Od and stiletto conclusion

[Geiri]

Well


I tried the OCD, Fat boost 2, CAE boost line driver and a/b'd 'em all with the mxr ZW od.

In my opinion the OCD is brilliant as a standalone drive on the clean channel, the fatboost was pretty good to but fatted things to much for my taste. The CAE line driver was pretty useless. The ZW on the other hand as something to add to the gain channel won hands down. It pushes the amp in to a wicked dimension of very angry with no unwanted top end sizzle with the knobs o'clock output max tone 50% and gain 8-9 ish in the morning. With these settings the tite gain shines but it is useless on the clean channel.

So if I wrap this all up my take on things would be, Zw od to aggrivate the gain channel it's good on both tite and fluid, and get either bb preamp or an OCD to use on the clean channel and thus have a three channel setup.

My settings on the stiletto are

Master 13:00
Presence 09:00
Bass 13:00
Mid 11:00
Treble 13:00
Gain 15:30 - 16:00.

P.S

I am currently planning with an amp tech to put the tite/fluid switch in a stomp. Let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Geiri

 

[fbomb]

so your planning on building a switch to go from tite gain to fluid drive? id be interested in that for sure

 

[MasterTrax]

P.S

I am currently planning with an amp tech to put the tite/fluid switch in a stomp. Let you know how it goes. "

Very cool idea. Post us some pics of the mod when you do it.

 

[srf399]

Just my ears talking here but,

I put a BB Preamp in front of Tite Gain mode... and with a slight boost in gain... unity volume level... the bass pushed slightly and the treble backed off similarly... Tite Gain sounds exactly like Fluid Drive. For Under $200 I don't need to screw up my warrantee and I keep my resale value. BTW Fat Clean can sound exactly like fluid drive as well with the BB.

 

[Geiri]

I have no doubts as to how good the bb sounds. The problem is that they are not stock items here in iceland so it would be purchase of item without trying it out first.

But thats is an interesting idea that the bb can sound like fluid on fat clean. It sure as hell would beat modding the amp out of warranty. I was going to buy the bb direct from the xotic webside but they were out of stock.

 

[srf399]

I hear ya on not being able to try it out first. I live in an area of Canada with very limited access to try out gear. I bought mine online so was not able to try it out beforehand. But we all hear things differently. You might hate it. It works for me though. I can't tell the difference.

 

[MrMason]

That's cool! And coincidence too, because I'm planning something similar for my Express. Although in my case I found a Basic Stamp programmable controller that's been collecting dust for about 6 years. I'm going to build a pedalboard (with maybe 8 footswitches). I can program it to do any switching combo I want. I have my blues channel set fairly clean, and crunch channel with AC/DC style distortion. My main goal is to make it so I can switch from blues , and one switch changes channel, switches contour on, and delay, and OD for a heavy lead sound. I have to run relays to the switches on my pedals, but switching the amp will be easy with the external switching.

 

[fbomb]

i run my Deuce with the same settings as you Geiri,gain not nearly as high as yours though,i feel i dont need to,if i need more i use my BB Preamp as SRF399 does,just to give the Deuce alittle push and it gets the job done. im sure you can get one online with a return policy.

 

[Geiri]

Yeah I know.

But the stores I used to deal with in the past seem to have stopped shipping internationally. The thing for me with the gain is that the amp seems to fatten up more when I set the gain just below the clipping stage, and when I kick in the od I get a very mark IV-ish lead tone plus with the od off and with a little volume roll off on the guitar I get a very purple and whitesnake sound I like. Early DP and whitesnake. The stiletto is a multi colored amp and my absolute favorite.

 

[srf399]

The amazing thing I have found with the BB preamp is that it cleans up when you roll back the guitars volume, almost exactly the same as the amp does without the BB on. On fat clean you can turn on the BB and get a nice smooth OD that sounds almost exactly like Fluid Drive and rolls off the same. What I have found though is that you have to boost the bass and cut back the treble on the BB. The BB overdrive distortion sounds almost exactly the same as the Stiletto's natural distortion. Actually that is one of the only things that bothers me a little about the BB preamp with the Stiletto... it doesn't really make it sound that different... just over the top a bit more...! Even with the Amp gain up around 3 and the BB gain all the way up it's still playable! An AC Booster might give the Stiletto more of a Fender/6L6 overdrive sound for variation. However, my point is, for the $200 or so try a BB before moding the amp... You can always sell it on ebay, and get most of your $$$ back and do the mod later if it doesn't work for you.

 

[jab]

I'm gonna go with srf399 on this one. Try a pedal before you mod. If you go BB, resale would have to be easy if you didn't like it. I agree the Xotic pedals do sound a lot like Stiletto's distortion, just pushes it a bit. I'm finding myself on Fat Clean with gain at 3:00 and a Xotic RC/AC-type boost more and more. If you have hot pickups in your guitar, it's plenty of distortion. And warm - almost too warm which is hard to believe on Stiletto. I'm having to move my treble / presence up now to compensate.

 

[Geiri]

Thanks guys

That's probably right, I should check out the bb preamp before I mod it. Now I'm just waiting for the xotic website to restock them selves with the bb.



Cheers

Geiri