I just sold my last tube amp (goodbye gear of yesteryear).

[mackerelmint]

One sort of unfortunate effect of the absolutely incredible access we have to new sounds today is the paralysis that comes with it.

MultiFX are a pretty good way to counter that. Which is funny, because in the 80s they were this expansive thing you could get and have so many more options than you ever had before with a few pedals. Now they're useful as an exercise in sparking creativity by taking away choice, choice here being all the junk we clog up our computers with.

[ludobag1]

after few years of changing gears i find the way to have what i need
a blackface bandmaster head for the tube gear addict i am (sound is really what i need)
and a quilter pro block to the ease of use and moving (sound is really near and in band context i am sure no one heard the difference in between the quilter and the bandmaster )
when i was playing in band lot of compliment to my sound from people for the audience or musicien that share the stage with us and also band that don't want to move their gear( twin for example) for gig and want to try the quilter in fact du to sometime need to quick change of band then no need to move ,plug ,mike ect ......

the real difference for me is the moving of gear if i use the quilter my little car is not full and stay 5 places but with the fender head need to convert it to 2 places to put all in ,and also if the band needed to move far the place of the head can be reuse for something else

[hexes]

I wish I could enjoy digital amps. I've played kemper, axe-fx... they are fine when playing with headphones, and a lot of great recordings have been made with them. but for live, as the audio supervisor for two large-ish performing arts venues, they're decent for live performances when a band is covering a large part of their catalogue. much easier to manage on tour, too.

at that point, the entire mix is digital anyway from the a/d conversion in the stage box to the d/a conversion in the p.a. amplifiers, so my dislike isn't about it being digital...

but the sound and playing response doesn't quite do it for me. i can't even stand quilter stuff which is so highly regarded. every quilter amp i've played with an electric guitar has sounded just plain dull and wrong to me. I have mixed a LOT of jazz guitarists with quilters, some sounded good, some just fine. but i've also mixed those same guitarists in different tours using a deluxe reverb reissue and their sound to me was much better.

that said, i'd love a kemper for my apartment. but i have zero reason to spend the money.