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Post subject: General guide to getting most out your amplifier
Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 8:14 am
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Hey guys was just wondering if someone on here could help out with this one. Im constantly getting an average tone out of my guitar/amp setup and was wondering if anyone had a basic system of getting the most out of any amp. Im not looking for your favourite eq settings, more just trying to get the best out an amp and make the thing sing. Im assuming playing in different enviroments/rooms and with different guitars the amp eq needs to be modified to find that sweet spot, but i can never really find it and usually use the same sort of settings all the time. I play a lot of blues/rock with an Eric Johnson strat through a Hot Rod Deville 410 if you need to know.

Cheers ur help would be much appreciated!


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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 9:36 pm
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53 views and not 1 single reply, surely one of u guitarists on this forum has an answer for my question??? :?


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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:14 am
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A compressor could really juice up your lead tone and increase the sustain quite a bit, at least i think, without having heard your playing

Get it loud, both the preamp and power tubes needs to be cooking as i know,
When your amp is cranked nicely and you're close by a bit of feedback will occur, not screams, just that earthly growlin'

Never play your guitar at full volume, keep it a maximum of 8-9

Reverb can make or break a guitar tone


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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 6:56 am
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I can't help, but I'm also curious. I've never learned how to really "dial in" an amp (or pedals). I'm currently only playing at home (except for the occasional jam), so I have to play at low volume. This keeps me from experimenting with the settings on my Blues Junior to find the "sweet spot" and learning how OD/Distortion pedals interact with the amp.

I've played in bands before, but usually just tweaked a knob or two until it sounded okay. Now, I want to improve my tone and learn how to use my amp to its potential but I'm stuck playing at low volume!


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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:08 am
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Playing loud is not just to get the tubes hot, the EQ will act differently at different volume levels(at least on all amps I've tried) and it's made to work it's best at gig volume lvls

If you have a tube amp really low, and say, decrease the bass because it sounds boomy, your sound will be VERY thin if you just crank the volume without adjusting your eq


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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:10 am
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One more thing to mention is, strangely, the less knobs, the easier it is to get a great tone:)


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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:13 pm
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I'm having the same problem.


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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:43 am
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I don't know if there is an easy answer but here is what I generally do.

First decide what volume you are trying get te best tone. At practice levels, the preamp is where your tone will come from. As you get louder the power amp is where te tone gets generated.

I find that at low levels, I need more radical eq settings, like a bunch of bass to get the speaker moving better and greater gain settings. However, too much bass or gain as you turn up losses the tightness and gets boomy and overwhelming, you have to turn it down. At louder levels, my eq settings become flatter. At any volume level, I find it is best to start with eq in the middle of its range so you can add and reduce frequencies equally. Just about any amp will sound pretty good with every knob (including volume) at the 12 o'clock position-this is what AC/DC does with their Marshall stacks---its loud though

Your amp settings loud will be way different than at practice levels and vice versa. Start with all knobs in the middle (12 o'clock) and adjust to taste is what I say. Most of the time, you will like how your amps sounds with everything at 12 o'clock, and you can adjust the volume from there and see how the volume adjustment affected the tone

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1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst


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