View Full Version : Lincoln Brewster - Using Axe FX
GuitarKidd
11-12-2009, 03:37 PM
http://www.fractalaudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9851
Looks like he is using it on tour now...
If this has been brought up before, I apologize.. just kill it.
Rock Johnson
11-12-2009, 03:48 PM
LB's been using modelers for a long time. I'm not surprised he went to AxeFx.
GuitarKidd
11-12-2009, 03:51 PM
LB's been using modelers for a long time. I'm not surprised he went to AxeFx.
We know he's been using the X3 for a long time... I guess it was just a matter of time.
Man, I would love to get an AxeFX... aaarrggh.
DavidLopezJr
11-13-2009, 02:09 PM
He's been on the axe-fx since for a while now.
travisvwright
11-13-2009, 02:13 PM
I was dissappointed when I first learned this, as I always thought of him as the every man <$1,000 for his entire pro rig. Not that I'm about to give up my Tube amp but I liked the thought of that. But then it was pointed out to me that LB was responsible for a whole bunch of line 6 sales and never got anything out of it from them. Fractal seems to actually at least acknowledge him. So good for him.
playing4one
11-13-2009, 02:24 PM
Hey Travis, I don't know that I would say that he has a <$1000 rig. Both of his strats are custom shop guitars with area 51 pick-ups with custome tone knob wiring set-up and a treble bleed on the volume. His home studio is sick, he has a nice little collection of guitars at home. I got to open for him a couple of weeks ago at my home church and he is truly one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He ditched the Line 6 stuff do to the reliabilty of it on the road.
bkd_guitarist
11-13-2009, 02:25 PM
I was dissappointed when I first learned this, as I always thought of him as the every man <$1,000 for his entire pro rig.
He blew that out with a vengeance. Cliff said on the Fractal forum that Lincoln has three Axe-FX's.
travisvwright
11-13-2009, 02:26 PM
I wasn't trying to say that he has less than $1,000 of equiptment just that you can get a good strat, upgrade to noiseless pickups, add an X3 Live and you had 99% of his sound. Especially considering you could just go download his patches straight from his website.
playing4one
11-13-2009, 02:30 PM
No problem Travis, I ment no harm by it. He has an awesome sound live and the guy can play circle around a lot of people. It is just awe inspiring!!!
DavidLopezJr
11-15-2009, 05:26 PM
What gets me confused if he was worried about the reliability about the Pod's why didnt he just buy the rack version instead?
Shiny McShine
11-15-2009, 05:42 PM
He was seriously promoting it at the Overlake Conference this weekend. The session in the big room was all about his gear. It was kind of funny because one of the guys on our team thought that the heavens had opened up. To me, it was all old news. His Plexi patch is a little too bass heavy and was over shadowing the bass during the performance. It sounded great acapella though. Also, he said that guys with tube amps had come in and he said that he could take an X3 and get a better sound. I don't doubt that because just because it's a tube amp doesn't automatically make it a good sounding one. Still, essentially, he was running an entirely solid state rig using the wedges as his "amp".
Shane~
11-15-2009, 09:23 PM
LB was at CMS @ Overlake and he said that he switched from the X3 Live about two months ago. He really likes it.
I just switched from the GNX4 to the X3 Live about the same time - I can tell now that the GNX4 was really bad.
Anyway - it was interesting to see what it can do (it's INSANE) - but I would say that about 15% of why I got the POD was because LB had one; I get one and then I find out he's changing too.
I guess I'm glad that music isn't a static medium.
Shane~
Proco
11-16-2009, 04:41 AM
He moved to the Axe-FX but that doesn't men that the X3 is a bad modeler at all. In fact, Line6 stuff has been his preference for a long time.
...But I'm GASing for a Axe...
Shiny McShine
11-16-2009, 09:47 AM
Make sure to play one. They are still a modeler and while they are great for some usages, they will never replace a tube amp for me.
Another thing that happened was that he ran several guitars through his--his gold CS strat, another strat, and two Tele's and they all sounded the same to my ears except for little shifts in EQ. My suspicion is that the the sound system was coloring everything. Nonetheless, with the right tube amp, two identical strats will sound remarkably different and their individual character remains.
So the Axe is looking really viable to me if you are listening only through Aviom, wedges and mains because the limitation is now the cheesy SS power amps and speakers that are the PA. Essentially, your PA is really your guitar amp. At that point, miking a tube amp isn't really going to overcome anything tonewise and all that tube tone is going to be lost.
The other thing with the Axe is that it makes copping tones and playing parts easier because you can sound just like the record. Also, you can wander into keyboard land with swirly effects and tones that fill air.
rickwil61
11-16-2009, 05:05 PM
Essentially, your PA is really your guitar amp. At that point, miking a tube amp isn't really going to overcome anything tonewise and all that tube tone is going to be lost.
I have a friend who plays professionally and he said something similar to what you're saying. Basically your tone is determined by the EQ on the PA system. He said that low end equipment can sound good live if you have someone who knows how to EQ the PA system.
Sixstring
11-16-2009, 08:13 PM
For the L.B. fans... This guy rocks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8NCjJenFYE
Scott Peterson
11-17-2009, 12:42 AM
"Freebird!!"
LOL.
fr8_trane
11-17-2009, 07:51 AM
For the L.B. fans... This guy rocks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8NCjJenFYE
I love these mockups. Hilarious.
bkd_guitarist
11-17-2009, 09:29 AM
Seen that before, but it never gets old. The "ack, ack, ack" at 2:07 followed by "Sweet Home Alabama" had me laughing out loud....TGP is gonna get me fired. :dude
banjoze
12-01-2009, 02:25 AM
Lincoln always has the sound guys set his eq flat on the PA. Otherwise (he says) exactly what you say below does occur.
Make sure to play one. They are still a modeler and while they are great for some usages, they will never replace a tube amp for me.
Another thing that happened was that he ran several guitars through his--his gold CS strat, another strat, and two Tele's and they all sounded the same to my ears except for little shifts in EQ. My suspicion is that the the sound system was coloring everything. Nonetheless, with the right tube amp, two identical strats will sound remarkably different and their individual character remains.
So the Axe is looking really viable to me if you are listening only through Aviom, wedges and mains because the limitation is now the cheesy SS power amps and speakers that are the PA. Essentially, your PA is really your guitar amp. At that point, miking a tube amp isn't really going to overcome anything tonewise and all that tube tone is going to be lost.
The other thing with the Axe is that it makes copping tones and playing parts easier because you can sound just like the record. Also, you can wander into keyboard land with swirly effects and tones that fill air.
mentoneman
12-01-2009, 11:34 AM
i just used my axe ultra live this weekend with the most insanely odd configuration i've ever laid my eyes on.
check this out...
so i have my old skb 100 hybrid rack/pedalboard. originally i was hoping to put my axe fx in it as a direct replacement for my gforce but the axe didn't fit properly...the jacks on the back were too close to the enclosure and would have put too much stress on my cables and connectors so i pulled out my old 8 space skb rack and axe is in there.
but my pedals and valulator power supply is tethered to the skb 100 so i had to use both racks = pain in the neck and bulky on stage.
THEN
after trying out the mono DI to house last time i played i did not like the sound coming out of my wedge so this time i brought my home practice rig;
a tech 21 power engine, which gives me spekaer response and thump, and has a balanced xlr in and out/thru jack,
and then i took the XLR out from the tech 21 into an m audio BX-5 studio monitor balanced input, and mic'ed that BX-5 with a senny e-609 positioned between the tweeter and 6 inch driver. the BX-5 resolves all the high end detail from the axe's effects and amp/cab models that the tech 21 shaves off, and the tech 21 gives me the amp response and speaker bounce and grunt the BX-5 can't offer.
i completed my stage speaker rig with a mackie MR-5 studio monitor for the other side of the axe's stereo.
it looked like a demented pawn shop in front of me but i'll be darned if the tone wasn't cool.
the fender clean and srv tones need work to make them less shrill and more mid bodied, but the plexi-vox and plexi lead tones are working great.
guitarist58
12-01-2009, 12:43 PM
Rube Goldberg would be proud :D
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/560/rubegoldberg.jpg
Pietro
12-01-2009, 02:06 PM
Basically your tone is determined by the EQ on the PA system.
That's true of all of us who play through the system. It's like this. Don't worry about how you sound to yourself totally exclusive of how you sound in the mix to the audience. Love your audience. Your tone through your amp might sound great to you, but you might need less or more of something you don't like to get it to be the tone that the actual people hear.
impactblue
08-26-2010, 12:49 AM
Anyone know the component values for lincoln's treble bleed? Is it parallel or series?
Don Petersen
08-26-2010, 02:20 AM
Basically your tone is determined by the EQ on the PA system.
this is one of the better possible scenarios I encountered when playing live. quite often the PA speakers themselves will color the sound considerably and have odd resonances and cancellations. Top that off with a stereo 30 band EQ set by a monkey and a sound guy who loves everything below 70Hz.
of course there also are the big venues with top notch systems and a dedicated monitor mixer. but quite often the PA and the way it is set is limiting the sound of a band. add to that the fact that audiences are really spoilt sound-wise today and the everyone is a critic attitude (good guitars and drums -> "vocals too low". nice upfront vocals -> "you didn't rock it as much as you usually do". kick ass growling bass -> "I couldn't hear the kick drum".) :D
randall d
08-27-2010, 03:28 PM
Anyone know the component values for lincoln's treble bleed? Is it parallel or series?
I've been trying to find that out too. I even emailed his site hoping to find out. No answer, as expected (hey, it was free to try).
Haidge
11-15-2010, 07:14 AM
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I just got back from the AG Ohio Youth Convention where Lincoln lead worship. I don't know if it's been discussed on here yet but when I made my way up after the event was over I was somewhat surprised to find he had done the whole thing with the Pod HD500 and not an AxeFx in sight. As I searched a little for info I found he's really into both and (as far as other people are saying) is going to switch between both.
And he will sound great using either....:D
GuitarKidd
11-15-2010, 07:59 AM
I was curious if he was going to try the HD... I mean.. it appears to be a great unit to play live with.. whereas the Axe, you need a few more bells and whistles to play live with...
Guitarman19853
11-15-2010, 10:22 AM
He must be retaining some affiliation with Line 6 as last Tuesday he posted that he was doing a photoshoot for Line 6 on his twitter (http://twitter.com/#%21/lincolnbrewster)
Strangely though, in the CD book for his new album, he thanks someone from Fractal Audio (I forget who, not Cliff) but makes no mention of Line 6.
cob666
11-15-2010, 01:50 PM
Essentially, your PA is really your guitar amp. At that point, miking a tube amp isn't really going to overcome anything tonewise and all that tube tone is going to be lost.
Once you stick a mic in front of your tube amp to run through FOH then you're in exactly the same situation where a bad house PA can ruin your sound. This doesn't apply just to modelers.
marshall2288
11-15-2010, 02:27 PM
Dumb Question Alert!!!!
What is considered flat EQ on a mixer?
gurumonkey
11-15-2010, 02:36 PM
flat eq just means that the eq knobs on the board for your channel are all set to 12 o'clock, which neither adds nor subtracts volume at those frequencies from what originally comes in. naturally, each pa system will have some sort of a curve of it's own, so even though you might get close by having a flat eq at every venue, everyone could and probably does sound different anyway.
toasterdude
11-15-2010, 06:28 PM
Once you stick a mic in front of your tube amp to run through FOH then you're in exactly the same situation where a bad house PA can ruin your sound. This doesn't apply just to modelers.
Right but at least then the sound you hear on stage is what you want/need to hear.
jdolll
11-15-2010, 06:45 PM
At the level you're talking about most are now using IEM's making your on stage amp volume kind of moot. If your in a venue that holds 1500 or more your actual cab volume has little to nothing to do with what people hear, if you're using in ears it has pretty much nothing to do with what you hear. At a certain point venue size you just have to accept the monitoring available and run with it. If you can only play well when monitoring from a stack behind you then you probably need to work on that, the guitar sound you get from IEM's is less than inspiring no matter how good your rig sounds, but people run with it every day. A lot of where brewster plays is in church's obviously, which are some of the most stringent places you can play volume wise, you don't see that affecting Lincoln's playing.
GuitarKidd
11-15-2010, 07:47 PM
which are some of the most stringent places you can play volume wise, you don't see that affecting Lincoln's playing.
Not to complain, but that is a very unrealistic comment. If your having Lincoln Brewster at your church, more than likely he's not there on a Sunday morning. And a lot of your churches today, have rockin' worship services and crank the volume. Maybe not as loud as some ear bleeding rock concerts, but most of the concerts that I have been too that have been at churches... the volume is pumping.
jdolll
11-15-2010, 08:53 PM
The volume is pumping yes, but most big church's are now using iso rooms for guitar amps, or they are using acoustic treatments around the amps, or in Lincoln's case using direct signal gear. I lead at a church that is pretty loud and also play large conventions/conferences and even in those settings you are not cranking an amp, and if you are it's not anywhere that anyone is hearing it except through a main system. Iem's and wedges are the way you're hearing yourself in these settings, not your cab. There are of course exceptions to this but for the most part this is the norm in large church's now. If you check Lincoln brewster videos or go to the church he is the worship pastor at(bayside church), he's using IEM's a loud cab on stage would be pointless. My point is mainly that loud house system doesn't mean loud amps, it's very different.
Lincoln was responsible for getting me interested in modelers again after a disastrous experience with Behringer stuff in years past, am really digging an XT Live right now. I did download his patches from his web site, and assuming they sound similar in an XTL as an X3, I didn't like them at all. Too much gain and they sucked too much tone out of the guitar. He must have low output pickups set low to the strings.
I'd go straight to the Fractal if they had a floor solution like the HD500. Don't want to deal with wiring a footswitch to a rack every night.
The loudest concert I have ever attended was at a local church, I think the band was Reality Check (haven't been around for awhile). This was louder than Rush, AC/DC, or ZZ Top in the early eighties. It was STUPID.
mwc2112
11-16-2010, 07:41 AM
Don't want to deal with wiring a footswitch to a rack every night.
I'm just curious as to why 1 midi cable and a power supply to the board would be the make-it-or-break-it factor for you? I use my AxeFX + Midi board every Sunday morning at my church and usually I have ~3 minutes to set up and generally I wind up having 2 minutes left over to tune. It's not as big a PITA as many make it out to be.
ronmail65
11-16-2010, 08:06 AM
I have a friend who plays professionally and he said something similar to what you're saying. Basically your tone is determined by the EQ on the PA system. He said that low end equipment can sound good live if you have someone who knows how to EQ the PA system.
This is where a lot of die hard tube amp fanatics lose credibility, IMO.
Although I personally prefer the sound of a tube amp, I'm also aware that when mic'd in a gig situation, the PA EQ and many other factors can significantly color your tone. So, in a gig situation like this for a mic'd amp, all of this painfully detailed tone minutae manipulation feels like kind of a waste of time.
jdolll
11-16-2010, 03:10 PM
I go into most every place with my axe fx now and say, "leave my eq's flat, it's already eq'd as I'd like it." i've had some hesitation from sound guys, but usually they have no qualms about it. This is where modelers can shine over good tube amps for me. I have more control over what my house sound is, you just need to be up front with your sound guys.
mikeyen
11-16-2010, 06:05 PM
I go into most every place with my axe fx now and say, "leave my eq's flat, it's already eq'd as I'd like it." i've had some hesitation from sound guys, but usually they have no qualms about it. This is where modelers can shine over good tube amps for me. I have more control over what my house sound is, you just need to be up front with your sound guys.
Having worked the soundboard a few times myself, I've learned to just leave any mixing related decisions to the sound man, unless I have good reasons NOT to. Just because I eq'd my amp to sound great in a controlled room thru good studio monitors doesn't mean it'll necessarily sound good in the given venue. The specifics of the venues (room size, shape, reflections, quality of PA...etc) can vary so much (sometimes even night to night in the same venue), it's hard to know how the instruments are going to sit in the mix with each other until the sound check. Even then, things are going to change once you have some bodies in the room to soak up some sound. Guitarists can be control freaks (I know I am!), but sometimes it's best to trust your sound guy. Or, well, get better sound guys. :)
Mike
jdolll
11-16-2010, 06:16 PM
I've set my amp for a typical band mix, not for me solo, most sound guys have an eq setting that they typically use on certain instruments as a starting point, with the way I've set my gear, that starting point should be flat. I'm certainly not naive enough to believe that they leave it flat if it doesn't mix well, my gear setup is not what most soundguys are used to, so I'm trying to give a little help. I'm sure I have walked away from soundguys who thought I was controlling, but I never(at least I think) approach them with a chip on my shoulder. I guess I'm saying I know they eq it, I just don't want them putting a smiley face eq on my guitar so I try to steer them as such.
javajunkie
11-16-2010, 06:24 PM
Lincoln was responsible for getting me interested in modelers again after a disastrous experience with Behringer stuff in years past, am really digging an XT Live right now. I did download his patches from his web site, and assuming they sound similar in an XTL as an X3, I didn't like them at all. Too much gain and they sucked too much tone out of the guitar. He must have low output pickups set low to the strings.
I'd go straight to the Fractal if they had a floor solution like the HD500. Don't want to deal with wiring a footswitch to a rack every night.
The loudest concert I have ever attended was at a local church, I think the band was Reality Check (haven't been around for awhile). This was louder than Rush, AC/DC, or ZZ Top in the early eighties. It was STUPID.
He uses his volume knob on his guitar to adjust the gain. His guitar is wired like the EJ strat and he has a treble bleed on the neck pickup. He uses Virtual Vintage pickups.
I'm just curious as to why 1 midi cable and a power supply to the board would be the make-it-or-break-it factor for you? I use my AxeFX + Midi board every Sunday morning at my church and usually I have ~3 minutes to set up and generally I wind up having 2 minutes left over to tune. It's not as big a PITA as many make it out to be.
I agree, it's not necessarily too big of a deal to use the midi pedal and rack, but another thing to consider is the space available for the rig. I have toured with a midi pedal/rack rig (Marshall JMP-1 pre and power amp) for about two years, and found that it was often difficult to carve out enough space on stage for the rack, along with a support to get it to eye level. It was always easy to get space for the pedalboard. On top of that, realistically I couldn't get the pedal/rack setup going in a few minutes, it always took around 15-20 minutes from walk-in to standing with a tuned guitar, ready to go. But keep in mind this is playing every gig in a different venue with wildly different stages, with 9 people in the band. Space is almost always at a premium. I can see if you play the same gig every week that a lot of time would be shaved off the setup, as well as the space issue being worked out.
Part of it is also my engineering conservatism; since you are going to have a pedalboard anyway, why not put all the electronics into the pedalboard? It is the obvious optimum application of the technology for the purpose (for stage work at least). Line 6 has done it successfully for years. The rack unit and midi cable and power supply (although I'd hope Fractal provides phantom power on the midi cable) seem to be a waste of time and space. It is so sweet to grab the modeler pedal in a gig bag with all your cables, sling it over your arm, and tote your guitar with one hand. You even have a hand free to tote your coffee cup.
mwc2112
11-17-2010, 08:07 AM
You even have a hand free to tote your coffee cup.
Good points all, but none better then this. :rotflmao
I'm just curious as to why 1 midi cable and a power supply to the board would be the make-it-or-break-it factor for you? I use my AxeFX + Midi board every Sunday morning at my church and usually I have ~3 minutes to set up and generally I wind up having 2 minutes left over to tune. It's not as big a PITA as many make it out to be.
I have the power supply patched in through the Axe-FX. So it's one 7 pin midi cable to the midi pedal. The processor is safely tucked away behind me, far away from possible drunk dancer disasters. Both of my previous Digitech boards got beer spilled on them. Not interested in that scenario with any of my high end gear.
Part of it is also my engineering conservatism; since you are going to have a pedalboard anyway, why not put all the electronics into the pedalboard? It is the obvious optimum application of the technology for the purpose (for stage work at least). Line 6 has done it successfully for years. The rack unit and midi cable and power supply (although I'd hope Fractal provides phantom power on the midi cable) seem to be a waste of time and space. It is so sweet to grab the modeler pedal in a gig bag with all your cables, sling it over your arm, and tote your guitar with one hand. You even have a hand free to tote your coffee cup.
In that vein, for myself, the snake is near the drummer. It's a lot easier to run a couple of short mic cables to the snake than to have to run much longer mic cables up to the front of the stage. Also you have to run electrical cables to get power to the floor unit. These things are easier to access from the rear of the stage in virtually every gig I play. So in many cases, the seeming advantage of an all in one unit negates itself with more complicated cable runs.
mikeyen
11-17-2010, 01:48 PM
I've set my amp for a typical band mix, not for me solo, most sound guys have an eq setting that they typically use on certain instruments as a starting point, with the way I've set my gear, that starting point should be flat. I'm certainly not naive enough to believe that they leave it flat if it doesn't mix well, my gear setup is not what most soundguys are used to, so I'm trying to give a little help. I'm sure I have walked away from soundguys who thought I was controlling, but I never(at least I think) approach them with a chip on my shoulder. I guess I'm saying I know they eq it, I just don't want them putting a smiley face eq on my guitar so I try to steer them as such.
What's wrong with the smiley curve? Don't be hatin. :rotflmao
I kid, I kid - I know what you mean. In my experience most sound guys tend to be pretty controlling, just by nature of what they do, so I usually make a conscious decision to let things go as much as I can - pick my battles, so to speak. :D
Mike
The processor is safely tucked away behind me, far away from possible drunk dancer disasters. Both of my previous Digitech boards got beer spilled on them. Not interested in that scenario with any of my high end gear.
That is an excellent point. Beer would still kill a midi pedal board, but they are much cheaper to replace. However I haven't had anything to spill on my pedalboard in 7 years of gigging, and they don't drink much beer in the sanctuary of the Baptist church I play at. At least not while I'm around. :D
In that vein, for myself, the snake is near the drummer. It's a lot easier to run a couple of short mic cables to the snake than to have to run much longer mic cables up to the front of the stage. Also you have to run electrical cables to get power to the floor unit. These things are easier to access from the rear of the stage in virtually every gig I play. So in many cases, the seeming advantage of an all in one unit negates itself with more complicated cable runs.
I've run 120VAC to my old pedalboard for hundreds of gigs and had no issue with that. I also have to run cables to my vocal mic, one or two more for the modeler is no problem. Our snake is over near my side of the stage at the monitor mixer, about the same distance as the vocal mic.
banjoze
11-18-2010, 02:16 PM
He uses his volume knob on his guitar to adjust the gain. His guitar is wired like the EJ strat and he has a treble bleed on the neck pickup. He uses Virtual Vintage pickups.
Treble bleed on the neck pickup? I thought he had this on his bridge pickup.
JCM 800
11-18-2010, 03:54 PM
Treble bleed on the neck pickup? I thought he had this on his bridge pickup.
It's on the volume control. It affects all 3 pickups.
I've run 120VAC to my old pedalboard for hundreds of gigs and had no issue with that. I also have to run cables to my vocal mic, one or two more for the modeler is no problem. Our snake is over near my side of the stage at the monitor mixer, about the same distance as the vocal mic.
I totally agree. Either way, it's a very quick easy setup.
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