HELP: Which is cleaner: LS & LSS

[marlon]

Hey guys, here's a quick question from a guy that sort of likes to jazz it out ocassionally with his Epi dot. (Fact of the matter is that my wife "tolerates" my jazzy stuff waaaaaay better than softly overdriven tones with my Les Paul). I have an LSS that I got about 3 weeks ago, but I notice that I still can't quite get that real crystal clean (but thick???) sound on Chan 1...even when I select the 30W (Higher end?), turn the gain down and fiddle with the treble, mid & bass. Even if I get sort of close with the clean, when I attack it, you can feel it start to break up a little. I do like the reverb:^) Is the LS cleaner or about the same??? One thing I might do is replace the PUPs in my Epi with the original "vintage" pups that came in my Historic LP. I replaced the LP pups with 8/9K Fralins - simply awesome! :roll:

 

[musicbox]

with 100 watts of 6l6 headroom, pretty sure you'd have more than enough :wink: . although you'll loose alot of that wonderfull grit and touch sensitivity, and to get a good poweramp vibe going you'll need volumes i KNOW your wife isnt going to like. plus, i dont think you could EVER get 6l6 to sound as REAL as class a el84's

 

[dylan7620]

agreed, with that much more headroom ur going to get much "cleaner" tones out of it. plus its not class a like the specials so even if they did have the same power settings it would still be much clearer

 

[marlon]

Thanks for the inputs - I'm still diddling around with the LSS settings for now. Wonder what a separate cab w/10" speakers would be like? Would 10's driven by the LSS be suitable for jazzy stuff or no? How about a V30 12" instead of the stock Black Shadow? I'm also going to wind a set of 11 's on the epi since the 10's sound a little weak and twingy at wife-tolerant lo-vol settings. In the meantime, listen to some Larry Carlton since some of his stuff is kind of edgy:roll:

 

[screamingdaisy]

when I attack it, you can feel it start to break up a little.

I'm no Jazzer, so take this with a grain of salt.....

Maybe roll the tone & volume off you're Dot a little more. I find that helps dull the attack a little when I can't seem to do it at the amp.

Or, you could do the old 50ft insturment lead trick.....that'll bleed off your attack.

 

[musicbox]

another option would be to go to someone like Bob at eurotubes and have him grade you a new set of El84's.If you specify that you're in need of more headroom, he may be able to give you a cooler quad of tubes, thatll break up abit later. This gave me some more headroom to work with, and the progression into breakup was alot slower, but I didn't loose any of the warmth in the tone - just stayed clean longer. Then you still have the option of switching down to the 5 or 15 watt settings for early breakup. and that juicy bit of class A goodness you can't get in the normal LS.

 

[Sounds like Roy]

I think many of the suggestions above have merit and will help, but the bottom line is that EL84's will never have the clean of a 6L6. I just can't think of any jazzers using EL84 based amps (but I'm sure I'm wrong....). Anyway, I personally prefer the LLS and would try a cooler set of tubes and adjusting vol and tone settings on your guitar etc to get where you want because the pluses of the LSS are worth hanging on too IMO.

 

[jbird]

I'm gonna have to say he's got the wrong amp! And for that advice I'm not even going to charge him. Just send the amp to me and your problems are solved! :lol:

 

[marlon]

Hah! I like the idea of the 6L6's - but I wonder if a V30 12" speaker might help a tad with going to the extreme of 'de-warming' it with colder valves? Having said that, I'm learning a little more about amp switchology and I've learned to clean it up a bit and go easy on the attack. I've ventured into Chan 2. Kind of neat: sort of Carlton-esque, since the sound still has a tiny edge to it and when I lean on it, the edge really comes out. I have learned that turning the Presence up about all the way + about 1/2 turn of Bright Reverb all the way gives it a high end, clean edge - even on Chan 2. The Gain is almost all the way rolled off and the Master up a bit. Interesting tone nuances switching btwn 5 - 15 - 30 as well. Wonder if I need to go ahead and get that Analog Man comprossor to kind of tighten it up a bit more - I'm starting to deal with the edge issue. BTW: I would let my LSS go for free.....for the right amount of shipping!!! Anybody want to unload a used Gibby Es-335!?!??! :lol: