Big sound/Little amp

T

theDICKENS

Member
Any super secret tricks to getting a good n punchy rock/hard rock/90's era punk sound out of a small POS amp?

I have a handful of options, but nothing high end. Or even mid range, for that matter. I'm playing a Strat into a dist. pedal into a graphic EQ into a few different practice amps. A Park G10(tiny 10" speaker, pretty good for dirty cleans), a Crate something or other(also a10", serviceable very clean tone), and a Peavey bass amp(I actually kinda like the gritty, nasty sound)

I've got an older Blue Voodoo cab that sounds really good, but has a metal grill and I was getting too much "air" or "room" or whatever
 
I have fond memories of diming a park g10 with tube screamer for a psych-metal section in a prog album last year - completely took be by surprise how big it sounded, but it wasn't suitable for anything short of what we were doing in terms of weirdness.

Sorry I can't be of more help!
 
You sometimes have to try different combinations, I've found some things that don't sound that great live, but make a good recording. Like some of those little battery powered Marshalls, lol.
 
theDICKENS said:
Any super secret tricks to getting a good n punchy rock/hard rock/90's era punk sound out of a small POS amp?

I have a handful of options, but nothing high end. Or even mid range, for that matter. I'm playing a Strat into a dist. pedal into a graphic EQ into a few different practice amps. A Park G10(tiny 10" speaker, pretty good for dirty cleans), a Crate something or other(also a10", serviceable very clean tone), and a Peavey bass amp(I actually kinda like the gritty, nasty sound)

I've got an older Blue Voodoo cab that sounds really good, but has a metal grill and I was getting too much "air" or "room" or whatever
Click to expand...

You just don't get the sound of a Marshall stack from a 10" Crate...
BUT: Have you (check impedance first) tried running the amps through each others' speakers...i.e. try the crate through the Peavey speaker? or other combos...nothing ventured nothing wiped out.
 
I wasn't necessarily trying to get a Marshall sound, just something a little fuller sounding. I haven't tried speaker swapping, but that's not a bad idea
 
SO MUCH of that particular sound,
is just sheer volume,
being reproduced by the right combination of cabinet, speaker, and basic tube head.

you just wont fake that sound out of a small amp....




if you can't crank to a decent 'rock' volume,
your best bet is to move onto a good modeler,
like a Kemper, or Axe Fx
 
Volume isn't really the issue. I can push my practice amp(or half stack) as loud as I need and if I really had to, I could get my hands on a LP and a JCM900.

I was looking more for ways to get my small amps to sound fuller, not bigger.
 
BroKen_H said:
You just don't get the sound of a Marshall stack from a 10" Crate...
BUT: Have you (check impedance first) tried running the amps through each others' speakers...i.e. try the crate through the Peavey speaker? or other combos...nothing ventured nothing wiped out.
Click to expand...

I'm going to buck the conventional wisdom and say, yes you can. You can get a classic Marshall tone from a small amp--recorded, not live.

SO MUCH of that particular sound,
is just sheer volume,
being reproduced by the right combination of cabinet, speaker, and basic tube head.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Recorded and mixed in the context of a song, you aren't hearing the full roar of that 4x12 as you would if you were playing it live. You are hearing whatever came through the microphone, modified by whatever processing was done to the signal, at whatever volume it was mixed relative to all the other instruments in the arrangement. There's a good chance only one of those speakers was miced anyway.
 
Small amps have one advantage - early breakup and natural compression - if that's what you want. They inherently DON'T sound fuller or bigger because they flatten out so much easier. They have little to no headroom. Combine that with tiny cabs sometimes being limited to one speaker and you have a recipe for small sound. With a bigger wattage amp's headroom, lows are tighter, the midrange is more focused, and the highs are crisper leading to a bigger fuller, more multi-dimensional sound. Not to mention they move some air. This depth and air movement does translate into a recording. A mic will pick it up. You can try to fake it, and sometimes with success, but it's all pretty easy when you use the right equipment - if you can. Not everyone can handle the volume of 40-50-65-100 watt amps. But if you can, you will notice the difference.
 
theDICKENS said:
Volume isn't really the issue. I can push my practice amp(or half stack) as loud as I need and if I really had to, I could get my hands on a LP and a JCM900.

I was looking more for ways to get my small amps to sound fuller, not bigger.
Click to expand...

You need to be thinking in terms of microphone, choice, placement, and EQ. By "fuller," I'm guessing you mean plenty of low midrange. You would still have to consider those factors if you were recording a Marshall stack.
 
Greg_L said:
Small amps have one advantage - early breakup and natural compression - if that's what you want. They inherently DON'T sound fuller or bigger because they flatten out so much easier. They have little to no headroom. Combine that with tiny cabs sometimes being limited to one speaker and you have a recipe for small sound. With a bigger wattage amp's headroom, lows are tighter, the midrange is more focused, and the highs are crisper leading to a bigger fuller, more multi-dimensional sound. Not to mention they move some air. This depth and air movement does translate into a recording. A mic will pick it up. You can try to fake it, and sometimes with success, but it's all pretty easy when you use the right equipment - if you can. Not everyone can handle the volume of 40-50-65-100 watt amps. But if you can, you will notice the difference.
Click to expand...

Many of those classic guitar tones that we've all heard on recordings were recorded with small amps. Because it sounds massive on record, we assume it must have been produced by a massive amp. Not necessarily.

Headroom is an important issue in a live situation. In a studio, not so much.
 
Robus said:
Many of those classic guitar tones that we've all heard on recordings were recorded with small amps. Because it sounds massive on record, we assume it must have been produced by a massive amp. Not necessarily.

Headroom is an important issue in a live situation. In a studio, not so much.
Click to expand...

Oh my god. Again, you're so off-base I'm not even gonna bother.

:facepalm: :facepalm:

Good luck.
 
folks tend to harken back to those old zeppelin interviews,
where jimmy says 'yea, the supro........ mic distance creates 'bigness'.......
and when you listen to the guitars in isolation, they just sound small.
but, the genius was in the mix and production.


so, really, if you want a BIG sounding guitar, and you are doing it the good ole fashion way, and not using modeling and impulses, you are going to have to get the speaker to GRUNT in some fashion.....

i have yet to hear convincing big amp sounds out of small amp setups.

but sometimes, you really do not NEED a BIG amp sound...
in fact, it will work against you.
 
For me a big sound comes from a good drums and bass mix, any guitar sound il an eq and a good player would do the job
But that's just me.
 
theDICKENS said:
Volume isn't really the issue. I can push my practice amp(or half stack) as loud as I need and if I really had to, I could get my hands on a LP and a JCM900.

I was looking more for ways to get my small amps to sound fuller, not bigger.
Click to expand...

Another option is double tracking the guitars.
 
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