Pedal Platform Patch – Amp & Cab Requirements

‘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.

The heart of the preset is the amp & cab combination, so let’s get straight into that, and work out what I actually want.

Continue reading “Studio Diary #41: Revoicing The Axe-FX 3 Pedal Platform Patch – Amp & Cab Requirements”
Posted on

#TweedTone: Can I Dial In A Better Speaker Emulation For My Tweed Deluxe Amp?

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.

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Can I Dial In A Better Speaker Emulation For My Tweed Deluxe Amp?”
Posted on

#TweedTone: Can The Axe-FX 3 Reproduce The Speaker Emulation Of The UAFX Woodrow?

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.

This time around, I’ve got a different kind of question that I want to explore. Can I recreate the UAFX Woodrow’s speaker emulation in my Axe-FX 3, using only the stock cabs?

And why would I want to?

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Can The Axe-FX 3 Reproduce The Speaker Emulation Of The UAFX Woodrow?”
Posted on

#TweedTone: How Does The Wampler Tweed ’57 Pedal Compare To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?

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.

Today, I’m looking at Wampler’s classic Tweed ’57 overdrive pedal.

Continue reading “#TweedTone: How Does The Wampler Tweed ’57 Pedal Compare To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?”
Posted on

#TweedTone: Is The Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Blonde A Good Alternative To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?

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.

The Tech 21 NYC’s SansAmp Blonde on my pedalboard

This time around, I’m looking at Tech 21 NYC’s SansAmp Blonde pedal.

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Is The Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Blonde A Good Alternative To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?”
Posted on

#TweedTone: UAFX Woodrow vs NUX Sixty-Five For Stratocaster Tones

I’ve just finished writing up both my First Impressions of the NUX Sixty-Five and my look at Universal Audio’s UAFX Woodrow Tweed Deluxe amp simulator pedal. Seeing as both are on the board at the minute, I thought: why not get some Strat tones out of both, and see how they compare?

This is a photo of three guitar pedals on my pedalboard. On the left, there is the UAFX Woodrow. In the middle, the NUX Sixty-Five Overdrive. On the right, the NUX Horseman.
UAFX Woodrow, NUX Sixty Five Overdrive, NUX Horseman on my pedalboard

I think this is worth doing. As much as I love tweed tone, there might be times where something else is a better option for me. And clean-ish Strat tones just might be one of those times.

Read on to find out what I think (with audio demos!).

Continue reading “#TweedTone: UAFX Woodrow vs NUX Sixty-Five For Stratocaster Tones”
Posted on

New Arrivals: October 2023

This month, the second-hand market has completely taken off. After what seems like years of me saying that there wasn’t much interesting stuff out there (well, interesting to me, anyway), I saw at least twenty different pedals that I would have loved to experience.

In the end, I got precisely none of them. I’d already picked up a couple of extra items back in September that I didn’t get to use until this month. And they’re both pretty fine, in my honest opinion.

Continue reading “New Arrivals: October 2023”
Posted on

#TweedTone: Is The Kemper A Good Alternative To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?

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.

This week, I’m dusting off my old Kemper to see what kind of 5e3 Tweed Deluxe tones I can get out of it.

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Is The Kemper A Good Alternative To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?”
Posted on

#TweedTone: Is The UAFX Woodrow A Great Alternative To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?

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.

This is a photo of the UAFX Woodrow guitar pedal, from Universal Audio. We're looking down on the pedal from an angle. The pedal is sat on my practice pedalboard at home. On the front panel, there are four rows of controls. The first row contains three knobs. They control INST volume, NORM volume, and OUTPUT volume. The second row contains three toggle switches. They control the selected speaker emulation, whether or not to save the current settings as a preset, and the kind of boost that is active (if any). The third row consists of three knobs. These control the amount of room added to the sound; the overall tone of the signal; and how much boost to use. The fourth row consists of two latching footswitches. They control whether the pedal is in live mode or bypassed; and whether the pedal is in preset mode or bypassed.
The UAFX Woodrow pedal on my pedalboard

This time around, I’m looking at Universal Audio’s UAFX Woodrow pedal.

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Is The UAFX Woodrow A Great Alternative To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?”