Blasphemy?

[BeZo]

I was just playing my block letter 5150. I'm so glad to have it back with fresh tubes, caps, a choke and a bias. It's like brand new.

Anyways, I have always loved the sound of the green channel dimed. The lead channel has always been too hissy with too much gain, but the rhythm channel goosed is perfect. So, I tried to set it up backwards. I tried to use the lead channel as a clean channel, and the rhythm for crunch. In my band, I use a dirty clean anyways and a rock tone (with a Verellen Skyhammer).

Has anyone else ever set an amp up backwards? Any success?

 

[cardinal]

I think this is how the dude from Machine Head runs his. The red channel is for his clean, and his gain channel is the green (but boosted with an SD-1, in his case). I think.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I don't use cleans but the red ch gain @ 8- 9 o'clock and boosted is a thing of dark beauty on the 6505 I recently grabbed. Tight, articulate, crunchy wall of sound. The green ch boosted with gain @ 10-11 o'clock is sick as well. I recently read a few threads where people were playing on the red ch with gain @ 1-2 o 'clock Utter mess past 11 o'clock IMHO; like completely unusable.

 

[danielraible]

Yes! I always prefer to use channel one for high gain in the 5150. No boost, and with a clean/clear humbucker.

Prefer the frequency response and the dynamics over channel two. More 'open' when the amp volume is cranked.

 

[guitup too]

Yep. Works great on the original 5150. The green channel has plenty of gain for slot of things. Seems like the compression on the red channel helped with the cleans.

 

[Detroit1973]

The Short Answer would be Yes. Both Guitarist for Machine Head use the Green Channel for their Main Heavy Tone, The Green Channel is boosted with an Ibanez TS-9.

There a few people that do that.

 

[sleewell2]

makes perfect sense to me. an amp is just a tool. using it the best way for your application separates the smart from the dumb.