Favorite amp / cabs (including captures)? / Tone building post

Sounds a bit like what Andy Timmons does… that is not a bad thing. :wink:

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I’ve been meaning to start a thread like this, nice one!

I just started making a big list of the captures I use (with links, because I’m not a degenerate :kissing_heart:), but it’s getting out of hand already and I’ve only done my SLO preset that’s full of DI captures I’ve collected. Others I regularly use are Dumble, Nameless, a Toneking/Fender one, and most recently a Kraken.

It’d be easier to just share the presets which will bundle all the captures (which would include gain and volume adjustments I’ve made…) but they’re all an absolute cluster. Full of pedals I’ve added but not got round to experimenting with, 4 compressors on most where I’ve been A/B testing my best approximation of a Cali76 SE (and not really achieving much tbh), scenes are all fucked up because of the Compressor testing, two active FX loops cos I have an external comp and EQ…

Basically it’d be a lot of work to organise and prep them for public consumption, and since no one else has bothered yet, I’ll hold off that for now. Here’s the links to the SLO captures anyway.

Crystal Clean;

SLO Sparkle; -2.6dB Treble

Edge of Breakup

SLO & Revival Smooth Lead
This one is awesome. So smooth it almost sounds clean, but pick attack seems to be crunched up/compressed a bit.

High Gain

SLO 100 Take 1 -3dB gain

SLO Head HG No TS; -10.5dB gain

SLO TS Combo; -10.5dB Gain

Forgot to mention - I play an HSH Strat with coil-splittable DiMarzio Evolutions, for an idea of guitar output level. Those gain adjustments likely won’t suit all…

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I’ve found the Herbert clean channel to be surprisingly good.
Yes I’m also going for the edge off break up.
Anything else you use for that?

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Sometimes I use the AC15 normal channel for edge of breakup because it also seems to do well with with the same drive pedals in front as the lone star. I’m looking forward to getting the matchless with the next update

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For super clean I like the CA John’s Ch 1. For a clean with some break up my go-to is the Lonestar, but I like the Twin as well. For crunch, I like the PV Rhythm but I usually use a capture I created of my Victory Jack preamp and then I’ll feed that into a EL34 power amp capture. For OD pedals, I like the Exotic Boost and the Obsessive Drive. The Brit Guvnor is also good for that Marshall thing - I use it into the Lonestar.

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Hi David,
I bit the bullet and downloaded the Tone King MKII from Amalgam Captures a few days back. It was a bit over 40.00 but I am really happy with it. 60 captures in the pack with well written out description page that has all 60 on it. So I went to the one that was called “Edge of Breakup-Warm” and it is the best sounding thing I have ever played through my QC. Going to use it this Sunday! At 5 on my Strat it is fairly clean… go to 10 and it is producing some beautiful breakup sounds. I would recommend Amalgam to anyone at this point. Some seriously good stuff there!

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Yeah, I’ve been thinking about doing so myself. Good to hear they sound so good. Are you using their Ids with it?

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Those Amalgam captures are tops! Main appeal to me was some esoteric gramp amps that no one else seems to be offering, but the full-rig captures especially seem to have some real magic baked in. Tone Junkie better watch out!

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Yes I am using the 2x12 Fender type one that is paired with it. It may be the same one you referenced the other day.

I use the Amalgam MKIIC+ captures, clean to crunch to lead. They’re really good. For high gain players I would also also suggest this; I like captures of rarer amps, here’s one of MLC which is really good by CVK85. The 5150, he has dialled in nicely too, obviously less rare.

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I’ll throw this out there so NDSP doesn’t think people aren’t using it- I use the Morgan (er…captain) 50 as the foundation for more than half of my built tones.

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I like that one too.

hey i just wanted to thank you for the detailed post!!! this is the type of interaction i love seeing in forums, it´s like getting to know people through their taste in guitar tone :smiley:

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Here comes the Matchless!

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Chiming in for an edge of breakup chain.

I really like the ToneKing Mk2 (5th capture) and the 112 UK C15 cab. That alone sounds great for me.

Absolutely lovin the Lonestar. The clean is the most Dumble-esque clean I’ve found. It’s also great for everything from edge-of-breakup to full-tilte Rockin’. It might even do Metal with the right cab IR and distortion pedal. I like that overdrive doesn’t turn to a chainsaw or mush at the attack. With a little judicious pre-EQ, you can get super focused low end. I also enjoy the AC30 with the 69" AC30 cab for that great boxy/chimey Vox tone.