How does Presence work?

[Musical123]

Can someone explain to me how the presence knob works? I just got a LSC and am trying to figure this out.


Thanks

 

[thunda1216]

from what I understand, turning up the presence knob affects how the speaker responds to higher frequencies - the higher the setting, the more the speaker cone moves in relation to high frequencies and sort of emphasizes the highs

 

[RectoStudioGuy]

Presence works within the negative feedback loop, almost as it were a tone control for higher freqs. But effecting the dynamics of the upper freqs rather than adding or subtracting them.

 

[madryan]

It's essentially a High Pass Filter for your Negative Feedback Loop much like a Depth control is a Low Pass Filter for the Negative Feedback Loop IIRC.

 

[stephen sawall]

Presence and resonance are power amp tone controls. Bass/midrange/treble are preamp tone controls.

The presence control in most amps controls the high end frequencies above the treble control. As you turn it up it also increases perceived gain.

 

[Tommy_G]

Depends on the amp.

The Peavey Power Amps have presence in the neg. feedback loop of the power amp.

Modern Mesa's such as my Nomad have their presence control circuitry (ground dump RC) as part of the preamp tone controls.

We gotta know your amp, and look up the schematic.

And if you're not looking for the technical angle, well, presence controls frequencies a bit higher than treble - I find it gives stronger definition to the pick/string attack, for instance. And its a dangerous tool if you're using going to the board using a direct out, rather than a guitar amp speaker, which has a hard time responding proportionally to presence boosts, whereas a PA doesn't have that problem.

 

[Dolebludger]

From a musical standpoint, my Nomad's owners manual says the turning up the presence control increases the strength and immediate effect of the attack. Turning it down decreases the attack and delays it a bit -- and makes the guitar seem easier to play because it de-emphasizes mistakes in attack. I turn mine down a bit for practice in smaller rooms, and turn it up a bit for playing with bands in larger rooms.

 

[Musical123]

Hi,

I forgot to say that I just got an LSC and trying to dial in some tones and the presence knob has me a but unsure what to do. I appreciate everyone's inputs.


Regards

 

[stephen sawall]

Hi,

I forgot to say that I just got an LSC and trying to dial in some tones and the presence knob has me a but unsure what to do. I appreciate everyone's inputs.


Regards

I recommend in most cases to turn it as low as you can and still cut with cymbals. Other than that how you use it really depends on the sounds you are going for.

Like the rest of the controls on the amp ..... just screw around with it till you know what it does to the sound.

 

[RectoStudioGuy]

In dialing my presence I start low, step far away, play through my most used channels, and adjust up from there. Sure it takes a bit sometimes but it's much better than having a shrill sound.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Personally, I would suggest you dial in all the other preamp parameters first before tweaking the presence...

 

[madryan]

Here's a quote from Zach of Titan Amps on this subject...

this can get to be a pretty complicated subject.

first, presence and depth controls are part of the negative feedback loop in many amps. the NFB loop takes a reduced level signal from the output transformer and feeds it back to the input of the phase inverter...the signal is out of phase, so it has the effect of reducing the signal going into the PI.

since guitar amps have more gain in the midrange frequencies, the end result is an overall flatter frequency response. with presence and depth controls, you are able to attenuate the highs and lows less, which causes it to sound as though they are boosted relative to the mids. they aren't boosted, they're just attenuated less. seems semantic, but it's not.

in an amp with just a presence circuit, you have control over how much the high frequencies are attenuated. the lows are attenuated as well, but not as much as the mids. adding a depth control allows you to attenuate the lows less than the mids.

is that making sense, or am i just typing in circles?

 

[RectoStudioGuy]

That's a great way to put it. Turning up you presence attenuates the highs less.

 

[scott7d]

On my Single Recto, I ran it around 2:00. The amp in general seemed a little dark to me.
On my Stilletto Ace combo, I kept it off. In fact, if I could have turned it 360º more counter clockwise, I would have :lol:

On my Rectoverb combo, I kept it around 10:00. It didn't seem as dark as my first Single Recto.

On my Mark V, I leave it between 9:00 and 11:00 on the high gain stuff, and around 12:00 on the cleans. So far the V has been the most balanced off all the Mesa's I've owned.

Haven't had the pleasure of jamming on a Lonestar yet, but I'm sure you'll get some nice settings figured out!