Just fell in love with the blues channel

[GoranS]

Wow... :shock:

Ever since I got my Express 5:50 earlier this year I've used nothing but Strats and Tele's.
So this evening I took out my long forgotten Gibson Nighthawk, played a couple of licks
fiddled with the tone controls and... Tone Heaven!!!

Just WOW! I'm attending a blues jam-session this weekend and I know what I'm gonna bring!! :mrgreen:
Guitar - Cable - Amp. That's it!

Now back to the guitar before it's too late and everybody wants to sleep...
Just wanted to share!

/Goran

 

[FXR]

Rock on man! There's a lot of sounds in these Express amps.

 

[Don]

That's what I'd bring to a blues jam. I love the medium gain sounds that my Express 5:50 provides. As a blues guitarist, I had avoided channel switching amps for years because I felt that they all had a very clean channel and a very dirty channel with no in between. The Express excells at in between!

 

[FXR]

We need to start sharing these settings so other Express owners can try them out. I have seen tons of posts about people finding certain tones, but they always leave me asking, how was it set? Trying the setting would be worth much more then an internet sound clip.

 

[GoranS]

Ok, I hear you FXR!

The blues channels tone controls is not that effective. They are way more sensitive on the clean.
When using my Gibson on the blues channel it did not really matter how the controls were set.
Unless my Express isn't broken the tone controls surprisingly low impact on the sound, some but not what I expected.

So my settings for a Gibson Nighthawk/Blues channel was: Gain 11 - 12 o'clock, treble 9, mid 12, bass 8.
I set the contour at about 11 o'clock when needing some top boost.

/G

 

[Newysurfer]

Ok, I hear you FXR!

The blues channels tone controls is not that effective. They are way more sensitive on the clean.
When using my Gibson on the blues channel it did not really matter how the controls were set.
Unless my Express isn't broken the tone controls surprisingly low impact on the sound, some but not what I expected.

So my settings for a Gibson Nighthawk/Blues channel was: Gain 11 - 12 o'clock, treble 9, mid 12, bass 8.
I set the contour at about 11 o'clock when needing some top boost.

/G

I'm yet to find a setting on the blues channel that didn't sound great but my fav is
Gain at 2pm, Treble 11am, Mid at 12 noon, Bass at 10am, Reverb at 11am, Contour off :mrgreen:

 

[THE TUBENATOR]

My Blues setting: G - 3; T, M & B at 5:30 and contour around 1 O'clock but sometimes off. Master adjusted as needed. Am I the only one that maxes out my tone setting on this board? I clean it up with the tone and volume controls on the guitar as needed. That is my 5 W settings. I will have to invest in a good attenuator before I can carry over those setting to the 50 W mode. But every once in a while when I can use my brother's industrial warehouse building I let it rip in the 50 W mode with everything full bore. I don't know if I sound good but I love doing it! :twisted:

 

[Don]

My Blues setting: G - 3; T, M & B at 5:30 and contour around 1 O'clock but sometimes off. Master adjusted as needed. Am I the only one that maxes out my tone setting on this board? I clean it up with the tone and volume controls on the guitar as needed. That is my 5 W settings. I will have to invest in a good attenuator before I can carry over those setting to the 50 W mode. But every once in a while when I can use my brother's industrial warehouse building I let it rip in the 50 W mode with everything full bore. I don't know if I sound good but I love doing it! :twisted:

You might find the amp to be too bassy to use those settings in the 50 watt mode. I typically use the 50 watt mode and find that I have to turn up the bass to get a tone that I like from the 5 watt mode.

 

[THE TUBENATOR]

My Blues setting: G - 3; T, M & B at 5:30 and contour around 1 O'clock but sometimes off. Master adjusted as needed. Am I the only one that maxes out my tone setting on this board? I clean it up with the tone and volume controls on the guitar as needed. That is my 5 W settings. I will have to invest in a good attenuator before I can carry over those setting to the 50 W mode. But every once in a while when I can use my brother's industrial warehouse building I let it rip in the 50 W mode with everything full bore. I don't know if I sound good but I love doing it! :twisted:

You might find the amp to be too bassy to use those settings in the 50 watt mode. I typically use the 50 watt mode and find that I have to turn up the bass to get a tone that I like from the 5 watt mode.

Don, you are correct. It's thunderous in the 50W mode with those extreme settings. For a really nice "quality" tone I do have to use moderation on the tone controls. I have also been told that if I use an attenuator it will make the sound deeper since they tend to shave off some high end. Is that true? I have never used one but I'm seriously thinking to purchasing either a Weber or THD but leaning toward the THD Hotplate 8 ohm (Purple). I use the 8 ohm out into the 8 ohm in on the cab.

 

[edward]

Huge +1 on Blues channel love! The gain knob set low gets you sweet semi-cleans that are rich with chime and tight bottom, and set past 12:00 gets you more saturated-but-smooth tone that is rich and defined, never the "smeared tone glob" which is what happens often with increased gain settings. It is a superb channel, and my personal favorite voice of the Express, even for cleans ...which I use for my clean and semi-clean tones, oddly enough. For more saturation, I go for the Crunch channel which to me is analagous to the Blues channel "ending" and the Crunch picking it up to go further. FWIW, for my style, I have no need and no love for the Burn channel ...just too heavy and "tight" (some dig scooped, but that's just not my bag).

As for specific settings, I find that the gain knob set sub-12:00 is perfect for light breakup for single coils, and even close to 9:00 for buckers. Of course much depends on your pup's wind, but you get the idea. Going past 12:00 really gets harmonically rich and swirly, thickening tone and attenuating highs for more mids ...very chewy and (yeah, you guess it) "bluesy."

I can't really make meaningful comments on tone stack settings because I changed tubes (went for lower-gain NOS-ers) which not only gave me less overall OD in the amp (which is fine since this and every Boog I've ever owned always has OD to spare), but a more usable range of OD. That, and made the notes more defined, more individual distinction. It also allowed me to bring the treb and bass knobs higher that I ever could with the stock Mesa tubes, so I get a more usable range (IMHO) in the knobs, to boot. So in other words, my tone knob settings are way out of whack if you're loaded with the stock tubes. But start with less: less treb, less bass, around the 9:00 area to get your general tone. The mids are more tricky since this has lots to do with your pups' voice. For example, I raise the mids for my Strat and Tele, but decrease the mids with my Lesters. One of the great things about Boogies is that the mid control does lots to "nuance" the voice, as if you're bringing your guitar more forward or backward in the mix.

Oh, and this is my 5:25 with 10" combo, so if you're a 6L6 or 12" user, YMMV. Sorry to get verbose ...but I hope this helps someone a bit

Edward