Post
by stusixtysix » Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:10 pm
Just thought I'd give props to all the toneseekers who have been working on slaving as a path to tonal gratification and post a bit of a synopsis of what I've been mucking around with. Through reading the many many pages of information on this forum I've put myself together a rig from stuff I had laying around in the shed that continues to have me saying "this is sooo cool" every day when I plug in.
Just wanna share my signal chain as of last night:
Guitar (kramer focus POS with an original Floyd/ Duncan '59 and a Vantage Avenger Maple/ ash/ brass bridge and a mismatched coil mongrel PU I made for the VH-type thing) many others including a stock Tele, strat with Kinmans, Stock LP, LP junior, all have something good going on with this rig)
guitar lead of varying reliability
MI Audio Boost n Buff (has an "always-on" FET buffer with footswitchable boost mode) sometimes I'll stick my Phase 90 in between the guitar and the buffer if I'm in a VH mood.
patch cord made from belden 8761
A/B box to Boss tuner
another homemade guitar lead from the finest, er, cable i could find in the shed (thinks its canare mic cable)
beaten-to-heck 1973 Marshall jmp 50W, 1987 model, with Siemens EL34's, run on an autotransformer scavenged from an old Rank TV to drop its mains voltage to about 200 - 210 (I'm on 240 more like 250 at home) Makes about 22-25 watts of power this way, can still push a cab directly pretty loud If I want. Otherwise the amp is stock, set presence 6 bass 4 mid 10 treble 5 volume 6-7, Channel I, channel II turned off. There's still a tad of room for a nice little gain kick when I stomp the boost n buff to boost mode this way and clean or pretty crunchy from the guitar volume knob.
Output selector set to 4 Ohms.
8 Ohm 100W load resistor (2 x 4 Ohm 50W in series) in speaker jack 1. I like the tone and feel of the mismatch.
Speaker jack 2 connects to a homebrew line level box with a reasonable quality audio iso transformer scavenged from an old Flett Public Address mixer amplifier, a switchable resistor pad and a level pot to set how hard I drive stuff downstream.
Roland Space Echo (has a 3-position output level switch used to manipulate final volume as well, set to the middle position most of the time or to Low for late evening practice) output from the line-level box goes into the Instrument input, level control is dimed but I use the line level box pot to optimise/ adjust how the Echo input is driven.
1971 Marshall Super Bass 100 with Siemens EL34's biased cool. Set presence 0-2, bass 5, mid 3-4, treble 0-2, volume I 2-3, volume II 2. Output selector at 16.
Big heavy speaker cable
angled 4x12 with 70's blackback Celestion 25's, 16 Ohm cab.
I've tried the echo-before-first amp (the 50W) and it's a cool sound too, more like EVH's "slaps in the gaps", it's also lots of fun to stick the earplugs in and just run amp 1 straight to a cab... It's definitely more hissy with the Space Echo in front of amp 1, but I'm really digging the echo in between amp 1 and amp 2 for the other, non-vh songs I've been practicing with the rig. I've also done the Space-Echo-Across-Channels, on both amps, and each has a benefit, right now having the Echo in simple series between driven amp and clean-power amp is adding a little edge and compression that I like.
For me I guess the best benefit of the slaving, apart from the flexibility with the echo, is the ability to get a sound that's fun to play and practice on at home in the evenings that 'sounds' big without being 'just loud' and either causing ear fatigue/ damage or pissing off the unwilling audience of other house members and neighbours. It can still be still loud enough to get some feedback and sustain, but not really louder in actual volume to my cranked 2 Watt Valvetone Impact into the same 4x12, although there's a lot more headroom and potential for loudness if required.
Its got to the point where I havent touched the settings apart from delay time/ mix for weeks. I'm actually enjoying just walking in, switching on and playing it instead of tweaking stuff. I'm gonna take this rig to a band practice session this weekend and give it a real test under fire! I really oughta make a clip too...
"...i am a victim of the science age..."