Embarrassing admission

[vbf]

Well, this is my day to ask dumb questions and make embarrassing admissions. OK, so the guy I bought the amp from tells me to keep the treble at 1:00 and the bass at 9:00, especially at higher gain settings.. I've been playing it like that for months and it's always so sounded brittle. Well DUH! I checked out a few YouTube vids to observe how others had controls set....low and behold plenty of guys use plenty of bass and it sounds great. I spent some time this evening adjusting all the controls and have come across some sounds I like much better than before using my bridge pickup (Custom V humbucker), all at 5W. Here's a pic:

Any suggestions? Fell free to post your settings.

 

[EtherealWidow]

Hmmm. I don't play around with the bass knob much come to think of it. I'm pretty alright with the tone. Could use more depth though now that I think about it. Still haven't found my voice on the clean/crunch channels. However, on Burn I have: Gain@ 2, Treble@noon, Mids@noon, Reverb as needed, Master@2 or dimed when recording, Contour@10. I might need more bass though. That EL84 distortion can get HARSH. Then again, might be my settings with the treble, mids, and contour knob. Still finding my voice with the amp. I'm not sure I'd be ready for a Mark series.

 

[tmac]

Don't be afraid of turning those knobs in all directions to find what is best. This depends on playing style, guitar, tubes, cabinet, speaker and room, and other instruments in the mix.

Torquil

 

[TimeSignature]

I like diming the gain, bypassing the contour on the burn channel. ... But for some reason i thought it sounded really good when keeping the bass, mids and treb fairly low.... in the 9 - 11 oclock range

 

[tmac]

I like diming the gain, bypassing the contour on the burn channel. ... But for some reason i thought it sounded really good when keeping the bass, mids and treb fairly low.... in the 9 - 11 oclock range

Yeah, there are several possible reasons for that. First of all, keeping all the knobs at 9 o'clock won't give the same frequency response as keeping them all at 3 o'clock.

Also, the tone stack might be located between a different pair of gain stages than the gain control (I'm not sure). In essence this means that you have a certain ability to control the balance of how much distortion is generated in each gain stage.

E.g. the AX84 DIY amp I built had two gain knobs and three preamp gain stages. These two knobs made it possible to balance the distortion like I describe above. I could e.g. create all the preamp distortion in the third gain stage by keeping the first gain knob low and the second high, or some distortion in the second and some more in the third. There is a difference in sound between these two methods. I wonder why not more amps have two gain knobs, at least the amps where multi-stage preamp gain in focus. Maybe the users just don't want this possibility.

Anyway, carry on...

Torquil

 

[vbf]

I was very pleased with the sound at church this morning. Our sound guy was pretty happy too, although I rolled the bass back to about 2:00 or so. This is the first real tube amp I've owned and I'm still (Obviously ) learning. I had a Blues Junior but it's not in the same league as these amps. Still a decent little amp, though. I used the clean, crunch, and burn channels this morning and all sounded SO much better. The other guys in the band mentioned it too so it must have been an improvement. Thanks!!

 

[Don]

You have to set the amp up however it takes to get "your" sound, no matter what anyone else says. For instance, my 5:50 is set up nothing like yours and it get's "my" sound really well.

 

[Newysurfer]

You have to set the amp up however it takes to get "your" sound, no matter what anyone else says. For instance, my 5:50 is set up nothing like yours and it get's "my" sound really well.

+1
I'm yet to find any EQ settings that don't sound excellent on the 5:50 :mrgreen:

 

[vbf]

Thanks, guys. I don't feel so embarrassed now.

 

[Scooterjohn]

You have to set the amp up however it takes to get "your" sound, no matter what anyone else says. For instance, my 5:50 is set up nothing like yours and it get's "my" sound really well.

+1
I'm yet to find any EQ settings that don't sound excellent on the 5:50 :mrgreen:

You can't say the same about the Mark IV.