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Post subject: Tone stacking?
Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:13 pm
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The Fumbly asks........could you knowledgeable folks please explain, what is tone stacking....as regards an amplifier circuit.....what does "a tone stacking amp" mean....and could you give a few examples of popular Fender and other tone stacking amp models.

Thanks.

Note: I get tone stacking as far as pedals etc or even a pedal into an amp. But I'm assuming this has something to do with the circuitry and I'm curious what that might mean in terms of the internals of the amp/circuit.


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Post subject: Re: Tone stacking?
Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 4:30 pm
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A good place to start -

https://robrobinette.com/How_The_TMB_To ... _Works.htm


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Post subject: Re: Tone stacking?
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:05 am
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upnorth2 I think you for the link and I definitely will read it properly (probably have to do so several times before any of it sinks in) but for right now.....and being as it's almost 2am and I am falling asleep, I just skimmed through it. To be honest I was hoping for a more 'layman's' explanation..... so my ADD doesn't say "screw you" to me....so I can start to understand it better.

Thanks brother.


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Post subject: Re: Tone stacking?
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:40 am
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I'm guessing you've noticed Tim'sAudio posts where he mentions that tone stacks add subtle distortion.

Simply put: "tone stack" means "passive treble/middle/bass tone controls". All T/M/B Fender, Marshall, and Vox amps are tone stack amps (not including their modeling amps).

Virtually all modern guitar amps have tone stacks. There are some amps that just have a treble knob -- that's not a "tone stack". And some amps have nothing but a volume knob -- again no stack.

There are a few amps with active T/M/B controls. I'm not sure where they fit in this discussion.

Note that some amps only have treble and bass, with no knob for mids. Those are also tone stacks. There actually is a midrange control, but it's preset with a fixed-value resistor rather than having an adjustable pot.
--------------------------
To confuse matters: some amps have "tone stack bypass switches" which seem to make the amp more distorted. But that's due to a different side-effect of tone stacks. Stacks absorb/lose some of the signal. So bypassing a stack does get rid of the subtle distortions that the stack adds, but it also increases signal strength which drives the tubes harder -- it's that boost that gives more distortion. (But because it gets rid of the T/M/B's inherent distortion, it sounds a little different than simply putting a clean boost pedal in front of the amp.)


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Post subject: Re: Tone stacking?
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 8:00 pm
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While I didn't name it, the tone stack gets its name for the way the circuit is drawn in schematic form.
The treble path shown on top, the bass circuit below it and the midrange is drawn on the bottom.
This stack of circuits makes up the tone control that Leo perfected for Fender amps. It was an unused design from the 1920s that he picked up and dusted off in the late 1950s. While it uses fewer parts than a Bandaxall tone circuit, it distorted too much for general voice amplification. Leo found it perfect for rock guitar and everybody copied him.
The treble capacitor and the bass capacitor pass their signal at different times. Where the signals overlap in the midrange, the time delay difference reduces and distorts the midrange between 200 -600 hz. The sonic effect is you hear two guitars playing, one high, one low. This richens the musical content on a flat body guitar.
A resonant acoustic guitar doesn't benefit as much and jazz and country music traditionally use cleaner tone controls without distortion..


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