Master volume

HAL9000

I've got an Orange CR60C, which has gain, volume, and master volume knobs. Now, I suspect I'm not getting the best from it as the interaction between the three seems to be more complex than I first thought. My instinct is to get a sound I like by using the volume and gain controls and then use the master to get the required volume. However, it seems there's something to be gained by turning the master up fairly high to begin with and only then to start adjusting the volume and gain. Having the master turned down seems to give quite a thin 'raspy' sound. Is there a set method with master-volume amps? Or is it all about trial and error?

Thanks.

ICBM

Trial and error. Some amps don't change tone much as you turn the volume controls through their range, others do.

Normally, you would use the clean channel volume and the dirty channel volume to balance the clean and dirty sounds accurately, and then the MV to turn the whole amp up or down without having to re-balance the channels… but this can sometimes fall down if the tone of the amp changes a lot, because the apparent clean/dirty balance does as well. (Or the power stage goes into compression at high levels.)

If you're using it as a single-channel amp and not bothering about the clean channel you have more options, including getting more gain by turning up the dirty channel volume a long way and the master down low, but this often doesn't sound good (even on valve amps). If you've found that the other way round sounds better, do that - you can always control the clean channel by turning its volume down a bit.

jackio

I don't have one, but, reading ICBM's post and owning a mesa LSS, can I suggest sticking to one channel for a while? Set it up so it is 'good enough'.

That way, you get to know the amp and guitar better and don't spend too much time with the 'turn this knob and that knob oh no my sound has gone bad' game.