Do amps without Master Volume sound better?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joeytpg
  • Start date Start date
It's all about gain, and volume. How much gain do you need, and, how loud can you be! If you want modern high gain, no way a NMV amp will give that to you without a pedal. And, if you have a pedal, you might as well just use a MV amp.

Make sense? It's early!
 
If your MV amp is designed right, including a post phase inverter MV, you can get them to sound very much like a NMV amp. You do need to still turn them up a bit - but not nearly to the levels of a NMV amp. The speakers still need to be moving some decent air, and the amp does need to be working. But you can definitely get them to sound pretty close to a NMV, imo. Close enough that live, you're not going to notice a difference.

Also, some amp builders are making some really great power scaling devices, which turn a NMV amp into a machine you could actually gig a club with. I've tried most of them, and I really like Bob Reinhardt's power scaling in his NMV amps.

I don't like any of the attenuators on the market. I've tried 'em all, and owned most of them. They ALL seem to suck way too much tone to be of any use to me. The MV affects tone much less then any attenuator, in my experience.
 
The answer is, it depends. If you have a practice location that will allow you to play at any volume, I'd agree with the NMV for all but the highest gain applications. If you are recording at a studio, I'd favor the NMV. Playing live in a band at most clubs, you need an amp with some sort of a master volume.

Remember, 99.5% of the people that see you play live can not tell if you are playing through a Diezel, Cameron, or a pod, they hear dirty and clean sounds. Live, no one will no the difference, especially if there is a cover charge (most people that could hear the nuances of your tone are too cheap to pay to see you play).
 
depends on the style of music, as each have there place, but generally I prefer NMV cranked or through attenuator with perhaps a OD or distortion pedal in front. Seems like the sound is not so squishy, compressed, buzzy. I think it sounds better when recording too. However, if you want to recreate certain sounds (80's, various newer metal genres) the NMV is useful. Use them all, they are tools for your own tone. One thing I have noticed that can't be ignored how clean great guitarists sound live (Page et al).
 
mdc1mdc11":2kulqvex said:
depends on the style of music, as each have there place, but generally I prefer NMV cranked or through attenuator with perhaps a OD or distortion pedal in front. Seems like the sound is not so squishy, compressed, buzzy. I think it sounds better when recording too. However, if you want to recreate certain sounds (80's, various newer metal genres) the NMV is useful. Use them all, they are tools for your own tone. One thing I have noticed that can't be ignored how clean great guitarists sound live (Page et al).
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I had the same experience with recording too. With my JCM800's and various mv amps I was never 100% happy with my recorded tone. First time I threw a mic on my Ceriatone 1987 that was what I had been looking for. The sound of that amp and my Marshall 1959 just jump out and are more clear than any other amp I ever recorded. Live I use a JCM800 clone just for the simplicity of set up - mv and fx loop and in a room I'm happy with the tone, but when it comes to recording it's always one of my nmv amps.
 
I think for some things there's no question an amp like an old nmv marshall is going to do it's thing better than any newer mv equivalent. But it depends on the application whether that's feasible live. For some things I would be fine just using my volume knob for rhythm/lead tones and use some pedals up front. But for other things that's not really gonna work as easily, and fx loops and the ability to footswitch quickly to what level of gain and volume you need are nice to have. What are you guys that have nmv amps going into attenuators using to get a level boost for leads? I could see that kinda setup working better in a one guitar band vs. 2 etc.
 
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