Best Ways To Amplify Amp Modellers | FRFR or Guitar Cab? | Thomann

Guitar amp modellers are crazy good and obviously practical too. They don't do one important thing though... amplify your signal. Kris and Guillaume grabbed the Quad Cortex, made a preset and tested 4 awesome ways of amplifying / monitoring yourself. Let us know which one was your favourite in the comments below.

Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
1:12 Four ways to hear yourself
2:35 How we mic the 4 methods
3:15 Quad Cortex tone going straight into the interface
3:42 1. Guitar amp's power amp + guitar cab
4:36 2. Dedicated poweramp + guitar cab
5:40 3. Going into an FRFR speaker
6:46 4. Going into active PA speakers (wedges)
7:57 Our impression and opinion
13:06 Outro jam

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[BrockOfBodom]

I don’t think enough people acknowledge the great guitar players that both of these guys are. They make videos like this so much more enjoyable

[allboutthemojo]

Good video. For me personally, the idea of a modeler is 1. Extreme portability and 2. Get access to play around with different amp sims without having to buy a ton of gear. For these reasons, I'd go straight into an FRFR speaker.
The tube amp and pedals would be a totally separate peice of gear that's stationary in one place.
Finally a tiny portable amp like the Spark for travel practice

[LefterisTrichakis]

Now I gig with the Fender FR-12. I design my tones with it and they translate perfectly into FOH. The knobs are perfect to quick adjust into the stage boominess or harshness, the legs give flexibility, the power gives sound re-enforcement capabilities, the sound dispersion is phenomenal.
It is the best gear I bought for years.

[timodelange]

Slow dance in a burning room is the new stairway to heaven

[charlesg.]

I did this similar test and I didn't care for my Revv G20 result. The SD PowerStage works great. FRFR monitor sounds great, and mixing it with a real cab is superb.

[Christian.Means.]

I run a HX Stomp XL into a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 170 going into an Orange closed back 2x12 with V30s. Love it.... Since I've gotten my modeler setup I haven't went back to my Revv G20/Pedalboard setup to compare yet. I don't think my modeler setup will ever replace my Revv G20 pedalboard setup, but man this modeler setup sounds wonderful.. What a time to be a guitar player.. lol

[erifkind]

I run my live amp modeler into a Mackie Thump PA speaker. It’s so loud you can amplify an entire band mix through it and be louder than a loud drummer. For guitar alone, it sounds absolutely amazing.

[Yelbomsirhc]

I've been running my Boss GX-100 into the effects return of my BluGuitar Amp1, and then the BluGuitar Amp1 drives a 2x12 guitar cabinet. I copied the patches I created for going to FOH or into a DAW, but then turned off the cab sim on those patches so I can go into a guitar speaker cabinet. To send my signal to FOH I just mike my guitar cabinet the old-fashioned way. It might seem kind of dumb, but it works great for me. I've used mikes like SM-57s to mike guitar amps for decades so I know how to do this and get a great tone coming through the FOH system without having to worry about special IRs or anything else.

As someone else noted, if my GX-100 ever goes down I can just go straight into the BluGuitar amp and still get through the gig.

[shawnok]

Fender fr-12 is the way to go! I just got mine a week ago, it works perfectly.

[jelapeno]

I have all options available, but I really enjoy running my Helix into the return of my Marshall DSL40cr. As an added benefit, you get to use the amp's resonance and presence controls if need be. I have found that this makes the Helix preamp models shine.

[chrismataran]

Great video. For me, I use my Tone Master Pro directly connected to my Audio interface (UA Apollo 8) with Cabinet emulation when I want to record my performance in my DAW (LUNA). In that case, I'm monitoring through my Kali L6P studio monitors and it sounds great, really great. I also use my Boss Katana Head 100W as a power amp connected to the Tone Master Pro on the FX Loop 4 left channel (hence mono) when I want to jam or rehearse. In that case, the monitoring is done through my Harley Benton G112+ Thiele Cabinet (Celestion 65W Creamback made in England). I some cases, I use a SM57 to record my performance but I have to say that I prefer to use the first way to do it. The TMP cab emulation is amazing and the acoustic of my home studio is not really good so... To be completely honest, the second method is more satisfying as a guitar player, using a real cabinet is always a plus even though it's hard to explain the feeling. Anyway both ways are good and the Tone Master Pro is an amazing beast. Cheers from France.

[bills]

I'm running a Cortex into an FRFR mainly for portability. But I like that I can use the FRFR as my stage monitor and I have control over it without affecting the house sound or relying on the soundguy to get the level to my preference.

[swedeinla]

straight in to a QSC CP8....Best wedge monitor I have personally ever found. and lightyears better than every dedicated frfr speaker cab I have heard,

[justinTime]

I can’t say you guys really spoke to the most common points people are out there seeking.

[adamkrauss]

I for one, would have really liked to see the wiring/setup for each, accompanied by a discussion, as I am still trying to wrap my head around these “alternative” methods. Thanks.

[DDDDKT]

Headrush Core into Tannoy 7 Gold studio monitors. Love the sound, finally nailed the tones I had in my head!

[robertbrown]

Interesting and helpful . I think it's valuable that you are considering the different situations where you would use one of these solutions. Also the care taken over the mic options for the recording is great. I've seen a lot of demos where this is only touched on in passing and where only one guitar tone, typically, a muddy heavy rock sound is used for the demonstration. Thanks!

[timodelange]

I’ve the boss GT1000 bigboy. Love the thing. I own one amp and cab for bass. For guitar live I go direct but when there is no personal monitor for me (small gigs) I send one signal to FOH and one signal to the bass amp and cab. Bass amps and cabs are also very full range so this works great. The boss has many output options that will adjust the EQ slightly to work in that chosen setup. There’s an output option that says bass amp with tweeter when choosing that it has great guitar tones from the bass amp. So I can cover guitar and bass with one amp head, cab and modeler and be lightweight, great sounding and consistent with not many compromises imho ofcourse

[JoeScharnweber]

I had to sell my PA setup and am now plugging my Quad Cortex in to an old Fender Excelcior and it actually sounds awesome

[jefft]

Based on the room mic, the power amp + cab and powered PA sound clearly best to my ears.