All Amps Dimed, Surprising Results

[anomaly]

I also notice high gain amps tend to mush out past noon on the master too. It's that mix of the tight, smooth pre-amp gain and that looser power tube distortion that makes them sound like shit. Almost all high gain amps are like that, but you'll never need any more volume than what a 100 watter puts out at noon on the master anyways, most are very loud and in band volumes by 3. Three or four is the sweet spot for 90% of amplifiers... in my experience.

 

[anomaly]

...Also... have you tried diming any of these amps with TWO 4x12 cabs? You might notice a difference? Some amps retain their tone a bit better when using alot of speaker power. My Randall's are especially much more powerful running at 4 ohms with two 8ohm Mesa Recto cabs. It's just incredibly loud and powerful sound compared to just one 4x12 cab. It's hard for me to go back to just a half stack after playing a full stack. Some amps don't really benefit to it though, like the Mesa Mark III i had, that sounded best through just one cab... It's amazing the difference in tone that speakers can make!

 

[Schaf]

...Also... have you tried diming any of these amps with TWO 4x12 cabs? You might notice a difference? Some amps retain their tone a bit better when using alot of speaker power. My Randall's are especially much more powerful running at 4 ohms with two 8ohm Mesa Recto cabs. It's just incredibly loud and powerful sound compared to just one 4x12 cab. It's hard for me to go back to just a half stack after playing a full stack. Some amps don't really benefit to it though, like the Mesa Mark III i had, that sounded best through just one cab... It's amazing the difference in tone that speakers can make!

You're pushing more air with 4 more speakers.

 

[glassjaw7]

I dimed my recto once on modern mode. It was scary. Definitely not a tone I'd want to play with for too long but it did sound pretty rad.

The best dimed amp I've heard by far is the Friedman Pink Taco. It sounded HUGE and stayed together, no mush. That is one loud little amp.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

I tried messing with the eq on my Krankenstein at full volume, i can get it to sound better, but really anything above 6 and it just doesnt sound like it should. As others have said you wouldn't really need more volume than that anyway. Just odd since these amps can go that high but not sound good. I suppose you can consider it like your cars tachometer it might read to 9,000rpms but your car(most cars) won't run well at that rpm, since it's beyond its power band

 

[BAALINCINERATOR]

You cant turn a high gain 100+ watt tube amp all the way up sitting directly in front of it with 1 cab hooked up and expect to get a good sound out of it especially with a high output active EMG pickup but you could run a full stack and do that with the gain really cranked in a big show environment or like an open air or something and have your amp pretty far back on the stage and stand far away from it or with a less high output pickup and you could probably get a pretty sick sound from it if you have the right speakers in your cab for your amp cranked way up van halen used to turn all of his knobs all the way up and hes like the 5150 master but theres some amps that you just cant do that with especially in your house if i turned everything all the way up on my fryette and went downstairs and played it and a cat was in the room id have a dead cat

 

[Ventura]

I've had amps dimed...

At this point in the game, using your guitar's volume/tonal controls comes in handy. Furthermore, the entire EQ will shift, so things need to be accounted for - adjusted - before getting there. As well, there best be a good lot of distance in front of the cab, and a venue/room with some serious size; even sound absorption (such as people/audience, or if you must, a properly engineerined ISO space/cab).

Amps can go to 10. Amps can sound good at 10. Gotta make sure your cabs are well broken in too.

2 cents.

 

[jsp]

How those amps sound dimed is pretty irrelevant. That's not how they're designed to be used, they're 100 watts+ for a reason, headroom is important for high gain. They are way too loud to be used with a band dimed anyway. But amps like the Uberschall turned to 3-5 will still shit all over many others turned to any volume, and that's what really matters, is how they sound at the volumes they can actually to be used.

 

[charvelstrat81]

Every amp I ever dimed sounded like ass...

Certain late 60's plexi's sound best dimed.

 

[trashedlostfdup]

i couldn't imagine going to 11 in the same room. before i moved from my last house, i took the splawn nitro in the garage and pushed it to 11, boosted into a 2x12 1x15" cab, with me 20' away. i didn't have issues with feedback like you get indoors. the splawns don't get much louder past noon. it did get a little flubby outside, but i was tweaking settings as i went.

its fun though. cheers!