Heresy with a DG Custom 30

[Blackbear]

The DG Custom 30 and cabinet is my dream amp to own some day but would you guys think I'm crazy if I added the Fender tilt-back hardware to the amp & cab? I love the tone of my fenders tilted back (Tremolux, Super Reverb & Deluxe) and I was wondering how the DG30 would sound like that? The legs would be fairly easy but the head hardware would require more effort, but I would love to try it! Let the stoning begin!

 

[WEDGE]

I love the tilt back idea. I have struggled to hear myself at times because an amp was firing at my knees and all i can hear is everyone else, and i have to turn up to overcome. I think if we all could have heard each other better we could all have turned down a little too.

 

[Boogie]

Because of tube filament issues with the extreme vibrations coming from the cab, I'm putting the head on the floor now. That allows me to put the cab on a stand, so hearing it is easier, better projection for the mix, and bass disconnect are huge benefits. I started to consider this move with my Bassman 4x12 cab which had the ear mounts for the Bassman 100 head (and started odd note/noise ghosting from he vibration transfer). If you don't play particularly loudly (every DG amp was designed to be cranked!) then none of his will be a factor. And the tilt-back kit is a cool addition, IMO.

 

[László]

I have a DG30 had and cab, and here are a few things to think about:

First, I don't get tube rattle like Boogie with the DG cab and DG30 head. I do get it with other amps, but not when they're on the DG cab with its ported back, so maybe the ports help the enclosure vibrate a little less.

Second, the cab projects very well even standing straight up.

However - there's always a however - I often separate the head and cab, and use an Isoacoustics stand that decouples the cab from the floor, and tilts it back a little. And I stick that, in turn, on an Auralex Great Gramma to further decouple the cab from structure-borne vibrations.

Why not just use tilt-back legs? There's actually a simple answer - they don't do all that much.

While tilting the cab back on legs old-school does at least point the speakers in the direction of your ears, it does absolutely nothing to decouple the cab from vibrating the crap out of your building, and it does very little to raise the cab high enough to avoid causing Quarter-Space bass reinforcement.

So tilting back does very little, actually. It's a slight improvement, more of a gesture in the direction of acknowledging acoustical issues, than a real solution. You'd actually do a heck of a lot better simply putting the cab on a chair.

Here's a shot of my 1x12 PRS cab on the Isoacoustics riser - it is slightly tilted; the tilt can he adjusted. There's a RealTraps gobo behind the cab:



The DG cab and head on an Auralex Great Gramma, there's an ASC Tube Trap in the corner to absorb excess low end. The Great Gramma helps with structure-borne vibration and gets things a couple of inches off the floor. It's much more effective than tilt back legs (which of course I had back in the 60s on my Fender amps):

 

[Dusty Chalk]

There are plenty of stands that tilt the cab up and at the guitarist for -- e.g. -- monitoring.

 

[László]

There are plenty of stands that tilt the cab up and at the guitarist for -- e.g. -- monitoring.

Yes, and they're all an improvement over tilt-back legs. However...they don't decouple the cab from whatever it's standing on, such as a floor. IMHO, they're inherently a compromise over something made to solve acoustical problems.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Agreed, no argument. I was just responding to the OP. They don't decouple at all, but they do a little bit regarding getting the cabs up off the ground, with those filthy initial reflections right in front of the cab on the floor. That said, it still may be a bad idea. I was listening to someone else's amp last night, and it sounded awful right in front of it, but sounded great off to the side, about 45 degrees off the axis of the speaker cone. So (again -- back at the OP) play around with it. Figure out where the best sound coming out of the cab is.

 

[Boogie]

Yes, and they're all an improvement over tilt-back legs. However...they don't decouple the cab from whatever it's standing on, such as a floor. IMHO, they're inherently a compromise over something made to solve acoustical problems.

I would like to point out that while it doesn't technically decouple the cab for a studio application, for live application the decoupling is very apparent. Decoupling from the standpoint that the rubber-footed metal stand separates the cab far enough for hope floor to reduce the bass by a huge margin...greater than 50% to my ears. It's not perfect nor absolute, but for a non-critical application like home playing or small stage gigs, it is a solution for cutting a lot of unnecessary bass. My use of decouple may be a stretch on the term.

 

[László]

My use is decouple may be a stretch on the term.

Yeah, kind of a stretch. In acoustics, decoupling means mechanically separating two things with a material that is resilient enough to absorb the vibrations and not pass them from one thing to the other.

The rubber feet on the amp stands aren't resilient or absorbent enough to do that, though they're obviously more resilient than steel, they aren't like acoustical foam or stuff like specially designed sorbothane formulations.