Mark III presence setting comparo vid

[GJgo]

Hey guys,

So I was talking to a guy the other day about running the presence on my Mark III way up, then re-EQing to match so it's not harsh / fizzy. It seems not many guys do / try this so I slapped together a video to show what I mean. Even if you re-EQ so that the basic sound is the same, the feel picks up way more girth.

The knob tweaking is never ending on Marks but I think that's part of the fun, chasing the tone in your head. Here's the clip. What sounds best to you?

https://youtu.be/n-rqJAUmkMI

 

[Markedman]

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=72023

 

[GJgo]

Cool, glad to see there are other guys out there doing this.

Spent some time today turning another knob- the tone knob on the guitar. Try this for high gain-

- Dime the presence
- Run the standard Boogie V
- Dial the guitar's tone knob all the way back
- Enough volume to get the tubes working

This really takes the high end harshness out while at the same time keeping it sounding very fat. A good side effect is you also lose most of the noise from sliding on the wound strings.

 

[Markedman]

It comes down to using your ears, not your eyes! Another major consideration is playing in a band setting where a guitar that can cut through and sit in the pocket is going to be different than if you're just getting a tone sitting in your room by yourself.

 

[themisfit138]

I usually run my presence around 4-5ish so the middle test sounded best to me it is saturated but still has definition in the notes. The one with presence at 9 was border line mushy, it was fatter sounding but it lost some of the clarity in the notes, and then again that might be solved by bumping up the 6600hz a shade.

Keep up the good work on the videos, I am also still trying to get the JP-2C to have the smoothness of the real C++ or blue stripe. the JP-2C is especially harsh sounding with shred mode on, but the tone is closer to the C++ with it on.

 

[GJgo]

I prefer my JP-2C with shred on for metal, but I have to roll back the treble knob & bump the 80hz slider to keep the overall sound where I like it. Adjust the mids for the mix, of course.

 

[themisfit138]

This weekend I was playing around with the presence knob and the 6600 slider on the JP-2C to see it worked similarly to the Mark III. It is very close not quite the saturation like the III, but tone works the same with knocking down the harshness. Dropping down from 100 watt to 60 watt helped quite a bit in getting the JP to sound like the III, but it needs the shred mode on to sound closest to the III or C+, to my ears anyways.

 

[GJgo]

I agree with shred mode needed to sound like that.

I really love the channel 2 tone with both knobs pushed & shred off, but it's a new tone, not like the old mark tones I'm used to.

 

[GJgo]

I had a breakthrough in my Mark III high gain tone journey a couple weeks ago & wanted to see if anyone else has tried it like this. Before this I've always gone straight to the lead channel when I wanted this tone, and used the standard settings on the knobs & GEQ you'd expect. That's the case in my video above.

This was good, and opened some things up for me. It still wasn't exactly what I was looking for tonally in rhythms, though. It's still a little compressed & fizzy there. So, I kept tweaking, and kept ignoring how everyone else says they run theirs. Here's what I ended up with & I think it kills so I wanted to share. I actually switched over to the Rhythm 2 channel & slammed it with a boost, and knobbed up these settings while running on my bridge EMG 81-

Volume 10 pushed
Treble 10 pulled
Bass 1 pull or push to taste, you can kind of compensate either way with the 80 slider
Middle 4 pulled
Master >1.75 pulled
Lead pushed (off)
Lead master pushed
GEQ enabled & set to taste
Presence 10
Simulclass / Class A to taste
On your guitar- volume at 10
On your guitar- tone at 0 (This was the big fizz killer for me- dump the tone & compensate with 6600. Also stops the string wipe noises.)
Input boost at full tilt

To me, this gives the same basic gain & saturation as running the lead channel on more traditional settings with the gain around 7 and no boost, but it really opened up the note separation when chording & I think gives it this killer tonal edge. It also drops the bass flub just a little compared to the lead channel with the same settings. It may change next month but right now I'm super happy with this sound for playing heavy. I can't wait till I get it in a room where I can turn it up past 2.

Side note, I also switched the Mark III from my Mesa recto V30 cab to a Marshall 1960B G12T-75 cab, and I think it really suits it better. It was another step in taming the fizz with the tall presence settings. Marks take a lot of work to dial in but when you do they kill!
https://youtu.be/NdARuM_4QJ8

 

[dlpasco]

I had a breakthrough in my Mark III high gain tone journey a couple weeks ago & wanted to see if anyone else has tried it like this. Before this I've always gone straight to the lead channel when I wanted this tone, and used the standard settings on the knobs & GEQ you'd expect. That's the case in my video above.

This was good, and opened some things up for me. It still wasn't exactly what I was looking for tonally in rhythms, though. It's still a little compressed & fizzy there. So, I kept tweaking, and kept ignoring how everyone else says they run theirs. Here's what I ended up with & I think it kills so I wanted to share. I actually switched over to the Rhythm 2 channel & slammed it with a boost, and knobbed up these settings while running on my bridge EMG 81-

Volume 10 pushed
Treble 10 pulled
Bass 1 pull or push to taste, you can kind of compensate either way with the 80 slider
Middle 4 pulled
Master >1.75 pulled
Lead pushed (off)
Lead master pushed
GEQ enabled & set to taste
Presence 10
Simulclass / Class A to taste
On your guitar- volume at 10
On your guitar- tone at 0 (This was the big fizz killer for me- dump the tone & compensate with 6600. Also stops the string wipe noises.)
Input boost at full tilt

To me, this gives the same basic gain & saturation as running the lead channel on more traditional settings with the gain around 7 and no boost, but it really opened up the note separation when chording & I think gives it this killer tonal edge. It also drops the bass flub just a little compared to the lead channel with the same settings. It may change next month but right now I'm super happy with this sound for playing heavy. I can't wait till I get it in a room where I can turn it up past 2.

Side note, I also switched the Mark III from my Mesa recto V30 cab to a Marshall 1960B G12T-75 cab, and I think it really suits it better. It was another step in taming the fizz with the tall presence settings. Marks take a lot of work to dial in but when you do they kill!
https://youtu.be/NdARuM_4QJ8

Verrrrry interesting.

I was playing around with my JP-2C a few weeks ago and came up with a very similar, very tight configuration: I had the guitar tone set to zero, the amp in shred mode, with a boost in front of it.

Turning the guitar tone down was the last step, and it got *really* tight, like Mark III/Mark V IIC+ mode tight. Like you, there was plenty of ways to bring the high end back in on the amp as well.

 

[GJgo]

Cool. On my JP-2C when I dime the presence it's a very similar scenario, but it seems I usually only roll the tone knob back half way or a little more since it's just not as bright of an amp as the Mark III. At any rate rolling off the tone & bringing it back in with the presence & the GEQ I think is a really cool way to really tighten up the sounds into crushing metal territory, plus it really cuts down on string noise.

Also I'm finding the 1960 cab G12T75s really don't sound good till you're at rehearsal volumes. The V30s sound better at practice volumes I think.