Last week I downsized my rig and got a Rectoverb 25 head to pair with my Road King 2x12 cab and bought a Cabclone the day The Guitar Sanctuary in McKinney TX received one. I had a 3 day weekend run filling in for a friend's band and I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to break in the new setup.
Gigs:
We played in Arlington TX, Nashville Tenn., and Tulsa OK. First off, I can not explain how nice it was to easily carry my rig in venues with very little effort while I watched the other guitar players struggle with their massive road cases. The Rectoverb 25 sounds incredibly good, the EL84 power section really compliments the rectifier preamp section. Who knew? I put the Cabclone on top of the RV and ran the cab through to my Road King 2x12 for stage volume/monitoring. Every sound guy I encountered always responded, "wow, you are making my life easy". Looking over at the other guitar players Orange cab with terrible mic placement made me instantly love the convenience of the Cabclone. At least I was confident in the signal being sent to the front of house. I could clearly hear my tone cut through the monitors, and based upon live videos it was consistent through the mains. The other guitarist was so impressed he told me it was next on the list for him to purchase. One of sound guys was very impressed with the tone he received as well, and complimented me on it.
Studio:
Living in an apartment it was a no brainer to jump on the Cabclone. I have been wanting a simple solution to capture tube tone direct and the CC was that. Previously I was using a lot of the load box/catharsis cab impulses with my Mark V with great results. I wanted to run a line out of the CC emulation and the patch thru to be able to A/B the CC emulation next too the Catharsis impulses. One thing I really noticed right away is amount of inherent midrange the CC possesses, at first it came across a little too pointy, where the Catharsis was much more smooth, but something clicked when I begin to apply them in a mix situation. Sometimes I forget that Mesa brings forth a fair amount of midrange because they consider the mix in a professional situation. When adding bass and drums, the CC naturally cut through and sat in the mix much better, where the Catharsis was more easily buried. Also I played with some HP and LP filters on the catharsis and found that when I applied them appropriately the tone began to resemble that of the CC much more. When I applied the same filters to the Cabclone, it did very little. It became apparent that Mesa made these cabinet emulations mix ready, I found I didn't have to apply any filters to the CC for it to sit well. So keep the context of use in mind when using the Cabclone, it forced to not mess with any "mic placement" and just EQ my amp accordingly, probably the less knobs to tweak the better. So far it has been a great solution, the Torpedo Live may be more versatile, but at the price point the CC can not be beat. I honestly like the straight forward, plug and play, interface. Works great! I feel like I'm going to be hanging on to this thing for a while.
Gigs:
We played in Arlington TX, Nashville Tenn., and Tulsa OK. First off, I can not explain how nice it was to easily carry my rig in venues with very little effort while I watched the other guitar players struggle with their massive road cases. The Rectoverb 25 sounds incredibly good, the EL84 power section really compliments the rectifier preamp section. Who knew? I put the Cabclone on top of the RV and ran the cab through to my Road King 2x12 for stage volume/monitoring. Every sound guy I encountered always responded, "wow, you are making my life easy". Looking over at the other guitar players Orange cab with terrible mic placement made me instantly love the convenience of the Cabclone. At least I was confident in the signal being sent to the front of house. I could clearly hear my tone cut through the monitors, and based upon live videos it was consistent through the mains. The other guitarist was so impressed he told me it was next on the list for him to purchase. One of sound guys was very impressed with the tone he received as well, and complimented me on it.
Studio:
Living in an apartment it was a no brainer to jump on the Cabclone. I have been wanting a simple solution to capture tube tone direct and the CC was that. Previously I was using a lot of the load box/catharsis cab impulses with my Mark V with great results. I wanted to run a line out of the CC emulation and the patch thru to be able to A/B the CC emulation next too the Catharsis impulses. One thing I really noticed right away is amount of inherent midrange the CC possesses, at first it came across a little too pointy, where the Catharsis was much more smooth, but something clicked when I begin to apply them in a mix situation. Sometimes I forget that Mesa brings forth a fair amount of midrange because they consider the mix in a professional situation. When adding bass and drums, the CC naturally cut through and sat in the mix much better, where the Catharsis was more easily buried. Also I played with some HP and LP filters on the catharsis and found that when I applied them appropriately the tone began to resemble that of the CC much more. When I applied the same filters to the Cabclone, it did very little. It became apparent that Mesa made these cabinet emulations mix ready, I found I didn't have to apply any filters to the CC for it to sit well. So keep the context of use in mind when using the Cabclone, it forced to not mess with any "mic placement" and just EQ my amp accordingly, probably the less knobs to tweak the better. So far it has been a great solution, the Torpedo Live may be more versatile, but at the price point the CC can not be beat. I honestly like the straight forward, plug and play, interface. Works great! I feel like I'm going to be hanging on to this thing for a while.
