Tonal secret to the LSS: KILL THE MIDS!

[The Mink]

I posted this in another thread, but I thought I'd give it its own thread since I've found it so beneficial as an LSS owner:

"Well, 3 years in and loving it more than ever, my experience is this:

TURN THE MIDS OFF. Yup, all the way down. Mids at zero. Your settings will look stupid, and your friends will scoff. 'But what will happen to the midrange, which is where electric guitar lives?'

The answer is... nothing. Your mids will be there, untouched by the hands of man, but your pick attack will change completely and your treble control will become a nice upper mid boost when you set it around 1-2 o'clock. I swear, I've done a pile of gigs and sessions with my LSS with both buckers and single coils, and the mid knobs on both channels have been cranked to the left ever since I discovered this. I don't have the tubby bass issues people talk about, my amp has that high-end boutique 'sag,' and no mods were required. All stock.

I remember Mr. Smith saying something about this in the manual, but I don't have it in front of me."

 

[Leroy the Massochist]

Tried it and like it with the mids almost but not totally off gives you that bouncy modern blues tone of Mat Scofield and John Mayer when used with single coils.

Also been trying channel 2 on clean setting, gain below 12 and master above 12 seems to give a bit more of a growly thicker overdrive with some higher mids. Still struggling for a good Les Paul sound on Channel 2. The Les Paul is pretty much assigned to Channel 1 with a pedal these days.

 

[The Mink]

I don't get it... my main guitar is a 335 with 2 humbuckers, not that far off from an LP in terms of appropriate amp settings, and I can hardly get a bad sound from Ch 2. Have you tried Gain and Treble both at 1-2:00, Mids way down, Bass and Presence just under halfway, Volume and Master at noon? In 5 watt mode? A good Les Paul should scream for you with those settings, especially if you dial in a bit of Drive and maybe even hit the Thick switch.

 

[toneguy86]

...actually this isn't a horrible idea for channel 2 with the LSC also. It does pull out that amazing mid range hump that happens when you bring up both the gain and the drive with the gain higher then the drive. I fixed this problem by keeping the gain between 11:00 and noon and bringing the drive up higher and using that as my control for the amount of overdrive in the mix (it usually ends up at about 2:00). It seems to help even things out and makes the mid control a bit more usable. I have played LSSs, but don't own one, so things may be a bit different.

Mark

 

[thom]

I have been using my LSS with the bass pretty well off and the treble nearly all the way up; talking channel 2 here btw. I just tried turning the mid control off/only just on (and retuning the bass and treble controls). What a difference. Thanks very much for the tip, sounds great, very clear, lively and responsive and a huge improvement.

 

[Leroy the Massochist]

... Les Paul struggling on Channel 2....

Fixed for the bridge pickup. Solution I just put some new JJ valves in. WOW! Added high mids, less shrill, more head room and a move towards EL34 in terms of gain vibe. Funny it also reduced signficantly the gap in top end spank between Channel 1 and Channel 2. Thankfully brought Channel 2 up in spank not channel 1 down.

I play with the Les Paul on volume 7 ish and tone about 8 but still the massive jump in volume between it and the Tele is my next focus as well as manageing the unusable middle and neck pickup on the Les Paul - just too much bass - but it is needed for the bridge and the Tele. (I noticed this has just become a topic of another thread). Yes pick up heights can make up some ground. I think an Xotic RC could be the answer so the amp can be set up for one guitar say the louder bassier Les Paul and the pedal set up to be used with the Tele.

As an aside my 335 dot has never really been an issue with channel 2 except for the loss of spank which the JJ's have fixed. They have also provided much more head room on channel 1. A fantastic, easy and highly recommended improvement.

 

[plan-x]

Great point. The amp will sound better with a set of JJ's or whatever. Mesa tubes are bland.