Amp dial in help / secrets

[anomaly]

Start with the dials all at noon and adjust from there, unless it's a Mesa Mark series then just ignore this advice. Dial in the gain to the distortion level you like then bring the master up slowly. Presence to taste. I tend to like it high on most amps then back off the treble a bit to balance the tone.

 

[Brain Becker]

I like to start everything at 6 and go from there. The 2203x I have likes everything at 6 (bmt).

 

[BABMusic]

Dial your tone without any depth, resonance or thump. After you have a tone you like, then add just as much depth, resonance as you need.

 

[JackBootedThug]

99.9999% of the time, the amp designers have made the amp to sound how they want it to sound in "neutral" settings.

I.E., everything at noon. If i'm wildly unfamiliar with something, it always works to start there. Unless its a mesa mark series.

Truf.

 

[JackBootedThug]

With rectifiers I like to zero the treble and then just use presence for my treble control. Just depends on what mood I’m in and what volume and effects I’m using also.

 

[Smash]

If it is a marshall circuit, i would put gain where it barely starts to not sound thin. This is the starting point, not the end. Your gain will finish the sound, so dont adjust around it. Then lower treble to zero and dime presence.
Adjust mids first, then treble to taste. The presence should have it bright and gainy, so dont be surprised if treble is low. Adjust bass, but remember that you may have to come back here, because when you raise gain later, bass will naturally fill in. After you adjust the gain, you may fuck with mids a little. This is going to be a great way to find a sound quickly

 

[Smash]

If it isnt a marshall, what i have done in the past is take the sweep of each eq knob and put to zero. Play a chord and then turn it up to a point where it comes in strong, then stop. A lot of builders dial their amps for a particular sound, so past that spot will do little else.

 

[NoHassle]

Something to always consider.

If you have an amp you can't get a decent sound out of try a different speaker cab with different speakers. Nothing changes the sound of an amp more than this.

I have a Freidman BE100 and through greenbacks I seriously hate it, I hook it up to different cab with vintage 30s in it and I love it.
Yes, the controls on the amp were in the same position and of course I tried all types of different settings.

I have a SLO and again exactly the same thing but not with vintage 30s. I hooked it up to a Marshall HW 4x12 and just awful, I hook it up to an original 4x12 front loaded Soldano cab with Eminence speakers and there the sound is.

Many of us persist with the amp but trying a different cab is very effective to getting you where you want to be.

 

[BABMusic]

I have a Freidman BE100 and through greenbacks I seriously hate it, I hook it up to different cab with vintage 30s in it and I love it.

I agree with this. I wouldn't say GB sound awful, but V30s sound more natural with my BE50 and more like a real Marshall. I believe Dave voiced his BE series for the V30. The thing that makes it difficult for me is that the V30 sounds not so good with my Mesa Mark IV. I only have one cab and I have to pick my poison.

 

[tjnx]

If it is a marshall circuit, i would put gain where it barely starts to not sound thin. This is the starting point, not the end. Your gain will finish the sound, so dont adjust around it. Then lower treble to zero and dime presence.
Adjust mids first, then treble to taste. The presence should have it bright and gainy, so dont be surprised if treble is low. Adjust bass, but remember that you may have to come back here, because when you raise gain later, bass will naturally fill in. After you adjust the gain, you may fuck with mids a little. This is going to be a great way to find a sound quickly

Thanks, I've not tried diming presence first - will definitely give it a go!

If you have an amp you can't get a decent sound out of try a different speaker cab with different speakers. Nothing changes the sound of an amp more than this.

I think this is a big part of the issue for this particular amp room, most of the cabs aren't that great. Which is a shame because many people are probably passing on good amps.

I tried the SLO 100 through a Soldano 412 and initially wasn't blown away, each time they surprisingly sound dark. Buuut with some minor tweaking it started to do its thing. I compared other amps I played prior after the SLO and they suddenly sounded almost like a recording in comparison.

I think I was expecting it to blow me away with the first chord like the 800 did but both the 100 and 30 did this sneaky thing where the initial impression was kinda meh but then they slowly grew on me and I had a eureka moment. Probably volume related where others are more forgiving at lower volumes.

I agree with this. I wouldn't say GB sound awful, but V30s sound more natural with my BE50 and more like a real Marshall. I believe Dave voiced his BE series for the V30. The thing that makes it difficult for me is that the V30 sounds not so good with my Mesa Mark IV. I only have one cab and I have to pick my poison.

Other than ch 1 I haven't been blown away by the BE 100 (although it sounds great on recordings) but I don't think they have it going through v30s so I'm going to be annoying this weekend and see if they'll let me mix some things up. I know the small box really sounded good through the v30s.

 

[NoHassle]

Thanks, I've not tried diming presence first - will definitely give it a go!


I think this is a big part of the issue for this particular amp room, most of the cabs aren't that great. Which is a shame because many people are probably passing on good amps.

I tried the SLO 100 through a Soldano 412 and initially wasn't blown away, each time they surprisingly sound dark. Buuut with some minor tweaking it started to do its thing. I compared other amps I played prior after the SLO and they suddenly sounded almost like a recording in comparison.

I think I was expecting it to blow me away with the first chord like the 800 did but both the 100 and 30 did this sneaky thing where the initial impression was kinda meh but then they slowly grew on me and I had a eureka moment. Probably volume related where others are more forgiving at lower volumes.


Other than ch 1 I haven't been blown away by the BE 100 (although it sounds great on recordings) but I don't think they have it going through v30s so I'm going to be annoying this weekend and see if they'll let me mix some things up. I know the small box really sounded good through the v30s.

That's exactly the thing with the SLO, through its own cab it can sound way dark and lifeless as we expect a different interaction between head and cab.

It's only then do you realise the tone stack on a SLO is almost an active circuit and not a passive circuit like 99% of all other amps. It's when you start playing around with tone and presence knobs in a way you wouldn't normally do on another tube amp the SLO sound then presents itself. When you get the master volume up over 5 the SLO becomes the king if you know how to drive it properly.

95% of people don't understand the SLO and its OEM cab because they behave differently together than 99% of all other amps. Confusion and disappointment sets in because many players adjust their sound with their eyes and not their ears.

The majority of people who try a SLO don't have the pleasure of it being hooked up to an OEM cab as you normally only ever see a SLO top and rarely its cab in the same room.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Something to always consider.

If you have an amp you can't get a decent sound out of try a different speaker cab with different speakers. Nothing changes the sound of an amp more than this.

I have a Freidman BE100 and through greenbacks I seriously hate it, I hook it up to different cab with vintage 30s in it and I love it.
Yes, the controls on the amp were in the same position and of course I tried all types of different settings.

I have a SLO and again exactly the same thing but not with vintage 30s. I hooked it up to a Marshall HW 4x12 and just awful, I hook it up to an original 4x12 front loaded Soldano cab with Eminence speakers and there the sound is.

Many of us persist with the amp but trying a different cab is very effective to getting you where you want to be.

Yep.

Check out the @ZEN Amps youtube channel to see just how influential speaker cabs are to the tone of any given amp. Once you cross into anything considered high gain, the cab is at least as important as the amp, if not significantly more so.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Like Rick Lee alluded to, what works when you're playing by yourself is probably not going to work with a full band.

 

[NoHassle]

For me with high gain the 2 magic controls are the presence and mids. Especially when playing in a band context.
Don't go stupid with the presence as microphones hear presence much more pronounced and often harsh compared to your ears.

The more gain I use the less bass I have and sometimes fully off and the treble is just slightly on to taste. With your mids up and your bass down makes way for the bass player and the kick drum.

Pickup types along with your touch, pick material and picking hand attack will always have an impact on the amp making us all sound different to each other and driving you nuts to dial in a sound with certain amp and cab combinations.