I had my nephew over today because his family was in town getting his sister set up for college.
 
I took him on a tour of the big boy studios and then brought him out to my place.
 
He had his new 7 string Ibanez shredder with him, and we set up a SONAR project with a couple tracks of Guitar Rig 5 and some Ocean Way drums in Kontakt 5.
 
We warmed up by trading listens of favorite songs on Grooveshark. He told me he was into "Gent" metal, syncopated rhythms and modes that were not Ionian, Aeolian or Dorian. He turned me on to a pretty cool shred band called "Periphery" and I turned him on to Dizzy, Charlie, and Miles.
 
Then I let him shred on Guitar Rig 5 for the rest of the afternoon. He had never seen an amp sim so he was sort of blown away and seemed to have a great time over dubbing and laying down double and quad tracks of his favorite riffs.
 
As the day came to and end I grabbed a 1970 Fender Champ and plugged his guitar in. Within seconds he was saying things like "Wow", "OMG", and "Now I get it". Then I grabbed an old Tube Screamer and plugged it up and he was like "OMFG... this is huge".
 
We had spent the day listening to Guitar Rig 5 on a rather expensive monitor system and then this measly little 3 watt Champ was blowing out a ballsy, lively, exuberant tone as he played the very same smoking hot riffs he had been working with earlier.
 
I thought maybe there had been an epiphany.
 
So,... I was somewhat knocked back in exasperation when, on our drive into town to meet up with his family before hitting the road to their home, he says to me "I don't really think I can get my tone with a small amp like that. I really need to save up and get that Fractcal Amp FX because it does like 1500 different amps and I need a Mesa Stack to get my tone. The Amp FX will do that plus all the other stacks I'll need"... and I'm, like, thinking "Wow", "OMG", and "Now I get it".
 
:-)
 
Good times.
 
 
 
edit spelling and grammar

Good story Mike...thanx!

I feel like the Maytag repairman.

What I find interesting, is that I grew up will all those Fender amps.  Remember Cub Coda and Brownsville Station and his Champ amp speil....?
 
Any rate, although Fender makes great amps, the black faced Bassman head and a cab was the only thing going for me, guitar wise.  I had a Deluxe reverb and always wished it was louder with the drummer.  Twins were uncontrollably loud and sooo clean.  Showmans were nice for gymnasiums.  Supers kind of snuck in there between the cracks.  Bought an Ampeg V4 which I still have to this day..  it's for sale though...  need a Fractal!!  ;-)

That said, I'd take another Deluxe though.  The reissues seem good enough too.
 
 
But oddly....my assortment of amp sims seem to do the Fender stuff best.   so.....

Good story!! LOL!!

But I am sure he learned something from you.

1970 Fender Champ 
 
That's older than my son.
 
But my son is louder.

Good story, Mike!
 
FWIW, I just picked up an Engle Ironball head.
Some may laugh, but I like the sound and dynamic response better than my Marshall JVM-410.
Plenty loud for gigs (we always hire commercial sound)... and has a power-soak for recording.
 
Our lead player uses a modded Mesa Triple-Rec.  
The little Rectoverb-25 head will get that sound in a smaller "volume friendly" package.

Jim Roseberry
Good story, Mike!
 
FWIW, I just picked up an Engle Ironball head.
Some may laugh, but I like the sound and dynamic response better than my Marshall JVM-410.
 

I got an Egnator Rebel cab that I run a Mesa Mini Recto 25. Sounds great and volume is reasonable. I can see me playing a gig with it for sure. But still small enough that I'm not rocking the neighborhood! And I just love the response I get out of it. Great sound, good feeling, lacks a little in pristine clean.

=P

Was it a cheezy little amp...did you find it in Joe's Garage ?