Bikini open contests? Which section do I go to for that?

I think JMF is just pointing out that there's a view counter following the topic at the top of the thread. I doubt he meant anything other than good-natured ribbing.

I didn't see the view counter either until just now, either!

Glad your amp works again; I'd like to try a G100-115 sometime. I tried an early-style G50-112 recently and liked its clean tones a lot, and thought the primitive fuzzy distortion was fun and different, too.

I think the FX-10 pedal can produce about 20dB of gain boost, and I run the boost level at least 75-80% of the way up. It stays clean up to 100%, but my amp gets a little sloppier than I like if I push that hard...these are pretty low-output single-coil pickups I'm using, so your needs will likely vary.

EDIT: I looked it up and found a site that quotes the manual as claiming up to +17dB of boost, not +20dB. Here's the link to the page on the FX-10:

http://www.americaspedal.net/fx10/

For an idea of what I'm talking about, here are two songs with me using a one-single-coil Gibson Melody Maker, the FX-10 for boost, a DOD compressor pedal set conservatively but on the whole time and the Peavey Audition 20.

http://alonetone.com/benniven/tracks/dont-expect-a-call

Here I was pretty much using the boost on the choruses, and there's an unaccompanied guitar break (not boosted) and then the whole band comes in before the last chorus. When the whole band comes in I am slashing at some chords with the boost on. As you can hear, it still sounds pretty much like the amp did with no boost, but it's louder and a little grindier and the feel is much different...it's more compressed and sustainy. Having it in front of the slight compression effect adds to this, but it does that without the compressor too, just by hitting the amp's input harder.

http://alonetone.com/benniven/tracks/bleach-bald-snow-tires

On this one I'm using the boost on the guitar solo, and I think it sounds like it. I switch it back off after the solo.

Now, you'll note the amp tone is fairly clean on both songs. Just slightly broken up. If you use the boost in front of a more distorted sound, it has a pretty dramatic effect. In a former band I used to run the boost, a ProCo Rat 2 (gain set pretty low but on all the time) and a BBE d.i. box (with its speaker emulation switched on) into a clean amp, and in that case, I had a medium-gain crunch tone with no boost, a cleanish tone if I played softly with my humbucker's coil tap engaged, and gain meltdown with the boost on, for solos. If that's more what you want to hear, I'll see if I can upload some of that stuff.

Quote from: QReuCk on July 12, 2012, 09:31:26 AM

Mexy, do you mean clean boosting between the guitar and amp, or rather using a slight overdrive?

I use clean boost from a DOD FX-10 Bi-Fet Preamp pedal to push the amp's circuitry (set right at the edge of breaking up, on the clean channel) over the top.

Yep...try playing around with an EQ pedal; it's likely you could boost/cut/shape all you'd need with one of those.

And as a guy who likes to play through a small solid-state Peavey cranked hard with subdued EQ settings, I would encourage you to experiment with getting your more-saturated sound by introducing a signal boost between the guitar and amp, while leaving the amp in the clean-channel configuration you described. You won't get anything like a hard, preamp-centric Marshally crunch, with all the bright shiny "teeth" in the sound, but you will likely get some dirt, compression and sustain and maybe you'll like that sound, as I have grown to. If you do like it, it's easy as hell to use...the non-boosted clean channel can cover a lot of ground, and when you need to punch up a riff or take a solo, just step on that boost and let 'er rip. Works great, sounds different and cuts through the mix pretty well despite limited wattage...and in my case, another thing about this approach that appealed to me was that I didn't have to deal with needing separate EQ settings for clean and dirty. The two sounds were close enough that one setting worked for both, and I like being a set-it-and-forget-it kind of guy.

Quote from: spud on July 03, 2012, 01:08:17 PM

I've also been looking at just running clean and doing all my overdrive from pedals.  I'm seriously considering the Valvecaster or one of its variants (as on DIYSTOMPBOXES and BeavisAudio). 

Jim

You might find a some unique sonic distortion aspect that appeals to you by combining distortion-producing pedals with low-to-medium gain with your amp in a low-to-medium gain setting. Sometimes you can get more complex-sounding tones and responses to input level dynamics this way. The downside being that you might have to try a lot of things together with one another to land on a combination that appeals to you. But for some people, all that gear trying is a part of the fun, and maybe you're like that.

I'd think using a lower-gain, OD-type pedal into a Valvestate (dirty channel, but gain set pretty low) could sound pretty neat. In my case, I discovered, mostly by accident, that my ProCo Rat 2 pedal sounded really great when followed by my BBE DI-10 direct box, with the speaker simulator switched on...then into the amp. The speaker sim filtered out the sort of harsh, fizzy buzz aspect of the Rat and what was left sounded more amp-like and punchy and real. Setting the Rat at a gain level where it was just barely breaking up with single-coils and just barely crunchy with humbuckers, and running it into an amp just on the verge of breaking up itself...rhythm guitar heaven. Hitting this combo with a clean gain boost made this great big fat overdriven sustainy singing solo sound...loose but not farty, and no overt harsh buzziness. It really suited me well for what I was doing at the time, and it just came about because I liked to plug stuff in in weird orders and try it and that time I lucked out.

Whoops! Just realized I forgot to include the links I mentioned in my last post. Typing late at night...

http://www.rru.com/~meo/Guitar/Amps/Kalamazoo/Mods/ezlo.html

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t10582/

QReuCk,

I have not tried what's suggested in either of these links, but maybe someone here can comment on them. I'm inclined to try this on an old *15-watt single-channel tube amp* I have (ducks).

Quote from: phatt on June 22, 2012, 07:51:53 AM

>>PhAtt Phil says,, No not really?
How about,, Just inteligent limiting of high frequency response,, always sounds smooth.  Listen very carefully, (if you have that freq thing on your media player look at the response on the spectrum analizer).

All that sound is 90% under 1kHz response. (A good mixdown working also)

Go listen to Carlos Santana?? same thing,,, heavy supession of hi freq ALWAYS works wonders for slick smooth funk Blues.

The rest is just practice and learning riffs.

>> FWIW,,, I personally use a cheap crappy $150 copy Strat,, complete with the cheapest PU's that can be purchased. LOW GAIN!!!!!

Oh and Yes I've got some genuine Fender PU's to A/B test it,, sos I DO know what I'm talkin about.


90% of great tone Is In The electronics (Amplifier tricks) not the PU's,,,The more you limit the bandwidth the better it will sound,,, and I'm yet to be proved wrong.

Me saying "98% of what was cool about the review was in the guy's hands" may have been a bit subjective and provocative, and I didn't mean to stir anything up with that remark.

I don't dispute what you are saying about focusing a guitar's sound into the "good frequencies" either, or that understanding how to work with those frequencies and de-emphasize or eliminate other ones is important. I dug the clip of you putting your rig through its paces awhile back; obviously your ears and hands are in good working order!

I do think that what was going on in that video goes beyond particular gear and eqing though. And even beyond the final production methods on the recording and video. EQ settings aside, the fluidity of the guy's phrasing and how his playing attack/approach changes the voicing of notes from phrase to phrase...that's in the hands, and people that can play at that level can often sound great on anything.

Here's a video that sort of brings your point and mine together, I think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCgEuDODhf0

It's Monte Montgomery playing "Little Wing" live on a Alvarez-Yairi acoustic, running the guitar's piezo/preamp through some pedals, including distortion for part of the song, into a combination of SWR and Trace Elliott acoustic amps. Since he's riffing on the "Little Wing" theme throughout, you can hear the same player changing tones pretty drastically, and when he's on the distorted sections I'd say the acoustic's highs are pretty heavily truncated into the electric guitar tonal territory  you speak of. Check it out; this guy can kill it.

Wow! That reviewer guy has great touch on the instrument; I'd say that about 98% of the coolness of that review is in the guy's hands. Although that new DM combo may well be a great-sounding amp anyway. That strat copy sounds pretty nice to me also!

It may well be that none of my ideas get you what you want, and I understand the appeal of making a circuit change over amassing a pile of additional front-end gear. But I thought I'd mention those things because I've had success with some of them.

Coil-tappable humbuckers might be a solution; that will certainly give you a lower output when switched that way. Another option if you don't really need a humbucker sound, per se, is to swap in a humbucker-sized single coil. Gibson P-94s are supposed to be P-90 guts in a humbucker-sized housing, so they drop right in. But they're not cheap. Guitar Fetish has some humbucker-sized single coils like the Surf 90 (sort of DeArmond-ish, I think) and the Dream 90 (more P-90ish) and they are much less expensive. Might be an interesting thing to do to that one-pickup Yamaha, whether you mod the amp or not. Check out "Phil X," "The Drills" or "Powder" on Google or Youtube. He plays a sort of SG-shaped ESP guitar with a P-94 in it instead of a humbucker, but he's interesting to watch no matter what.

I can relate. In my case, the tiny amp I love the sound of is a Peavey Audition 20, and lucky for me, it has a line out jack. Also lucky for me, the line out jack's signal level is low enough that it can drive an amp's instrument input pretty well. Anyway, here are some suggestions.

1: rather than reworking the amp to achieve a better range of attainable cleans or semi-cleans at the controls (or a less "immediately harsh" sound on the gain channel), consider reducing your signal level to the amp in some way other than just turning down the guitar volume...

...I tend to lean toward single-coil pickups with their lower output and thinner sound, which lends itself well toward varying your distortion level by playing intensity...but a lot of people love humbuckers and aren't comfortable on single-coils, so maybe that's more extreme than you want to try...?

You could lower your pickup height for starters and see if you could mellow the punch of those humbuckers a bit.

You could incorporate a pedal in your signal chain that gives you the option of turning down the pedal's signal output; sometimes that can work. I use a DOD Bi-Fet Preamp pedal as a clean boost in front of the little Peavey for solos or single-note parts. BUT I've also used it with the signal turned down slightly a few times over the years, where it functioned as a signal cut with an added tone knob on it. Maybe that would help you out. Another alternative might be an MXR Micro-Amp, and there are other pedals with output level controls on them.

You could incorporate a compressor in front of the amp, which has lots of possibilities. You could use it to cut the signal to the amp slightly as mentioned above, but you can also tame the peaks of your attack going into the amp so you have less spiky waveforms, which makes it sound cleaner, more pleasing and less harsh. Without sounding like cheesy overcompression.

You could shell out for some lower-output pickups, or if your existing ones have four-conductor leads you could rewire them so that each humbucker is two coils in parallel rather than in series...cuts output some, in the direction of a single-coil sound. Or you could add some switching capability via a mini-toggle or a push-pull volume or tone knob and have series/parallel capability on your pickups, so you could switch to a lower-output, cleaner sound and switch back again.

If you don't like the headphone signal as a line out, due to level compatibility, an alternative to modding the circuit is picking up a DI box with a speaker-level input. The amp's speaker output is fed through this on its way to the speaker, and the DI pulls out a line-level signal. Some have speaker emulation filters so that the DI signal can go straight to a mixer or recorder. Behringer makes a cheap one that a lot of people praise online. The Hughes & Kettner Redbox is a well-known one with emulation in it, but it's more expensive. I have a discontinued BBE unit called a DI-10 that has been pretty handy...both for the use I described above and in recording direct distorted tones from a distortion pedal, etc.

This thread might give you some ideas, and you could as "SSer" joecool85 to describe how he added a line out to his Dean Markley K-20X...or maybe he'll see this and chime in.


See if any of those options work in your situation. If that little Avenger amp has a tone you like, hang onto it!

I took some audio recording classes in school, and before we were turned loose in the multitrack studio, we had to do some field recordings of acts we'd find for ourselves, using the school's two-track field kits (TASCAM portable DAT, small Mackie mixer--better mic preamps than the DAT had--a stand with a clever stereo X-Y mount on it and a pair of Shure SM81 small-diaphragm condenser mics). For the small-ensemble assignments we were supposed to use the mics in the crossed 90-degree XY formation to reduce the variables and ease the grading process. It was very exciting to hear how accurate and spatially defined a recording could be using that arrangement. In the assignment my partner and I turned in, we recorded a electric guitar/upright bass/drums jazz trio in a pretty noisy bar, and while the ice-grinding machine was pretty intrusive every time someone ordered a frozen drink and the upright bass wasn't picked up as loudly as I'd have liked, it was remarkable how you could hear EVERYTHING and it was positioned realistically in the stereo spread when you'd close your eyes and concentrate on it.

Before turning the equipment back in some friends and I messed around with comparing XY formation at 90 degrees, ORTF formation at 110 degrees or something like that and also the spaced pair approach, in a basement, recording a couple of acoustic guitars playing together. I recall the ORTF being even more pronounced stereo, maybe a little more lush, but it seemed a little "hyped" to me somehow. Spaced pair recording in a basement-sized space didn't sound bad but it wasn't as focused and crisp as the XY setup.

Later on we had to record a large classical ensemble in a pretty good-sized hall, using a spaced pair of omnidirectional mics and I think a more distant filler mic...I can't remember the details of that as well but I do recall that it took some experiments in spacing the mics and blending them different ways at the mixer to approach the huge actual acoustic sound we were hearing in the actual space. The final recording seemed to sound pretty good, but nowhere near the real thing! I think it was supposed to be a humbling experience...clearly a long afternoon of moving three mics around and running cables and taping things down to the floor was not enough to really do it right, and while we were borrowing some pretty expensive mics and gear, we were really on the low end, gear-wise, for that kind of thing.

Quote from: Roly on June 14, 2012, 10:34:28 PM
While I'm not unhappy with the Siamese W-bin I'm now keen to try one of the Fane J-horns which I think may give just as good results with less building effort (and weight).

http://OzValveAmps.org/cabinets.htm#fane
Get 01-11, and 34-41 bass horns.

attach: Fane-rear-J-15

Roly, I looked through the Fane speaker book--cool stuff--from your links and in looking at the cross-section of that rear-horn-loaded "J-bin" 15" enclosure...it looks like the speaker cone radiates directly through the round hole at the top, while the rear of the cone is radiated out through the folded "J-horn." Am I seeing this correctly?

If so, is the idea that by "delaying" the sound coming off the back of the cone by the length of the horn, the sound reaches the mouth of the horn in time to be "in phase" with the direct-radiated sound coming off the front of the cone? So the extra efficiency comes partly from the horn-loading effect you described, but also from harnessing the sound off the rear of the cone more effectively?

STDog, I think I've experienced something like that "false partial" effect when trying to play lap steel in a tuning that didn't lend itself to minor chords without fancy hand moves that were out of my reach at the time. You could play part of the minor triad without abusing your inexperienced hand, and even if the other instruments were'nt covering the note you left out, sometimes it would still seem to be there. So it wasn't just wishful thinking, huh?

JMF, I really like the clean, simple looks of your 2 x 12" cabinet. I'd love a chance to try one of your amps out someday. I don't think a trip to Argentina is in my budget right now, but never say never...

Thanks for the La Renga clips too. That big circular stage is pretty wild.

Re: power levels, amp features and bass...I am only just learning to play bass, on a P-bass copy, but what I've found is that I'm happiest with a clean, uncompressed and fairly bright tone, which I can darken "to taste" with the bass guitar's tone knob. I set the amp loud and try to play fairly softly and evenly with my hands, fingerstyle that is, and "compress" myself by managing my "attack" on the instrument. I am a ways from mastering this, but when it works it's a lot of fun, and one thing about this approach that really appeals to me is that I don't seem to need any pedals or anything special from the amp. Just loud, clean and no special EQ features.

I realize that my own idea of what sounds good with bass might not apply to others, but I think it's a valid point that a simple, clean-toned and fairly neutral amp can sound decent with bass, good enough to have some fun with, if my experience is any indication.