Tremoverb - Vibro King / AC30 Sounds ?

[stephen sawall]

"At the infamous Guitar Player Amp Summit of 1994, we were impressed (as were the magazines's top reviewers) that the T-verb copped the major juju of amps as diverse as the Vibro-King and the AC-30 in a field of 28 hundred watt contenders - including ones costing up to four times as much. and then went on to produce unique sounds all its own which none of the others could replicate."

When Mesa was doing clinics for this amp they were showing how to get the sounds of the Vibro-King & Vox AC30 amps with the Tremoverb.

Does anyone have the settings they recommended or have your own you recommend ? Thanks ....

 

[RR]

I have a Trem-o-Verb but I would have to get Vibro King and an AC30 Vox present to attempt to get replicate those tones on m Trem-o-Verb.

Personally, I think at best a Trem-o-verb could get 60% to 70% of those amps' tone, 70% is pushing it. and it all depends on your hearing tolerance.

Vibro King has that great spacious reverb similar to its past Black Face brothers which is the gold standard of reverb. Then the AC30 Vox, blizzard of nails of Class A (not really) of quartet of EL84s ... those two amps alone are one of the most sought after amp tones.

Just my $0.02. I sure do like my Trem-o-Verb though.

 

[stephen sawall]

This all came back to me when I was looking at this the other day ....and rereading the manual....
http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Out_of%20_Production/Tremoverb/tremoverb.html
I remember getting a flyer for the clinic local here .... But could not go because I was working. The Flyer mentioned they would be showing how to get Vibro-King & Vox AC30 amp sounds with the Tremoverb.

Believe it or not they were claiming you could get 90% of the Fender & 85% of the Vox. How they came up with these numbers I have no idea ?
I remember in 1995 I could get very close to Beatles Revolver sounds with the BLUES channel & 6CA7 power tubes .... but can not remember how I did it.
I can ballpark Fender type sounds .... I must stress the word "ballpark".

I have a feeling I will be contacting Mesa to see what they say about it ..... If I get a reply I will post what they tell me here.

 

[lesterpaul]

Then the AC30 Vox, blizzard of nails of Class A (not really) of quartet of EL84s ... those two amps alone are one of the most sought after amp tones.
.

that is a great description-I borrowed a 5oth anniversary ac-30 this past weekend, and I really dig the el-84 power tube grind-I couldn't imagine getting that from a TOV..(that is why I am looking into a TA-30...!)

 

[RR]

...
Believe it or not they were claiming you could get 90% of the Fender & 85% of the Vox. How they came up with these numbers I have no idea ? ...

Actually I do have the Guitar Player Magazine issue. Well there's a few of us in other forums that believe Guitar Player Magazine editors and critiques are bit lenient. That's why my post above said "tolerance of one's hearing".

The interactive tone controls is the key to changing a ToV tone (as well as its successor Road King, Roadster and other newer MESA amps). If you lower the treble, then the "gain" are more distribute to the mids, bass. If you raise the treble, then less gain is distribute to the mids and bass. You got to find the right tone "balance" for those amps tones its trying to mimic.

Bottom line: I don't know these settings. :wink:

 

[stephen sawall]

Agree about GP....

I sent Mesa a email last night. No reply yet. Whatever info they send me I will post on this thread.

 

[RR]

I have to confess, that Guitar Player Magazine did sell me on the Trem-o-Verb. I was looking for metal amp even though I'm a classic rock cover type guitarist. the Mark IV at the time was fine but I was looking for Soldano / Dual Rectifier tone without using stomp boxes.

So the Trem-o-Verb was a pleasant surprise. Not only did it do the Dual Rectifier tone but using "spongey" and "tube rectifiers" settings, you could get some decent [well not exactly to discriminating ear] "vintage" amp tones. So it was a keeper.

My buddy was all stoke on his mimicking modeling don't remember if it was a Line 6 or Vox Valvetronix claiming it could sound just about all amps out there claiming from the brochure. So we put it side-by-side with my Trem-o-Verb. I had several settings which the amp could completely sound like an entirely different amp.

Needless to say my buddy sold his modeling amp a week later. :lol:

I did try one setting that was recommended, I set it to tube rectifier mode, spongey and pulled out two of the power stage tube and used a single 5AR4 instead of dual 5UB4[?] tubes. You do get a lower wattage but because the output power x-former is STILL a 100 watt x-former NOT a 50 watt x-former, you don't really get a lower power amp saturation.

Didn't someone here tried THD Yellowjackets (EL84s) with good results? Member yellowjackets?

 

[stephen sawall]

Mesa did not have the settings. I tried the pulling tubes years ago & was not into it. A friend had a DR and liked it. So when I finally got around to buying one I just bought the most deluxe one they had at the time the Tremoverb.

 

[Six Percent]

Hey guys, brand new here (as of a few hours ago). But wanted to comment.....I just picked up a near mint Trem-O-Verb combo. Already having a DR, I couldn't wait to explore the endless tones. Anyhow, I just plugged in a 68 Melody Maker D, and am really finding some great vintage tones. I will be trying all your tone suggestions so keep at'em. I will put up some of my own hopefully sometime next week.

 

[stephen sawall]

I use all the channels ... but tend to use the RED & ORANGE the most for the classic DR sounds.