With all the talk about pedals and effects around here these days, I got to wondering... does anyone play their MarkIV straight in, with nothing in front but a good ol' guitar?
A little while ago, I decided to undo all my **** out front (TS-8, 7-band EQ, Boss noise gate) and just plug my guitar straight in with a Planet Waves cable. The first thing I noticed was.. holy ****. This amp is quiet. At first I thought there was a connection issue because I couldn't hear a **** thing, but then I smacked a chord and it was fine. I turned it back to standby and plugged all my pedals back in, but I left them all off. I turned the amp on... static, hissing, noise. I was slightly taken aback. I knew that everything added its own noise, but I didn't realize it was this much, especially when all the devices were all off and just carrying the signal from one to another.
I unplugged them all again and went back to straight in. It's been so long since I've played this way, that I almost forgot what it was like. I've grown so used to the sound of all my pedals and I've gotten so into the habit of clicking them all on when I turn on my amp that the tone they produce was the only thing I knew. When I first got my MKIV I played it straight in for a few months, but back then I had no idea what the hell I was doing with this amp. Since then I've joined this board and learned how this beast works.
First thing I noticed... without a pre-pre-amp boost ( TS-8 ), this amp is STIFF. Not that that's bad, but it takes some getting used to. Also, I was able to turn the channel volume louder than I usually do since the signal coming to the amp was a lot colder. I normally ran my lead channel on 1-2 and output at 5 and it was decently loud. Straight in, I had channel up to 3 and output at 5 and it was manageable, standing about 6-7 feet away. This is on full power, simul-class and pentode mode, which, as far as I know, is the highest wattage setting.
As for the tone, it was different, but I liked it. One thing I noticed (and this became brutally apparent in my recordings) with the TS-8 is that it lends far too much high-end information to the signal so when you are playing low down and fast, you can often barely hear the fundamental note, all you can hear is upper-end harmonic content flying all over the place. It sounded OK if you were in the room, but through the mics it translated to ****, basically. Straight in, everything was a lot clearer, even with the gain jacked up pretty high. I usually run my gain at about 8-8.5 and my drive around the same, both pulled, which I would consider to be relatively on the high-end of things. All the music I played suddenly sounded a lot more in your face and when I was ripping through 3, 4, 5 voice chords, I could hear every note that was happening, and they all complimented each other great. The amp lost no tightness, if anything, it became tighter, if that's even possible. I still can't believe how tight this amp is... in certain spots on the fretboard, a good palm-muted note or power chord will basically equate to sonic fists hitting you in the chest.
All in all, I've had good experiences running straight in. I run my 750hz slider a few notches higher than I normally do now, sounds great. And I've toned down the top two sliders a bit, as well. I've only fiddled with the Lead channel so far but I'm gonna have to play through R1 and R2 later tonight or tomorrow. I wanna try some recording as well to see how these new tones translate over the mics.
Anyone else have any good experiences rediscovering their tone or playing straight in? Sometimes it boggles me how much we get caught up tweaking little **** like pedals and getting pedal mods and crap.. does anyone ever take the time to just plug their fucking guitar straight in and turn their **** up and understand what the MarkIV sounds like, for REAL? I still want to turn this thing up super loud straight in and see how it feels. I'll have to wait for an appropriate time when no one else is home
A little while ago, I decided to undo all my **** out front (TS-8, 7-band EQ, Boss noise gate) and just plug my guitar straight in with a Planet Waves cable. The first thing I noticed was.. holy ****. This amp is quiet. At first I thought there was a connection issue because I couldn't hear a **** thing, but then I smacked a chord and it was fine. I turned it back to standby and plugged all my pedals back in, but I left them all off. I turned the amp on... static, hissing, noise. I was slightly taken aback. I knew that everything added its own noise, but I didn't realize it was this much, especially when all the devices were all off and just carrying the signal from one to another.
I unplugged them all again and went back to straight in. It's been so long since I've played this way, that I almost forgot what it was like. I've grown so used to the sound of all my pedals and I've gotten so into the habit of clicking them all on when I turn on my amp that the tone they produce was the only thing I knew. When I first got my MKIV I played it straight in for a few months, but back then I had no idea what the hell I was doing with this amp. Since then I've joined this board and learned how this beast works.
First thing I noticed... without a pre-pre-amp boost ( TS-8 ), this amp is STIFF. Not that that's bad, but it takes some getting used to. Also, I was able to turn the channel volume louder than I usually do since the signal coming to the amp was a lot colder. I normally ran my lead channel on 1-2 and output at 5 and it was decently loud. Straight in, I had channel up to 3 and output at 5 and it was manageable, standing about 6-7 feet away. This is on full power, simul-class and pentode mode, which, as far as I know, is the highest wattage setting.
As for the tone, it was different, but I liked it. One thing I noticed (and this became brutally apparent in my recordings) with the TS-8 is that it lends far too much high-end information to the signal so when you are playing low down and fast, you can often barely hear the fundamental note, all you can hear is upper-end harmonic content flying all over the place. It sounded OK if you were in the room, but through the mics it translated to ****, basically. Straight in, everything was a lot clearer, even with the gain jacked up pretty high. I usually run my gain at about 8-8.5 and my drive around the same, both pulled, which I would consider to be relatively on the high-end of things. All the music I played suddenly sounded a lot more in your face and when I was ripping through 3, 4, 5 voice chords, I could hear every note that was happening, and they all complimented each other great. The amp lost no tightness, if anything, it became tighter, if that's even possible. I still can't believe how tight this amp is... in certain spots on the fretboard, a good palm-muted note or power chord will basically equate to sonic fists hitting you in the chest.
All in all, I've had good experiences running straight in. I run my 750hz slider a few notches higher than I normally do now, sounds great. And I've toned down the top two sliders a bit, as well. I've only fiddled with the Lead channel so far but I'm gonna have to play through R1 and R2 later tonight or tomorrow. I wanna try some recording as well to see how these new tones translate over the mics.
Anyone else have any good experiences rediscovering their tone or playing straight in? Sometimes it boggles me how much we get caught up tweaking little **** like pedals and getting pedal mods and crap.. does anyone ever take the time to just plug their fucking guitar straight in and turn their **** up and understand what the MarkIV sounds like, for REAL? I still want to turn this thing up super loud straight in and see how it feels. I'll have to wait for an appropriate time when no one else is home
