thin sound

[guitardude05]

i played the mark iv pretty hard over the weekend, a 4-5 hour session on friday night at low volumes and another on saturday at medium levels. just put in my new c90 in last monday and sounded much tighter than the blown one. but today i plug in and im just getting a very thin sound. im guessing its the tubes, but could i have done harm to other parts of the amp that would cause these symptoms? would that be the preamp or power tubes causing this?

 

[ToneAddictJon]

Probably the power tubes more than the preamp tubes, but make sure none of the push/pull pots got changed and double check the simul/class a switch. If you can, try it through a different speaker as well, just to make sure.

 

[guitardude05]

can i run it through the speaker in my fender hot rod? just as long as i keep it tweed and low power? i think its a 50w speaker.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

Yes you can. You can run it in full power/simul as long as you don't push the volume as well, and it shouldn't hurt the speaker if you're just testing it, but it will push the speaker into distorting (which I can't stand but some people like).

 

[phyrexia]

Make sure you're in the 8ohm jack and not the 4ohm jack.

Check the pickup selector switch on your guitar, I have a faded model and the stock one was utter *****.

 

[guitardude05]

i dont really use the sg lol... i just did a speaker comparison and both are similar. i just get this feeling of no saturation, no warmth, fizzy distortion... which is funny cause i was getting great tone on friday and saturday. maybe the tubes have just had it?

 

[chris_EIT]

Sometimes bad power can change your tone. I've noticed it a few times at my house and compared to other power points in my house. Try getting a furman power conditioner. The mark iv is a different beast nearly everyday it seems

 

[Jarrod]

Sometimes bad power can change your tone. I've noticed it a few times at my house and compared to other power points in my house. Try getting a furman power conditioner. The mark iv is a different beast nearly everyday it seems

I agree! The tone of my mark III changes time to time and I strongly think it's the power from the wall. Need to get a power conditioner.

 

[guitardude05]

what do you guys reccomend for power conditioners? i also get that inconsistency with the mark, although i think its still time for new tubes. i looked into furman but theres a bunch of models and some get bad ratings.

 

[guitardude05]

ah.. it looks like monster power pro2500 is the way to go, unless anyone has some suggestions. or would it be best to shell out the extra cash and go with a voltage regulator and power conditioner?

 

[Shep]

Try new Leads make sure there good one's.. if a lead is stuffed it can casue all sort's of problems..

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Could be the power at the specific time and place that you played. The voltage has a HUGE effect on tube amps....one day, I would have horrible tone thin and saggy, and others my amp would incinerate small animals if they got too close.

I looked over at my Furman, and I noticed all the "bad tone" days were when the power was in the red

I went out and bought a computer voltage regulator for $115 off of Amazon.com, and I've had perfect power ever since! Highly recommended to any guitarist with a tube amp!

 

[phyrexia]

Try new Leads make sure there good one's.. if a lead is stuffed it can casue all sort's of problems..

I'm going to try to translate your australianese: "Try new instrument cables...if a cable is bad it can cause..."

 

[Restless Rocks]

This is a subject I've given a lot of thought to and have found some different (though subjective) ideas.
1. After a weekend of giging a new set of strings usually brings things back to normal. Many studio guitarists change strings as often as every hour.
2. My ears need a rest after being pounded by a drummer and bass player for several hours.
3. The current humidity and barometric pressure most deffinately affects the speaker cone and especially the way sound travels thru the air. I live at a higher elevation and most all my gigs are "off the mountain". Again this is a physical condition everyone experiences; you know when sometimes your ears just won't "pop" and equalize the air pressure in your inner ear. On rainy damp days the speaker sounds flubby and much less articulate. I use older EV's but a lot of the newer speakers are coated or made of material that is less subject to moisture.
4. Allergies and air pollution in a lot of urban areas often affect my hearing and cause inner ear conjestion and minor inflamation of the eustachian tube again causing minor changes in the way I hear.
5. Line Voltage: A few volts either way doesn't seem to make any audible differences but I've played a couple clubs where my power conditoner showed voltage as low as 90volts and you bet I was adding gain and increasing the treble. At that voltage my digital FX units actually stopped working and went ballistic (making lots of weird noises) and had to be taken out of the loop.
6. Some days it's just my attitude!

 

[Shep]

Try new Leads make sure there good one's.. if a lead is stuffed it can casue all sort's of problems..

I'm going to try to translate your australianese: "Try new instrument cables...if a cable is bad it can cause..."

Mate,

 

[guitardude05]

soo.... today i messed around with the amp and i was still getting an unsaturated sound, so i turned up the channel level from 0 to 2 and WOW what a huge difference. it used to sound fine on 0 and master on 2-4 when i play at low volumes... but not anymore. then i took it to jam at a friend's house and it sounded like ***. it was higher volume of course, but there was no bass, everytime i turned up the bass i would get that farty flubby bass. and when not playing at higher volume, the amp gets very crackly sounding just idling. **** amp. :x

 

[Buddy]

you don't have a head cold ......

ACHOOO!!!!

:?: