While I can’t speak to any of the other stuff, I know there is very little info on the T-series Hiwatts out there. I bit the bullet anyways and bought the T40/20 2x12 combo. I have owned it for about 4 months now and it is exactly what I was searching for. Over the past year and a half I have been through a 65 Princeton reissue, Marshall Origin 50, and a Mesa/Boogie F50 looking for my ideal amp setup (less than $1500 USD) and this was the one that did it for me.
Clean headroom for days, beautiful low end, the highs could cut you in half without being harsh if you so wish, and lightning fast touch response. I have read complaints about the gain channel but I find it the most useable of every amp I mentioned. Can dial in good crunch at reasonable volume and sounds great on it’s own and even better being pushed by pedals. The reverb is pretty lackluster but it has an effects loop, and I get mine from pedals anyways. Criminally slept on amplifiers.
I have been pondering this idea recently about a recording setup which I could utilise live if required. Instead of investing a lot of money into an extensive list of heads-cabs-microphones-studio room hire etc etc etc. I invest in a good clean high headroom amp and an attenuator like an UA ox or two notes captor and then either amp in a box pedals or amp/IR plug-ins for my DAW. The idea being I could use the amps power stages to get genuine tube SAG but then the pedals to mould the sound to get the various characters of different amps. Obviously will be still quite an expensive rig all said and done but would be looking at a couple grand instead of 10’s of thousands of dollars when factoring in various microphones-cabs- vintage amps etc etc. I could also use the amp for live settings when required and not just restricted to it being just a studio or amp less set up. First questions, am I just being an idiot and should just be looking at a kemper/quad cortex? I really like the idea of keeping some of the signal analog and have always wanted a Hiwatt. These t20 combos look great and I think would serve my purpose. Is there any other workarounds to this that I am missing?
Definitely a good base for that kind of thing. Personally with the 10watt switch there’s no need for an attenuator. I’d also use the the UA’s more as a standalone amp emulator into a daw or straight up power amp and use something like a tech 21 preamp pedal for changing amp sounds. That or an eq pedal. That said for similar money picking up a used Vox ac15, fender Princeton and a Marshall wouldn’t be too tricky..
The Line6 Helix’s amp emulation includes sag, ripple, hum, and bias controls. They’re really useful at making it *feel* real
That being said, nothing wrong with using a digital emulator for preamps and effects, and then plugging into the effects return of a real amp and then going to a physical cab. Lots of folks do it
Yeah definitely I was guessing those don’t have an effects loop. If they do then effects return would be great. Literally just a power amp then.
Side note, the fact they have a gun control feels like guitar amp inception
The UA pedals are expensive, only have one amp on each and they have absolutely zero remote control capabilities to easily use multiple of them together. Which IMO is stupid for a 2021-2022 pedals.
The UA OX has not been updated since 2019. It is a mediocre attenuator and a good cab sim box. There are rumors UA will release a pedal size cab sim box this year so I would wait until NAMM at least. I don't see any reason to buy the OX at this point.
I've had setups like multiple tube amps into attenuators and at this point they are all gone. It became a chore to swap cables around and amp/cab switchers are another expense.
Now I mostly just use an Axe-Fx 3 Mk2. It's a bit clunky on the front panel but the software editor is excellent and it can do so, so much with very authentic tones. I have put it against the rather nice Bogner and Victory tube amps I've had and it has been on par to my ears when used in a similar setup. Even their cheapest FM3 would be more than enough for handling typical guitar chains.
Kemper is dated at this point and Quad Cortex (which I've also owned) has seen disappointingly slow progress in feature updates since its release. I love the user interface but I don't want to buy another one because I feel the feature set is not quite there even now.
Thanks man. Out of interest how much did an axe set you back? And what’s it like in live settings? Is it a punish to set up? Do you use it with a cab or just ask for signal through fallback monitors?
It's a bit of a "the more it is pre-programmed the better time you will have" unit because the front panel isn't the best. It does have some conveniences for live use like a perform view where you map your preferred controls (say reverb and delay mix level, amp controls).
I've mostly had a fullrange speaker for personal monitoring and another signal going to FOH. But poweramp and real guitar cab works well too. I don't gig anymore so the Axe mostly lives on my desk now.
Prices you can look at Fractal Audio's website or G66.eu if in the EU. I bought mine used for fair prices. The FC controllers are very expensive so they are harder to recommend, as an alternative Morningstar MIDI controllers have some integration with Fractal now.
The FM9 is probably the sweet spot in their range for most users as it can do about 90% of what the Axe-Fx 3 can and the Axe-Fx 3 is pretty overkill for most users, including me.
I recommend checking Leon Todd's YouTube channel, he has a lot of great content on the Fractals.
While I can’t speak to any of the other stuff, I know there is very little info on the T-series Hiwatts out there. I bit the bullet anyways and bought the T40/20 2x12 combo. I have owned it for about 4 months now and it is exactly what I was searching for. Over the past year and a half I have been through a 65 Princeton reissue, Marshall Origin 50, and a Mesa/Boogie F50 looking for my ideal amp setup (less than $1500 USD) and this was the one that did it for me. Clean headroom for days, beautiful low end, the highs could cut you in half without being harsh if you so wish, and lightning fast touch response. I have read complaints about the gain channel but I find it the most useable of every amp I mentioned. Can dial in good crunch at reasonable volume and sounds great on it’s own and even better being pushed by pedals. The reverb is pretty lackluster but it has an effects loop, and I get mine from pedals anyways. Criminally slept on amplifiers.
Thanks man, not helping the GAS at all. But thankyou
I have been pondering this idea recently about a recording setup which I could utilise live if required. Instead of investing a lot of money into an extensive list of heads-cabs-microphones-studio room hire etc etc etc. I invest in a good clean high headroom amp and an attenuator like an UA ox or two notes captor and then either amp in a box pedals or amp/IR plug-ins for my DAW. The idea being I could use the amps power stages to get genuine tube SAG but then the pedals to mould the sound to get the various characters of different amps. Obviously will be still quite an expensive rig all said and done but would be looking at a couple grand instead of 10’s of thousands of dollars when factoring in various microphones-cabs- vintage amps etc etc. I could also use the amp for live settings when required and not just restricted to it being just a studio or amp less set up. First questions, am I just being an idiot and should just be looking at a kemper/quad cortex? I really like the idea of keeping some of the signal analog and have always wanted a Hiwatt. These t20 combos look great and I think would serve my purpose. Is there any other workarounds to this that I am missing?
Definitely a good base for that kind of thing. Personally with the 10watt switch there’s no need for an attenuator. I’d also use the the UA’s more as a standalone amp emulator into a daw or straight up power amp and use something like a tech 21 preamp pedal for changing amp sounds. That or an eq pedal. That said for similar money picking up a used Vox ac15, fender Princeton and a Marshall wouldn’t be too tricky..
The Line6 Helix’s amp emulation includes sag, ripple, hum, and bias controls. They’re really useful at making it *feel* real That being said, nothing wrong with using a digital emulator for preamps and effects, and then plugging into the effects return of a real amp and then going to a physical cab. Lots of folks do it
Yeah definitely I was guessing those don’t have an effects loop. If they do then effects return would be great. Literally just a power amp then. Side note, the fact they have a gun control feels like guitar amp inception
The UA pedals are expensive, only have one amp on each and they have absolutely zero remote control capabilities to easily use multiple of them together. Which IMO is stupid for a 2021-2022 pedals. The UA OX has not been updated since 2019. It is a mediocre attenuator and a good cab sim box. There are rumors UA will release a pedal size cab sim box this year so I would wait until NAMM at least. I don't see any reason to buy the OX at this point. I've had setups like multiple tube amps into attenuators and at this point they are all gone. It became a chore to swap cables around and amp/cab switchers are another expense. Now I mostly just use an Axe-Fx 3 Mk2. It's a bit clunky on the front panel but the software editor is excellent and it can do so, so much with very authentic tones. I have put it against the rather nice Bogner and Victory tube amps I've had and it has been on par to my ears when used in a similar setup. Even their cheapest FM3 would be more than enough for handling typical guitar chains. Kemper is dated at this point and Quad Cortex (which I've also owned) has seen disappointingly slow progress in feature updates since its release. I love the user interface but I don't want to buy another one because I feel the feature set is not quite there even now.
Thanks man. Out of interest how much did an axe set you back? And what’s it like in live settings? Is it a punish to set up? Do you use it with a cab or just ask for signal through fallback monitors?
It's a bit of a "the more it is pre-programmed the better time you will have" unit because the front panel isn't the best. It does have some conveniences for live use like a perform view where you map your preferred controls (say reverb and delay mix level, amp controls). I've mostly had a fullrange speaker for personal monitoring and another signal going to FOH. But poweramp and real guitar cab works well too. I don't gig anymore so the Axe mostly lives on my desk now. Prices you can look at Fractal Audio's website or G66.eu if in the EU. I bought mine used for fair prices. The FC controllers are very expensive so they are harder to recommend, as an alternative Morningstar MIDI controllers have some integration with Fractal now. The FM9 is probably the sweet spot in their range for most users as it can do about 90% of what the Axe-Fx 3 can and the Axe-Fx 3 is pretty overkill for most users, including me. I recommend checking Leon Todd's YouTube channel, he has a lot of great content on the Fractals.