AFI guitarist ditched tube amps because they made him feel “constrained” sonically – does he have a point?
AFI’s Jade Puget is another guitarist who’s switched over to the world of amp modelling, as he began to feel constrained with his tube amps.
Puget has previously been known to play through Diamond’s NitroX amp heads – powered by six 12AX7 preamp tubes and four EL34s – which he spoke of in a rig rundown back in 2017. These days, his signal runs through a pair of rack-mounted Line 6 Helix units in a stereo configuration, and a computer running Ableton. He has an RJM Mastermind and Effect Gizmo that are programmed to control all of his pedals, the Helix, and Ableton.
AFI released their 12th album, Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…, back in October, and in a newly updated rig walkthrough, Puget has shared why he’s happy to have made the ‘trade off’ between the pros and cons of real life tube amps with modellers and future-forward tech.
READ MORE: “Not many people want to watch a band stand in front of their amp line”: Metallica guitar tech thinks ditching real amps helped the band improve spectacle of their live shows
Speaking to Premier Guitar in the new video, he explains, “I played tube amps for the better part of 30 years. I just wanted to expand, try something new, and a lot of what I’ve been doing on the recordings have been more getting into sound design and trying to take my tones elsewhere.
“Tube amps are great. They sound amazing, but you’re kind of constrained to whatever that tube amp sounds like, even if it sounds amazing, that’s the sound. And I wanted to really be able to tap into a ton of different sounds,” he shares.
“I’ve been using Helix’s for a while, I’ve been using the Native plugin for a long time, but I thought, you know… My last rig was a Bob Bradshaw rig that I had made in 2002, and it was falling apart. Like, it was held together by chicken wire and duct tape. So, it was just time for a new rig regardless of where I went. [I was] like, I’m going to build this rig myself, because the Bradshaw was a great rig, but I didn’t build it. So, if I build it, I know how it goes together and if something goes wrong, I know how to fix it.”
Asked if there was much of an adjustment period for getting used to a modeller, Puget replies: “Yeah, there is this kind of low mid, beefy thing that’s very difficult to recreate with models, and I spent a lot of time experimenting.
“IRs are important of course when you’re talking about modelling, getting the right IR and getting the right cab, or getting the right amp emulation. It can sound fizzy, it could be weird, it could be thin, but I think after a lot of experimentation and work I’ve figured out something that sounds good. I feel like you’ll always be missing a little bit of that air, but what you get in return is some things that you can’t get with the tube amp. It’s a little bit of a trade-off.”
You can watch the full rundown below:
AFI will play at Sick New World festival in 2026 – you can find out more via the AFI website. Silver Bleeds The Black Sun… is out now.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
