taming the tubes

georgeo · 08-07-2003, 09:24 AM

so me, being one who knows very little about electric guitars and the likes, has a hard time consistantly getting a good sound for worship music out of my electric amp.

i have fender strat and a hot rod delux amp. granted, stuff varies from guitar to guitar and amp to amp, but i could use some suggestions on how you guys get some good sounds.

i'd like to have a nice sounding clean channel, and then i have drive and overdrive, and i'd like to have it so overdrive is about 10 dB louder than drive.

so yeah. suggestions would be wonderful.
thanks

Guitar MC · 08-07-2003, 11:02 AM

I find that third channel on the hot rods (more drive) to be useless. If you want a more distorted sound then I would use a pedal. The clean sound is really easy to get out of that amp. Just turn it on the clean channel and turn the volume where you want it. You wany also want to add some reverb. For the overdrive I like the drive at about 5 or 6 and the master up to 2 or so if I can get be that loud.

-Trey

nate95366 · 08-07-2003, 09:56 PM

This is where lower wattage is a very nice feature on a tube amp. You can get semi-driven sounds at reasonable volumes. On my Boogie Studio .22, I can manage a crunchy sound that's about 10 dB louder than my clean sound simply by playing with the preamp and master volume knobs. Of course, it's only a 1 channel, two-mode amp, which also makes it a bit easier to use. Occasionally, when I want less than a 10 dB difference, I'll have to work my volume knob on the guitar a bit too....

Nate

**thesteve** · 08-07-2003, 10:58 PM

I've heard that one thing that will work to get a good tone out of this amp is to use either a volume pedal/knob or a compressor of some sort in the effects loops. The idea is that by turning down the volume once it hits the loop, it allows the pre-amp tubes to run hotter while keeping the volume turned down. I don't know if this actaully works.

Guitar MC · 08-09-2003, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dudedude2

I've heard that one thing that will work to get a good tone out of this amp is to use either a volume pedal/knob or a compressor of some sort in the effects loops. The idea is that by turning down the volume once it hits the loop, it allows the pre-amp tubes to run hotter while keeping the volume turned down. I don't know if this actaully works.

I have never thought of that but it sounds like a really good idea. Anyone know if this works or is dangerous in any way?

-Trey

**thesteve** · 08-09-2003, 09:01 PM

I know there's a guy on eBay who basically mass sells the things for lik $19.95.