|
Getting some tube rattle only when my amp is tilted (in an amp stand) Anybody have something similar? I'm thinking of finding some rubber grommets to see if it hushes it down.
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 03:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 20:53 |
|
|
There's always a chance some tube grommets could help, but I'd be more worried that the angle of the amp makes a difference. Can you try moving the tubes to different sockets and see if the artifacts remain? How old are those tubes? Can you swap them out (one by one) for another known good tube? I'd try that. Everything I've read is that tubes only go downhill and the answer is often "Time for new tubes." I'm just a layman, though.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 03:43
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:There's always a chance some tube grommets could help, but I'd be more worried that the angle of the amp makes a difference. Can you try moving the tubes to different sockets and see if the artifacts remain? Worried that the angle might make a difference how? Just curious. Like it might be bad for it over time? Not sure on the age of the tubes but they show no other signs of age. They look great, no loose parts within etc. The noise I'm referring to only happens on certain notes so I'm pretty sure its just a vibration thing. Its just exaggerated when my amp is slightly tilted. Also, Great playing in your recent clips bud. I only listened to one and it was a before. I think you should try using https://clyp.it/. I was on mobile and not being able to listen to it right away was a pain in the rear end.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 03:59
|
|
|
philkop posted:Worried that the angle might make a difference how? Just curious. Like it might be bad for it over time? The easiest way to check would be to swap tubes around and see if the artifact goes away. You know, I was just discussing this with my Dad a few days ago. He told me about his Blues Jr. throwing weird vibrations on just certain notes. He swapped in new power tubes and the issue disappeared. I don't know if you have spares sitting around and I haven't even asked which tubes you have, so your mileage may vary. I was just concerned that you associate the anomaly with the angle of the amp (on a stand.) If you can swap tubes then please do. See if the problem persists. That's what I'd do in this situation. quote:Also, Good luck with your amp. I'm sure there are folks here who are actual gurus and not just monkeys like me. I just think the 1st rule of "Is my tube bad?" is swapping them around, especially if you can get access to some comparable tubes that haven't been in your amp before. Solved my Dad's issue with one simple tube swap. Cheers and thanks! P.S. - My gut tells me you've got a dodgy tube. The amp is probably fine unless one of the sockets has a bad connector, but that would probably present a different problem. I don't know the amp's age, type, or tubes; so take that with a grain of salt. Dr. Faustus fucked around with this message at 04:40 on May 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 04:35
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:Worried because tubes are somewhat mechanical in their nature, and so if they're fit they shouldn't sound different in any orientation. If you think the noise on certain notes only happens in certain orientations (e.g. angled back) then that's harder to diagnose. It could be the tubes or it could be some other part of the amp circuit that's affected by gravity, e.g. the tube sockets themselves, or a transformer that's not well-seated. Ah I gotcha. I'll definitely swap some of the tubes within the amp around just to see. Unfortunately I don't have any spare tubes. It takes EL84 and 12ax7. I've only had the amp for about 2 months or so and got it second (or 3rd/4th) hand. Been leaning towards retubing the whole thing if it gets any noisier. That way I at least know how old every tube is. I would wait on a few more checks and also do some more research first since I've never bought tubes before. I plan on a doing a few mods to this amp myself. The Carvin Nomad has the Hasserl mods that are said to really open up the drive channel. philkop fucked around with this message at 05:30 on May 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 05:04
|
|
|
I bought three JJ Tubes 12AX7s (Slovenian) instead of going totally boutique crazy. Mullards are highly regarded. I like bright and jangly distortion so I went JJ. At $11/per that cost $33. I would do that just as a matter of course. Now, my Blues Jr. only uses two EL84s (it's 15 watts) but my Peaveys are 50W amps and they need a matched quartet of EL84s each. That gets more expensive. Luckily when you buy a matched pair/quartet online you can trust them to work together in a complimentary fashion. Which model of the Nomad do you have? There's a lot of opinions online about that amp. Carvin does that to people. Some love them, some hate them; but I bet there's a really cool amp there. Is it a head, or a combo? (I am not trying to speak down to you, here; I'm just thinking out loud): Re-tubing an amp is super easy and if you're not changing the values of the tubes you don't need to worry about the power section bias. I'd highly recommend changing them all out, preamp and power amp tubes. "It's the only way to be sure." Buy them online and handle them carefully, and the amp will probably respond quite positively (unless the tubes in there are already pretty new, then there's some other problem). There are some who care and some who don't, but I have oily skin and I don't handle tubes with my bare fingers. I use a very clean cloth. The idea is that residue on a tube may create a hot spot on the surface of the tube which could. possibly, affect its lifetime; but some people think that's stupid anal bullshit and others swear by it. I just consider it an abundance of caution and I don't touch the tubes. The Carvin amps are really great if you're using them for the right kind of sound (which, is, of course true of any line of amps.) Other questions: What year was it released? Any signs of physical abuse? Capacitors have a lifetime after which they pretty much all need to be replaced. The time frame is probably over 15 years, and a real concern around 20-30 years. If it's been modded I assume it contains some more robust/newer components than the stock amp had. Looking forward to some real amp gurus coming in and giving you better advice.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 05:44
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:that cost $33 Looking like it might be more in my shoes. 4 EL84s and 5 12ax7. I hear preamp tubes last a lot longer but like you said, I'd probably just swap them all at once to be sure. Speaking of being sure. I'd make sure to check/set the bias just because I have no idea how the previous owner/tech had it set up. I've been soldering and tinkering for a long time but haven't messed with amps yet. Like I said, I plan on eventually doing some mods so I'm looking to get familiar and comfortable with working on the insides in a VERY safe way. Put me down in the not quite afraid, but extra extra cautious stage right now. My Nomad is a combo. Probably one of the older ones since it has a spring reverb. I'm mostly sticking to the clean channel which I love. I'm on the verge of thinking its too mid heavy for my tastes but I'm smart enough to know I should give it more time in more situations. That mid notch could be great in a band context, I've just been too busy to go to any jams. I also got this amp after having my Roland JC 55 as my main amp for a very long time, so I want to make sure I'm not experiencing a sort of tonal culture shock from the drastic change. I mean these two amps couldn't be farther apart. I'm still getting used to some things, but many other things were better right off the bat with the Carvin. Even its handling of drive / pedals. E: I do a lot of solo looping with a lot of layers and the Carvin handles it very well! I use an onboard passive bass roll of knob so I can really add a lot of layers in different sonic spaces without it turning to mud. The JC handled the layers well too but it was almost too clean for that stuff. It was like you were listening to each loop with a magnifying class. I feel like the Carvin is like looking through a dirty windshield, which I'm totally feeling right now. E: Listened to another one of the clips. Dude. Not sure if you do it on purpose but I love a buzzy guitar. Sounds like your guitar is setup similarly to how I set mine up. Just on the verge of buzzing if you want it to. As far as the mod went. I didn't notice it much. Someone with better ears might be able to chime in. I hear the player more than the change in tone. If anything, the mod made it sound slightly cleaner to me and not as thick. philkop fucked around with this message at 06:29 on May 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 06:12
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:this amazing ART PRO MPA II Dr. Faustus posted:The ART is amazing and the mics are just mediocre but the ART brings them to life. So... guess what I just bought?
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 17:37
|
|
|
philkop posted:E: Listened to another one of the clips. Dude. Not sure if you do it on purpose but I love a buzzy guitar. Sounds like your guitar is setup similarly to how I set mine up. Just on the verge of buzzing if you want it to. I agree that this new recording just isn't showing off the change in character of the modded amp. I am going to take the blame because the tone stack is so radically different now that I pulled the bass back too much based on what my ears were telling me. I don't have reference monitors so it's a nightmare trying to guess how a recording will sound on other systems. I'm really disappointed with myself. I should have put more work into making sure what I was recording was what the amp actually sounds like. I failed this weekend, I'll have to make another run at it. It's good practice and my left hand is strenghtening back up from all the playing I've been doing this month. I have picked out a nice pair of monitors but probably can't afford them for another couple months. In the meantime I'll just keep at it. The mods really did strenghten the low end and added a smooth, buttery thing to the chime of the amp. The presence control is awesome. I definitely need more time with the new tone stack and also need to revisit mic placement.  After The War posted:So... guess what I just bought?
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 22:15
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:nice pair of monitors I always keep some Sony MDR 7506 headphones around that will get you some decent reference quality. Other than that I have some Eris e5s, so nothing special. My buddy who does the recording side of things (who has more than the value of my cars worth of 3 way monitors) turned me onto the sony thing.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 22:36
|
|
|
Gorgar posted: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 ... Found a shop near me that had a few different vintage and modern amps of many types. Tried a jubille with el34. Sounded great, just not my sound 90% of the time and I really couldn't get it loud enough where I was. Fell in love with a tiny princeton reverb! not sure how old it was but it looked a bit beat up. Seems like it could be super fun to build a kit of that bad boy. E: As much as I love that Black Crowes sound I was asking about, I spend 80% of my time closer to tones like this. (Which I'm pretty sure is a JC120 + Fender Twin Reverb.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRdEbl57U0 - Worth a listen. Great song and one of my favorite albums. philkop fucked around with this message at 23:39 on May 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 23:27
|
|
|
philkop posted:I always keep some Sony MDR 7506 headphones around that will get you some decent reference quality. Other than that I have some Eris e5s, so nothing special. I'm just stuck because part of the fun of this project was supposed to be demonstrating if the mods do anything. I can hear that they did, but my recording would make you doubt it. That's why I'm so disappointed. It's easier to make incremental changes, but tougher to take that next step when you do so much at once (I'm not just micing up a new circuit, it's a totally different speaker, too.) First world problems... Dr. Faustus fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 31, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 31, 2017 03:46
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:They're a pair of Sony MDR-V600s. I've known for years that they over-represent the low frequencies but it's in such a way that I honestly haven't figured out a systematic way to adjust for that. I think they sound great. Unfortunately, my mix and EQ sounds completely different on anything else. It's frustrating, but so is taking an mp3 around and listening to it on a bunch of different systems! Especially since I am trying to capture the sound of the amp with just mics and no EQ. I'm tempted to just EQ in the missing bass and call it a day. I don't really want to record the clean parts again. I want to play (and record) other stuff, now. I have the v600s too. It can be tough matching the perceived sound of things since even the best gear adds its own flavor to the recording sometimes. I think as long as you keep as many of the controllable variables the same, you'll get decent results. (Same headphones or monitors each time, same amp settings etc) Trying to A+B something can be a challenge since the mod made the tone knobs react in different ways. I spent the better half of the weekend A B ing my two amps. A Carvin Nomad and a Roland JC-55. I'm still learning about sound and amp characteristics so I really wanted to an objective look and listen to the two amps. In attempts to keep things as sterile as possible, I even used a looper with some pre recorded segments through each amp. The problem was, even that wasn't a true show of each amp because I end up adjusting how I play through each amp. They each do things that make you react differently while playing in real time. The point is, even the looper didn't cut it. I ended up ditching the idea of keeping the settings/situation exactly the same and instead set each amp up how I like and jammed on them how I feel they are intended to be used and that helped me get a much better feel for them.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2017 22:06
|
|
|
philkop posted:Fell in love with a tiny princeton reverb! not sure how old it was but it looked a bit beat up. Seems like it could be super fun to build a kit of that bad boy. A Princeton Reverb wouldn't be too difficult to build, except for the vibrato portion of the circuit. The negative bias to the power tube grids is probably also a pain. Whenever I turret board an amp I always end up running out of space by the time I finish the phase inverter. As for Ry Cooder, I'm not sure it's worth trying to chase his tone. That's how people go mad.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2017 15:47
|
|
|
jwh posted:As for Ry Cooder, I'm not sure it's worth trying to chase his tone. That's how people go mad. I think I might actually be liking Manual Galban more. He plays a tele with 13 gauge strings or some crazy poo poo. philkop posted:toobs I think I might be needing new tubes in my amp soon. Probably going to go with a full set and learn to bias myself (been reading plenty of good guides.) I'm not looking to start some epic tube hunting journey but since I'm paying to replace what I got, I might as well explore what options are out there. I was thinking of a JJ 5751 instead of my 12ax7 since I like my clean tone and use pedals for gain anyways. E: Any weird poo poo you could do with different power tubes? philkop fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Jun 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 04:38
|
|
|
philkop posted:I think I might actually be liking Manual Galban more. He plays a tele with 13 gauge strings or some crazy poo poo. That's not _that_ weird. I run 12s on my Jazzmaster in standard tuning, and 13s on my Jaguar. Original strings on Tele's in the fifties were roughly 12-50. It's also the reason why old staggered pole piece pickups don't sound right without a wound G. philkop posted:I think I might be needing new tubes in my amp soon. Probably going to go with a full set and learn to bias myself (been reading plenty of good guides.) If your amp isn't breaking up already at the volume you prefer to play at then the 5751s aren't going to make much of a difference. However, if the amp is breaking up, sure, you could try 5751s. They have a mu of 70, whereas 12AX7s have a mu of 100. You could also use 12AT7s or even 12AY7s without too much danger. I once built an amplifier that only used low gain 12AY7s for both the preamp and the phase inverter, and it sounded pretty good. But that's just for capacitor coupled gain stages. Don't swap these tubes in reverb drivers, effects loop drivers, or any other high current application. Don't mess with different power tubes. Generally speaking, the output tubes wants to see a certain load and that load is a function of reflected impedance determined by the turns ratio in the transformer. In addition to that, different tubes can have different heater current requirements (6L6 wants twice the heater current than 6V6, and if your power transformer is already at its limit you're risking destroying a very expensive transformer). Personally I don't see the advantage in laying out serious money for expensive modern or NOS tubes for your guitar or bass amplifier. Save those tubes for your tube phono stage or mic preamplifier. tl;dr, don't go mucking with this unless you know what you're doing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 16:43
|
|
|
I've thought of stringing something up with 13s just to see how I adjust over a few weeks. Anytime I pick up someones guitar with heavy strings it just feels like an acoustic to me, at least in how you approach playing. Not my style. I play 9s on my normal tuned guitars and my main has 12s downtuned to b standard which feels as loose as 9/10s to me but they have the extra beef under my finger of a thick string and a similar roundness to the tone. I also find the action of my vibrato bar much better with this lower tension on my parts jazzmaster. I heard Jmascis has super heavy strings and high action on his jazzy. To each his own. The reason I thought of changing tubes was for more clean headroom. The Carvin gets gritty sooner than I expect. But I didn't know those tubes work for different things. I'd rather stick with what I have then have to have a mix of two types. I thought I could just swap every 12ax7 and call it a day. Saw a good deal on a Weber California (paper) that I might try out. Should give more headroom and do something to my cleans. Wouldn't be hard to move locally if it didn't work out too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 17:32
|
|
|
philkop posted:The reason I thought of changing tubes was for more clean headroom. The Carvin gets gritty sooner than I expect. I don't know the layout of the Carvin's tone stack, but have you tried turning down the EQ knobs as you turn up the amp? Keep the same ratio between them, but back them all off together. At least in a Fender-style design, the EQ is controlling gain between preamp stages, which is why it goes dead if you turn them all down to zero. Might help to tame things at higher volumes. I do love that California, though. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 21:12
|
|
|
Nomad actually has a James / passive Baxandall tone stack, if I remember correctly.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 21:21
|
|
|
After The War posted:I don't know the layout of the Carvin's tone stack, but have you tried turning down the EQ knobs as you turn up the amp? Keep the same ratio between them, but back them all off together. At least in a Fender-style design, the EQ is controlling gain between preamp stages, which is why it goes dead if you turn them all down to zero. Might help to tame things at higher volumes. I've heard great things about the Cali and the stock speaker isn't in great shape so I figured I'd upgrade anyways. The little tab for the terminal connections on the stock speaker was broken off when I got it. I've fixed it but its just another one of those things in my mind that could go wrong at some point. One more straw that led me to just trying the upgrade. I plan on sticking with the Carvin for a long time. E: I'll come on here and ask about getting all kinds of sounds but really I still don't know what the hell I want. I've been playing for about 15 years but being mindful tonal specifics is a new thing ever since I started hanging around my studio buddy. I don't plan on making any major changes like a different amp for a very long time but small things like a new speaker, tubes or a mod here and there don't hurt the budget so bad even if I end up spending more after 5 years than if I were to have just bought the "right" amp. Grogar had some good advice on trying a bunch of amps before going down the long road of turning one amp into another, which is solid advice, but I'm just not experienced enough to know what the right amp and why that amp would have been right anyways. So till then, I'll be enjoying tinkering with my $300 Carvin and seeing what directions I can push it in. I've messed with the tone knobs a bit but I usually just leave them in the same place since I didn't notice them changing much as the volume went up. Speaking of EQ I'd be curious to hear how some of you guys go about setting your EQs on your single or multi channel amps. I heard about this method a long time ago and I've never looked back: First I crack my guitars volume and treb/bass tone knobs all down a hair. I strum just to hear sound (and usually loop it just to make things easier) and move each knob until I get to a spot where the most difference is had. There will always be a point where the knob produces the most changes with the smallest amount of spin. I set every knob to be on its "Breaking" point and leave it. For my Carvin that means: Bass- hair above 1 Mid- 3.5 or 5.5 (Depending on mood) Treb- hair above 1 Combine that with my on board guitar knobs (volume, bass roloff, treb rolloff) and I can cut or boost a reasonable amount in any direction. I can't vouche for the bass rolloff knob enough. You can turn a fuzz into an overdrive and even get a faux treble boosted sound since the perceived volume of the treb increases when you reduce bass. philkop fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jun 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 21:42
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:I hope you dig it as much as I do. For the price it really does a lot. Got it set up, went for the impedance knob... and realized I had bought the MPA 1 by mistake. No mid/side for me. Seller does not offer returns. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 01:38
|
|
|
philkop posted:Speaking of EQ dime everything then turn the guitar's tone knob all the way down
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 01:59
|
|
|
Start at 666 and wiggle the knobs until it sounds good with a tubescreamer in front.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 02:04
|
|
|
6505+: green channel with crunch engaged, used for everything. red channel: gently caress off JSX: crunch channel used for everything. ultra, gently caress off. clean, for cleans green overdrive always on as a boost speaking of jsx i want to try and retube it with 6l6s muike fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 3, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 02:22
|
|
|
philkop posted:I'd be curious to hear how some of you guys go about setting your EQs on your single or multi channel amps. Depends greatly on the amp. Fenders: all EQ on 10 to let all the signal through, back off on treble if necessary. Most other amps: bass and mids around noon to start, treble at 0, presence or high treble at 10. The Orange OR-120 gets bass at 10, treble at 0, no mid knob anyway, presence (h.f. drive) at 10. That's the one with the 12AY7 in the first position for more headroom, which works. Not sure about replacing all the 12AX7s in an amp with lower output, might not work out too well. Current new obsession is a Laney LA100BL, which sounds ridiculously good clean with all eq at noon and I haven't even bothered to change it. Presence is still at 10 though. I like me some presence. I'm experimenting more with jumpering the channels than the eq. But you're probably asking how I arrived at all this, more than what the settings are, and that's that I normally start with knobs at noon (again, except on Fenders, where eq is strictly reductive), turn the presence up as far as it'll go without too much hiss, and drop the treble way down because I don't like too much treble in the preamp. Sounds irritating. There's just something about 2000 Hz that I can't stand, so I dial it out. Then I don't gently caress with the other knobs much unless I need to fix something (too boomy, etc).
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 04:18
|
|
|
After The War posted:Got it set up, went for the impedance knob... and realized I had bought the MPA 1 by mistake. No mid/side for me.  Dude. My dude. Sincere goondolences.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 04:49
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:
It's not so bad. I got a preamp, which I desperately needed and can use until the 2 drops back down to <$200 used. Even though all the previous listings had sold around that, people are still trying to get close to the current MSRP. In the meantime, I can get some stuff recorded, and eventually trade it in for a bunch of strings, or a pedal or... more microphones. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 15:30
|
|
|
Gorgar posted:Depends greatly on the amp. Fenders: all EQ on 10 to let all the signal through, back off on treble if necessary. Most other amps: bass and mids around noon to start, treble at 0, presence or high treble at 10. I didn't know that about Fenders but it makes a lot of sense looking back!
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 17:14
|
|
|
After The War posted:bunch of strings I will give you a "bunch" of strings right now for the preamp! Save yourself the time and struggle
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 17:15
|
|
|
RE: Fender EQ I wasn't aware of how they worked either until I started reading about modding the Blues Jr. It's part of the blackface family of amps (Deville, etc.) and it always passes some mids even with all the EQ knobs down. By jumping two lugs on the mid eq pot, it functions like the rest of the Fenders. I did that mod and tested it: With bass mid and treble all the way down (=1), no signal comes out of my amp. I'm going to experiment a lot with the EQ. I have a very good looper in the Flashback X4, so I'll try that loop trick to play with the EQ while a loop plays. Sounds like fun to me. I'm also going to try the "turn the EQ all the way up and let all the signal through" idea and see what that sounds like.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2017 22:32
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:RE: Fender EQ Jumping lugs 1 and 2 (connecting input to output in parallel with 1->resistance taper->2)?
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2017 01:54
|
|
|
It's the mod I posted previously: http://billmaudio.com/wp/?page_id=58quote:Twin-Like Clean Tone: TwinStack Mod
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2017 04:18
|
|
|
Letting all the signal through gives you a lot more headroom. It's like having three volume pedals, one for each band: turn them all down some and you hear more of the amp working harder, assuming you turn the gain up to compensate. EQs all maxed is good for playing bass through a bassman.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2017 04:34
|
|
|
There's been a lot of thunderstorms here lately and I've noticed sometimes my Spider IV 15 practice amp will make an audible popping noise right when the lightning hits (thunder comes a few seconds after depending on where it's at). Any idea what's causing this and if it's harming the amp? I normally just leave it on all the time as from what I'd been told since it's not a tube amp there's really no harm in doing so.
jiffypop45 fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jun 5, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 21:22
|
|
|
I'm no science guy, but sounds like regular old EMI, and your amp's probably fine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 21:44
|
|
|
This is a "no real news here" white-noise post, so skip it if you're inclined. Last weekend (my weekends are Sunday/Monday) I came up with a strategy for making a better Blues Jr. Before Mods/After Mods comparison. Bear in mind, I'm still recording the very clean settings, which I wouldn't use in many real-life applications. All I did was import the "Before demo" .wav file into my Reaper project and recorded some clips of the same guitar and then compared them. I found where the frequencies were that were different so I could dial-in the tone stack on the modded amp to get roughly the same volume and bass as the "before" clip. The focus turned out to be "fat circuit: In our Out?" (It's "In" on the "before" clip.) Mids: scooped, low, middle, high, full? Treble vs. Presence: Which sounds better? Which records better? I'm still figuring that out. The part that really disappoints is that my Strat-style with the Texas Specials just splats all over through this amp, clean. I am now pretty sure this is a clean-headroom artifact. What I like about this amp is its nod to British distortion, so I can accept this won't give me true Fender tube cleans in some applications. I've never had it before, so I'll look elsewhere if this amp can't do it (without the 6V6 octal socket mod and P24 Power Transformer.) The fun part hasn't even started yet! With so many new variables I recorded many small clips but they were just to A/B the modded amp against the "Before" clip. Little by little I am starting to capture the bass/mid/treble of the new circuit and speaker. I may move the condenser mic out closer to the edge of the speaker cone and even back several inches from the grill-cloth, and am trying to keep the ribbon mic near the center for accurate highs. I haven't run into any phasing issues. I want you all to hear what I hear. I stopped using the headphones to compare. I'm sticking with the bookshelf speakers because they seem to expose the differences in frequencies right away. The two guitars in the original clip have been re-stringed and I'll do final setup on those before I record. Temperature fluctuations down here in NC play with these necks, which are both Maple (one with a Maple fretboard and the JEM with its Rosewood fretboard.) So this post is completely pointless except as a progress report on a project I can't resume until Sunday. Stay tuned, if you care to. P.S. - This is just for the clean sounds. I can't wait to turn the preamp volume up full and get some o'that, then put the OCD in front and get nuts. (Or maybe I should put the Tube Driver in front, or do a clip of each.) Not going to include the Boneshaker in this bit, as the Boneshaker seems to be more of a preamp replacement than a gain/overdrive pedal. I'll try to restrain myself from using too much outboard gear because this is supposed to be a useful guide to before mod/after mod. I could do a separate Boneshaker thing later.) I'll add these somewhat impressionistic pics just because I have them to hopefully makes this post a little more interesting:   
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2017 07:30
|
|
|
As someone who is looking at Blues Juniors for open mic stuff I appreciate your post 
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2017 15:15
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:The part that really disappoints is that my Strat-style with the Texas Specials just splats all over through this amp, clean. Don't underestimate the power of pickup height adjustment. Especially with the Texas Specials. I've had them before and they work well at a few heights. That might be something you can try after you finish documenting the before and after sounds.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2017 18:27
|
|
|
peter gabriel posted:As someone who is looking at Blues Juniors for open mic stuff I appreciate your post philkop posted:Don't underestimate the power of pickup height adjustment. Especially with the Texas Specials. I've had them before and they work well at a few heights.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2017 23:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 20:53 |
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:Thanks! I will be back at it tomorrow. Maybe I'll get the capture I want. No problem man. I'm still a noob when it comes to amps, but I'm pretty familiar with the front end of the chain as far as the guitar and electronics go. A couple of other random tweaks I wish I found a lot sooner that might aid anyone in nudging their tone around. - Tightening or loosening your string tree, if you have one, has a pretty strong impact on the B and E strings. - Not only pickup height, but which side you set higher can have alot of impact. You can cut some of the piercing bridge highs by lowering the treble side and raising the bassy side. Adds little more oomph for rhythm too. - Pots and capacitors! Guitar sounding a little dark and dull? Hop up to 500K pots or even 1Meg! Neck pickup almost where you want it, but a little muddy? Connect a .047 (or so) cap in between the pickup lead and its selector. It cuts just a little bass and usually really sweetens up an otherwise muddy pup. - Action. Higher action leads to some nice sustain and what I can only describe as a more vibratey tone. Or lower the strings enough to slightly buzz if you try and get some extra stank on your notes when you want it. E: auto correct, correct philkop fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Jun 11, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2017 00:56
|
|