Your Favorite Amp's Tone Signature?

[squirrel211]

"I'd have to say the foundation tones of my favorite amps are Fender Tweed with a little Plexi thrown into the mix."

My rig at one point was a Tone King Comet on the LEAD channel, and a Tone King Majesty/Royalist in stereo. I think you would have loved it Les!!!

Had the Comet set at 4 Vol, 4 Mid Bite, 4 Tone, and the Majesty was 6 Vol, 2 Bass, 5 Mid, 5 Treble, 5 Presence. Both amps cleaned up to almost pristine clean with my Custom 24 turned down to 4, and on the #2 pick up selector switch. Good and dirty with the guitar's volume on 10, but still able to wildly vary the amount of dirt with by picking lightly vs digging in. Both amps had effects loops, which made delays and verbs easy to manage.

The Comet wasn't as sensitive to the guitar's volume as the Majesty. It was probably "more" of the core tone, and the Majesty really made up more of the upper mid/high end with the guitar volume down. With the volume up, both amps' distortion signatures combined into this wonderfully rich tone that felt super easy to play. Unfortunately, lugging both amps around became a chore, and the thick tone of both amps running together led to our bass player constantly turning up. I went to the Majesty as my only amp on stage, and that seems to leave plenty of room for the keys and bass.

My ear has always loved the clean guitar tone that Billy Corgan had on 'Today,' in the very beginning of the song, and my favorite dirty tones are "softer" but with the ability to still palm mute. Two examples would be 'Shellshock' by Ballyhoo! and 'We Are What We Are' by Angels & Airwaves. I do love a plethora of dirty tones though!

So I guess the foundations of my favorite amps are Marshall? I do love Fender cleans too though, like Jeff Buckley's version of 'Hallelujah.'

 

[László]

My rig at one point was a Tone King Comet on the LEAD channel, and a Tone King Majesty/Royalist in stereo. I think you would have loved it Les!!!

I'm sure I would have! The Tone King amps are really nice.

As an aside, have you checked out Mark Bartel's amps since he left Tone King? The hand wiring is magnificent, everything including the cabinetry is as good as it gets. But I've only heard them in demos, where they sound terrific - as they should, they're expensive.

 

[squirrel211]

I'm sure I would have! The Tone King amps are really nice.

As an aside, have you checked out Mark Bartel's amps since he left Tone King? The hand wiring is magnificent, everything including the cabinetry is as good as it gets. But I've only heard them in demos, where they sound terrific - as they should, they're expensive.

I actually played the prototype amp! It filled the room with sound in a way that I had never experienced; HUGE sounding amp! It has been years since I played it, but that fullness hit me between the eyes and I haven't forgotten it!

 

[FatFingerBlues]

Fender Tweed

 

[László]

I actually played the prototype amp! It filled the room with sound in a way that I had never experienced; HUGE sounding amp! It has been years since I played it, but that fullness hit me between the eyes and I haven't forgotten it!

He's got 12W, 28W and 45W models. They sound wonderful in the demos. What wattage was the prototype?

 

[Bogner]

I Liken My Favorite Amps Tone Signature To A Proper Woman...

Tight Bottom
Juicy Mid Section
Sweet Top End

 

[László]

I Liken My Favorite Amps Tone Signature To A Proper Woman...

Tight Bottom
Juicy Mid Section
Sweet Top End

Or:

Cleans up beautifully,
But can get dirty;
And since she's all-tube, of course...very hot.

 

[Black Plaid]

While I’m at it, I should mention, PRS has a killer amp range for covering many bases right now!

I don't think PRS has ever made any amps for basses!

 

[Wyzard]

The J-MOD might make a pretty good "home" bass amp.

You'd need a pair of them for proper-size gigs, of course - with each one on top of a pair of Thiele cabs..........

 

[Maertl513]

The prefered setting of my amp.
I use to take the vintage or classic channel. A worthwhile tool is always the volume poti of the guitar.

And my cab:

A custom cab made in Hamburg by Dietmar Kammler.
In serial an old, used, heavy 10" EVM-10M cooperates with a contemporary, new, light 12" Celestion Neo 250 Copperback.
The cab has 16Ω and 450watts.

 

[László]

And my cab:

A custom cab made in Hamburg by Dietmar Kammler.
In serial an old, used, heavy 10" EVM-10M cooperates with a contemporary, new, light 12" Celestion Neo 250 Copperback.
The cab has 16Ω and 450watts.

Those cabs sound SO GOOD in the demo recordings. Yours in particular is very cool (and good looking!).

Unfortunately, I have other, more pressing audio priorities these days, and as I understand it, they won't be made much longer. I'm idly wondering if he'd license the design for production here.

 

[Maertl513]

Dietmar Kammler had discussions, I wouldn't dare to call them negotiations with famous brands. As far as I concern, they were afraid about all the work by hand and all details to consider.
He built them for the sake of good sound, not for becoming rich. He holds a Dr. phil. in philosophy.
Second hand they are still available.
There was neither anybody willing to buy out his patents and company nor to continue his company.
The woodwork did his neighbour who is master carpenter and a guy with university degree in electrical engineering. His own business is HiFi.

His sale: https://www.kammler-cabinets.de/en/used-cabinets/

 

[Davey]

I know we'd have to put a lot of stuff in storage but I can't see keeping all 7 guitar cabs and all the other stuff in my music room.

I can provide free storage for those cabs and any other guitar related stuff...

 

[Steve's addiction]

I love my old MusicMans. I use a clean tone to start

 

[László]

After extensively playing/comparing my guitars through all four amps over the past week, there's no question that my DG30 is my desert island amp. The matching cab works best with it.

That's my tone signature, whatever antecedents it may have, tweed, Vox, HiWatt, whatever.

It only took me ten years to figure this out. Which is pretty fast for me...

I have chosen!

"You're not actually on a desert island. There's really no reason to make that choice or any other."

"That's the crux of the problem, is it not?"

"Most people would consider that a plus."

"Don't mess with my head with all this 'sensible idea' stuff, K? The other three are all on their way out!"

"You'll miss the HXDA, especially with the McCarty Singlecut and the CU24."

"OK, maybe I'll keep that one."

"The Lone Star does have that nice Mesa-interpretation-of-Black-Panel tone..."

"I'll guess I'll keep that one, too, then."

"You like the Fillmore, especially with the coil splits on the DGT."

"Now you're just messing with me. OK, Fine. But I'm warning you, no more amps."

 

[aamefford]

After extensively playing/comparing my guitars through all four amps over the past week, there's no question that my DG30 is my desert island amp. The matching cab works best with it.

That's my tone signature, whatever antecedents it may have, tweed, Vox, HiWatt, whatever.

It only took me ten years to figure this out. Which is pretty fast for me...

I have chosen!

"You're not actually on a desert island. There's really no reason to make that choice or any other."

"That's the crux of the problem, is it not?"

"Most people would consider that a plus."

"Don't mess with my head with all this 'sensible idea' stuff, K? The other three are all on their way out!"

"You'll miss the HXDA, especially with the McCarty Singlecut and the CU24."

"OK, maybe I'll keep that one."

"The Lone Star does have that nice Mesa-interpretation-of-Black-Panel tone..."

"I'll guess I'll keep that one, too, then."

"You like the Fillmore, especially with the coil splits on the DGT."

"Now you're just messing with me. OK, Fine. But I'm warning you, no more amps."

The DG30, HXDA, Lonestar and Fillmore are al of them, right?

 

[László]

The DG30, HXDA, Lonestar and Fillmore are al of them, right?

Yeah.

I started that post with the definite idea that I'd tell the world I'm going to move everything but the DG30. By the end of the post I convinced myself not to.

All in one compact little conversation with that...uh...other guy.

It's Hell having four good amps when you only want one good amp!

"Those are first world problems."

"OK, but this is the only world I'm in, so they're MY problems, alter-ego who must comment."

 

[Bogner]

Yeah.

I started that post with the definite idea that I'd tell the world I'm going to move everything but the DG30. By the end of the post I convinced myself not to.

All in one compact little conversation with that...uh...other guy.

It's Hell having four good amps when you only want one good amp!

"Those are first world problems."

"OK, but this is the only world I'm in, so they're MY problems, alter-ego who must comment."

Have Another Conversation And You Will Be Ordering The Komet...(Which You Should Do).

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I started that post

That was a pretty bad post, one of your worst in the 15+ years I’ve been interacting with you.

 

[Wyzard]

It's Hell having four good amps when you only want one good amp!

I'd find it really difficult if I had to keep going with only four.