I’m new to the ampli-firebox world but so far I’m really impressed. So much so that when another one showed up on my local craigslist, I bought it as well. Now I have a great stereo headphone rig to play at home. The cleaner Fender and Vox amps sound fantastic as is but the higher gain models could use a touch more realism in the high end and more chugging(if that’s a real descriptive term) in the lows. I still have mine set stock because the first one I purchased had been altered by the previous owner and sounded awful. When I messed around in the EQ, I only made it sound even worse. It almost made me want to resell the thing but then I reset it to stock and it sounds good. I have also read a lot of posts from other users who tried fine-tuning the stock presets and ended up resetting them back to stock because they only made them sound worse as well. So my question is, has anyone had any success getting a better than stock hard rock, light metal tones out of these? If so, did this require an IR change or was it totally done with the EQ perimeters?
Here's some info that might help you: Tone Tips https://atomicamps.com/forum/index.php?threads/tone-tips.1830/ NEW AFB presets and backup file with updated SLO and Arkhan amp models: http://atomicamps.com/forum/index.php?threads/new-afb-presets.1965/ New AFB SVT and CLEAN 65 presets https://atomicamps.com/forum/index.php?threads/clean-65-and-sv-tee-presets-for-amplifirebox.2092/ Updated Factory Presets http://atomicamps.com/forum/index.php?threads/new-afb-factory-presets.2780/ The manual, editor and system restore file can be downloaded here: https://atomicamps.com/atomic-amps-support/#ampli-firebox
Welcome! I also got a second AFB, shortly after receiving the first one. I've never seen anything like that (that works). And everybody is a little shocked, here, with such a little thing (Atomic is not a well known brand, around here). Tone wise, the tone tips Jace put in his message are very useful. It's a very little unit, but it does so many things and had so many options (for the size), that it's worth to spend some time fine tuning. Hmm... I have to try that stereo setting.
I have them running into a Rolls MX28 headphone mixer that allows me to pan one hard left and one hard right. If you pick two different amps and set them up to sound pretty similar, it sounds huge. I also like to use a Mimiq pedal in front of them which adds to the stereo effect but it’s not necessary, they sound good without it. With all the choices there are on the market these days, I’m lucky I even found out about Atomic’s products. I started out looking for a simple preamp pedal to use for tracking DI guitar. Then I discovered IR speaker sim pedals that you pair with the preamp pedals. I almost bought a Mooer Radar. Somehow I came across the Hotone Binary, which has preamp and speaker sim in one but all the reviewers were saying how noisy it was and that the Atomic stuff was way better. They were right but man was that a long road to go down to finally get here.
Similar journey here, but longer and more expensive. My band travels a lot (used to, before the virus, you know) between these islands, so too often we had to fight with very bad sounding amps. Because of that we decided to get some modelers. Funny thing is the first gear that catched my eyes because seemed to fit all my needs was Atomic, but it wasn't available in EU. And that was the beginning of my long run: 3 different Tech 21, Mooer Radar... Then discovered the Fantastic Fractal AX8, that had been around for two years and got one. Very good but a little too big for traveling light. I finally found this shop in UK that had Atomics and I closed the circle and reached the starting point again. I run and got an AFB. A few days after getting and playing it, I asked for another one (3 in fact, two of them for two friends). I think it's Fantastic for home, band rehearsals, live, and it's the perfect spare. I just wanted a little extra for those days or those bands where I need a few more options and got an AA6. People freak with these devices, mainly because nobody knows them here. Everybody is mainly with Kemper and Line 6. I wish Atomic where here in EU. Nothing like that at that price (my experiences with mooer weren't successful).
The Fractal and Kemper stuff sound really good from what I’ve heard in YouTube videos but they are both really expensive. It’s hard enough for me to justify spending what I did on my 2 AFB’s. One of the positives of living in Nashville TN is the amount of music gear that cycles through the local Craigslist. Even before Covid, I rarely bought anything new. If you’re patient, it will eventually show up on CL. Once I finally discovered the AFB, I got anxious and bought one on Reverb for $250. A week later, another one showed up on CL for $160. It’s the sad silver lining to all the touring musicians not being able to go on the road anymore. Thanks for the confirmation on the Mooer Radar. I had my suspicions when I kept seeing videos on “how to make it sound good”.
