dkilpatrick
Makes guitar faces
Lots of mesa amps have that feature and I switch it out too. I played a friend’s markV recently and the first thing I did was switch out the global master as well as the EQ circuit. He had never set it up that way.
Lone Star 100 Watt 2x12 Combo w/ EL34s Clean
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I mentioned this in another thread. Today I decided to play the CU24 30th Anniversary PS with its 85/15s through the DG30 and Lone Star as I had left them set up for the Telecaster I used on the clean demos (the Lone Star was on the clean channel). On both amps the masters were wide open (there’s a channel master on both channels of the Lone Star).
I used a Pettyjohn Chime with the gain set VERY low as a boost but with a tiny bit of grit, pretty much the way I’d use a Klon.
Then I let it rip. Yeah loud.
Both amps freaking SMOKED!! The tone was incredible. The DG30 kicked ass, and the Lone Star kicked ass in a different but most excellent way.
I can’t even explain how good both of these amps sounded. So next up I’m going to record the amps with a proper guitar (PRS) so you guys can hear them.
I will do the same on the HXDA and the Fillmore.
I’m working on a project so it might be a week or two before that happens. All I can tell you is that the tone was to die for.
“But you’re not dead.”
“Not yet, but apparently I’m working on that.”
I used a Pettyjohn Chime with the gain set VERY low as a boost but with a tiny bit of grit, pretty much the way I’d use a Klon.
Then I let it rip. Yeah loud.
Both amps freaking SMOKED!! The tone was incredible. The DG30 kicked ass, and the Lone Star kicked ass in a different but most excellent way.
I can’t even explain how good both of these amps sounded. So next up I’m going to record the amps with a proper guitar (PRS) so you guys can hear them.
I will do the same on the HXDA and the Fillmore.
I’m working on a project so it might be a week or two before that happens. All I can tell you is that the tone was to die for.
“But you’re not dead.”
“Not yet, but apparently I’m working on that.”
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Wyzard
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I'm only concerned with amps that are transparent to my intention, and at volumes that don't peel paint off the wall. Simplicity doesn't guarantee great tone at manageable volumes, and IMO attenuation and/or re-amping in your chain throws the simplicity you may have started with in the bin.
In this regard, Two Rocks meet the specification, and can be run at most volumes using their master volumes or send/return level controls; but as you say, none of them could be described as simpler designs.
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Nothing guarantees transparency, but simplicity often helps.
Attenuation is something one pays a price for, but there are a few that minimize the hit. However, I don’t own one.
Re-amping, done well, can sound extremely transparent. It depends on the quality of the gear you’re using.
I’ve almost always used an Avalon U5, plugged its output into recording devices, and used its “thru” output to create a split to go straight to the amp or pedalboard. The Avalon is a Class A, transistor device that I think sounds wonderfully transparent. Also great for basses. They sound gorgeous through one.
Because the signal is buffered with a very high end buffer, a beautiful signal hits the amp with no hit in frequency loss, and the direct signal is clean and great sounding. There’s an onboard EQ if you need it as well that can be switched out of the circuit.
You can also run an amp’s output into it, provided that a load is connected to it. This is something I haven’t tried.
So you have the best of both worlds: A very strong original recording of an amp, live, and a direct signal in case you want to re-amp. While you do have A/D and D/A conversion if you’re using a DAW to record the signal, at 24 bit/96K or better it’s still pretty darn good (depending on your converters, of course).
There are some high end re-amping boxes that don’t alter the signal. Avalon makes a mic preamp called the V5 that’s also a direct box and a re-amping box; it’s a superb thing to work with, but there are others.
However, I haven’t had good results with some re-amping systems, such as the Radial, that I don’t find transparent.
The T-Rs are wonderful amps, and I loved the ones I had. The Custom Reverb Artist Sigs were great amps, but not quite voiced as I’d have liked for what I was doing, hence the HXDA purchase. Still, they’re fantastic to work with in most regards. I had 6 of them over the ten years I was a T-R player exclusively.
If they ever reissue the Onyx or make something like it, I’ll be on it like white on rice.
As with most amps, opening up the Master Volume lets the TRs breathe a little better, and I think that improves the sound. But that’s LOUD. I used the Master judiciously, and used a gobo with the amps to reduce the volume in the studio, but also ran speaker cables into the recoding booth with a cab, with the head in the control room back when I had that kind of studio setup.
I didn’t notice any loss in tone with a 25 foot speaker cable of high quality, so there’s that (in fact, with the KHE switch box, I use mostly the PRS/Van Damme speaker cables from the heads to the KHE, and the KHE to the cabs, so some of the connections are running through as much as 50 feet of speaker cable, plus the switch box, with no loss of signal that I can discern. The demos of the amps are all through the KHE. I blame high quality Swiss engineering/manufacture for making a great switcher
. Some of my speaker cables are DH Labs T-14, also great and a titch more hi-fi sounding in the mids, but very expensive).The best sound I ever recorded with one of my Two Rocks was at a studio I booked. I plugged my Onyx into the studio’s vintage late ‘60s Marshall 4x12. It was a wonderful sound, and the studio’s recording room really let it open up. I’ve never been able to top it. The owner had restored an old tube console and had a floor to ceiling rack of tube gear that he’d restored. It sounded great, I was mightily impressed!
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Apropos of the above post, I always thought it would be cool to get some vintage gear and restore it.
But I just don’t know enough about electronics to do it, and I don’t have time to learn. Heck, I can’t even get it together to paint my own studio room, and have to hire a guy who’s great but always booked. I’ve only been waiting for two years…
But I just don’t know enough about electronics to do it, and I don’t have time to learn. Heck, I can’t even get it together to paint my own studio room, and have to hire a guy who’s great but always booked. I’ve only been waiting for two years…
It’s funny, I had a Mark V (90 Watt version) and I didn’t even know it had that feature. I might have kept if if I’d known!
I even read the dang manual, and it didn’t register. Obviously I am brain-dead.
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Can this be done with the California Tweed master volume? Probably not a global. Guess I should read the manual for once….
It’s never a bad idea…
Wyzard
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So it can, but sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, I'm after a subtly different form of transparency, which I guess could be called "transparency to intention". The TRs played "au naturel" will output pleasing clean tones, that I can use immediately, and at almost any volume.
My Hiwatts and Fender Showman amps, by contrast, require massaging, back-rubs, and a dash of fx to produce similar "expensive" tones.
dkilpatrick
Makes guitar faces
No as the California tweed is a single channel.
This feature is on some of the multi channel amps
WeFixFlats
Respect The Clave
Running my Lonestar 100 head, 2x12 Mesa cabinet=Tweed setting, w/6L6's. Channel 1: 100 watts, Channel 2: 50 watts. Done.
I like doing the 100 clean, 50 dirty thing as well.
Yup. It’s why I said nothing ‘guarantees’ transparency, and also used the word ‘often’ instead of ‘always’. We completely agree.
For me, the TR clean is a benchmark. And the dirty sounds are damn good, too!
The HXDA and DG30 give me the high-rent district tones, too.
Other very transparent, immediately useful amp tones I’ve had were my superb Bad Cat Hot Cat 30, a Bogner Metropolis, and a few others. My Mesas seem to need more investment, i.e., NOS tubes, etc., but once they’re tweaked, I’m usually a happy camper.
