New Amp -OR- Midpriced modelers -OR- Is anyone here (still) playing a Tonex?

aamefford said:
@Bogner and @DreamTheaterRules have asked some good questions regarding my long term goals, so I’ve been giving that some thought while I bounce from trinket to trinket in my fits of GAS. let’s do brief history and music styles I like, what I have, where I anticipate being in say 5 years, and what type of gear I envision having. I’ll try and be brief-ish.

History and music:
I’m tail end of the boomers, and retiring Jan. 2. I decided to take up guitar a couple years ago. It has not yet been a dedicated effort to learn, but I’m picking things up little at a time. I envision a combination of Justinguitar type things and live lessons once I retire. I like nice stuff, hence the S2, Santana III, little Mesa Mkv25 and the power station. I grew up on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, George Thorogood, BB and Albert King, SRV, Kiss, Scorpions, Santana, Procol Harem, Al Dimeola, Pat Travers, Robin Trower, a bunch of Blue Grass, a bunch of southern rock… Edit - how could I forget Rush?

Current Gear:
PRS S2 Studio - a new in ‘21 unicorn, PRS ‘03 Santana III in really good condition, I love them both. The S2 is an HSS of a different flavor, the Santana is a 2 humbucker rock machine.

A Mesa Boogie Mark V 25. I like its versatility and tones. Two great clean tones, a great crunch, and a classic American gain channel. I don’t like that the two cleans share a channel with the crunch, but that can be worked around. I also don’t like that it is pretty fiddly to dial in, and doesn’t stay dialed, session to session. Some of that is likely the low volumes I try to make it work at with the power station.

Yep, a power station. Quieter, louder, line out, stand alone 50 watt tube amp. It’s amazing. Everyone should have a thing that does this stuff.

Boss BD-2 Waza, TU3, OS-2, RC-5, Electroharmonix big muff pi, sugar drive, Keeley Caverns and a UA Dream 65. I’m hot and cold with the UA and the OS-2, and I struggle with the fuzz. The rest are cool.

Kali monitors, a little Behringer mixer.

My 5 year Vision:
Ability to decently play a few blues, classic rock and 80’s hair band songs/riffs, and maybe improvise some blues lead stuff. Gear Desires - Always a tube amp, just because. It may not remain the Mkv25. A good modeler, be that modeling or profiling. I have some concern that a profiler takes 3 or 4 different profiles of the same amp per channel to cover its tones. Probably not a big deal in practice. Some kind of speaker set up that makes the modeler sound as good as it can at low volume. Maybe one more guitar, maybe not. I don’t seem to have the guitar Jones too badly.
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I know you said plexi, but maybe a Mesa California Tweed and a Bogner La Grange pedal? I really like the Tweed tones and wattage selector. The La Grange gets a lot of different Marshallish tones (though not a modeler) for a cheaper price.
 
GGJJGG said:
I know you said plexi, but maybe a Mesa California Tweed and a Bogner La Grange pedal? I really like the Tweed tones and wattage selector. The La Grange gets a lot of different Marshallish tones (though not a modeler) for a cheaper price.
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Quick catch-up since we are on page 10 of a rambling, entertaining and informative (for me at least) thread.

1) Folks on this thread made a good case for a Kemper over the Tonex. I have a Kemper stage arriving “soon.”

2) A good case has been made for a Mk1 Archon 50 Watt head. A good case has also been made for a 100 watt Mesa Triple Crown. If GAS, GAS money and the right deal all show up at the same time, one of those might happen.

3) Rig(s) once the Kemper gets here:
Kemper Stage
Mesa MkV25 combo
Mesa open back 1x12 cab
Fryette PS2
UA Dream Fender in a box pedal
Behringer mixer 6-ish channel
Kali powered monitors with 6” woofers.
ATHMX50? Headphones

There’s at least 6 or 8 ways to hook that stuff up.
 
bodia said:
With my toaster I used a Friedman wedge and it sounded fine. When I got the Stage I went with a Powered Kabinet. It more closely approximates the feeking of a live amp.IMO.
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Yep, agreed. There are a few who've tried the new Fender FRFR and say it's the bomb, but I have zero reason to try it after getting a Kab.
 
Enjoy, my kemper has been a blast thenlast couple of years. Love the fact that I can make my own profiles, which has been working wonders for me. Definately more at home than with paid profiles, although those can work very good as well.

Thay being said; my helix after the oversampling update and the most recent added 2203, combined with the (imo better) time based effects is no slouch either. Raw amp sounds are not as brilliant as my Kemper, but work just as well in a mix as the kemper. In church I prefer my Kemper, but I do not feel underpowered if I "have" to use the helix.

That being said: looking forward to your experiences
 
aamefford said:
Quick catch-up since we are on page 10 of a rambling, entertaining and informative (for me at least) thread.

1) Folks on this thread made a good case for a Kemper over the Tonex. I have a Kemper stage arriving “soon.”

2) A good case has been made for a Mk1 Archon 50 Watt head. A good case has also been made for a 100 watt Mesa Triple Crown. If GAS, GAS money and the right deal all show up at the same time, one of those might happen.

3) Rig(s) once the Kemper gets here:
Kemper Stage
Mesa MkV25 combo
Mesa open back 1x12 cab
Fryette PS2
UA Dream Fender in a box pedal
Behringer mixer 6-ish channel
Kali powered monitors with 6” woofers.
ATHMX50? Headphones

There’s at least 6 or 8 ways to hook that stuff up.
Click to expand...
That IS A Nice Stash!
 
Bogner said:
That IS A Nice Stash!
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Thanks! I’ve got a sugar drive and a BD-2, a fuzz and a reverb and delay combo pedal as well. ‘Bout the only thing left for a while is maybe a Powered Kabinet or other similar option, assuming I jive with the Kemper. I’m hoping I do, and that I can find a half dozen or so profiles I like quickly and relatively easily.
 
aamefford said:
Thanks! I’ve got a sugar drive and a BD-2, a fuzz and a reverb and delay combo pedal as well. ‘Bout the only thing left for a while is maybe a Powered Kabinet or other similar option, assuming I jive with the Kemper. I’m hoping I do, and that I can find a half dozen or so profiles I like quickly and relatively easily.
Click to expand...
Sounds Very Reasonable.
 
The Kemper Stage arrived today. I’d been reading the manual, so it took maybe 5 minutes to look it over, plug it in, boot it up and make sound. It’s pretty intuitive for a thing with that many buttons. The condition was listed as excellent. All I could find was a pinhead sized ding in the black decal on one side and a faint scratch on the bottom. I’ve only had about 5 minutes with it, but so far, it looks like I got a good unit, and a really nice price from what I’ve seen. I got the Kemper up and running so much faster than the Pod Go I had. I think this might just work out! I’ll report back once I get some time with it. Pretty cool retirement gift to myself!
 
aamefford said:
The Kemper Stage arrived today. I’d been reading the manual, so it took maybe 5 minutes to look it over, plug it in, boot it up and make sound. It’s pretty intuitive for a thing with that many buttons. The condition was listed as excellent. All I could find was a pinhead sized ding in the black decal on one side and a faint scratch on the bottom. I’ve only had about 5 minutes with it, but so far, it looks like I got a good unit, and a really nice price from what I’ve seen. I got the Kemper up and running so much faster than the Pod Go I had. I think this might just work out! I’ll report back once I get some time with it. Pretty cool retirement gift to myself!
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Nicely done sir.
Are you placing it on a desk, or on the floor?
There are so many more rig packs since I got involved that I'm thinking you will be well served with free profiles.
 
dmatthews said:
Nicely done sir.
Are you placing it on a desk, or on the floor?
There are so many more rig packs since I got involved that I'm thinking you will be well served with free profiles.
Click to expand...
It’s on a big music stand thingie about waist high for now. Once the “Guitar Corner” moves to the spare bedroom, it will either go on the desk, or floor, and the whatever it’s called software on either the computer or iPad will serve as the cockpit. Yeah, I’ll mess with the included profiles / rigs for a little, and then maybe buy something when I need some instant gratification. It sounds really good through the Kali powered monitors. Better than the DI from my mkV25 does through them.

Anyone wants a fair deal on a UA Dream, hit me up via pm. I think the Dream is excellent, but it is redundant with the Kemper.
 
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aamefford said:
It’s on a big music stand thingie about waist high for now. Once the “Guitar Corner” moves to the spare bedroom, it will either go on the desk, or floor, and the whatever it’s called software on either the computer or iPad will serve as the cockpit. Yeah, I’ll mess with the included profiles / rigs for a little, and then maybe buy something when I need some instant gratification. It sounds really good through the Kali powered monitors. Better than the DI from my mkV25 does through them.

Anyone wants a fair deal on a UA Dream, hit me up via pm. I think the Dream is excellent, but it is redundant with the Kemper.
Click to expand...
Good to hear it's sounding good through the monitors.
Software is called Rig Manager, and many refer to it as RM.
 
I’m not sure the player can make profiles. It looks like it is built the same as the stage, which is good. You can keep it in your gear bag. That way you’ve got it if you need an amp backup or a hammer.
 
aamefford said:
I’m not sure the player can make profiles. It looks like it is built the same as the stage, which is good. You can keep it in your gear bag. That way you’ve got it if you need an amp backup or a hammer.
Click to expand...
Yup, it will not be able to profile an amp, just play the profiles/rigs. Kinda short on effects slots as well.
 
Gtrbldr said:
Really takes away from the useability, I love to make my own profiles. Lot of fun and I really get to tweak my own sounds. I get a lot of compliments for my home brewn sounds.
Click to expand...
I think this would be fun. I *think* I could do the amp only profile going into the Fryette PS2 as the load and then to the Profiler Stage. I don’t have a mic or anything at the moment. That actually seems a good way to go, then marry it with an IR of a 4x12 or something and make a rig from that.

I only have the little MkV25 to profile atm anyway.
 
aamefford said:
I think this would be fun. I *think* I could do the amp only profile going into the Fryette PS2 as the load and then to the Profiler Stage. I don’t have a mic or anything at the moment. That actually seems a good way to go, then marry it with an IR of a 4x12 or something and make a rig from that.

I only have the little MkV25 to profile atm anyway.
Click to expand...
You definately could do that! That is how I profiled mine, with a reactive load and IRs. Sounds great to me!
 
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