Dialing in a tube amp

bodhi

Maybe in that case you didn't choose your amp wisely.  It's all about getting a good result from the amp YOU chose in the first place.

ThePrettyDamned

bodhi said:

Maybe in that case you didn't choose your amp wisely.  It's all about getting a good result from the amp YOU chose in the first place.

Or you just turn it up or down a bit more? 

Like, if the treble is too high at the point where it does the most, surely just turn it down. 

bodhi

It has been mentioned that the pots might do "more" in more than one area along their taper, so presumably you find the next area where they do more.  Or most.  Or a little bit less.

Modulus_Amps

Will this get me the master of puppets tone?

bodhi

Kirk Hammett gets that tone even with Greeny.  Which probably gives weight to the idea that you should find your best tone without plugging in your guitar 

exocet

From back in 2004
http://www.online-discussion.com/SteveKimock/viewtopic.php?t=56

Sassafras

bodhi said:

Kirk Hammett gets that tone even with Greeny.  Which probably gives weight to the idea that you should fine your best tone without plugging in your guitar 

Doesn't he just plug in his wah pedals?

Modulus_Amps

Sassafras said:

bodhi said:

Kirk Hammett gets that tone even with Greeny.  Which probably gives weight to the idea that you should fine your best tone without plugging in your guitar 

Doesn't he just plug in his wah pedals?

Does he stack his wah's then?

My point was don't just limit your art to this trickery, amps have lots of sweet spots at different volume levels and in different rooms and like ICBM says allot of tone stacks are interactive

timmysoft

All you're doing is finding thresholds, that's not necessarily the way an amp sounds best.

its all just trying to make a science out of tone, most of its in your fingers anyway, so all this internet tutorial stuff is all just flowering up and creating a format for unoriginal guitarists who need to call a helpline to be able to fret a chord.

bodhi

timmysoft said:

its all just trying to make a science out of tone.

Sure, there are any number of ways to skin this cat.  But personally I'm quite happy to take theories and opinions on board.  You don't have to follow any of it slavishly.  It's all simply interesting to me.  Definitely going to try it out and see what happens.

Sounds to me like the theory is that finding those thresholds is pretty much the idea behind it all to get as much responsiveness out of the amp as possible, and then assuming that the responsiveness will lead to better "tone", depending on how you are able to make use of it.

professorben

Bass 1
Mid 2-3
Treble 7-9

Huge V in a graphic eq after the gain of which there is a huge amount. 

Works for my amp. 

Ymmv 

MartinB

It strikes me that a lot of these recipes for perfect tone that go around on forums originate from guys who are guitarists' guitarists.  They generally play in bands that are geared towards showcasing their guitar style and tone, who'll respond to their dynamics and focus on complementing what the guitar is doing.  
If you're playing in a band that doesn't work that way, where the guitar needs to find its niche in the mix with everything else, the same concepts might not apply.  

RandallFlagg

Back in the day when I was in bands I would just turn the mids to 10, treble to taste with the guitar on bridge pickup with the guitar tone rolled back to 8 or so and bass on the amp around 3 or 4. I did that with any and every amp I used, mids on full.

Now my amp doesn't have a mid tone control... :-(

professorben

Prior to getting this amp I'd just set the Treble Mids and Bass to 666!!!!


Pretty much worked every time. 

randella

Modulus_Amps said:

Will this get me the master of puppets tone?

While I guess this is tongue-in-cheek, it does sum up for me the problem with the way in which the internet has to quantify everything.  This is the best way to set the knobs on your amp, this is the best way to write a piece of code, this is the best way to butter your toast.

Thanks to the wealth of information immediately available day or night, I think most guitarists whether veteran or just starting out will have an idea of what a JCM800 or a Deluxe Reverb or a Dual Rectifier will sound like.  Rough hints to getting a good tone are helpful, but I feel we're going to be turning out a generation of guitarists who think they're not *doing it right* unless the mids are set at 4.3345 because a guy in a YouTube video said.

Ultimately I think it's killing experimentation, young guitarists should be sticking everything on ten and making a nasty noise - it's all part of it.  If it works, then bingo: Smashing Pumpkins' second album.  Or maybe it won't work and they'll mess around until they find something they do like, but they've tried and they know there's a world outside.

Just my £0.02.

SimonC

Maybe all amps should be set this way at the factory, then manufacturers could do away with all the pots , simple.

JDE

MartinB said:

It strikes me that a lot of these recipes for perfect tone that go around on forums originate from guys who are guitarists' guitarists.  They generally play in bands that are geared towards showcasing their guitar style and tone, who'll respond to their dynamics and focus on complementing what the guitar is doing.  
If you're playing in a band that doesn't work that way, where the guitar needs to find its niche in the mix with everything else, the same concepts might not apply.  

What you mean is, generally people in successful bands don't do this. You're right.

Sassafras

MartinB said:

It strikes me that a lot of these recipes for perfect tone that go around on forums originate from guys who are guitarists' guitarists.  They generally play in bands that are geared towards showcasing their guitar style and tone, who'll respond to their dynamics and focus on complementing what the guitar is doing.  

If you mean corksniffers just say corksniffers.

Sassafras

RandallFlagg said:

Back in the day when I was in bands I would just turn the mids to 10, treble to taste with the guitar on bridge pickup with the guitar tone rolled back to 8 or so and bass on the amp around 3 or 4. I did that with any and every amp I used, mids on full.

Now my amp doesn't have a mid tone control... :-(

I bet everyone's grateful for that!
  

MartinB

Sassafras said:

MartinB said:

It strikes me that a lot of these recipes for perfect tone that go around on forums originate from guys who are guitarists' guitarists.  They generally play in bands that are geared towards showcasing their guitar style and tone, who'll respond to their dynamics and focus on complementing what the guitar is doing.  

If you mean corksniffers just say corksniffers.

I don't necessarily mean corksniffers, more that what works in guitar-led blues rock might not be the best approach everywhere.  For example, lots of those guys extol the virtues of setting the amp really high and going from clean to dirty with the guitar volume.  Any time I've tried that in my band I'm inaudible when clean and getting evil stares from the singer and trumpet player when dirty.