ToneX pedal discussion and demo

[Joe Rogers]

In the beginning, my profiling was capturing amps that I personally owned and wanted to keep safe at home....provided the modeling unit was good enough to translate the sound to a live stage. I tell everyone it is not amp replacement, but rather amp preservation. Who wants to subject a rare amp to the abuse of the road..?? Once a multitude of companies started modeling amps, I branched out as well. What it has done for me is alert me to the amps I want to purchase when I get the money to do so. There are several amps that I have been so impressed with, that I told myself if I had the money, I would have purchased it right then and there. Playing through an amp model allows one to get that experience and make the decision of whether or not buying the real thing is for them. Last, there are quite a few of my modeled amps that are simply not available any longer. I'm talking about the rare species which were never plentiful to begin with. An amp model allows one to experience the rare ones.

And by the way, I have had not one, but two amp builders contact me about acquiring my captures of their amps. Both gave me favorable comments. And they were both amps that I personally owned.

I have recently revamped my IR line, coming out with a "Sweet Spot" Collection. Jon, I don't know if you have yet had the time to test those, I have been getting very good reviews on them.

Wiz, are you still having trouble, or have the new amp models I sent to you cleared up your problems..??

Joe

[Wiz Feinberg]

Wiz, are you still having trouble, or have the new amp models I sent to you cleared up your problems..??

Joe

The new models are much better to my ears. So much so that I took the Tonex out on a semi-acoustic gig last Saturday. It sounded great in the stage monitors. The sound man said it was as good in the FOH. I've learned that the results with IRs are totally different than with the Cab/IR off. I know how to enable or disable the Cabs. The problem is the Tonex itself doesn't have a simple push button on the pedal like it has in the Editor to en/dis-able the Cab/IR. I have to go thru a series of knob twists and pushes. This is difficult on a live gig when there are mere seconds between songs, and I want a different sound for a minute. It does have 50 preset slots of 3 models each, so there's that option. Also, a single push on the active footswitch bypasses the Tonex until I press it again. That puts me where I was without the Tonex, minus the reverb pedal that had to be pulled to make room. I plan to get a 22 inch pedal board once the Tonex is dialed in.

I am trying out some of the various speaker IRs you sent to me. I'll eventually settle on one speaker for the N112 and one for the N400. Joe, Feel free to recommend the best IRs for modern Country and Rock. I am NOT the primary lead instrument in our band. I have my designated parts and fills. I shine on some of the older songs that are in medleys (ironically called, "Old Country Songs"). Other times, I play harmony with the primary lead guitar. We have a monster bass player so I don't use a lot of bass in my feed. I need to cut through two lead guitars, a rhythm guitar, 5 string bass, sometimes a fiddle and huge drum set, while not playing over the vocals. Think Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs style of production and instrumentation. The FOH is a wall of huge speakers; tops and bottoms. We all use IEMs and no amps.

Thanks for modeling my tone control settings. This is a big help and I really appreciate your work! I have the Tonex sitting on the top row of my 18" PedalTrain Classic Jr. I had to remove two effects pedals for it to fit, but the Tonex has reverb and the other effect was a short slapback delay. My recently acquired Keeley 30-ms twinning effect can do the same thing, plus adds a sweet chorus. Net zero loss!

I'll be taking the Tonex on my pedalboard to a band rehearsal on Saturday. We'll see how the guys like it then. They all use Kempers...

[Andy Vance]

I haven’t used the Tonex out in the real world yet, but have been playing through it a lot at home through both my studio monitors and IEM’s.

From my experience, if you’re thinking you’ll get the same sound you’re used to from your old amp with a capture Joe or someone else made with the same model, you may be disappointed. That said, I’ve found a few amp captures I really like. They just weren’t what I was expecting.

For example, I’ve been playing through Standel custom xv’s for a long time but didn’t like the Buddy Charleton amp… even though I have three of em I love and use all the time. The two captures I really like are the Tweedy Dawg (clean tweed deluxe) and Dr Z Surgical Steel #3. **edited to say that the 63 Blonde Bassman is my new favorite (wow)**

Another thing I stumbled on was that the pedals you place in front of the Tonex can really mess up the sound, moreso than with a real amp. So experiment with using less, and putting one pedal back in at a time. I really like the Providence pedals in front of my combo amps but discovered that the newer Chrono delay really killed the sound even turned off, whereas the older Providence delay 80’s sounded great in front of the Tonex.

I actually found the reverse of this to be true. My main amp is a Vegas 400 and Joe sent me multiple Vegas 400 models and tailored the tone stack to pictures I sent him of my tone controls. With that model and a couple of Joe's IR's loaded into a sonicake, other than actual air moving past your ears, to me, it sounds like my amp. So much so, that I did a session with the Tonex and my mic'd amp, in different parts of the same song, I can't hear a difference in the final mix. YMMV but that has been my experience. I still thank Joe every time I see or talk to him, no more lugging my Vegas 400 around.