shinksma
What? I get a title?
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2014
- Messages
- 5,379
TL;DR version: anyone have any idea how the Archon Clean Channel Frequency Response (i.e. the "tone" vs "flat") compares to other well-known amps?
And has anyone found an "amp-sim-in-a-box" pedal that comes close to what the Archon does, tonally? (Not a full-blown device like a Kemper.) Would a Mesa Boogie emulator/simulator be the closest, since I'm pretty sure no-one has released a "PRS amp in a box" pedal?
Long version:
Recently I posted in the Guitars sub-forum here that a band practice held earlier this week was quite enjoyable because my Silver Sky sounded really really good, and I just melted into the music and tone, and even the rest of the band commented on how good it sounded.
Signal path was: Core SS -> Horsemeat -> MojoHandFX DMBL -> Boss RV-3 -> Archon 50 Combo (US build)
Last night's practice was the same guitar through my FlyRig (with amp and cab sims built-in) into a Fishman LoudBox acoustic amp, because that gets the closest to a mini-PA for me. It was good, and I've used that combo a lot for some small-footprint easy-in/easy-out gigs (often just gong straight from FlyRig to mixing board and thus out to PA and monitors), but not nearly as good as the pedals into the Archon sounded earlier this week with that guitar.
I tried comparing and tweaking again today during my coffee breaks. The FlyRig just couldn't get the same overall tone. It could sound good, but not the same.
I then tried the pedalboard through an amp-sim pedal (one of those little Joyo Clean Glass (Fender) pedals). I could get it closer, but I think the freq response model is just not tweakable enough - it's a little too "honky" still. I feel like the Archon has really scooped high-mids and maybe even mid-mids, but the low mids are still there, but leaves a good mount of nice bass and treble.
I tried it through a Joyo Orange-amp emulator (Orange Juice) and that had a whole lot more mids, so not the right direction at all.
I recognize the Archon is a "real tube amp", and there just might be some je ne sais quoi that about the tone that is not totally reproduceable using simply amp-sim pedals. I'm just trying to minimize the times where lugging the amp is not really feasible/practical/sensible, like an upcoming private festival we're playing one 45 min set (but also running sound for the other bands/musicians the rest of the afternoon/evening), where miking the Archon will be just overkill for what we're doing.
So I'm curious whether there is some other amp-sim pedal (maybe the Joyo "Boogie" would be an economic example) that gets closer to the Archon.
Maybe PRS could release an Archon amp modeler simulator pedal. OK, so that's never goon happen...
So...thoughts?
And has anyone found an "amp-sim-in-a-box" pedal that comes close to what the Archon does, tonally? (Not a full-blown device like a Kemper.) Would a Mesa Boogie emulator/simulator be the closest, since I'm pretty sure no-one has released a "PRS amp in a box" pedal?
Long version:
Recently I posted in the Guitars sub-forum here that a band practice held earlier this week was quite enjoyable because my Silver Sky sounded really really good, and I just melted into the music and tone, and even the rest of the band commented on how good it sounded.
Signal path was: Core SS -> Horsemeat -> MojoHandFX DMBL -> Boss RV-3 -> Archon 50 Combo (US build)
Last night's practice was the same guitar through my FlyRig (with amp and cab sims built-in) into a Fishman LoudBox acoustic amp, because that gets the closest to a mini-PA for me. It was good, and I've used that combo a lot for some small-footprint easy-in/easy-out gigs (often just gong straight from FlyRig to mixing board and thus out to PA and monitors), but not nearly as good as the pedals into the Archon sounded earlier this week with that guitar.
I tried comparing and tweaking again today during my coffee breaks. The FlyRig just couldn't get the same overall tone. It could sound good, but not the same.
I then tried the pedalboard through an amp-sim pedal (one of those little Joyo Clean Glass (Fender) pedals). I could get it closer, but I think the freq response model is just not tweakable enough - it's a little too "honky" still. I feel like the Archon has really scooped high-mids and maybe even mid-mids, but the low mids are still there, but leaves a good mount of nice bass and treble.
I tried it through a Joyo Orange-amp emulator (Orange Juice) and that had a whole lot more mids, so not the right direction at all.
I recognize the Archon is a "real tube amp", and there just might be some je ne sais quoi that about the tone that is not totally reproduceable using simply amp-sim pedals. I'm just trying to minimize the times where lugging the amp is not really feasible/practical/sensible, like an upcoming private festival we're playing one 45 min set (but also running sound for the other bands/musicians the rest of the afternoon/evening), where miking the Archon will be just overkill for what we're doing.
So I'm curious whether there is some other amp-sim pedal (maybe the Joyo "Boogie" would be an economic example) that gets closer to the Archon.
Maybe PRS could release an Archon amp modeler simulator pedal. OK, so that's never goon happen...
So...thoughts?