Amp dial in help / secrets

[tjnx]

Can anyone share favorite ways to dial in and test popular amps? I love that GC has been letting people freely try gear, its been great but I usually don't have much time or know-how to dial in popular amps that I've never played before.

For example I've tried a Dual Rect but just wound up scooping the mids and going through the voicings, how else do you like to dial these in to get the full experience? If we could make some sort of quick reference for things I can try next time I go in I would be super grateful.

We don't get a ton of the usual amps other places get so when they do come in its a surprise. Many times I only learn how to dial them in online after they're gone.

Right now I'm looking at these amps:

Dual Rect / Mark VII
Savage 120
Soldano SLO
JCM 800 JVM 410
Friedman BE, Smallbox
5150 III S

 

[rottingcorpse]

Always play the presence and treble off of each other. Find YOUR sweet spot for each, then see if they work together or not. Same with depth(if it has it)and bass. Work them mids! Mids are your friend....sometimes.

Truth be told, I know right away if an amp is gonna work for me or not. Sometimes I'll work the shit outta it on and off for months before I banish it to the warehouse.

My greatest weapon is my bros that know what I like. One bagged me for years to get an ultralead knowing it was perfect for my style. He was definitely spot on.

And aways test stuff with your guitar. Not something off the rack. Not your buddy's exotic spendy fancy whatever. And crank that shit. Don't be a pussy trying to not bother other customers. If you're serious about buying an amp, they better let you go to town on it.

 

[DanTravis62]

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.

 

[Techdeth]

Out of your choices I’m shocking going stealth 100 watt 6l6 . Or a recto . Try setting both amp 8 5 8 for treble mid and bass . And you have to boost a recto to make it sound like you think it should

 

[MadAsAHatter]

 

[tjnx]

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.

Yes this is good. I think question mostly comes from initially trying a multiwatt and a SLO. I guess some amps do their 'thing' and its up to you to decide if you like it or not vs others that are more all-rounders. I guess I was impressed with scooping the rect but not other tones / channels, and initially unimpressed with the SLO for the price until I stumbled upon a great tone.

I usually find one amazing tone on new amps then forget it as I try to dial in others if they don't have a signature setting to fall back on.

Out of your choices I’m shocking going stealth 100 watt 6l6 . Or a recto . Try setting both amp 8 5 8 for treble mid and bass . And you have to boost a recto to make it sound like you think it should

They both sounded good but I guess I was worried about missing their forte. I really liked the el34 S and that was very easy to get great tones out of but the recto was a little less versatile and yes sounded like it needed a boost. Haven't tried 100w 6l6 but I think they have a 50

I looked up some stuff later and people had mentioned that you had to work a bit with other tones once you stepped away from the chuggs, but the chuggs are great. Someone also mentioned cranking the mids and presence was a common thing on records??.

It was pretty dark through an orange cab but the best tone at the volume I could stand had high presence and treble, bass 3-5 and mids scooped completely. Admittedly I just scooped them because I figured that was the mesa thing you did on the graphic

Thanks, I will have to make another trip and try it out.

 

[tjnx]

Always play the presence and treble off of each other. Find YOUR sweet spot for each, then see if they work together or not. Same with depth(if it has it)and bass. Work them mids! Mids are your friend....sometimes.

Truth be told, I know right away if an amp is gonna work for me or not. Sometimes I'll work the shit outta it on and off for months before I banish it to the warehouse.

My greatest weapon is my bros that know what I like. One bagged me for years to get an ultralead knowing it was perfect for my style. He was definitely spot on.

And aways test stuff with your guitar. Not something off the rack. Not your buddy's exotic spendy fancy whatever. And crank that shit. Don't be a pussy trying to not bother other customers. If you're serious about buying an amp, they better let you go to town on it.

This is good advice. I think a lot of it comes from being excited to finally try one of the big boys and not being completely blown away like I thought I would.

Haven't had cash in hand yet so doing some serious tire-kicking but yes I'm probably not playing loud enough.

 

[Techdeth]

Yes this is good. I think question mostly comes from initially trying a multiwatt and a SLO. I guess some amps do their 'thing' and its up to you to decide if you like it or not vs others that are more all-rounders. I guess I was impressed with scooping the rect but not other tones / channels, and initially unimpressed with the SLO for the price until I stumbled upon a great tone.

I usually find one amazing tone on new amps then forget it as I try to dial in others if they don't have a signature setting to fall back on.


They both sounded good but I guess I was worried about missing their forte. I really liked the el34 S and that was very easy to get great tones out of but the recto was a little less versatile and yes sounded like it needed a boost. Haven't tried 100w 6l6 but I think they have a 50

I looked up some stuff later and people had mentioned that you had to work a bit with other tones once you stepped away from the chuggs, but the chuggs are great. Someone also mentioned cranking the mids and presence was a common thing on records??.

It was pretty dark through an orange cab but the best tone at the volume I could stand had high presence and treble, bass 3-5 and mids scooped completely. Admittedly I just scooped them because I figured that was the mesa thing you did on the graphic

Thanks, I will have to make another trip and try it out.

Don’t be afraid to crank presence
And the mids I keep at 5 on every amp . Or turn mids up until the sound is full or starts to sound card like . I never scoop mids out . Not on any amp . I’ve found mids at 5 to be the best balance .

 

[rsm]

if it has a master volume, set it to 8, at least.

 

[Nigel]

Download the manuals from the manufacturer and try the suggested settings. This is especially crucial with Riveras. Mesa's manuals are great.

 

[tjnx]

if it has a master volume, set it to 8, at least.

Haha yes! Should be simple, just pick whichever one I can still hear after.

Download the manuals from the manufacturer and try the suggested settings. This is especially crucial with Riveras. Mesa's manuals are great.

Good idea! Wish I would have thought of this at the time

Multiwatt 3 channel page 4 for instant gratification (kinda what I did already but good to have), sample settings pg 17
https://mesa-boogie.imgix.net/media/User Manuals/3chRecto_multiWatt.pdf

All Mesa manuals
https://legacy.mesaboogie.com/support/user-manuals.html

 

[311boogieman]

+1 on testing with YOUR guitar

Also, you'd be surprised how many amps sound killer with the Treble on "0"

And understanding how different preamps are designed (or dialed in) on different amps will help tremendously. The tone stack on my Rectos works differently then on my Splawn (Marshall variant).

 

[Brandonrz]

Like Dan said, usually start everything at noon. Take into account the speakers you’re using, pickups, and mic. I know I love my v30s and they’ve got a ton of mid content, plus emgs, and a 57 so I roll my mids back a little. As others have said presence and treble kind of play off each other so see how they interact. Gain I usually set just to where I can nail pinch harmonics and I’m good.

 

[tjnx]

+1 on testing with YOUR guitar

Also, you'd be surprised how many amps sound killer with the Treble on "0"

And understanding how different preamps are designed (or dialed in) on different amps will help tremendously. The tone stack on my Rectos works differently then on my Splawn (Marshall variant).

Yeah I haven't been doing that, the guys there are pretty chill and said I could bring in my cab or anything I wanted if it helped.

My usual algorithm is to set everything to noon first, then do some typical eq moves (like scooping) and finally try to dial in a custom tone on each channel. Mostly testing how it does clean, overdriven, classic rock and metal tones. Looking at the manual the recto seems to like the mids scooped and I think the different tone stack behavior was throwing me off. But good to know for next time

 

[tjnx]

Like Dan said, usually start everything at noon. Take into account the speakers you’re using, pickups, and mic. I know I love my v30s and they’ve got a ton of mid content, plus emgs, and a 57 so I roll my mids back a little. As others have said presence and treble kind of play off each other so see how they interact. Gain I usually set just to where I can nail pinch harmonics and I’m good.

Agreed this is a big deal. The orange 412 they have there is pretty hit or miss I've found and only recently did we start re-arranging things to try different cabs.

The best cabs they have there that seem to make everything sound better are a vertical soldano 212 and the mesa horizonal, both with v30s. They're kind of shooting themselves in the foot by not having more cabs available. The orange and an iconic 412 are usually it and they can really make some amps sound bad.

We put an 800 through some evh 212s, I think one with g12hs and one with v30s and I wasn't really impressed until we used the soldano. Pretty expensive for a 212 but really sounded good.

 

[311boogieman]

I know the manual shows that but I think scooping the Mesa (Rectifier that is) is a mistake. I have not looked in a long time because I don't mess with it but I'd have to guess that my Mids on both Single and Dual are closer to 1 or 2pm. And I agree with you on Mesa and Soldano needing to make more cabinet variations.

 

[tjnx]

I know the manual shows that but I think scooping the Mesa (Rectifier that is) is a mistake. I have not looked in a long time because I don't mess with it but I'd have to guess that my Mids on both Single and Dual are closer to 1 or 2pm. And I agree with you on Mesa and Soldano needing to make more cabinet variations.

Will try it out, I trust what you guys say over the manual

 

[TheGreatGreen]

The best way I’ve found to dial tones is to record a direct signal from your guitar and tweak the amp by ear while reamping the direct guitar signal through it. If you have a mix you’re working with, even better. Tweak your rig with the rest of the mix playing along.

Some of the best tones I’ve achieved were sounds I definitely wouldn’t have dialed in just sitting in front of the amp twisting knobs while strumming chords. This is because in my experience, some of the best sounding tones are very much not some of the best feeling ones to play. When I dial with a guitar in hand, I almost always dial for what feels best to play, not what sounds best to hear. Usually those tones end up too gainy and too scooped. Tweaking with “someone else” playing means you no longer tweak for for feels good under the fingers, and asa bonus it also means you’re no longer tweaking with the acoustic sound of the strings mixed in with the amp which gives you an even more accurate picture of your tone.

 

[Rick Lee]

It can be hard to know if an amp will work with a band by trying it out in a music store. I've had a few Friedmans that slayed at home and just didn't cut it at band practice. I love my Runt to pieces, but have not had occasion to try it at band practice yet. And my SLO-30 is the exact opposite - not great at home, but cuts like a razor blade with the band. And Marshalls can be all over the place too unless you can run them at full tilt.

 

[tjnx]

It can be hard to know if an amp will work with a band by trying it out in a music store. I've had a few Friedmans that slayed at home and just didn't cut it at band practice. I love my Runt to pieces, but have not had occasion to try it at band practice yet. And my SLO-30 is the exact opposite - not great at home, but cuts like a razor blade with the band. And Marshalls can be all over the place too unless you can run them at full tilt.

100% agree and have had this same experience with the Friedmans and SLO-30. Not to say they don't cut, just not as well. If Dave could add just a little more hair to them I think they'd go to another level.