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I like the x100b because 1. it's basically a Mark II and 2. there's power scaling down to 25 watts so I can get quieter with the same "feel". I dunno it feels ridiculous to have these crazy powerful amps (he runs a bass VI through a Peavey Butcher) that we only turn up to like 3 or 4 but I guess the headroom is nice
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May 16, 2017 19:55
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I'm looking for an amp recommendation. I'd like to keep it under $500, but I'm ok with going over that by a bit if I can get something much better for not much more. I'm one of those weirdos who has been playing electric guitar for a while, but I've never really owned a decent amp for more than a few months. I'm a filthy apartment dweller, so it needs to sound good at lower volumes. I'd like for it to have a headphone jack so I can play while my wife is sleeping. I like learning all kinds of music, but lean towards blues, rock, and metal. I play alone. My only guitar right now is a Mexican strat. I've seen the Orange 35RT recommended elsewhere and it seems like a good option for the price. I played one of the smaller ones in person and liked it. Does it play well with pedals? Would it work well with a looper? I don't really have anyone to play with, so it would be nice to be able to lay down a riff and play along to it. Any amps similar to the 35RT that may be a better option? I'm not crazy about the Orange high-gain sound. It's a little bit too fuzzy/retro to my ears, rather than the Mesa or Marshall kind of sound which I really like. Would the Orange work well with a distortion pedal to get a tighter high-gain sound? Has anyone used the aux-in feature of this amp to play along to? Does it work well? Another amp I've considered was the Marshall DSL40C, but I'm worried that would be too loud for my purposes.
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May 17, 2017 17:59
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The smaller Orange crush series are nothing to write home about. The Orange CR120 is a great amp, but probably a bit louder than you want to deal with, at the upper limit of your price range, and has no headphone out. Also definitely has the Orange gain sound. The DSL40C as a 40W tube amp will definitely be too loud for apartment play. Your best bet is almost certainly modeling amps: Yamaha THR10 if you don't need anything beyond apartment volume, Boss Katana KTN-100 1x12 if you do. I'd go with the Katana myself, it has a lot more flexibility.
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May 17, 2017 23:56
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Virtually everything is too loud for apartment playing. I'm currently using a Traynor Dark Horse 15h: http://traynoramps.com/guitar/horses/product/dh15h/ It's a brilliant little circuit. 15 watt 6V6 push-pull, or 2 watt 12AU7 push-pull. I have mine mated to an Orange PPC112 and I like it very much. Even 2 watt mode can be surprisingly loud with a closed-back cab. There's one on reverb at the moment for ~$330 with shipping. You'd need to get a cab though. And the one downside is no reverb, so you'd probably want to get a reverb pedal, if that's your kinda thing. https://reverb.com/item/5218087-traynor-dark-horse Or, if you really want that headphone jack, people say nice things about the Blackstar HT-1. Personally I'd probably get the Blackstar and a separate cabinet, as I've never heard a good sounding 8" speaker, but that's just me.
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May 18, 2017 15:56
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jwh posted:as I've never heard a good sounding 8" speaker, but that's just me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6lZ3-aZjDg
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May 18, 2017 17:05
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I just watched this video where a guy used a volume pedal in the effects loop to set the volume on a loud tube amp. Does that work well if I end up with an amp that would normally be too loud for an apartment?
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May 18, 2017 17:50
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Yes, sort of. You need a series effects loop rather than parallel, and bear in mind that if you use that method, a bad cable or jack will make noise at full volume. Neighbors are probably a lot more tolerant of a momentary noise from you bumping into something flaky than an extended loud jam, though. It'll let you turn the amp up enough that it will function normally except that you won't really be pushing the power tubes. You can just run the volume pedal in front of the amp too, if you're not using preamp distortion. That's how I tend to deal with Fenders, for instance. If you're using amp distortion, and/or you're a slam the preamp with boost sort of person, then the effects loop volume pedal thing might be a good bet.
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May 18, 2017 19:36
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Apartment practicing use a behringer DSP thingy with your computer. For an amp to actually use? Buy a Traynor YBA-1 and have someone mod it to Bassman or JTM45 specs (very easy to do). 
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May 18, 2017 22:50
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Gorgar posted:As an example of what I'm talking about, at least on an EL34 Marshall, consider AC/DC as the general sound of preamp distortion, and the opening to this as poweramp distortion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8C-DP18-6g I'm not sure what the corresponding comparison is for EL84s like in your Nomad. I'm curious. In this same style of breaking down a tone, what would you say are the core pieces of a sound like this song (minus the fuzzy solo.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOi4Mh_rmWo I'm not a huge fan of all of their stuff but drat if that whole album isn't the pinnacle of a distorted guitar recording to me. I'm experimenting with new pedals with my Carvin Amp and while I know pedals into amp won't ever get that sound (which is probably just some dimed fender or something) I can still know which general ballpark direction I seem to gravitate towards. Not looking to mimic this tone to a tee or anything, rather to better understand the qualities of it that I like and move towards that direction in my own setup. E: How would you describe the low end? Is that what a "Tight" low end is? My amp seems to be incapable of that sort of ooomph no matter what pedal or setting I have the drive channel on. There is a mod that's said to tighten the low end on my amp but I don't really if that's something I'd like or closer to this. Speaker swap is usually recommended as well for the same reason. philkop fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 20, 2017 |
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May 20, 2017 02:42
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That tone is not that hard to get. It sounds a lot like an EL34 amp with maybe a tube screamer in front of it, which is really standard stuff to do. It's a kind of a mild Marshall sound, but there are so many amp-in-a-box pedals you don't need a Marshall to do it. You could probably get any tube amp to do it with the right pedal. I'm sure your amp can get near there. Yours is a Nomad, right? Sounds like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKG0GAfrDA8 That sounds like it's aiming more for a Mesa-like violin sustaining distortion. It's nice, but not exactly what you're aiming for if you want that Black Crowes sound. I've gotten that sound out of a mushy Orange Thunderverb though, so it's doable. Option 1: tube screamer or similar, drive low, volume high, into your distortion channel with the gain set low. Stacking distortion is cool and good. Practically everyone does this. I'm not sure what the effect would be on such a Mesa-sounding channel though. Option 2: tube screamer or similar, drive medium or high, into clean channel. Probably won't sound as good. As far as I know, they're more of a utility pedal for boosting and bass cutting than something people use for the gain textures. Option 3: dedicated quality dirt pedal for clean channel. Gain stacking is all done in the pedal. Pedals I've used that might get you there: T-Rex Moller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTgdtekVnyY , Catalinbread Katzenkonig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77g9ml6t5rM. Do yourself a favor though. I spent a lot of years trying to turn one amp into another, getting metal out of Fenders, etc. Go spend some quality time with a simple 50 watt EL34 amp at a shop and see what you think. A lot of that tone just falls out of those amps, and it's pretty glorious really. (Apologies if you've already done this, but I owned a Laney AOR head for years and still didn't understand what I was missing out on, because I am very dim.) Not saying you need to buy one, but it's good to experience firsthand, before you decide to mod anything. I think that Nomad is pretty cool, but it may not be exactly the right amp if your preferred tone is based around a much crisper preamp. Gorgar fucked around with this message at 04:35 on May 20, 2017 |
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May 20, 2017 04:32
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Gorgar posted:I spent a lot of years trying to turn one amp into another, getting metal out of Fenders, etc. Yep. I did this for a long time. Once I got a little knowledge I embraced my true nature: Matamp GT120. 
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May 20, 2017 04:47
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If you had a choice between a Jensen P12N and a Celestion Gold which would you choose? Kind of want to give a 50 watt AlNiCo speaker a try.
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May 20, 2017 05:13
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That's about the same as an Orange OR-120, right? Looks that way. I'm in the process of paring down, and it looks like the OR-120 is going to be my amp for playing practices/gigs with. I did a similar thing, where I was a Fender guy for years, and now I'm pretty much an EL34 guy. I'm down to two Fenders, a Super Reverb and a modern Bassman, and I may go down to one. Turns out everything I'd use the Bassman for, I can use the OR-120.
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May 20, 2017 05:14
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Gorgar posted:That's about the same as an Orange OR-120, right? Looks that way. I'm in the process of paring down, and it looks like the OR-120 is going to be my amp for playing practices/gigs with. Mostly. I asked Matt Dunn of Dunn Effects about the difference. He told me the Matamp is slightly darker, "looser" and has more gain. The OR120 is a fairly clean amp unless you dime it whereas the Matamp has bark for days.
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May 20, 2017 05:19
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Dang It Bhabhi! posted:Mostly. I asked Matt Dunn of Dunn Effects about the difference. He told me the Matamp is slightly darker, "looser" and has more gain. The OR120 is a fairly clean amp unless you dime it whereas the Matamp has bark for days. Sounds like we're each in our own respective heavens, then.
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May 20, 2017 05:40
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Gorgar posted:That tone is not that hard to get. It sounds a lot like an EL34 amp with maybe a tube screamer in front of it, which is really standard stuff to do. It's a kind of a mild Marshall sound, but there are so many amp-in-a-box pedals you don't need a Marshall to do it. You could probably get any tube amp to do it with the right pedal. I'm sure your amp can get near there. Thanks for the input. I'm totally not fiending a new setup or anything. Just curious about what made up one of my favorite guitar sounds. Good to have some ideas of the direction I could head in the future though. That Catalinbread sounded good and I'm a sucker for anything with a blend knob. I'm currently using a Wampler Euphoria for my super light drive then running a Zvex Distorton into it for extra gain stages. I'll probably swap out the Distortron since the Wampler does the same thing but better IMO. Something with a little more character and bite might help me get that chunk I'm looking for. Something with that eq shaping like the tube screamer you mentioned. I'll definitely take your advice and try an EL32 (and the other major iconic styles) before I make any major future amp purchase, but for now I'm with the $300 Carvin : ) . I'm loving it for the most part. Great cleans and headroom which are both pretty important to me. My pedals are sounding awesome through it most of the time, its just occasionally I want that chunky grit that doesn't fall apart so easy. And other times I like that undefined wash of noise. I still get great string definition on the higher notes but the low stuff seems to get lost and rumbley. E: A crucial factor I forgot to mention that probably accounts for so much of this is that my main guitar is set up with flatwound stings downtuned to b standard. So its a pretty flubbed out sound to begin with but I love the sound and feel of it clean (which is where I spend most of my time.) I have a legit 15 guitars worth of parts in my closet that I've been slowly building and selling. (Got a bunch of stuff in bulk from a luthier hobbyiest who must have got bored for $200.) I might as well throw some regular strings on parts tele and see how it fairs. philkop fucked around with this message at 07:11 on May 20, 2017 |
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May 20, 2017 07:08
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I feel real sorry for this guy trying to sell this amp. "plus some that are unrecognisable"
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May 21, 2017 16:19
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massive spider posted:I feel real sorry for this guy trying to sell this amp. "plus some that are unrecognisable"  territory.
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May 21, 2017 19:00
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philkop posted:E: A crucial factor I forgot to mention that probably accounts for so much of this is that my main guitar is set up with flatwound stings downtuned to b standard. So its a pretty flubbed out sound to begin with but I love the sound and feel of it clean (which is where I spend most of my time.) I would try a closed back cab of you want to tighten up the low end.
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May 22, 2017 19:22
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jwh posted:I would try a closed back cab of you want to tighten up the low end. I'm kind of tied to the combo form factor at the moment. I was thinking of trying an EV 12L if I see a deal on one local. Its recommended with this amp to tighten the bass a lot. I hear it is also a little more hifi sounding on the cleans as well with a little more of scoop in the mids which I like and more clean headroom which I also like. Any other speakers that have these qualities? Cannabis Rex? E:Not in a rush though. Still enjoying the amp for the way it sounds. It's got a nice murky mid sound that sounds really rich and wet, for lack of a better word, but not muddy. I haven't had a chance to build up another guitar to try through it but I'm thinking something with regular strings and a p90 or maybe a gretsch style puickup in the bridge might also help me get that chunk for the few times I want that sound. And it really is only just occasionally. My first message about the Black Crow's tone was less of "I want an amp that does this sound" and more just "I want to understand what are the characteristics and features of this tone" in case I want to nudge my sound in that direction for a few songs. philkop fucked around with this message at 20:10 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 19:46
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Well, personally, I don't know what speaker you have in your Nomad now, but if it's stock it's probably a Celestion Vintage 30, which I'm not crazy about. There's a frequency that really pokes out with those speakers, and once you hear it you can't not hear it ever again and it starts to haunt you like a ghost. Sometimes they sound okay mixed with G12Hs. That's a pretty common setup. The Cannabis Rex is about 2db more responsive and has more of an "American" tonality in my opinion. Then again, I actually like Ceramic Jensen's a lot, so what do I know.
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May 22, 2017 20:34
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i have some ceramic jensens in my 65 gretsch and its the cleanest sparkle i have ever heard
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May 22, 2017 21:35
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jwh posted:what speaker you have in your Nomad now Carvin V12 - 
philkop fucked around with this message at 21:51 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 21:44
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Smash it Smash hit posted:i have some ceramic jensens in my 65 gretsch and its the cleanest sparkle i have ever heard I know, right!? I love them and think they're seriously underrated. It also helps that they don't weigh nearly as much as the alnicos.
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May 22, 2017 21:56
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philkop posted:Carvin V12 - Those are made by Eminence. People seem to like them.
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May 22, 2017 21:56
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I've had nothing but great experiences with Weber speakers, and really need to take advantage of their "recone their own speakers for $25+return shipping" deal. (Don't overtighten, kids, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday.) Their selection is so wide it can really be  with decision overload, but it's fun to peruse all the options.
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May 22, 2017 22:09
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After The War posted:I've had nothing but great experiences with Weber speakers, and really need to take advantage of their "recone their own speakers for $25+return shipping" deal. (Don't overtighten, kids, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday.) Their selection is so wide it can really be Just for laughs, I'm going to see what they recommend through the "speaker suggestions" contact form.
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May 22, 2017 22:49
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i have a 612 that has 6 weber gt12 clones and it rules
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May 23, 2017 00:03
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jwh posted:I know, right!? I love them and think they're seriously underrated. It also helps that they don't weigh nearly as much as the alnicos. yeah that whole combo is lighter than the heads for my full rigs
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May 23, 2017 00:04
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Considering ordering a Champion 100. I'd love a genuine old Twin Reverb but I have a family to support so that's out. Have listened to a couple of the videos online and it doesn't sound half bad... Thoughts?
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May 23, 2017 00:56
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metaxus posted:Considering ordering a Champion 100. You thinking used? New? How do you plan on using it? Do you plan on playing out anywhere or just at home? E: Do you have any amps currently? philkop fucked around with this message at 01:09 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 01:06
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philkop posted:You thinking used? New? How do you plan on using it? Do you plan on playing out anywhere or just at home? New, mostly because I can get it for a really good price. It'll be used mostly at home for now, but my new standalone studio is in the process of being built with our new house, so it'll be in there in a few months. The live room is double walled, the whole thing is on acreage and away from the main house, so noise levels aren't an issue. I'm not playing anywhere else, yet. I built a '61 Strat replica recently and have been playing a lot of early Dire Straits, Clapton, that sort of thing, but I also have a bone stock Telecaster and a Les Paul. I'm looking for something vintage sounding. We're renting in the 'burbs right now, so all I have amp wise is a Fender Frontman 15G (which I barely use) and a cheap 30W solid state 2x6" combo. I'm a shift worker, so I tend to use headphones a lot if I'm playing at odd hours. Edit: This is my pedal board: 
Bass Ackwards fucked around with this message at 03:56 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 02:49
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Crossposting from the new gear pictures thread: I've been buying poo poo for four months to get a Blues Jr. MK III and then install many of the mods from the rather robust mod community. You see, my Dad has the Oxblood one with the Swamp Thang speaker and he's a total gear snob who just treats it like a novelty: (Quote: Why would I mod my Blues Jr. when I have a perfectly rebuilt Blue-Line Mesa/Boogie MKIII right here?") Ok, he has a point, but we play very different styles of music. I played his and he complained I was playing too loud, but I was thinking, "Wow, a little beast of a tube amp. I need one or two of these." I wanted a project and his Blues Jr. sounded pretty good; but then I learned about all the mods for this amp and I thought, "I know how to do this sub-assembly work and I can kinda afford all this stuff. It sounds like fun. If it doesn't work out, I'll try something else." I bought a brand new stock MIM Blues Jr. MK III Lacquer Tweed amp and recorded demos of it. I waited patiently for the BillM Audio mod kits and other parts and necessary tools that I didn't already have to arrive as I set aside the funds to order them. Meanwhile, I thought the stock amp sounded pretty good. It had issues, but it did some things quite well. From BillM Audio (Andrew Machrone) I bought the "Basic Kit," the "presence control mod," little additions like the standby switch and Switchcraft input jack, the audio-taper Master and Reverb pots, as well as all new JJ Tubes, the TO20B Output Transformer, and to top it off I took out the Jensen C12N and put in an expensive Celestion G12H(55) Heritage speaker. Once I had all of that (it took almost four months) I did all the mod work in the last couple nights. I took a ton of videos and pictures while doing it. I thought it might make an interesting YouTube video for the Blues Jr. mod community, if I didn't destroy it. I'm a hard-rock guy but I have always wanted to have a great Fender clean tone and now, I have that. I really have that, after the mods. In fact, after the mods, I don't even know what to do with all the tone controls (like, after the Twin-stack mod the middle control is amazing, the bass is huge thanks to the Basic Kit and TO20B OT and the new speaker; and I don't think I'll need that fat circuit anymore due to the added bass from the Basic Kit, OT, and speaker. Also I can use Treble or I can dial in Presence now (did I mention that presence control sounds awesome)? I haven't cranked it hard. After the seven hours of modding, it powered up on the first go (OMG) and yeah, it's definitely a different amp now. Here's the stuff I posted in the "Post Pictures" thread, but I can answer questions here as it seems more appropriate. My history is that I've done boutique hand-wired and PCB assembly work before, so I felt comfortable taking on this project. There were still some very hairy parts to overcome. First impressions: The cleans are amazing and in-your-face. The tone controls are now overwhelming, but the overdrive is a little bit wooly/hairy for my taste. I like a tighter distortion, but like I said I have barely played the thing. I haven't even put a pedal (like an OCD or my Tube Driver in front of it yet). Crosspost: quote:I spent seven hours performing atrocious, wonderful surgery on my Blues Jr. tonight. Still hasn't melted down or done anything weird. This is what it sounded like before the mods. I'll record "after-modding" clips once I get a handle on this incredible new tone stack.  Please stand by for "after" clips, it's going to take time to get used to this and decide how to set the controls. Dr. Faustus fucked around with this message at 07:07 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 06:21
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metaxus posted:New, mostly because I can get it for a really good price. Since you plan on using pedals and want a more classic sound, I don't think you'll have much need for the effects and "voices" on the Fender amp. I think your better off with a simple vintage sounding amp to be used as your pedal platform. I don't have experience with the Champion 100 but my guess (and my impression from the videos I've seen) is that its going to be very similar to your frontman. I don't know for sure, but I don't feel like 100 solid state watts would be enough if you plan on playing out eventually. I just see it as an amp you'll be wanting to upgrade in a year. My suggestion is something like Peavy Classic 30 (or even 50 if you can spare to turn it a little louder.) or a Fender Blues JR. You can regularly find them used cheaper than the price of that Fender new.
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May 23, 2017 17:05
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Dr. Faustus posted:This is what it sounded like before the mods. I'll record "after-modding" clips once I get a handle on this incredible new tone stack.  That sounded amazing, may I ask how you recorded that? What was the tone stack?
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May 26, 2017 05:37
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Loco posted:
First, to alleviate the volume problem, I put the amp in a coat-closet that isolated it best from my neighbors (except the nice lady who lives below me... she heard "music" coming from somewhere and had no idea what it was until I told her it was coming through the ceiling of her closet.) She said, "Oh, it's you? Go ahead, you're fine!" - we're good neighbors) and I worked fast to get these clips done. I have tried micing the amp with my dynamic mics but I don't have a good mixer so I bought this amazing ART PRO MPA II and two cheap microphones: an MXL 2008 large-diaphragm condenser and an MXL R144HE Ribbon mic. This it what the recording setup looked like: Mics (I need to stress that this mic placement took me a long time to work out, and that the idea was to capture the sound of the stock amp so it would be instructive when compared to the modded amp. This was difficult but I think I have the mic-placement is reasonably fixed.):  Mic Pre-amp (actual settings used to record the clean part):  From there the output of the ART mic-pre went directly to an old, crappy Lexicon Lambda recording interface. In Reaper, I only used a master limiter on the master bus and no other plugins were used except for the doubled Van Halen part, which got Lexicon software reverb. Here are the amp settings for clean:  For dirty it was the same except the preamp gain was full-on and I think I cut back the mids a tad. I don't have a pic of that, but when you hear the -click- I'm turning on a Fulltone OCD pedal to boost the gain and here's that setting:  Not much else to tell. The ART is amazing and the mics are just mediocre but the ART brings them to life. I want to stress that while I wanted to EQ it and normalize the file in software, and maybe use hardware/software compression, put the appropriate phaser and chorus on the Van Halen/Mr. Big bits, my friends talked me out of it. What you hear in the demo is 100% what the mics/preamp picked up with no post-processing except the reverb I mentioned above. The clean Van Halen bit is doubled and the delay is a tc electronic Flashback X4 modulation delay in front of the input of the amp. The chorus-y sound is from the modulation of the delays plus the fact that I double tracked that clean part. No other chorus was used but some reverb was added in Reaper. It seemed appropriate.  The amp was bone-stock at the time. Since then I have performed major surgery on it and I want to make a YouTube video about that, or I could just do a Dr. Faustus effort post. It sounds amazing in the room, but I haven't put it in front of the microphones yet. The mics have not been moved and the mic-pre settings are not changed so I just have to put the modded amp in its footprint on the carpet; but the changes to the modded tone-stack+presence control may mean radical changes to the amp tone settings (see my previous post about the presence control and the new low-end). I'll try to get to that Sunday/Monday when I am off work and hopefully people won't complain that I'm being loud. It's a holiday Monday so who knows? Here's a clip of the stock amp with my Fulltone MDV-3 in front, doing a fun Pink Floyd "Breathe" clip on an Ibanez RG471AH with DiMarzio Eric Johnson humbuckers and a DiMarzio True Velvet. Reverb is added in Reaper: The guitar (not a Strat!):  The Fulltone MDV-3 'Vibe pedal:  The clip:  If you have any specific questions that I did not address, please post them and I'll do my best to answer.
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May 26, 2017 07:06
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Dr. Faustus posted:The Fulltone MDV-3 'Vibe pedal:  sounds good man.
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May 27, 2017 15:49
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Dr. Faustus posted:Dr. Faustus effort post. You said mic placement took long, how long exactly? Using 2+ mics always seems challenging to me, what with phasing issues and stuff.
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May 27, 2017 17:39
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Loco posted:Thank you for the details. I've been in the process of recording my own stuff, and find this information useful. Both clips' clean tones are very pretty and full-sounding (and I listened with a subwoofer, thankfully). Can't wait to hear the mods in action.  I have a friend who's working on a huge eight song project and he's using a bathroom to mic up using one dynamic mic and one condenser (and this guy plays LOUD as he wants to capture power section distortion), and the condenser was having issues with the sound pressure levels until he backed the condenser off a good two feet from the 4x12. I think he spent several hours on it, but it paid off. He's sharing raw tracks with me as they are recorded and he's getting an amazing tone. For me, the problem is trying to get decent lows out of an open-back 1x12" combo. The amp really is quite small. The mods have opened up the bass so much. I can't wait to get it isolated and recorded. To my ears, I suspect that low-end splat is still there, but ironically (?) it seems to get better the more I scoop the mids. Check out BillM's "TwinStack mod. It's a simple jumper on the mid pot that I think is the reason cutting back on the mids seems to help so much. I never knew Fenders had such a clean mid-scoop. I did that mod along with the others. I tested it: when you turn Bass, Middle, and Treble all the way down the amp is silent. If I'm lucky and my neighbors don't complain I hope to have something to share by Tuesday.  P.S. - Thanks, Bahbhi. That MDV-3 is awesome, I don't know why I never bought a 'Vibe before. P.P.S. - gently caress it, I'm just going to paste this here. It seems relevant to the one gripe I've had with this amp: quote:“One of the easiest mods you can do your Blues Junior is to convert the tone stack from standard operation to Twin-style operation. Here’s the deal: The Twin is renowned for its bell-like clean tone. Part of that is having enormous power and headroom on tap, but the way the tone stack is wired contributes to the bright, Twin clarity. In the Twin, you can turn the bass, middle, and treble to 1, and get no sound out of the amp–all frequencies are cut off. We're gonna find out if the mids control can be used to remove the "splat" in the clean tone, which I would definitely also call "muddy." Stand by for updates. Dr. Faustus fucked around with this message at 07:43 on May 28, 2017 |
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May 27, 2017 21:03
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EDIT: poo poo. I switched from headphones to speakers and the new clip sounds *darker.* I'm at a loss, I have to look at what's different. Sorry to waste your time. Maybe it's just my speakers, I don't know. My ears are probably too fatigued to try to figure it out right now. I wonder if the mic placement is off a bit from last time? Check this out if you're curious but skip it if not. I am totally confused by what I am hearing right now. It was so clear in the headphones but through the speakers it seems totally backwards from what I thought I was hearing.quote:Bumping the thread, sorry. I put down some clean tones today and I need some feedback. Happy Memorial Day Monday to you all. I'm back with today's updated "clean" clip. The mics didn't appear to be in the same place as before. I tried to put the ribbon mic closer to the center of the cone to capture the highs, and moved the condenser mic off the the side to get more mids and lows. This is the problem with making too many changes at once: I also messed with the amp's tone stack, too. I pulled back the bass, added mids, and turned up the treble and presence a little. I was in a hurry and should have done things in steps. I wasn't that patient because I wanted to record clean and dirty this "weekend" (I'm off Sun/Mon.) I won't get a chance to try again until next Sunday. I didn't touch anything on the mic preamp. Here are the amp settings in this clip:  I played the Strat-style in the beginning, as usual. Then I switched to the JEM77FP @ 1:14. God I love that JEM sound. I wanted to include a chorused clip; but instead of using a software plug-in, I put the tc electronic Corona Chorus in front of the amp. Then, for the Satriani bit (Circles, from Surfing With The Alien) I left the chorus on and added the same delay from the tc electronic Flashback X4 that I used before. I took a pic of the settings on the pedals. Nothing drastic, but I think they sound darn good:  I can't say for sure but I'm afraid I lost too much low-end this go 'round. I was trying to avoid that "splattiness" in the bass and I think I neutered it a little too much. When I compare the clips, the bass just seems to be lacking. Otherwise I think it sounds pretty good. So the chorus and the delay were printed at recording through the amp, via pedals plugged into the input. Post-processing consisted of just two things: removing the usual recording hum with Waves X-Noise, and adding ambience with a very simple Sony reverb plug-in from Sound Forge, set to a medium Hall. I wanted very much to normalize this clip, but decided against it to preserve the original dynamics of the recording. After hearing it, I also wanted very much to add in some bass, too; but I refrained. This is a demo and my friends have set parameters they want me to follow (don't use post-processing to make the amp sound better/different than it really sounds.) I think the mic placement is right on, but I think I pulled the bass back on the amp too much. Live and learn. Here's the result. It's attempt #2 to record the amp clean and have some fun with it. Feedback is welcome, as always.  Dr. Faustus fucked around with this message at 02:24 on May 30, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 03:39
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