1st Band Practice with the Roadster

[pinhedgtr]

So I have had my Roadster 2X12 combo for about two weeks now and we finally had a band practice last night....all I can say is wow, this thing is a beast! I really love the clean channels they really cut through the mix and sounded oh so sweet. I was running channel 4 modern with diodes, but ended up switching that back to the tube rectifiers. It just seemed to "growly" for my tastes. I ended up doing minor tweeks after every song to try and dial this channel in a little better. I never could get totally rid of the growl though, it almost sounds like a low-mid boost from like 500-800Hz is this normal? It could very well be the untreated room that we are jamming in. I also have been experimenting with the preamp tubes and last week I put some JJ ECC83S's in V1 and V2, maybe thats whats causing the growl? I think I'll throw the stock tubes back in and see what happens. Does anyone else have this problem and if so what have you done to tame it?

 

[ccwhiskey]

hi,im a new roadster guy too ,but have been tweaking it for 2 months now and played a few shows allready,you say growl ? can you be more precise ,like to much gain or to much loudness ? what type of music are you playing ? mine is dialed in like god himself did it lol!! i play 2 types of music too and it works great . let me know and il try to give you my best opinion on what to do.... cc www.myspace.com/ccwhiskey

 

[pinhedgtr]

Awesome, thanks for the assist! I play mainly instrumental metal. http://www.myspace.com/hateplanet (These songs were recorded with my old amp) When I say growl, I mean it's like a low-mid frequency boost or something, sounds maybe like 400-800Hz. It's more noticeable when I turn the amp (master) up it just seems like those frequencies get louder than all the others. I guess I'm looking to dial out some of that and have the highs cut through a little more.

Been playing with channel 4 Modern 100w Recto tracking. Gain anywhere from 1:00 - 3:00 treble around 2:00-3:00 mids around 10:00-12:00 Bass around 10:00 and presence from 11:00-2:00. Channel volume is at 11:00 Master at 11:00

 

[Holy Diver]

Try channel 3 starting with similar settings....

 

[ccwhiskey]

hi bro, ya channel 3 is the way to go ,this is what i do and i play in a bls tribute band with all the low tunings and a classic rock zz to zep type band and original and i barely change anything for all 3 bands. i set 3 to vintage ,100 watts on the back,recto tracking on the back,warm up the amp in bold then put it to spongy,settings are 230 gain,treb 230,mid 130,pres 2, bass all the way. master 10 o'clock set clean channel 2 master so it is the same volume when switching ,set solo volume a few db louder than amps master and only adjust amp master to room and band . i get a great zakk wylde tone to a zz top tone with this setting ,i do use a boss gt 8 for effects in the 4 cable method and the amp really sounds good with the delay chorus ect ( i will tell you how to use the 4cb method if you don't know what that is) in fact it also sounds alot like the tone on dream theater . i also use 3 guitars in this set up and that may vary the sound a tad,compared to yours . i use a 08 les paul with burst bucker pro pups 79 w/emg's and a 09 sg w/ burstbuckers i do have a slight tone change with each guitar but not much. only adjust my gain and treble slightly for different clubs but rarely! i tried to get a nice sound from ch 4 but said **** it after awhile ,i never use it or ch 1 . my clean channel is set a little different the bass is 2 treb 2 mid 12 pres 2 gain 8 master is cranked up to match 3's volume and make sure you adjust your solo vol after every thing else is set and don't blast it!! just so it cuts through for leads. im not saying this is for you ,but it might help you i hope ,im just trying to help out like others on here helped me..... cc here's my bls tribute band if you want to check out some live stuff... www.myspace.com/blessedhellride1

 

[budlovesaly]

Channel 3 and 4 are supposed to be identical channels, but if you eq'd both identically, you would notice that channel four is a bit deeper than channel 3. It is just the nature of channel 4. Plus, if you read the manual, channel 4's presence from 12 o'clock and over is more than channel 3's presence all together!

Good luck and have fun with your new Roadster. Also, if you want a great Marshall type sound, I suggest channel 3, vintage, diodes, bold, bass 7 or 8 o'clock, mid 5 o'clock, presence 4 o'clock, gain 3 o'clock, treble at 2 o'clock, output at 4 o'clock, and the use the master volume control as the volume switch. Just remember to set the master volume of your other channels at zero so you don't switch and find a tremendously heart-stopping boom awaiting! I use my Roadster with the OUTPUT set very high so I can get total tube tone. Caution though, your amp with get very, very warm, but your tone will be amazing! Just please remember to zero out your other channels' master volume, then switch and get the volume levels equal. This is the closest you can get to the TIte Gain setting on the Stiletto. Enjoy!

 

[Elpelotero]

Those low mids are the signature Rectifier tone. They'll be hard to dial out unless you get an external EQ or boost pedal.

 

[pinhedgtr]

Awesome, thanks for all the replies! I look forword to trying some of these settings out at our next practice on friday. I haven't really even tried the vintage mode out yet, just figured modern is where it was at for the metal tones. I do have an old ibanez 7 band EQ I could throw in the mix as well. Would I put this in the loop or out front?

 

[Jerrick]

Most people run them in the loop. Its easy enough to try it infront though.

Because I dont want to change the tone of my amp, I have an eq upfront which is just to enhance the natural eq of my gutiar/pickups. Works great and has a slight boost to it as well.

 

[pinhedgtr]

Yeah I was thinking that too...that it could be used as a boost out in front of the amp. I'll give it a go On Friday.

 

[ccwhiskey]

before you add the eq, i would try to get a good tone first with the amp ,if anything a bit of delay and touch of chorus will bring this beast to life .....

 

[Holy Diver]

Before adding anything new to the chain I would suggest trying out channel 3 first and go from there. Just start fresh with everything at noon or something. If that doesn't take you in the right direction then by all means start adding eqs etc to ch4. I had similar issues to you (it seems) with that those underlying frequencies that i just couldn't seem to totally dial out but since i switched over to ch3 (modern at the moment) i am much happier with the overall tone. I have stopped having to use my 10-band eq for rhythm tones also.

 

[pinhedgtr]

I'll definitely try channel 3 without the EQ first. I think another problem is that I was scared to try out any extreme settings on Ch 4. especially after reading the manual, I was trying to keep from going to crazy on the knob twisting on especially the gain and treble and presence. Maybe more experimenting would have paid off. Can't wait to spend more time with the amp, finding your tone has been pretty fun so far! Wish I could bring it to work...LOL!

 

[pinhedgtr]

Just wanted to say thanks to you all for helpin me out. Channel three modern worked out great at band practice on Friday. :mrgreen: