Hey Gerry,
I'll take your word for it on the Zoom gear. It's not like I'm likely to get into anything like that anytime soon.
One thing I did discover about myself along the way by trying out all this equipment, was that I really gravitate more towards the real amplifier tones than the modeled ones. There's just a certain type of Mojo that only happens with a real amp that modeled amps just don't come close to plus, modeled amps don't take outboard effects very well.
For example; I have a smaller combo rig that I use at clubs where a stack would be too much. This consists of a Fender Cyber-Deluxe, and my old Fender Vibrolux Reverb. The Cyber has built in effects which can give me Chorus, Flange, Vibe, Delay and Reverb. Many of these effects are stereo, and the Cyber gives me the option to run a line out to my Vibrolux to give me the stereo wide effects. I place one combo on either side of the stage, and it sounds great. The down side is that I can't add anything to the Cyber-Deluxe, even in the effects loop because it sounds like six truck loads of shite! It models various American and British amps and sounds pretty good doing it, but I can tell the difference even if the audience can't.
This is why I just bought two tube power amps for my ADA's. I'm going to go as organic as I can with my amp tones and go with that. My Fender amps deliver some of the best clean tones and can take any stomp boxes or rack effects I want to put in them. So can my ADA's, and I have a lot to choose from.
Maybe down the road, if I decide I don't want to take my racks or my Fender amps out, I might consider going with a AxeFX, but that will involve one hell of a lot of programming to get the tones I'm getting now, and I'm not really sure if I want to go through all that hassle.
Well I wasn't so much talking about their preamp stuff. I'm just saying if their old MFX units/pedals didn't appeal to you don't write their other gear off. I don't think they have too many actual "modeler" units either. The old MFX units like the 2100 I had were not modelers like the later stuff that where actual "modeling" units G5 and 9.2TT.
I dunno what the 9150 is like but I seem to read good stuff about it. Iperfungus we needs clips man. I would not describe this as a modeler either. Unless it say's in the manual some where that it's "designed to model"
And I mentioned their analogue pedals which definitely were great/are great pedals so in that respect, so you mightn't have liked what ever it was you tried which was digital but but don't tar all their output with the same brush. He look Richard......analogue devices!
In regards to your experience with modelers not taking external devices very well.. Well I have to say that's quite a limited experience compared to my own. The Boss modeling range take external devices really well. I use my preamps in fx loop of a GT5 and did many weird things with GT6 and GT8 modeling units including things in front, in the loop and at the output (ART Delay unit for example).
Also no offence, but that fender "amp with stuff crammed in" is not quite in the same league as dedicated floor modeling units or rack modeling units designed with flexibility in mind. I see amps with stuff in them as "novelty" or basic fx. Forgive me if you have a lot more experience in this field, I have responded purely to the Fender Cyber story
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I had a Marshall AVT150 and this had on-board fx as well. On their own, great. But I would never have combined them as they could not be moved around in the chain should I run something into the loop, so I'm not surprised your results with the Fender sucked. I never used a thing on that Marshall, I used my Zoom 2100 with it. Worked a treat. Didn't use the amp for anything other than clean.
If you like amps so much, why not buy a head? If I wanted a tube preamp and tube power section I would buy a head. It's almost a contradiction saying you are more into real amplifiers then use a rack preamp, particularly an MP1 which is trying to model a marshall.
If I personally wanted all tube or to go the way of real amps I'd buy one and be done with it. I've evolved from modeling units into rack stuff however naturally and really want to exploit the fact I'm using Tube, Solid State and Digital and they flexibility with this. I don't think I could go full tube amp head. It's too "set in stone" or "definite" I like that with rack it's like lego, you can chop and change and without having to have 10 different amps heads. Plus the practicality of no power tubes suits me.
Anyways digressed here big time