lone star special channel 2

[guitarvet]

Nothing like waiting 'til the last minute... I've got a gig tomorrow night and we just had band practice. I have been less than thrilled with the ch 2 settings on my LSS. Love everything about Ch 1. Anyway, bought a Menatone Fish Factory, hoping it would solve my need for a lead channel and a good distortion. Does OK, but still lacks depth and punch. Very high end. I realize that this is due to my ch 1 settings, but I like the way it sounds without the pedal. When I try the pedal through Ch 2, it is muddy. I play a LP Std. Any ideas for a quick (or longterm) fix? Thanks in advance.

 

[Brewski]

Hey Guitarvet,
Short term, you may have to suffer through what you have. What sort of distortion were you looking for? What are you using for your settings? The LSS is geared to a warm vintage type of distortion by design. Some of the other guys recommend using the Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamers. Take a look through the forum and see what other options are there and how well they're recommended. Tone is so subjective and it's difficult to offer up anything without knowing what sort of sound or type of music that you're going for.

 

[SabuJSE]

This is all arbitrary but if you have too much "mud" in your sound I would back the presence and bass way off in ch2. I'd set both to 9:00 and the mid no greater than 11. Treble maybe to 2, gain to 2, and drive to 12 noon. Then, try your pedal on top of that.

It works for my SG - but again, your mileage may vary...

 

[Bren10]

What power mode are you using in channel 2?

 

[tele_jas]

Mesa Boogie V-Twin. :wink:

 

[strumminsix]

Okay, this is the best advice I got - buy an eq pedal.

Mud usually resides between 250 - 400 hz so cut out that section of your signal.

How you do it is up to you:
a 10- band foot eq
a parametreic set to around 325 an adjust the q to cover what you need

Or you can try rolling off the mids a bit and increase the treble.

Someone, cannot remember which company, used to make a tuner and eq in 1 unit...

Hope it helps...

 

[guitarvet]

Thanks for the tip to decrease bass and presence. Actually used your suggested settings and increased the presence a bit and got a very usable distortion. Actually better than I imagined. I will tweak it more and try other suggestions as well, but as we all know, its a whole different tone game at a live gig setting vs in your bedroom...

 

[SabuJSE]

Sweet!

After I typed that, I went and looked at my settings and noticed I had the presence higher as well... I figured you'd discover my mistake...

Out of curiosity, where is your prsence set at? I keep going back and forthe between 10oclock and 12 noon...

 

[guitarvet]

Presence = 2:00

 

[SabuJSE]

What does the manual say about going too high with the Presence? Something about the sustain being effected?

I run Channel 2 in the "Thickest" mode, btw...

 

[guitarvet]

Went and got an EQ pedal- EVERYONE who uses channel 2 should have one! Makes a big difference. Again, the true test will be at practice in 3 days.

 

[BlueBones]

Thanks for the tip to decrease bass and presence. Actually used your suggested settings and increased the presence a bit and got a very usable distortion. Actually better than I imagined. I will tweak it more and try other suggestions as well, but as we all know, its a whole different tone game at a live gig setting vs in your bedroom...

Hey, I had trouble with channel 2 myself for a while. It wasnt bad or anything, just not rich or nasty enough. Defintely spend lots of time tweaking. Defintely drop the bass down to 8:00. And best of all, the amp really opens up when it gets LOUD - the upper mids come bursting out. For low volume the high gain lead tones are only so-so, but you can engage the effects loop, turn the master volume up more, and keep the output knob down at 9:00 or so. Seems to help.

 

[guitarvet]

Thanks for the replies. To update my findings thus far: I am now pretty happy with channel 2. I'm using 30w Ch 2 without the drive function, and relying on a pedal (mentaone) for distortion when needed. This gives me a super clean channel, a clean channel with an edge, and a really nice distortion. I have a BOSS eq through the effects loop and I cannot emphasize enough how much this takes the mud out of the sound- I use it on ch 1 and 2. Just like the previous post indicated, low bass and higher main output levels are also key. The latest post on Harmony Central regarding the 1x12 LSS is very helpful and informative as well. This has taken me hours (weeks) to get on top of. Now I see what people mean when they say it takes a lot of tweaking to get a Boogie where you want it. I've got it where I want it- for now.