TC Electronic Ampworx Vintage Series, UAFX Pedals, Walrus Audio ACS1 & Strymon Iridium vs. Real Amps

[@GuitarBonedo]

*Buy now: UAFX Ruby ´63 bit.ly/UAFX-Ruby-63-at-Thomann UAFX Dream ´65 bit.ly/UAFX-Dream65-at-Thomann UAFX Woodrow ´55 bit.ly/UAFX-Woodrow-55-at-Thomann Strymon Iridium bit.ly/Strymon-Iridium-at-Thomann Walrus Audio ACS-1 bit.ly/Walrus-ACS1-at-Thomann TC Electronic Combo Deluxe 65' bit.ly/TC-Electronic-Combo-Deluxe-65-at-Thomann TC Electronic DC30 bit.ly/TC-Electronic-DC-30-at-Thomann TC Electronic JIMS 45 bit.ly/TC-Electronic-JIMS45-at-Thomann Subscribe: bit.ly/GuitarBonedoSub Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/guitar.bonedo/

[@GuitarSmartsPodcast]

Literally the perfect demo of this kit, fantastic, thank you for doing this!

[@carolynshulman]

Wow. I am amazed at how close you were able to get the TC Ampworx Combo '65 to sound to the UA Dream '65! Great demo!

[@mikedr1549]

It's an amazing time to be a guitar player. All this gear is plenty good enough to meet the needs of most any player.

[@benjamingilmore825]

Wow for the Vox sound the Iridium was awesome. Didn’t like the Iridium as much for the clean Fender sound

[@blairmichaelhogan4502]

Yeah the Iridium’s round setting may be it’s weakest point. Though it can get much closer to a deluxe with a good IR and the mids knob all the way down…which almost no one seems to do.

[@benjamingilmore825]

@@blairmichaelhogan4502 have you ever tried using the Iridium’s vox and Marshall settings in front of a clean Fender amp, like an “amp in a box” pedal? I know it’s not intended for that but…..

[@lankududniteshift]

I wished u included the NuX Amp Academy, which is priced almost the same with the TC's Ampworx pedals. I seriously feel the Amp Academy have the best value compared to any of the Ampworx. The Amp Academy gives u 12 different amps/IRs, built in fx loop, 5 different reverbs, noise suppressor, graphic eq, several drives, compressors, clean boosts, an XLR Di output (with the IR in the signal chain) & 1/4" output (with or without IR in the signal chain via a toggle switch), two footswitches which gives u up to 6 different sounds, etc. And, the NuX Amp Acadmey really sounds great & feels good under the fingers... Anyway, this is just my 2 cents...

[@pastorkev777]

The Iridium for Vox actually suprised me a ton. The Jim45 was the closest in the low mids and gain staging, upper mids had some in common, treble and pressence definitely different. The Hot Rod is such a solid amp, I would use TC Electronic for this for the price, mess with irs to get closer. The winnerbwas Iridium vox mode, not that the Ruby didnt sound good, but it was just brighter and cleaner.

[@linussonearth]

Results to my ears in terms of similarity to the real thing -Fender: TC Electronic wins; Vox: Iridium wins; Marshall: Walrus wins. Very surprised as I was expecting UA to win them all. I don't know if they were dialed in properly, but UA sounded way off on most of them for me.

[@FrederickGlazier]

So now not only has Walrus issued an update so has TC... so... er... uh... could you, like maybe, uh sorta revisit this? THANKS! LOVE LOVE LOVE your work!

[@priorwitness]

Thought the TC Electronic and Walrus blew the competition out of the water and it wasn't close to my ears. The Iridium sounded flat and the UA stuff was just, I don't know, weird to my ears. None the less this comparison was awesome! Thanks!

[@TheToneLounge]

Being a Vox guy, I think that the Ruby was pretty spot on with the chime and tone. Very interesting shootout. Cheers

[@jaribu2758]

Thanks for all the work and time this must have taken.

[@ryanstauffer6785]

The tweed amp is sort of the forgotten one here, but it sounds awesome in these demos -- and the Woodrow seems like a very solid emulation.

[@chrislink73]

This is an excellent video and comparison of all the different amp sims vs approximate real amp designs. I definitely thought the UA stuff was closest to the real thing, although the real amps sounded a little smoother and warmer and the UA pedals seemed to poke out of the mix and sound a little drier. Some of that might be a mixing difference and could be fixed in the DAW. Definitely both sound use-able and musical to my ear. The Woodrow also has some great clean tones that I'm sure sound quite close to the real amp as well.

[@stevefiorito5379]

Awesome! Great comparison. I love the Dream and the Jim's 45 a lot. I am still getting over a bad experience with the TONEX Pedal ... 3 pedals ... the original purchase, and 2 warranty replacements: All 3 defective. Still thinking about what I will use instead of the TONEX ... your video made that a bit easier.

[@GhostLung]

What was the issue with the Tonex? They all come with the same problem?

[@davidsummerville351]

This episode is a 🐰 rabbit 🐰 hole! 🤪😎🤓 Thanks for doing this.

[@kithagoras]

Amazing... I've been looking for a demo like this

[@DD_Franks]

This comment is a note to self... 😊For looks, I like the dream, irridium and TC combo deluxe, because.... Well I like black pedals. 😊 For sound and features I would choose the ACS1 as a first, and the TC combo deluxe as second. To my ears the Dream and ACS1 came very close. The irridium a bit darker sounding and the combo deluxe a bit shrill, although I like the overall sound of the TC. The ACS1 wins because of the sound being close to the dream as I prefer a deluxe model. But it has the benefits of having two more amp models, phones jack and dual amps. And the update has given it more gain. Thanks Bodeno for the excellent comparison. ❤

[@KimmyKim0423]

Wow🔥 Thank you for this demo Guitar Bonedo. Always watching your videos since i found your channel! Greetings from Philippines

[@bradenandre2298]

Hello, was the ACS1 recorded with the new update that came out 4 days ago?

[@gonebymidnight2881]

would also like to know

[@attrition0]

Hoping to find out as well!

[@OrezOreh2007]

+1

[@chrisfass]

I think this is a reupload of a vid they made a year ago, so seems not

[@kellymckenzie4865]

It's really good. I updated mine the day it came out. The increase in gain and the new/simplified ir's are really good. At first it sounded really bad and I was bummed but I shortly realized that I needed to go through the eq process all over again. Using the secondary high and low roll off is necessary. The boost really works like a boost now and feels like an amp getting hit with a clean boost making it drive harder without color. I got rid of two of my overdrives immediately.

[@davidwlucas]

Just curious, was the ACS-1 used in this demo updated to the latest firmware that was recently released?

[@rodrigocarrillo6369]

Estoy seguro que no, por que actualmente no suena así, suena mucho mucho mejor

[@zettepix2009]

wow the jims 45

[@davidestes9971]

I came here to tell you what no one ever mentions in these videos. The Walrus Audio ACS1 is smaller and lighter than the rest of these pedals. They all sound good but that was my deciding factor. The Dream 65 is wonderful but my pedalboard was getting too heavy and i wanted other options besides just fender sounds..

[@DoongKim]

I bought Strymon Iridium because of previous comparison clip in Bonedo. I think Iridium is still the best IR especially in Vox style!

[@qddk9545]

A very good review 🙂 I suppose this was before the TC software update - did they improve much by upgrading?

[@boyan.guitar]

In short - yes. I have the combo 65, I loved it outta the box, the upgrade made it better.

[@qddk9545]

@@boyan.guitar Thank you 🙂

[@reginaldperiwinkle]

I probably wouldn't know the difference on a recording, but hearing them side by side, the Fender Deluxe Amp and the Vox Amp were noticeably better to my ears than the amp-in-a-box versions. The Marshall and Fender Tweed I found there was parity with the emulations. These continue to improve.

[@kasakka]

It really comes down to the cab sims used. The Iridium can sound a good bit better with 3rd party IRs for any of its amp models. If Guitar Bonedo made an IR of his real amp mic setup and used that with each of the digital units they would probably sound pretty similar.

[@reginaldperiwinkle]

@@kasakka I'd like to see a video example of that.

[@jips123]

What about the ir’s used? These can make a huge difference? For the iridium and the walrus in particular.

[@kasakka]

Exactly. Those two can really be elevated by some good 3rd party IRs. The UA stuff comes with good IRs but you can't change them to 3rd party stuff. The TC is IMO held back by the Celestion IRs which in my experience tend to sound pretty bright and thin. Again no way to change them other than using a separate IR loader device or plugin.

[@internalmethods]

These videos are extremely difficult to dial in similar tone on each device. That being said, I chose the TC Electronic Combo Deluxe and I would NOT change or switch out. On sounds thin and somewhat fake in this demo, but I assure you it's Very realistic ❤

[@svveets00]

Is the ACS1 running on previous firmware or the latest 2.0 firmware?

[@anothamatt]

Was this with the latest Walrus firmware? (released like ~2 weeks ago)

[@NoName01071992]

Especially when used live, a lot for me is also about the feel. Although I'm still quite convinced nothing can beat having an amp on stage in terms of feel, I think the UA stuff really comes close to capturing the feel of an actual guitar amp. Especially the Ruby has a wide dynamic range and responds to pedals exactly how I would expect for an AC30 to do. In terms of sound, they all sound great in their own right and especially the TC stuff has the added benefit of a very attractive price I suppose! Man, what a great time to be a guitar player :D

[@spacepodi]

Great Demo.🤓

[@billybob7502]

would have been cool to the simplifier mkii compared since no one has done it yet. cool video over all though

[@effector3659]

does the ACS 1 have the new v2.0 firmware? its like a different pedal with the new firmware,

[@1loStu]

Bought and spent 3 days on UAFX Dream 65 pedal after tons of fancy videos on YT. It has a woody, dead sound - nothing beats a real amp. "The Mad Professor Super Black" sounds much better - warmer and rounder - than this. Sent it back

[@westernroadtripmusic]

Hey dude, the eq section in the Ruby works backwards, the lack of treble being in the top boost channel between this pedal and the amp is huge. The Ruby pedal can get scary close to the 60s with rectifier tube Vox when you set it properly. However , nice demo. Big fan of your work :)

[@rnegtr]

UA was the best in every amp model that they have a pedal for. The big surprise for me is how well the TC pedals stood up against the others. For the Fender and Vox tones, it was 2nd place each time - IMHO. For Marshall, maybe not as close, but for the money, I’d take the TC’s every time.

[@EricMakingWaves]

To be fair to TC the Jim’s is modeled after a Hendrix amp that was a predecessor to the Plexi super leads (something closer to a JTM45) which has more in common with a Fender Bassman than the Marshall models in this video.

[@s.r.b.4582]

TC’s pedals sounds harsch and nothing like an amp in a room

[@brooklynboy1000]

I like the TC the best. Throw an OD in front of it and a compressor. Make a bit of eq. Done.

[@masterofreality230]

Those UA pedals both sound great.

[@RaxFx]

Were the TC pedals recorded with the newest firmware?

[@ThomasvonWelt]

🎶👌🏻

[@pramkriuk]

The old Iridium sounds flat and lifeless compared to the other three brands. It's amazing how technology advances in just a few years.

[@SenXu]

It must be a personal preference thing but the tc combo 65 sounds best to me, I would say I prefer it even to the original amp

[@thomaslthomas1506]

I think I agree with you it is really nice & chimey.

[@EricMakingWaves]

Conclusion: UA is as good as the real thing and often better. What I really wanted to hear was the ToneX against all these.

[@Ssangdoong0522]

0:32 2:30

[@robertodotes8109]

Missing Simplifier MKII!

[@scottbecker3485]

As several others have either commented, it seems the ACS1 wasn’t updated to the 2.0 firmware. That makes the comparison very poor (invalid), if true.

[@FakeGlasses]

Is this with ACS1 2.0 firmware?

[@s.r.b.4582]

UAD for blackface style amp (but the iridium middle knob wasn’t set to sound like a blackface amp). Then iridium is pretty awesome compared to real amps. TC sounds is weak and caricatural

[@larsfrederiksen3005]

Just keep sharing your hate for TC.. How many times have you posted here on this video :P

[@s.r.b.4582]

no hate for TC bud, i got several pedals from them, nova delay included. I just got ears@@larsfrederiksen3005

[@compucorder64]

I didn't like any of them nearly as much as the real amps. The real amps sound dirtier, in a good way. The Fenders had this lovely airy sparkle; where the UA Dream sounded overall very nice, but was missing that airy grain. The real Vox had a stabby barky bite that none of the pedals matched. And the Marshall had a lovely compression that brought up the nuances of the guitar; but I felt the modellers got closer with that one. Actually, that compression aspect was in all of the real amps. A good compressor transparent compressor like a Walrus Mira in front would probably get these sounding closer to the real amp. And a bit of air EQ'd on to the Fender. I hated the sound of the TC on the Fender and Vox, it sounded very thing. Then did a couple 180 on TC with the JIMS which sounds really good actually. I'd probably consider buying one of those. Though, I'd probably just go with a second-hand UA Dream since plenty of people aren't gelling with their frustrations/limitations so an extra £100 to go from a new TC to a used UA seems worth saving for. Especially because the Dream is stereo and has the reverb nailed (I really think they should add tremelo too in a future firmware).

[@italoop7850]

ALL dead cold sounding! So much warmth missing from the real amp where VOLTAGE rules!

[@david8252]

in your head lol

[@italoop7850]

@@david8252 And in my ears. Buy an amp, kid! And you'll learn a lot.

[@david8252]

haha kid? lmao i have the best of both worlds. It really is convenience. But keep dreaming "tone expert"@@italoop7850

[@Dawgley]

yea the tc electronic is trash. even in other videos. sounds thin. joyo american sound is better than it.

[@MrMissingReel]

No

[@neilwarden]

I agree... it was a little better with a firmware update. I haven't got rid of my Tech 21 Blonde. Joyo American Sound is better than TC also. I SOLD my TC after a month.

[@compucorder64]

Agree on the Fender, and Vox. But, then was surprised that the TC JIMS actually sounds really good. And not just for the money. That said, I'd probably just save up another £100 and get a second-hand UA FX Lion when people sell them.