Yes I can just see it now in a club: "...I can't dance to this darling, there are no low mids and the reverb is not plate...". I bought myself a Valeton, mainly to save space in the house, plus it has the looper and expression pedal and is good for practicing and writing. I use about 6 sounds in total.

Spot on John! I started playing through amps in 72. It's not about Tone,it's about making money and selling a dream, which is all cobblers to us old Fatocasters. So there 😅

Dead on! I've been playing in and fronting bands for 50 years. I need just as you said...a good clean tone (I usually play a strat ot tele). A good moderately crunchy tone, and a lead tone that will cut through. I also sometimes use my talkbox I've tried a bunch of modeling pedals, various distortion and effects pedals. Not to mention all kinds of different amps. I now use Fender Champion 100 watt 212 that has a fantastic clean tone. And a Sonicake combo pedal that I got on Amazon for around $75 USD. Simple setup and sounds great. I'm playing in bars and the occasional summer outdoor festival. My rig is fast and easy to set up, does everything I need it to do, and no one has ever complained about my sound.

Spot on John. Lost count of the amount of hours I've wasted trying to select the right, amp, pedals, and their respective settings whilst I'm practicing at home. If I'd dedicated all that time to actually practicing I may be a lot better at playing!

Absolutely right John. I have experienced the options paralysis and you do lose days. And in the end, all I need are the 3 amp settings you mentioned. Your Blue guitar amp sounds great. As it happens, I do have a quad cortex and once I found a clean, crunchy and lead tone I liked, my option paralysis diminished and left the other gazillion amp models aside. In a live situation, I doubt the audience cares what guitar you play. Well said.

I'm waiting for one that makes it sound like my fingers are in the right place, at the right time.

I don't gig any longer but dabble with recording at home, mainly using Scuffham S-Gear or my Boss Katana. S-Gear has more than enough choice for me plus you can run pedals into it. If they ever come out with a floor mounted S-Gear unit for gigging guitarists it will be a game-changer! (See what i did there? 😄). It's easy to feel inadequate when you watch KZfaq channels such as the Studio Rats, John Cordy and countless others when they're inundated with new gear to test every week. Best guitarist I've seen recently was a 75 year old dude running a Levinson Blade RH-4 into a Mesa Boogie Mk v. , no pedals. Awesome sound! 🙂

Cheers John. I've started playing again and got a Fender Mustang a few years ago. At first I played around with all the settings - now I just turn it on and try to practice guitar!

I have a Fractal FM3 and love it. You can get into option paralysis where you spend more time tweaking your tone than practicing or playing. But it does provide pretty much any tone you might desire. It's the only piece of kit I really need and it keeps me from spending money on tube amps and pedals.

When I'm playing live I like to keep it as simple as possible. I have a Pod Go at home because I enjoy experimenting with different sounds and textures with effects. I also find that when it comes to modelling different amps I tend to basically dial in similar tones "my sound" no matter what amp model I'm using.

Refreshing piece, John. I was, until a round age 40, all about being a gigging guitar player. Then came my dalliance with golf and a 20 year hiatus of little or no playing my guitars. The glamour of getting home at 3.00am post some rip-off pay-to-play gig in London wore thin. Hence my switch to smacking a ball around a field But having dived back in again last year (old farts making an album as a rekindling of our misspent youth like you do) I am utterly overwhelmed by the choices for guitarists now. It's just too much. Like you, and indeed most of us, I need a good basic tone, a nice bit of grunt and some effects. End of! Having 7 gazillion amps and 32 billion speaker - cab combos is stress-inducing. Hey! Enough already gear makers. My head is hurting.

there'll be loads of em on ebay in 2 years 'still boxed, hardly used - 30 quid'

You make some good points here John. I've held off buying a multi fx pedal because of the worry of something better coming out. They all have compromises in the end. I think it's the NUX MG30 for me, finally. Unless.........

Well said John & most others on here. I’m 73 & play at home. If someone offered me a gig I’d go into shock. Since I retired I’ve collected some nice guitars - & moved a few on. I have a very nice amp but I’ve been to hell & back with pedals & multi fx. I won’t list them but I just booted a Boss ME 90 into touch & have settled on a Mooer Red Truck as an all-in-one solution. It’s far more important to play & not faff around sourcing the latest ‘must have’ kit. The guys who push this stuff online are pros, I’m not & I don’t need it. Thanks John, every time I waver & look towards the dark side this friendly voice wafts in from Teeside saying ‘don’t be a dickhead, get on with it!’ Cheers, mate. 🍻👍

I just got one.....but it's the first Amp/Cab pedal I've ever bought. I thought I'd have to break down and get a Kemper at some point, and I was about to spend 300US on a Dream 65, though I already have a O11 reverb. So at 179US, this was a no-brainer. I cried for an hour or so learning the thing, but really it was fairly painless to register and get functional, even for a digital hater like me. I fell for the hype, and I'm happy this time :)

Brilliant John, couldn't agree more! All the best from down south 👍

yes that's the thing John - if you want to sound like everyone else then buy one but the best sound to create is your own tone depending on a couple of pedals and a combination of winding the guitar volume control up and down and you pickup selector switch

So true, your tone is already great for sure. I bought a ToneX, it is very good, it does what they claim but my amp sounds better and is simpler to use... it is a nice toy to play with but it is another distraction from actually playing more (I pleed guilty of GAS)

I was just watching some Jeff Beck. Strat, Rat and Marshall. Oh, and just a smidge of talent.

I've got an old Zoom G1four going into a little vox amp. 4 presets. I pick the one I need and leave it. The only downside is if working with a loud drummer. In which case we usually fire the drummer and get a better one.

Good show John. I got a full tonex recently. Ive had option paralysis with other things (the 6 month dormant GT1000). The tonex solved that. My board is a boost or klon type, the tonex with 3 sounds clean crunch and lead. And a Crazy tube circuits sidejack jr for reverb, delay and chorus/flanger. If I use an amp I'll either ignore the tonex or turn off the cab sims in the tonex and use the return off the fx loop. I've got the blug amp mercury and it's awesome. The reality is the tonex has replaced the amps I can no long lift. 😂 So I can say it's for medical reasons.

When the Tonex One came out I bought the OG Thomann Special version. I agree somewhat - I use 4 or 5 tones that I tweaked on the pedal and I love it, I dont need a billion presets. My reasoning is a bad back (even a 10kg HB Tube 15 can put my back out if I lift wrong), wanting just a good recorded sound and price. Im happy with my sound at the moment and I dont have to turn on the computer and soundcard to have a little jam any more. These things have their place at the right price, at the right time, for the right person - all the hype etc is just noise.

You are so right John ❤ all the other things are toys ❤

Agree one hundred percent.

I totally agree with you on guitar tones clean, crunch, gain and an option to boost. As for reverb and digital effects I have a tc electronics plethora for delay, reverbs, phase and looping. And that’s probably overkill I think using the guitar tone and volume to get different sounds is important because who doesn’t like a bit of woman tone now and again😎 the Bluguitar amp1 is really the only amp you need for tones.

I’ve had most of the products you mentioned but the TONEX One is very good. It’s one thing I don’t regret buying.

Fun video. Gear obsession is even worse than guitar obsession, a few guitars covers all tones but there's no end to pedals. Tonex ONE might be fun but you need the Amplitube ecosystem to actually sculpt tones. I'm already into Bias ecosystem so no point for me. Was going to get the IR-2 but got the Katana GO headphone amp instead, it sounds great and it's mainly what I use for recording now. Also got the POD Express for some OD/FX into my little Quilter Superblock UK. I don't have room for a ton of pedals anymore and the Express covers the basics nicely.

Couldn't agree more.

I understand where you are coming from John, but these products are mostly down to the fact that the majority of guitar players are doing so at home and trying to sound like their heroes. So by acquiring kit that is meant to sound pretty close to the gear used by their heroes it provides the target market with something to play with that is alongside their hobby of playing guitar. You wouldn’t want to deter manufacturers from making guitar related gear would you? A lot of these are also for quiet practice in the home which is something I think my family would have appreciated rather than me blasting my Marshall Valvestate at home in the 90’s 😊

Absolutely spot on. Over saturated market regarding modellers and most for me will never beat a valve amp. In my band I use two Overdrive Pedals , one crunch, one lead, Boss Chorus and Delay. That's it through my trusted Orange Tiny Terror. Oh and a Boss Tuner. Works perfect for me 👍

Well put by John. A good amp, most are these days, that gives clean, crunch and lead. A single coil and a humbucker guitar and that's it. P/U combinations, volume and tone controls on the guitar and already there's a dozen tones.

I stand corrected.

I get your point. You can get paralized by the 20.000 amps you can choose from. But still I like mine. I downloaded some pretty good sounding amps like a Matchless and a Dumble. For now I stick to the ones I dowloaded and have a great amp sound for €200. That is way less than the blue sound costs.

I got back into guitar a few years ago.Got swept up in buying new guitars...buying modellers etc etc. Have quickly learned just buy one modeller (if thats what you want) and work with it. It will work and do everything you need. They ALL SOUND GOOD. How many different effects do you really need?. Not 1/10th of what these devices offer. No amount of different gear is going to make you play better. Just practice and enjoy it.

I own a Marshal Mk2 superlead 50w I bought in 1980, it is I think a 1974 model, designation 2204, 2024 or something, a classic plexi basically. It sounds absolutely fantastic, at least I think is does 'cos I haven't actually used it for about 10 years and I can't honestly say what it actually sounds like now. To get it to sound like it should It's far too loud. Few years ago I was faced with a dilemma of spending thousands on an Ox box, a decent 2x12 and a set of pedals I wanted or a third of that on a Kemper I could plug straight into my DAW. I went for the Kemper. It was pretty good but I wasn't ever wholly happy with it for various reasons. So I bought an Axe-fx III about three years ago. This sounds far better than the Kemper and I've spent three years learning 10x more about dialing in amps and using effects than I did in the previous 30. It might have 350 amp models in it but I use my five favourites almost all the time so I've kinda got to know them. The kicker is the pristine nature of how it records into my DAW. No, it doesn't sound like an "amp in the room", it sounds like a guitar on a record coming out of a kick arse sound system. Since that's exactly what I want it to sound like I'm totally happy with it.

Glad you mentioned IK Multimedia. I have had problems installing their software which is sadly lacking. Their customer and Tech support is rubbish.

I totally agree with you.

I like the ToneX one. Good sound at a great price. I mostly use it in my desktop rig, so I don’t have to mic my cabs.

I agree,too much is just too much.

Everyone and his mate are being sold “magic beans!” 🤪

I've got one of the Tonex One pedals and I've got to say that the convenience of it has meant that I plug in to practice (noodle) more than I did before. The modelling is feels really good to play and I'm not aware of anything quite as compact that does it any better. Like you said though, it seems like every other week there is a new groundbreaking bit of modelling kit coming out and just trying to keep up can be a job in and of itself. The bluguitar unit seems to be doing the job for you well enough that it'd need to be something particularly special to want to consider changing it. It's also not a product that really sits with the rest of the content you make, so reviewing it would maybe come across as a bit disingenuous anyway unless you were really sold on it yourself. I will say it's a great bit of kit, but it's not the only great bit of kit out there. There are many routes to get to the destination of inspiring guitar tone.

I remember when the Quad Cortex first came out, people were upset because it only held 500 IRs. That’s a ridiculous complaint. I love it though and makes my gigging so simple.

Well,, I think its's nice to have one of those and know how to use it..

As a 25 year old, I see no point in owning a pedal with lots of options when i got a amp that i feel can get me the tone i want just by tweaking the EQ (depending on the room acoustics) in home recording and gigging situation. It looks and sound nice, but does it deliver is what i'm always asking

Agree wholeheartedly with every single word of this post.

Absolutely spot on John. You have to wonder how many of a certain generation spend their life watching YT videos of the latest “must have “ never happy with what they have. - and they never will be - whilst the rest of us who have done the gig scene in our day, just get on with what we have

Nice 1 John

It's definitely easy to get carried away with all the promises of game-changing gear. I recently dusted off my old Digitech GNX2 from the very early 2000s. While obviously being an amp modeler with lots of onboard effects - just like all those modern examples you mention - it's very old technology and most likely not anyone's first choice these days. What I find interesting is that I spend less time obsessing over the tone and more time actually playing. I get a "yeah-this-is-good-enough" kind of feeling and generally don't touch the knobs much at all on the few presets I've programmed. It's such a strange feeling, not constantly reaching for the mouse to tweak virtual knobs on some editing software. I'm definitely going to switch back to something more modern in the not so far future, but maybe using this 20+ years old unit for a while has made me a bit more patient.

Gotta agree with you John. 20k different guitar sounds? Makes my head sore just thinking about it.

Although I agree with if you have all the sounds you need & are happy & of course the 20k profiles that no one will really trawl through - there are not 20k amps of course just profiles of amps & some with different settings, some with effects etc there is the issue of when ppl are on stage they will no longer be bringing amps onto that stage & micing them up. so differnt than years ago when that is all you could do, now it is via products like the ToneX, or multi effects or something else. About the only thing amps are used for now are venues & maybe small events like garden parties were no PA is available or wanted. But yes there is still not need for all those amps, but if a person wants a particular amp then they can have it. To be honest tho modelling is so good now (and even was years ago to be honest) that it would be better to go that way anyway for live gigs as the modelled amps are fully controllable unlike the profiled amps which are not. I think the selling point only for Tonex is that it is a mini pedal so it can simply sit on a pedal board without taking up much room & also takes up a small space in a gig bag - a person could take that to a gig already set up with 20 amps & all the effects set & choose between 2 sounds (maybe a high gain & clean etc) & switch - albeit tricky with those small knobs.

If I was playing live....I can see the benefit of some mind of a end on the signal chain amp simulator. I could even see ditching my 14 pedals (Yes, they all get used when I need "that" sound) for a decent multi-effects system, if I can stack multiple delays (Ambient Guitar stuff) with it so all I would need would be to plug my guitar into that...and that into the house system. That truly could be the ultimate rig! ....but then...there is the venue that has nothing! ...and the Artist has to bring it all in. There are still more compact rigs than mine that I would be looking at. Are these things Game Changers? To the right LIVE guitar player...YES!

Who needs stuff like that indeed? I got a Boss ME50 years ago, and I cant see me replacing it any time soon, It does everything I need and there is quite a bit of it I havent explored.. EVER!

Only a few things used but how without my Katana how would I know what various Fender, Marshall etc. amps, tube screamers, Blues Driver, chorus, delay, reverb etc. pedals sounded like without spending loads only to be disappointed?

I just want two tones, clean and overdrive, from two different amps, fender and Marshall, into a power amp and cabinet. That’ll cover all my gigs so the Tonex1 is prefect for me and it’s a lot cheaper than the Bluguitar.

I haven't got a computer, only a phone. I just like to plug in and play! I can't be doing with all this programming, selecting, and saving bullshit! I'm old school, I have pedals, and a Boss ME90, a wah, and volume pedal. If I want to change tones, I'll turn the tone knob, or use the wah, or maybe try a different sound on the Boss. But generally, I use only a couple of different sounds, and if I want to clean up, there's the volume knob;

Thanks to you I am quite sold on the Bluguitar Amp 1, but 100W is way overkill for a small apartment in a city! Dang, even my Hotone Ampero is overkill. But formulating a cull protocol is hard. 😅

Tone chasers have now changed tac, acquiring pedals instead of amps. Must admit though, when I look at all my different amps I do start to wonder if a pedal might have been better.

I absolutely agree but.... I have been using a Tonex in a silent stage club band and for direct to pa amp sounds I have found it excellent. But I still have just 3 patches, clean, dirt, and lead so your theory is still born out. The punters don't give a rat's arse, but I like to sound good because otherwise why bother at all. But I would still prefer to take a real valve amp any day of the week.

I partially agree. I’ve been playing for more years than I care to admit. I also am not very good with computers and technology. I actually DO think that the folks who work at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store ARE geniuses lol 😆 So I never jumped onboard with the whole amp modeling thing. Too much computer tomfoolery. Gimmie an old fashioned tube amp and a few pedals with knobs to turn and I’m good. So I agree……I do not need access to every amp and pedal ever made. However, I am finding as I age, that humping around a 50+ lb amp and pedalboard is not ideal. The early videos I saw of the Tonex One seemed encouraging and it wasn’t a whole lot of money, so I took a chance and got one. I will also agree with you that the software is problematic. I cannot even get it uploaded to my computer, and I had someone helping me who is better with this stuff than me. But I’m am able to dial in a good clean amp tone on the pedal, and I run my other pedals with it either into a PA or FRFR, which is half the weight of my amp. So I guess it all depends on what your goals are. Mine was simply to avoid having to bring a heavy amp if I didn’t have to. So far it’s worked.

I thought I was the only person on the planet not interested in these things. I dont know what i would use it for. i dont need it.

1 blues jr...master volume full..mids treble bass half..clean channel on..gain is your volume..guitar volume up tone up..control volume with guitar..have fun..

To be fair, I run into the free version of Amplitube 5 on my Mac which is loaded with a VOX AC30 capture from Tone Junkie (also free) and it sounds great - really very good. Having the free version limits choice, which is handy because I don't want to spend my life trying every tone is existence.

I still have my GT 8.

Lately I've been using a Harley Benton Tube5 into a Laney Cub 1 x 12. Tuner on my phone works just fine I do own all the other stuff youtubers have advised me to buy but don't actually use it I enjoyed buying it though and my local music shop owner seems to like me

Hello John. You’re pretty convincing. Then, what do think of practice amps like Spark, also offering tons of tones? Would you recommend a simpler alternative?

Good points. I"m also wondering why people have so many guitars.

Hehe - why wouldn't you want 20,000 amp settings? I don't have a Tonex One, but I do have the free Tonex app that I run through Ableton. There is a secret to it... load ONE amp that is fairly clean and never go back to Tonex. My pedals and guitar controls get every sound I need. I tend to play clean/low gain Blues (BB King, Peter Green, Albert King etc), Led Zeppelin-ish Rock, Brit Invasion Blues, Funk and Reggae. For me, this has made recording and jamming a doddle. You just need to have a bit of self control to avoid diving head first down the rabbit hole 🐇🎩🕳. I haven't purchased the Tonex One because the app is FREE and I always play through headphones and work through my laptop.

I suffered with option paralysis with a lowly zoom 1010. Hate it when the new improved whatever comes out. All the YT channels go overkill and I still wont be buying it.

In terms of number of tones, sure, you can pick from 20K+, but I'd look at that as free shopping. (How many amps and pedals are out in the world before you picked one?) After you've settled on something, it doesn't look like bank switching is something you can easily do mid-track, so you're mostly talking on/off or a/b with two tones.There's nothing new added here from the original Tonex, it's more the value proposition and the form factor. The notion that this small pedal can be your amp and cab - or any of a number of overdrive pedals and for under $200... I haven't bought one yet, but it's interesting. I do wonder though if the ease of use of the original Tonex interface is maybe worth the extra money and pedal board real estate.

Gave up on tone years ago no matter what amp or pedal I try I always sound as if I am playing inside a biscuit tin

I got a fender gtx pedal with all these "anps" and "cabs". And it was ridiculous. Plus when you choose some combinations of effects it drains the memory and some of the other effects can't be used. Absurd.

❤

I'm a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay's 'Kitchen Nightmares' show, and what's the first thing he always tells the restauranteurs who are doing it wrong? Your menu is too big, pare it back and keep it simple. Same thing applies here. Having 20 thousand amp impulse response options available? Give me a break!

I imagine that a blue 1 would sound much better at 4 times the cost.

Its horses for courses isn't it,,, I'm a big fan of the IK Tonex stuff, but I get everything I need from the VST they provide, and far more on top compared to the ToneX One... So I certainly won't be getting one either haha. I get fed up of the 'embargo day shills' that seem to have reached the tip of the KZfaq iceberg...

Can the pedal also make coffee? 20,000 tones? My Analysis Paralysis would KILL me.....

The Boss Katana Gen 3 is currently doing the rounds with those same channels / reviewers. I get Andertons etc as they are a shop, but I think many channels lose credibility so I tend to give them a wide birth, stop trying to sell me stuff !!

Correction l know 2 youtuber who will send it back and don't advice to buy it.

People have become obsessed with sounding like a particular amp instead of as you say a type of sound. The truth is that you need a clean, crunch, high gain and maybe insane distortion. But the ToneX only allows you to switch between two amps and one stomp. It may have access to millions of amps but on the night you are limited. Then we get the memory game of colored lights to show what the pedal is doing. ToneX is a step backwards. But people enjoy spending money to get the latest 'game changer'.

😥

Million tone pedals are a great way to avoid playing. Most people are interested in only 4 or 5 different sounds that they will use. 20 thousand "different" tones? I call bs. Most will sound very much alike.

I don't own a single pedal, all i need is an echo box and a good clean amp. Why players fall for all this overhyped junk is beyond me. It won't improve how you sound no matter how good it is claimed to be. Stop wasting money and just buy some new strings and practice more or get some lessons from John!

By the same logic, do you really need your ever growing guitar collection? 🤔

One day you wake up and you're that grumpy old guy that calls things 'new-fangled'. 😉 Joking aside, most of these gadgets have too many bells and whistles for the average person with a normal job and life to have the time to be bothered with. Also, the KZfaq reviewers often come across as out-of-touch with the amount of money the average person has and seem insufferably blasé about spending hundreds of pounds. Unlike their analogue counterparts, these things aren't likely to be sought after in years to come, nor will their components last for very long. Landfill gear, basically.

Im waiting with baited breath for Tom's AmpX.