variac tests 02

[Jeremy1283]

here's a clip where the voltage is even lower - this clip is like really low volume - low enough that it sort of makes you want to turn it up - but i think it came out a little better.

ep-pre and 6band settings - boost city on the mxr but no hiss when variac'd down low.

boxes-curve.jpg

this sounds stellar!

[efraser68]

Thanks for the thread reboot and I've always loved Rob's "pepper" clip. It's in the top 5 as far as I've heard.

So I went and dialed in the same setup as the OP listed with no attenuator, bringing the variac down to 55v and slowly bringing up. Made it to about 65v and then put in the GE-7 for the front kick. Of course I had to adjust the EQ levelers for my setup and it sounded pretty kick ass. Not necessarily "better" than what I'm getting with either attenuating or slaving.

But if I was Ed and was just left to the amp, a variac and a MXR 6-band, it would've been an awesome discovery. Fun to test-drive a rig as Ed might have done!

[Jeremy1283]

ok - these are slaved with the 47k in the tone stack.

Dimarzio SD > mxr 6 band boosted into the stratosphere smile > ep-pre @ 1:00 > SL variac'd into oblivion > weber mass150 dummy load out > presonus MP20 with IDSS cranked to 100% > Tech 21 Power Engine 300 > weber pre-rola dope, stan spec.

so much for keeping it simple!

Is your amp volume cranked?

[rgalpin]

i'm pretty sure it was - i have a 5600 on the volume pot - so as you turn it you get more and more lows filling in under the top - before 5 it's pretty thin - by 7 it's pretty much all in - not a whole lot of difference between 7 and 10 - maybe a little sloppy juice that could require a little adjustment in the signal chain - depending - it becomes a compromise between juice: good and slop in the bass which eats up the articulation - - so i probably turned it all the way up and listened to see if the juice was worth the slop and then adjusted as needed.

[Jeremy1283]

i'm pretty sure it was - i have a 5600 on the volume pot - so as you turn it you get more and more lows filling in under the top - before 5 it's pretty thin - by 7 it's pretty much all in - not a whole lot of difference between 7 and 10 - maybe a little sloppy juice that could require a little adjustment in the signal chain - depending - it becomes a compromise between juice: good and slop in the bass which eats up the articulation - - so i probably turned it all the way up and listened to see if the juice was worth the slop and then adjusted as needed.

I have noticed the same thing with my 12 series. My clips wre all at 6. Anymore it gets really sloppy.hmmm
What part if the circuit makes the slip happen. Do u know? Is it in the power section that gives muddy?

[Carbia]

Which is your heaters voltage when you use the Variac?

Many people thinks that using lower voltages you can't damage the tubes. But it's not true.

Running tubes at higher or lower heater voltages than recommended kills tube life.

[dirtycooter]

I think we covered this cathode stripping and tube damage a while ago. Years maybe.
Meanwhile... not my tubes, and I don't have a dime invested...
Let the game continue

[Carbia]

I let to do whatever they want with THEIR tubes

Anyway, I like 500v Marshalls

[awangotango]

this juice/slop ratio and your knob settings suggest you've got significant untapped overdrive left in the head. The clip shows this too. Everyone should have at least one marshall set up so that it's dimed, including the bass ! there's ways to keep it tight. then you'll have some 2 stage plexi overdrive that dribbles down your bib the right way. keep the bright cap. as we have learned, it's still in the circuit even though the experts say it's not.

[Jeremy1283]

this juice/slop ratio and your knob settings suggest you've got significant untapped overdrive left in the head. The clip shows this too. Everyone should have at least one marshall set up so that it's dimed, including the bass ! there's ways to keep it tight. then you'll have some 2 stage plexi overdrive that dribbles down your bib the right way. keep the bright cap. as we have learned, it's still in the circuit even though the experts say it's not.

What do you change to keep it tight?

[awangotango]

that's what the forum is about. Apparently one has to learn this for himself because each amp is a little different. There are guidelines and general rules which ususally get you to the killer plexi result. a cap here a resistor there, done. It's pretty basic, assuming you were chosen to be able to see and hear what a killer plexi is. It's like a regular plexi, except it is tuned to be usable dimed. So when you back off of this amp it may work a bit different than a regular run of the mill plexi that does not go to ten. One is not better than the other but they are different, and anypne searching for ed's tone and feel has only one choice. end of story = killer plexi, straight in + hands. you don't need nothing else to get ed's core sound. not even a mod. It's a joke how simple it is. You don't even need the variac. In fact you could build a plexi with no controls as long as you keep the bright and presence caps wired in. The fine tuning of gain and compression is done using the components, tube choice and internally setting the plate voltages to those particular tubes. That's the easy part, the hard part is doing enough of this to be able to know what parts to tune and when and how much. the old forums and old tech/players already spilled their beans years ago and is widely known by the chosen ones.



here's a somewhat related piece of info. Bernie grubman, the vinyl cutter extraodinaire mentions at around 3:50 the nature of the tube amp that runs the power amp to the cutter. 2 tubes and high plates, just like I been tellin' you guys!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9YN8Kvx ... A&index=21 Bernie drops some other pearls of wisdom, again, if you have the ears to hear it

[Tone Slinger]

Jeremy,I'm sure you mentioned it in another thread somewhere, but what brand of Tranny's did you use in your amp (choke, PT and Ot) ?

[dirtycooter]

that's what the forum is about. Apparently one has to learn this for himself because each amp is a little different. There are guidelines and general rules which ususally get you to the killer plexi result. a cap here a resistor there, done. It's pretty basic, assuming you were chosen to be able to see and hear what a killer plexi is. It's like a regular plexi, except it is tuned to be usable dimed. So when you back off of this amp it may work a bit different than a regular run of the mill plexi that does not go to ten. One is not better than the other but they are different, and anypne searching for ed's tone and feel has only one choice. end of story = killer plexi, straight in + hands. you don't need nothing else to get ed's core sound. not even a mod. It's a joke how simple it is. You don't even need the variac. In fact you could build a plexi with no controls as long as you keep the bright and presence caps wired in. The fine tuning of gain and compression is done using the components, tube choice and internally setting the plate voltages to those particular tubes. That's the easy part, the hard part is doing enough of this to be able to know what parts to tune and when and how much. the old forums and old tech/players already spilled their beans years ago and is widely known by the chosen ones.



here's a somewhat related piece of info. Bernie grubman, the vinyl cutter extraodinaire mentions at around 3:50 the nature of the tube amp that runs the power amp to the cutter. 2 tubes and high plates, just like I been tellin' you guys!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9YN8Kvx ... A&index=21 Bernie drops some other pearls of wisdom, again, if you have the ears to hear it

NO tone controls.... how funny! . But most likely very true . Ed did say the same very thing in an interview I read once-Those old marshalls are all different, like the tone controls, if you touch anything you are just taking it out.

So this is probably what he meant

[Jeremy1283]

Jeremy,I'm sure you mentioned it in another thread somewhere, but what brand of Tranny's did you use in your amp (choke, PT and Ot) ?

Hey tone slinger i actually never talked about it! . I have georges (heybeor)pt dual output tanny and a 3h choke.

[Strat78]

went back and checked out these clips again, this is a really great thread on using the variac! After hearing the comparisons, it sounds like the only difference in yours and the VH tone is perhaps two cents on the 12301 bass knob. I though it was the opposite at first but now hearing with fresh ears, it seems pretty clear. Thanks for doing the leg work here, THATS what Metro is all about.