Longtermers
A few months’ gigging, recording and everything that goes with it – welcome to Guitarist’s longterm test reports
My first exposure to the possibilities of using a digital modeller live occurred back when I took a Kemper profiler on a Longterm Test in 2014. At the end of my time with it, I decided that, ‘For now, the Kemper remains a studio tool only, and in truth, part of me is relieved that my ears won’t yet accept anything less than a tube amp on stage…’
Like every fickle vow I make in relation to guitars and amps, I’ve managed to do an about-turn. In my defence, I have always said that I would use a digital modeller live if I was playing gigs at venues with capacities in excess of 400, because I’ve rarely been able to hear my amp on stage at those gigs.
Since then there have been a few incidents that have tempted me to use an all-digital setup before activating the aforementioned self-imposed clause. One was playing a support gig in London last November in which the load-in consisted of climbing three back-breaking flights of stairs with a 4x12 cab and flight-cased Marshall 410JVM head. It wasn’t the physical exertion that I resented, it was the fact that my sound was terrible that evening, both on stage of out front.
As many of you will know, unless you’re successful enough to have your own sound engineer then you’re at the mercy of the one provided by the venue. Now, we’ve all dealt with apathetic sound engineers, but by the same token, we’ve also dealt with those who ply their trade with dedication and skill. But one thing both types have in common is that they are unlikely to be familiar with your music or your guitar sound, and as long as there’s an in-house PA and a mic in front of your cab, then they will be having a significant impact on both your tone and overall volume. But the headline act that evening did not experience the same sound issues as Godsticks. Granted, they travelled with their own sound engineer, but their soundcheck and set sounded great. Aside from a few tweaks, there was little fiddling with guitar amps, because, you guessed it, they didn’t have any.
The final influencing factor relates to the in-ear monitoring system I’ve been using for the past 18 months. On the occasions where I struggle to hear my amp on stage, I usually ask for a feed of my mic’d-up cab from the desk into my monitoring system. Requesting this feed has become a bit of chore, so for the sake of convenience I had been taking the emulated line-out from my Marshall JVM410. This has proved to be not entirely representative of the sound I’m expecting to hear from the Marshall, and finally prompted the question I began asking myself: what are the advantages of not going completely digital?
Fortunately, the decision was taken out of my hands when Godsticks were offered the support slot with The Pineapple Thief on their tour of Europe in late 2016. I actually played guitar on their new album, Your Wilderness, and at the time they were looking at the possibility of recruiting another guitarist for the tour, who would play my parts. Logically, we decided that we combine the two events – Godsticks open, and afterwards I would stick around on stage to play with the headline act.
The cost and logistical expense of bringing two entirely different guitar setups meant that I had little choice but to explore the possibility of using a digital modelling amp. Given my familiarity with Fractal products, I began to investigate the little pedalboard-sized brother of the Axe-FX II – the AX8.
So began my journey into the digital realm. I appreciate it’s unusual for a Longterm Test report to neglect featuring the actual product being tested, but the step away from a tube amp and towards a digital modeller is a fairly momentous transition for a guitarist – especially one like me who still gets a thrill from standing in front of a tube amp wailing away on his guitar.
“I began asking myself: what are the advantages of not going completely digital?”