Trying to get similar tone to blues saraceno...

ElevensLouder

Without spending stupid money on a dirty boy amp, what amp might you recommend to get in the blues saraceno ball park?
Probably a plexi of some sort in guessing.
I've got a marshall dsl40cr, but it's not the right sound. 
Obviously I'm aware that it's very much in the fingers and in the phrasing, but that aside, let's talk gear! 
Thanks! 

Winny_Pooh

Could you quote a specific track pls?

ElevensLouder

Pretty much anything off of Never Look Back or Plaid.
I think he used plexi type amps, not loads of gain, but with a variac to get the valves cooking 

newi123

I know this relates to the UA Lion (which is actually a great option if you`re wanting this sound at home!) but this is interesting on how he sets up Plexi style amps.

Winny_Pooh

With my own gear I'd use a MXR Super Badass with mids boosted into an eq pedal to cut highs (& take off that top end pick rasp and smooth the tone) then a light to medium dirty Marshall. Then balance the overdrive in amp vs pedal overdrive to find a nice compromise. 

ElevensLouder

newi123 said:

I know this relates to the UA Lion (which is actually a great option if you`re wanting this sound at home!) but this is interesting on how he sets up Plexi style amps.

Thank you - seen that before

guitarmangler

There’s a video with Blues playing an old supro (I think) with a dirty boy fuzz pedal (which Duncan made for a bit called the tweak fuzz). I’ll see if I can find it.

guitarmangler

No. I’m merging two video. The germanium boy was with a slivertone. https://youtu.be/Cut6CjsVjzM?si=s5_7HTZNFem2i-ba

The ball buster has the supro
https://youtu.be/aGZ3DlkGtCs?si=OF-zvJwXYK5ww68p

I’d try your dls with the gain quite low and smash the front end with a booster or some type of tubescreamer. He’s an awesome player. 

noisepolluter

Have you tried different speakers in the DSL? That can change the sound markedly, and is a relatively cheap place to start especially if you buy off here. For example I’ve found the crunch channel sounds much better with one of the Creamback speakers (H, M or Neo - not tried the Alnico Cream) than with the stock V-Type for instance… both smoother and clearer, if that makes sense.

ElevensLouder

Thanks everyone - just FYI I'm a massive fan boy of blues saraceno so probably seen every video he's ever been in on YouTube!
I've done some covers of his songs on my YouTube channel too, but wasn't trying to emulate his tone at the time. 

Modulus_Amps

The DSL is probably going to struggle with this as the internal voltage are really high and he is known for dropping the internal voltages, But on a quick listen the first thing I would do is turn the treble to 0 and then turn up the presence to bring back some treble bite without the high mids poke.