Woolly LSC tone - any thoughts?

[FunkyMonkey]

I've had my Lone Star Classic since mid-June and am getting some great sounds out of it (including the compliments from other players), but am struggling a little with taming channel 2. Basically I have a Clapton Strat with the newer Noiseless pickups, which I love using with the neck pickup for lead. Trouble is that its really woolly sounding on channel 2 when I do this (even with the bass rolled right off and voicing set to Normal, gain and drive around 1:30pm). I've never had this problem on any other amp and I know the LSC is a killer amp, so am not gonna change it, but I need some advice on taming the beast!!!!!!

I want to get the tone of the guitar and the amp, not have to sacrifice the pickup choice when I want more gain. One thought I had was that at rehearsals the output control is set very low, and maybe this is what is holding me back?????????

Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks!

D

 

[Barry]

I suggest tweaking it this way . start by continuously plucking an open E string while all controls are on zero . after setting your overdrive to taste Start by adding treble then presence, mid, bass . maybe some fine tweaking afterwards . You are right on about the bass in channel 2 , you wont need much .

 

[djw]

I've only owned my 2006 for a month or so, but so far my experience has been that less gain is actually better. Your settings as described look a little hotter than may be necessary, though I'm not sure exactly what you're after. But basically, I've found that the best way to get higher gain on this is to use a decent stompbox, which could cut some of that low end muff a little and maybe sharpen your high mids. Short of that, I like the tweaking instructions from Barry.

Your output control thought is also on track, I think. Unleashing the amp a bit seems to tighten things up and let it bark more. At lower settings, the preamp seems to be doing most of the work, while the power stage twiddles its thumbs.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this amp. There's a lot to say about it. I'll pipe in with more soon.

 

[FunkyMonkey]

Thanks for your input guys, all valuable. I'll do some more tweaking at the weekend, but was thinking about a stomp box (possibly BB preamp or a Keeley TS8 or 9) for when that high gain is needed for some covers. My dream tone, that I know is in this amp for lead, is that 90's Clapton tone (Journeyman period).

I think what you say about making sure I take the leash off the output control will help. May switch down to 10 or 50w on channel 2, lower the gain and let it go!!!! Because i don't really understand the different power and pre-amp gain have on sustain etc, i'm groping around the dark.

D

PS: My wife wants to know what I am doing on the Internet talking with a load of guys about low end muff - lol !!!

 

[Barry]

I have the BB preamp and a keeley modded TS9 . Bb works well with the LS . I have a few friends who work for mesa boogie and they are the ones that gave me the tweaking tips .

www.toyzzband.com

 

[user 1198]

Here is what I did to tame the darkness on my LSC. Of course this is highly dependant on the guitar you are using.

Plug the speakers into the 8 ohm jack (this makes the amp a little brighter and snappier as stated in the manual)
DRIVE - 10 o'clock
GAIN - 2 o'clock
TREBLE - 2 o'clock
MID - between 9 and 12 o'clock
BASS - 9 o'clock position
PRESENCE - 1 o'clock
POWER SWITCH - 50 watt
EFFECTS LOOP - off

For humbuckers I turn the DRIVE down a little bit
For single coils I turn the DRIVE up a little bit

I also run a BB Preamp and Analogman modified Maxon OD9 in front of the amp. I like the BB Preamp so much in front of the clean channel that I rarely switch to channel 2 anymore.

 

[SixVeeSix]

Try lowering the pickups on your guitar and turning the output up to compensate. Consider a 5751 or 12at7 in the first position of the lead channel (check schematic, was V2 in my Maverick). This will give you a wider range of lower gain sounds and allow the output to breath more also.

 

[plan-x]

The clean ch on this amp is where it soars! I did not get a very usable tone on ch 2 until I retubed the amp with JJ's. I suppose there are even better tubes than those. Anyway it seems to have smoothed out even more with an ext cab and handles the mud factor better. I tried different speakers in my LSC 2x12 but the Black Shawdows seemed the best, although I did not try a combo of one Black shadow and another speaker. I mainly use pedals on ch 1 to obtain the spectrum of sounds and I use ch 2 for instant feedback like at the end of a song.
An earlier post suggested using the 8 ohm speaker jack. I think he meant the 4 ohm jack. That's what the manual recommends for a slightly thinner sound. I don't think this amp's ch 2 gets a convincing classic rock sound. You know that A/C D/C thing. Which was a Marshall dominated era. For a scorching lead I think the recto's are better. It does the lower gain vintage thing. I have a setting in the database on this web site that is differrent from the others using the drive at 3:00 and the gain at 9:00. According to the manual this yields a thinner sound. I call it "Mild crunch that cuts mix".

 

[FunkyMonkey]

Great stuff - thanks everyone. Will try these suggestions and go with the retube if I am still suffering. Sounds like the BB could be a great addition to my rig also.

D

 

[plan-x]

Here's a video with the BB and the LSC
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=andy+timmons+lonestar&search=Search

 

[dannymusic]

Great stuff - thanks everyone. Will try these suggestions and go with the retube if I am still suffering. Sounds like the BB could be a great addition to my rig also.

D

you shouldn't need any help, you have a clapton strat w/ the 15db boost.

 

[FunkyMonkey]

It's actually more like 25db boost. Perhaps they lowered it on the newer versions, but I have an early one and have updated to the newer noiseless pickups (the boost circuit is meant to be the same though).

The issue with the boost is that I am not even trying to use it at the moment and still getting a really woolly sound. But we'll see how I get on with the advice above. The idea with the BB was just to get some variety when playing in my covers band as much as anything else.

D