GuitarWarp

Each week I get to listen to some excellent guitar work mic'd into a sound system that is probably the best on the entire Gulf Coast of Florida. The guitar player recently acquired a VOC AC 50 to play through with a Tele. Mic'd with a Sure SM57 it sounded quite good. This was the set up for a few weeks before going "direct" out of the back of the VOX using it's built in modeling. Very nice! Yes, I said it. It sounded considerably better than putting the mic in front of it. More punch, and more of what sounded like a "genuine" Vox jangle and grit. I didn't even know the switch had been made until I complimented the player and dialing in the sound. Then about a month later, WOW! His rig sounded incredible. The best guitar tone that room had seen. The change? You guessed it. He had switched to a Pod x3 Live and downloaded patches from Lincoln Brewster. He had the Vox still sitting on stage so I thought he was still using it. I won't say

The GNX3000 may be out of production, but it still holds it's own, and may even still surpass Digitech's latest offerings. The 3000 introduced "component modeling" where each electronic and mechanical component of an amp or cabinet was individually "modeled" to create the overall tone close to the orginal (when mic'd that is). No one would ever confuse any modeler for the real thing just plugged into a studio monitor. But mic it into a PA or in a recording and it's very close. Close enough that you would probably chalk up differences to technique or recording set up. I say it may surpass Digitech's latest, but it's hard to say because, frankly, the demo's on their site for the new gear are so lame. They need to borrow a page from Line 6 and hire some great guitarists for demos.