i want to sound like this

[zeppman]

hey guys, i have a strat and a mark iv. What I want to know is how do I sound like this?

http://impresskit.com/hepcat/


I know the video is corny, but this guy has great tone. Can anyone suggest settings on a mark iv to get this sound?

 

[fdesalvo]

You can't screw with a fender into fender when it's in the right hands..

****, I love the modern rock my band plays, but whenever I hear this tone, I think of my old home back in New Orleans and how much I miss playing the blues

~F

 

[plumptone]

That's power amp tube saturation. Basically an underpowered amp tunrned all the way up. Hard to get exactly right on a Mark IV unless you want your ears to bleed, although I have heard guys come pretty close. I'm only guessing, but I'm pretty sure the vintage strat has a lot to do with it too.

 

[zeppman]

Actually I found that clip on another discussion forum. The guy who posted it claims that the strat is a japanese reissue. Do you think a tube screamer will help out? I guess to get close... should I use tweed mode or full power, although I don't want to go deaf either. Like I said before, the music is alright, the video is pretty cheesy, but that tone!!!

 

[plumptone]

I should have prefaced what I initially said by letting you know that I don't own a Mark IV. I've had the studio .22, a .50 claiber+ and now I'm using a DC-3. I do, however, know several guys using the Mark IV (it's just way more amp than I need).

Anyway - have you ever seen or played one of the older Japanese reissues? They did a great job on those guitars. I doubt that's what the guy's using, but it certainly could be. In any event, the pichups he's using are definitely not wired modern, you can hear that clear as day.

I would say a tube screamer (one of the older ones) would probably get you pretty close, and from what I've heard, the tweed power would definitely be thway to go if you want more of a vintage vibe. Let me know how it turns out.

I've been using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe a little bit lately, and if you crank that thing up loud you can get pretty close to that sound. But the closest I've ever been able to get to that is with the vintage fender amps. I once had the distinct pleasure of being able to play a very old bassman. Unbelieveable experience - almost felt like it had built in tube compression underneath.

If you listen to what he's doing, it sounds a lot to me like he's got that amp fully cranked and he's rolling off the guitar's volume to clean up when he needs to. I love that tone too, although I don't use anything like it with my current situation.

Let us know if can get close, I'd be interested in hearing the results.

 

[zeppman]

I think he is using an old Black face super reverb? I'm not sure. I know very little about fender amps, and I'm not sure if that is a tweed amp or not.

To get that power tube saturation, can't I just run the main volume at 5 or 6 and just have the pre-amp volumes very low to play at tolerable levels? I do have a friends tube-screamer I am in the middle of modding. Maybe i'll try that. I've never put any type of distortion pedals or overdrive pedals in front of the mark iv before.

 

[plumptone]

I'm not sure if it's a super reverb or not. Difficult to tell. Does have that sound though. If it's an old one, it would probably be considered a tweed amp in some circles, although techniclally speaking I don't beleieve it is.

Regarding the power tube saturation - yes, you could try cranking your master outputs and lowering the intitial gain settings, but the problem with that approach is that you have to crank the amp SUPER loud to get the power tubes to give you any meaningful break up with the gain at the front end so low. That's the problem. I'm sure if you hooked up an attenuator you could get close.

Try the tube screamer and see what it does for you. I haven't used external overdive or distotion in front of my amps for something like 18 years, so I'm not a good source point for information on that. But again - I have a good friend who's an awesome player who has an old Mark I that he drives with an old tube screamer. He sounds great, but it's definitely nothing like a Fender amp sound. Talk about loud - the old Mark I's are monsters!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

The closest you will get with your Mark IV is by using 6V6 Power Tubes. It will still be incredibly loud though. Call Bob @ Eurotubes, he may have a set that will do this for you. You might have to change some of the Preamp tubes to lower gain tubes like 12AX7 or even 12AU7. The Volume will not decrease that mucn, but it will sound much sweeter.

You would be using Simul, Tweed Power, and have the channels turned VERY low.


I had a Mark IV for about 8 months. I now own a Blackfaced Pro Reverb, 3 Mesa DC amps and a bunch of other stuff. Not much compares to my Pro Reverb, not even the other Vintage Fenders (4 others now).


My DC-2 & 3 can get close to this tone, but only because I've modded the Clean channels.

That's why the Vintage Fenders go for so much. You could get a Silverface and have it modded for fairly cheap still, but they are skyrocketing in price too.


A Super Reverb or Pro Reverb or Vibrolux will sound the most full and lush, but I know guys who use Princeton Reverbs ($500-$700 for Silverface) with incredible results.

 

[zeppman]

See, I tried the eurotubes 6v6s a few months back, and I really didn't like them at all. They just sounded.... off. Buzzy and weak maybe? No bottom end. I don't know if i just had my settings off or what. Several other people have suggested 6v6s too... I'm gonna try the tubescreamer first, and we'll see what happens. I do have a few 12au7 tubes laying around, what postions should I put those in?

 

[fdesalvo]

Listen, why don't you just buy a low-wattage fender combo amp? You should do yourself a favor and plug into a blues junior sometime. The Blues just never sounds right through a big cab, IMHO..open-back 1x12s are where it's at...That cat's tone is cranked up blackface with a boost up front.

A few years ago, I had access to a twin reverb and a empty stage in a giant (circus sized) tent. I was able to crank that beast up to 8 or 10 and have at it without disturbing anyone, haha. Let me tell you something, with that amp and my G&L, every note I hit sounded and felt like BIG artillery being fired- I'm talking about old German 88mm!!!! I pity anyone who could stand before a cranked amp such as that- and your MKIV is no exception.

30 watts can be punishing through a 4x12 cab- and if you are playng through V30s, Weber Blue Dogs/Pups, or the like, then the midrange is gonna kill your chances of getting that trademarked bell-tone and hollow in-betweenies..

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I have an early 70's Pro Reverb that I "Blackfaced." I turned the Master Volume into an adjustable Negative Feedback.

I have a Weber 12F150 and a 12F150B, lightly doped (like most of my friends) and 25watts each. These speakers have so much sparkle and chime that I forget to play my Mesa's sometimes. Plus, you can get them pre-broken in now.

This amp gets me some serious Blues tone with no effort. I don't even touch the knobs sometimes, my 2 year old plays with them and I just plug in. I make sure the Volume is down a bit, but I leave the others alone to see what tones are available. Otherwise I find myself going back to the same settings.

No matter where the knobs are, it just sounds great.



You can still get some Silverface amps for cheap. It won't get you that exact tone, but very close. I find that a lot of the tone is in the fingers too. I've seen really great players never even touch their amps, just the Volume and Pickup Selector on the guitar and pull many different tones out of the same axe with the same amp. I'm always amazed by this.



There is a guy, Bill M on the Fender Forum that has a website dedicated to modifying the Blues Jr. Lots of people are really happy with the mods.



I guess my point is, like fdeslvo said, you may need another amp to get this tone.

I use my DC-2 and a good pedal sometimes to get some serious bluesy tones, but still not the same. I have replaced the Clean Channel Tone Stack with film capacitors, Output Transformer (original was shot) with a Mojotone Heyboer Deluxe Reverb upgrade, and the speaker is now an English made (not Chinese) Celestion Heritage 30. Lots of great sparkle with single coils.

 

[axwielding1]

You just plain will NOT get there with a Mark IV. You may get close..
The first amp is I believe a Pro Reverb, 2-12" 60(?) watts..
The other clips are with Super Reverbs, 4-10" 40 watts.
The thimg that draws me to these 2 amp models is the fact that they're lower wattage (compared to our Mesas) Class A, and tube rectified (GZ34).
I've been gassing for one of these 2 models for some time, and plan one one in the very near future...
Revved up, they sound gorgeous! Then put a TS808 in front for a clean boost and Voila! Tone to the Bone....
I think I'll get a silverface, and have it blackfaced. Supers are around, but Pro's are tuff to find, they just don't get put up for sale often...
BTW, That guy is ALL chops, and he'd sound great no matter what. Love his tone, and that's where I want to be. Similar material to what my band does, but he's much better. :wink:
ax. 8)

 

[srf399]

Just watched the video and I have to say this....


I bought my MKIV and sold my 1965 Deluxe Reverb to get rid of that horrid sound for good. You should have bought my Deluxe if you wanted that Muddy Waters sound. Vintage FENDER Deluxe Reverb is the amp for that sound.... 22 watts of power amp tube 6V6 round sound cranked to ten...evey knob on the ******* to 10....and played through a Marshall 4 x 12 with greenbacks.... you'll never get it with a Mesa. except maybe a lonestar classic with an attenuator and that's a huge maybe.

Go get a vintage Deluxe Reverb off of Ebay...trust me. no pedals needed. just a strat and everything up to 10.

 

[zeppman]

Well its unfortunate to hear that a mark iv can't get this tone. I'm not looking exactly for that too, but something close would be nice. I've tried the blues jr., and its a decent amp, but I would want something with just a little bit more "oomph". Is there anything that I could get for under $500? I've also been looking at those "build your own amp kits" that are online. Anyone try those, and would that get me close to that bell like blues tone?

In theory, couldn't I just set my amp to class a/tweed and crank it to get those tones? I know it will be loud, but can't i get close with that? (I'm at work now, otherwise i would be trying it and not asking it :wink: )

 

[srf399]

The Vintage Deluxe Reverb will give you a spanky sound that the MKIV will have trouble getting. And the low power will let you crank it. The Delxue will give you that Fender clean sound as well that only the Lonestar Classic comes close to. But the key is the low power of the amp. Even a twin will likely be too powerful to allow break up at a lower volume. The 6V6 do get mushy when craked too high though. But if that's the sound you want that is the only way to get it. It's SRV...Colin James sound and they use Fenders.

 

[RR]

srf399 ...
+1

I could not even put it any better. Well said.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

You might be able to pick up a Silverface Princeton Reverb, but Silverface prices seem to be on the rise.

If you are handy with a soldering iron, you could get a kit. Weber VST has the best prices on kits. Some of the parts are a bit cheap, but for another $20-$30, you can replace the pots and jacks and have a great amp.

Weber has a Deluxe Reverb kit for around $600 or so, and they are great guys to deal with. Their speakers are top-notch.


This is about the only way that normal guys can afford Blackface tone anymore.




Another thought is the Blues Deluxe or Blues DeVille. The DeVille is loud, but nice.

Or, the Hot Rod Deluxe.

I know lots of Blues and Classic Rock guys who have stockpiles of Vintage Fenders, but use Hot Rod Deluxes for gigging. Nobody wants to drag a 40 year old Super Reverb out to a rainy outdoor gig.

 

[RR]

Hey Monsta Tone

You forgot Allen Amp kits. Various kits to choose from.

http://www.allenamps.com/

Pricey but well written out layout. Almost foul proof if you are meticulous with your work. I recently bought a kit. Haven't had a chance to assemble it yet.

 

[srf399]

My Deluxe was beat to a pulp and I got $1850 for it. But was totally reconditioned inside though with new caps and JJ's and the Jensen speaker was replaced with a V30. I'm more into the Vai sound but that amp had Eric Johnson's clean sound written all over it!

 

[RR]

Yeah, I was shocked when you said you sold your '65 Deluxe but if someone offer you $1850 for it then I would have done the same (sell it).

You could alway assemble one for half that price with more reliable components. Of course there's going to be the argument old component gives you 'that' sound etc ... the vintage purists will cringe at that thought assembling one with modern parts.

Personally, its hard for me to part with gear if I know I can't get an exact replacement. But I see your point going for Vai sound.