Q: why and when did you go (mostly) full on digital/ampless in your rig?

[Mark Evans]

There is a TON of posts on the new ‘ampless’ tech that’s out there (Tonex, Valeton, etc etc.) and I read with great interest (and a good bit of confusion).

I’m curious about when and why those who have gone ‘ampless,’ and forsaken traditional rigs? Was it strictly a ‘live’ performance related decision? Economical? Age? Weight? Height? (Har har)

I’’m not currently gigging, jam 1-2 times a month, and have fine tuned my (lap steel) rig to a lightweight Quilter in a dockblock with 4-5 pedals on small board… but this wave of ‘ampless’ options has me wondering… is this the way to go.

So… I’m curious about what spurred y’all on the ampless path.

Tanx
Mark E

[Avery Bradshaw]

I keep a rig for both. I started playing at a church that only uses In-ears and no amps are allowed on stage. So I bought a ToneX and got a bunch of the Joe Rogers presets.
On the other hand, when I play with my other band I still use a tube amp (Twin, little Walter, etc).

The change to “ampless” for me was out of necessity and being about to fit the bill of more gigs. It’s certainly not my favorite, but if it gets me more gigs I just make the best of it. I will say, the ToneX is pretty impressive and has a lot of great tones. Do I think it replaces the tube amp? No. But, I think it’s something that is going to be required more and more in the future.

[Rollin Schmidt]

Because of necessity, more and more venues don’t want amps or floor monitors. I do like less weight to carry.

[Fred Treece]

The previous two posts pretty much state the case. Profilers with impulse response are also great for recording direct. And, the sheer variety of amp profiles that can be stored in these little units is a tone junky’s dream.

If you’re attending relatively informal jams where amp speakers are either mic’d or not run through the PA at all, your amp profiler unit would need its own powered speaker or combo amp fx loop return.

[Wiz Feinberg]

I used an amplifier on stage for about 50 years. The transition away from stage amps began for me around 2024. At first, one of my two main acts asked me to turn my Nashville 112 amp sideways and at an upward angle so only I heard it. They took the XLR out on its back to the board. At that time we still used stage monitors. About halfway through the season, the leader called and asked me to not bring my amp at all. I was handed a DI box that I plugged into after my last effect pedal. I was also handed a pair of cheap IEMs and a clip-on Behringer P2 IEM amplifier that drummers use.

In August of 2025, another act that I had worked with on and off for 9 years hired me full-time. During 2023, they starting hiding their amps behind their huge stage banner, miking or DI-ing them to the FOH. I was asked if I had IEMs, which I didn't. They lent me some el cheapo IEMs and a Behringer P2. Shortly afterward, I bought Shure SE-215 IEM earbuds and my own P2 IEM amp, and a big pack of AAA batteries. By 2025, that band was totally ampless. The only instrument you would hear was the drums. He was surrounded by a plexiglass shield set, like they use in live studio sessions. Since the end of of 2025, I pretty much stopped freelancing except for some gigs backing up a single act who writes his own material. I pretty much only work with what used to be my secondary show band; The Family Tradition Band (based in Detroit).

I always used effects pedals on my gigs. By 2015, I had 5 Boss pedals wrapped around my volume pedal that I used my right toe and heel to turn on and off. In 2024, I got hired to go on the road with the FTB, opening for Tyler Booth. The leader set me up with a Pedaltrain Classic Jr. pedal board, with a Voodoo Labs Power Plus 2 power supply. He put Velcro hook onto the bottom of my effects pedals and secured them to the pedal board for me. He also supplied me with a Digitech Drop pedal so I could play down one fret without playing between the usual frets. He also supplied me with a pedal that simulated a Fender Deluxe 65 and had an XLR out for the board. Besides my steel guitar, the only things I have on the floor are my Goodrich volume pedal (which mounts over the pedal bar) and my Furman power conditioner strip. In order to tune up before the IEM monitors are ready, I bought a second Behringer P2. I run a guitar cable from my DI output effect pedal to the bottom of that amp box and plug my IEM cable into it. By the time the IEM feed is live, I'm in tune and ready for sound check.

The Deluxe 65 simulator didn't work out to my liking. I gave it back and bought an MXR M-81 bass preamp pedal that has a 4 band eq, with knobs, and input and output volume controls. It has 1/4 inch and XLR outs that can work simultaneously. The eq frequencies are very close to those on my Nashville amplifier. In all, there are 10 pedals velcro'd onto my pedal board. I had to move up to a Power Plus 3 power supply to avoid the effects dragging the current down, especially the preamp and Drop D pedals.

I bought a Tonex pedal in August and have been experimenting with it at home. I don't feel like I'm ready to try it on a for live gig yet. I'm dialed in tone-wise with our sound man going direct from my effects. I'm trying to customize the amps and IRs to duplicate the sounds I got with my N-112 and N-400 amplifiers, and their speakers. So far, I haven't gotten there. Also, that pedal can be noisy if you don't have everything set right. I bought various Tonex presets and speaker IRs from Joe Rogers. Being a tone knob twiddler for 50 years, I try to do the same on the Tonex. It doesn't like that! If I find a tone setup that I favor, and then change to another preset, and forget to do the three pushes save, I lose that tone control setting even though the knobs are physically where I adjusted them. The presets override the physical tone knobs unless you save the settings before changing presets. I don't think that IK Media thought this through when they designed the pedal. I've almost never known a guitar player who didn't turn around to change the tone controls for particular songs. So, even if I should decide to use the Tonex on stage, I will put it before my pedals, meaning the last pedal is still my DI with the 4 band eq knobs that I can turn to tweak my tone on the fly. The Tonex will be none the wiser.

The reason I bought the Tonex was that I watched videos about it and how you could load custom amp presets, eliminating/replacing an amp/speaker combo by switching different Impulse Response files. The two lead players and the bass player use Kemper amp profilers, with external midi footswitches to change profiles, that cost over $1400 each. My Tonex was $349 from Sweetwater.

One of the reasons that bands are going without stage amps and monitors is to please the venues that have trouble with stage volume. With a silent stage setup, they just ask the sound man to turn down whatever frequency range, or overall volume is interfering with the staff hearing the orders. Another benefit of only having a pedal board and IEM amp plugged in, for me and the drummer - the other front men all have wireless IEM amps) - is that when we open for Nashville acts, we can be unplugged and off the stage in 5 minutes, or so. Sometimes, there's only 10 or 15 minutes between acts.

BTW: I started playing in 1974, when I had just turned 26. I'm now 77, and my 2026 calendar already has about 80 gigs booked or awaiting confirmation. My next gig in 2026 will mark the beginning of my 52nd year on the road! BTW, we play New Country, Rock, and modern sounding originals, or medleys of what they call "Old Country Songs." On the road at 77, still screaming in the night, trying to kick the footlights out again!

[Bruce Derr]

I don't go ampless at venue gigs (yet) but I have a regular "gig" at a studio and I always go direct. I first used an MXR M-81 feeding a stereo reverb into a stereo DI box. Then I switched to a Quilter DirectAmp, using it's built-in stereo reverb and DI outputs. Simple and quick one-box setup. I recently replaced that with a Tone King Imperial tube preamp. I don't typically use effects (just reverb). I've been happy with the sound of all three of these setups, with a slight preference for the Tone King. They are all analog preamps, except for the reverbs. I have used a buffer (Freeloader) with all of them, and a passive volume pedal (Moyo). For an ampless stage gig I'd probably bring the DirectAmp over the Tone King because it has a few more options and perhaps a slight edge in reliability, being solid-state.

[Fred Treece]

About 25 years ago I was on one of the 5 recording sessions I have ever been on. I showed up with my Tele and Boss GT-5 and told the recording engineer I would like to go direct with the amp simulator in the unit, because I had done some home recording with it that I thought sounded awesome and I had a sim that was perfect for what we were going to be doing that day. He said “No you don’t.” Then he pointed to all the top of the line amps he had out in the recording area and said “Take your pick.”

Unfortunately for me, I had never used a single one of the amp types he had, and didn’t have a clue how to use them. He tried to dial in some tone for me on a cool-looking Matchless, which I thought sounded terrible and nothing like what I felt was appropriate for the music I was going to be playing. But I was too shy to speak up and tell the guy, and ended playing badly and it sounded even worse than I thought it would. The track ended up not being used, and I was very discouraged about recording “professionally” from that point forward.

Several lessons learned, from that experience.

Now, on the rare occasion when I get invited to a session, the first thing I get is “Don’t bother hooking up to your amp, I got a nice Fender Twin model all set up in this Kemper that you’re gonna love!”

[Tim Toberer]

This technology is fun and can really expand and change how you play, but it can be frustrating and expensive. The more you mess with it the less intimidating it is. Some people think of its as selling out or something, but for me having some digital (Ampless whatever) capabilities has only made me appreciate my tube amps more. For me this technology is very practical. I have bought and sold or returned quite a bit of gear in the past year or so. At first it was really frustrating but I found some things that work and 95% of the time this is what I use. I don't perform, but I have confidence if I did it would be the way to go.

I like small and simple and you don't have to spend as much as you used to. The things that work for me are the Valeton GP-5 which is the most versatile thing on my pedalboard. I also have a solid state Joyo American Sound which is really incredible. The most frustrating thing was to find an interface and amp sim I could use to practice on my iPad I went through 5 different interfaces with cords running everywhere before I found one that works and is powered by the iPad (which has lightning input) The TC Helicon GO Pro. I velcroed it to the back of the iPad. I can run it to a tiny battery powered FRFR. I use a free amp sim which is good enough for practice.

[Andy Vance]

I started down the ampless journey in 2023 as a couple bands I played with were going all ampless and with IEM's. Now I play with bands where I am ampless and bands where I use my amp. The deciding factor for me is if the band uses IEM's and has a front of house. If they do, I am using my tonex with Joe Rogers' amp models and IR's. If they don't, I am still using my amp rig. Joe Rogers has been a real help to me in getting the tone I wanted out of my ampless rig and I can't thank him enough. It can be intimidating at first to trust ampless, at least it was for me, but over time you become more comfortable.

[Rick Contino]

Hey Tim,

Did you know the gp-5 is itself a recording interface too? Ive been plugging it right into my macbook and am really happy with it. Ive found that it sounds better with a boost in front of it. I am using the jackson prism with good results.

[Tim Toberer]

Hey Tim,

Did you know the gp-5 is itself a recording interface too? Ive been plugging it right into my macbook and am really happy with it. Ive found that it sounds better with a boost in front of it. I am using the jackson prism with good results.

I have used it as interface with good results. It works with my phone which is super handy, I only wish my iPad had a type C input instead of lightning. I wasted a lot of time trying to find something that works with that one. Time for an upgrade I suppose.