And Sometimes It's About That Interfacing Thing.

László

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So I was thinking about my all-time greatest tone-fest thing I have going on here, and why I really prefer the HXDA with my McCarty Singlecut and the DG30 with the CU24 30th Ann. Guitar...

...and it occurred to me that there's a thing that happens between some amps and some guitars that just makes them a good fit for each other.

When I played Two-Rocks I felt that they sounded their best with single coil guitars instead of humbuckers, so I played mostly P-90 guitars with mine. I did the same with my Bad Cat amp, a Matchless style thing that had a very particular preference for a single coil instrument. Then, too -- and this is just me -- I prefer Fender amps with single coil guitars, which makes sense of course when you think about what Fender makes.

And there's a reason generations of players have mated a Marshall with a Les Paul. So I'm obviously not alone in thinking this way, about how guitars and amps interface, but I wanted to post a thread about it for two reasons: First, it seems interesting. And second, I'm not allowed to go out and exercise in today's heat and humidity, doctor's orders, so I'm kind of zzzzzzz bored.

My DG30 is a very different sounding amp fundamentally compared with my HXDA. I love both, and I love them for different reasons. But in my world, the DG30 really responds its best with a cutting, clear, bright sound, and the HXDA gives up its goods with a bassier sound like the Singlecut's.

I'm going to guess that this has something to do with what causes the circuits to break up, and how they break up, etc. Some amps just seem to sound better with a stronger bass tone overdriving the tubes, and some sound better - to me, anyway - with a more trebly kind of sound and distorting in the higher frequencies.

One mistake I've made in the past with an amp has been to decide what I like or dislike about an amp playing only one guitar through it and then moving on to the next amp I'm considering buying.

When in fact, an amp that sounds amazing with one style of guitar might sound far less so with another style of guitar, and vice-versa. So sometimes ya gotta change things up a bit. Try a few things out. See what works. Get on the bus, Gus. Make a new plan, Stan. And other truisms of Paul Simon...

If I had tried out the DG30 with only a Singlecut, I might not have bought it. But I played it with the Artist V, and that was a great match, too. Of course the A-V was closer to my CU24 in its tonal balance, however, I will say that I actually like the amp even better with the CU24 than the A-V because it's even brighter.
 
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Yep. My Laney Lionheart sounds the business with my Strat. Tone heaven! I have to go out of my way to get bad sounds.

When I first got my Bernard I was underwhelmed. I made it work but it takes more dialling in
 
Hey Mike, thanks for resurrecting the thread!

I think it really has to do with how the circuit overloads...you get that buttery tone with a Singlecut style guitar and a Plexi style amp. It's a very midrange heavy guitar, and for some reason it's a gotta be driving those tubes in a certain way. But you lose that to some degree playing, say, a Strat with a Plexi style amp, unless you use a pedal like Jimi always did. Then you get a really nice combination. To me, a single coil guitar with a rolled-down fuzz and a Plexi is also a super combination, though of course it's a different tone altogether (Hendrix actually often got his famous clean tone playing through a fuzz with the guitar volume rolled down).

And the reverse is true with, say, a Vox. I've always thought they sounded better with a guitar with a brighter tone. They seem to break up more naturally in higher frequencies. A Matchless with, say, a bright P-90 guitar like the old CU22 Soapbar was absolutely delightful to me.

I just watched your video of the Lionheart and I have to say you sound fantastic on that thing!!!
 
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Thanks Les!

Ironic, it's a demo for the Laney but Seymour Duncan wound up using it as a video demo for their SSL-1 single coil pickups!

Nice to be asked, in any case, right? Seriously you sound great. I really like your playing.
 
Les,

Now that I have my cable issue worked out (:congrats:) I am noticing this very thing with my new 2 Channel H. I was playing it one night with the NF3 and just thinking how killer the clean channel sounded. Then switched over to the gain and was really enjoying it. Then i switched to the Custom 24 with 59/09s and the cleans sounded great, but the gain channel sounded KILLER! I still think I'll have the pres/res mod done some time, but with that guitar, even without turning the EQ in the loop on, it sounded killer! I'm itching to get my 25th Anniversary Custom 22 Semi Hollow Limited out to try it with the H!

Also, similar thing going on with my Mesa Mark V25 and my EBMM JP12 BFR. That's a great little amp and all my PRS and other guitars sound great through it, but when I get into the higher gain stuff, the JP12 is CLEARLY just made to go with that amp and those tones.
 
Les,

Now that I have my cable issue worked out (:congrats:) I am noticing this very thing with my new 2 Channel H. I was playing it one night with the NF3 and just thinking how killer the clean channel sounded. Then switched over to the gain and was really enjoying it. Then i switched to the Custom 24 with 59/09s and the cleans sounded great, but the gain channel sounded KILLER! I still think I'll have the pres/res mod done some time, but with that guitar, even without turning the EQ in the loop on, it sounded killer! I'm itching to get my 25th Anniversary Custom 22 Semi Hollow Limited out to try it with the H!

Also, similar thing going on with my Mesa Mark V25 and my EBMM JP12 BFR. That's a great little amp and all my PRS and other guitars sound great through it, but when I get into the higher gain stuff, the JP12 is CLEARLY just made to go with that amp and those tones.

Yup, you've got a handle on it all right! There are some matches that are just plain made in heaven.

One thing I've been doing is working with the pedal board but not for the purpose of copping certain tones; instead, to help the guitars interface with a different amp, something that's getting pretty interesting. I'm not saying I'm "there" yet, but I'm finding combinations that are definitely fun to play around with and seem to help a lot with that interfacing thing.

I've got the DG30 set now so that I can get infinite overdrive shadings with the CU24 30th just with the guitar volume, more so than ever. But the DG30 seems to like a guitar with a brighter tone, and doesn't respond the way I'd like with the big low end of the Singlecut. So the McCarty Singlecut sounds a bit less exciting with that amp. However...if I roll the guitar volume back a little, but boost the signal by a small amount with a Suhr KokoBoost, I'm into a very interesting territory, different from the CU24, but still lovely, and with more of the vibe of the McSC.

So I'm learning. It's a wonderful thing to experiment with this stuff, isn't it? We really are living in a great era for guitar.
 
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