The New Tone Thread

Greg_L said:
Many of the hard rock and metal sounds from the 70's and early 80's came from those amps, but they also boosted the front end with something. Even into the 80's with the famous JCM800, those hair metal guys boosted the shit out of their front ends with something. 800's don't have that much gain. Hell, even Angus boosted the front of his JTM45 with his wireless unit.

That's one of the things I like about my particular 900 model and why I was drawn to it. In it's natural state it's like a hot rodded 800 - it even shares the same circuitry and gain structure as the two channel 800's - but with an added secondary gain control if I need more. No pedals necessary, unless I want to, and with the right guitar it will do a pretty chimy clean all the way to Slayer metal. So far I haven't needed that second gain for anything, but you never know when I'll wanna let my hair down and put some spandex on.
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Greg_L said:
The 100w is not appreciably louder than the 50w was, but the percussive punch that comes from the 100w is considerably more substantial than the 50w. You can literally feel the power in the room.
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Some good knowledge you're sharing here. Not bad for a kickass drummer turned guitar player. :) A couple of things I'll add:

The JCM800 Marshall you are likely referring to are older amps...2203 (100watt) and 2204(50 watt) and I think it is called 1987 (Superlead). Those are '70s designs that were basically rolled over with new cosmetics and part of the new JCM800 line. The JMC800 series also produced the dual channel amp 2205 trying to meet the needs of more gain, new combos and iirc even some solid state little models. Oh yeah, and the MOSFET (that a friend of mine owned...blah). To me, and this is highly subjective, most of those amps including the 2205 sound different than my 2204. I almost bought one because your favorite band Felony (Lol, I know) required a gain boost in our tunes, so I was auditioning the single channel 900 thinking it would be the same as my amp but more gain and couldn't quite get the sound. I don't know this as a fact, but I would call it a different amp.

Volume: Some of the stages I have played on were theater sized so I always had room at sound check to fuck around with volumes especially being wireless and able to get far away and listen. I have the 6550 power tube version of the 2204 (American version back then) and from about 5, maybe 6 master volume on, there was no real audible (to my ears) difference in db, just in saturation. The difference between 1 and and say 5 was immense, though.

As you said, I ended up driving my front end with a boost but thank God didn't go through with a mod.
 
Telegram Sam said:
That's cool Seeker.
It's going to be some time, but I'm thinking
2204 of some sort with 2x12.

What about Soldano?
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I've got to be honest and say that I heard one of the latinos down here playing through a half stack in Mars Music (2001-ish?) swearing to me before he started that it was better than a Marshall, and to me it sounded really good. I guess it really comes down to tiny details at some point, probably brand loyalty and other gay stuff plays a part I'm sure, too. I've had my 2204 since I was 18 years old so I can tell tiny details on it, but probably not as fairly when I compare it with other amps since I'm so used to this one. I just really dig that '70s Aerosmith style of rock tone so that particular model and amp is what does it for me, but it is not the end-all/be-all of amps. My tech is into Harry Joyce and Hi-WAtts and has some fucking sweet ass amps. Check this out...you can see part of his little collection in the background... George Scholz amplifier shop tour Hiwatt Harry Joyce - YouTube

George (the guy I trust with my amps) is not the main narrator. He is the one in the background that sounds like Arnold Scharzenegger talking. Cool ass guy and knows his shit.
 
Seeker of Rock said:
That's right. I remember you mentioning that you toured playing guitar with someone semi-famous back in the day. So did I read that you have a JTM45 in addition to your 900 now?
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No. I don't have a JTM45. I wouldn't say no to one if you gave it to me, but I don't have one nor am I looking for one. I'm really happy with the amp I have. If I were to get another Marshall, it would be a JVM410 or a JMP 2203 or 2204. Have you played a JVM? It's pretty intimidating with the 500 knobs on the front, but fuck, it sounds incredible. It's like every Marshall ever made rolled into one head. Very impressive.
 
Greg_L said:
No. I don't have a JTM45. I wouldn't say no to one if you gave it to me, but I don't have one nor am I looking for one. I'm really happy with the amp I have. If I were to get another Marshall, it would be a JVM410 or a JMP 2203 or 2204. Have you played a JVM? It's pretty intimidating with the 500 knobs on the front, but fuck, it sounds incredible. It's like every Marshall ever made rolled into one head. Very impressive.
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I lose track of the ones I play in stores. They all seem to have a million knobs on them now. I trust your ears so I may have to play one next time at GC. The 900 is probably all of the amp you'll ever need and I know you're happy with it. How is your pedal experimentation going?
 
Seeker of Rock said:
I lose track of the ones I play in stores. They all seem to have a million knobs on them now. I trust your ears so I may have to play one next time at GC. The 900 is probably all of the amp you'll ever need and I know you're happy with it. How is your pedal experimentation going?
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It's about done. I've got a Dunlop Crybaby "Dime" model, which I think is busted, but it was free, so it might be worth fixing. I wouldn't buy a Dimebag anything, but like I said, it was free. The sweep is weird on it. I also have a TS-9 which I really like, but it sounds very 80's, which I guess is what it's supposed to do. It was free as well, so I'm cool with it. It's a good overdrive pedal. And I have a MXR 10-band EQ in the effects loop which really just fine tunes everything. I like it in the loop much better than in front of the amp. And I got a Polytune tuner and it's all hooked together with a one-spot. I don't gig as a guitarist so all that shit is just laying on the floor in front of the amp. No pedalboard for me. Lol. The only two things left on my pedal wishlist is a good delay and flanger. I have a hookup on a TC Flashback Delay for 100 whenever I wanna go get it. Then I'll just want a flanger and be done. Maybe a tremolo pedal. But that's it!

I am very happy with my 900. I know they get a bad rap, but I think I got one of the good ones. They made three models of 900's - the rare-ish early version MKIII (90-92) which is what I've had two of now, the Dual Reverb 900, and the SL-X. The Dual Reverb and SL-X didn't impress me much. They're kind of too modern sounding to me. The SL-X especially. The SL-X was supposed to be Marshalls answer to the Mesa Dual Rectumfrier. Anyway, I didn't even know the MkIII existed until fairly recently and I bought a 50w model used off the interwebs without hearing it first. It had everything I wanted in a single channel Marshall tube amp. The one I got was kind of jacked though. Having never heard the amp before, I didn't know what it was supposed to sound like and it was okay but not great. After much fiddling and fixing with tubes and biasing, I got it sounding pretty good. I was satisfied but still not blown away. I was still scouring craigslist for a different Marshall. Then in a freak stroke of luck I found my current MkIII 100w version sitting in a used pile at a local GC. I mean, these amps are relatively rare, and I found two of them in a short amount of time. I checked it out and it immediately gave me a boner. That was the sound I was after. One chord and I knew. To top it off it had been completely gone through by Voodoo amps and has about 750 bucks worth of mods and upgrades done to it. It's a monster. So I called the GC in Cali where I got the first amp and after a lot of bitching and haggling I got a full refund and picked up the 100w version the next day. I've been totally happy with it ever since.
 
Lt. Bob said:
how's that polytone tuner?
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It's......a tuner. Lol. It's pretty cool though. The "tune all strings at once" feature is pretty neato mosquito, but it's not as drop-dead accurate in that mode as using it as a standard chromatic tuner. But it does work as advertised, and it automatically jumps between all-strings and single string mode. Strum all strings and the screen switches, pluck a string and it goes chromatic or strobe. And you can set the reference note like with any other tuner. True bypass when off. All the standard bells and whistles of a standard tuner. The screen is light sensitive though, which is cool. I haven't tested it out, but that's what they say. On a dark stage it will self dim so it doesn't light up everything. In a bright room it brightens itself automatically. The display is clear and easy to read too. It's pretty cool.

There's also a mini version, but it doesn't appear to be able to power other pedals. The standard one does.
 
Greg_L said:
It's......a tuner. Lol. It's pretty cool though. The "tune all strings at once" feature is pretty neato mosquito, but it's not as drop-dead accurate in that mode as using it as a standard chromatic tuner. But it does work as advertised, and it automatically jumps between all-strings and single string mode. Strum all strings and the screen switches, pluck a string and it goes chromatic or strobe. And you can set the reference note like with any other tuner. True bypass when off. All the standard bells and whistles of a standard tuner. The screen is light sensitive though, which is cool. I haven't tested it out, but that's what they say. On a dark stage it will self dim so it doesn't light up everything. In a bright room it brightens itself automatically. The display is clear and easy to read too. It's pretty cool.

There's also a mini version, but it doesn't appear to be able to power other pedals. The standard one does.
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I wouldn't want the mini anyways.

My biggest issue/need with a tuner is it has to be visible in direct bright-ass sunlight.
I have some gear that isn't which makes it totally useless for a lot of my gigs.
My Boss TU-2 is easily visible. I need a second for my mini-board and I guess I could just get another Boss but I like new stuff!
:)
 
Lt. Bob said:
I wouldn't want the mini anyways.

My biggest issue/need with a tuner is it has to be visible in direct bright-ass sunlight.
I have some gear that isn't which makes it totally useless for a lot of my gigs.
My Boss TU-2 is easily visible. I need a second for my mini-board and I guess I could just get another Boss but I like new stuff!
:)
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I'll test my Polytune outside today and let you know.

The TU-2/3 is great. I don't think the Polytune is better or worse, it's just different. I think it's true bypass might be better. and it's a sturdy little metal box.
 
Telegram Sam said:
So what is the best generic overdrive pedal.
I'm looking at Fulltone OCD and Fulldrive 2 Mosfet at the moment...
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I have the Fulldrive ...... I loved it and suddenly a couple months I didn't like it anymore ........ :???:

The OCD is loved by just about everyone who tries it ..... you could feel pretty safe with that.
 
Ok Boob, the Polytune passes the sunlight test. It's 98 blazing degrees of direct overhead sun and as soon as my eyes adjusted to being outdoors I could read the display just fine as long as the sun isn't reflecting directly off of it.
 
ShanPeyton said:
Hey tone thread.

So here is the original tone check:




Here is the revision:




And here is another one that i just made that i have sort of fallen in love with. I may end up using this one frequently weather anyone likes it or not. I just like it.

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I vote number 3. But like Gergles said your going to have to try it out in a song first to see?

But now i got a question and this isn't meant to be a dick i mean it to be constructive, but if you like the third one over the other 2 which kind of do sound very simulated? What did you do different to get that sound on the third? What ever you are hearing when dialing in that third one apply to the first three and see what comes of it?

All three are sort of tonally different?

Do you know the sound you are looking for? Or are you just tweaking kobs until you hear something you like.


Another tip for us Amp Sim users to take note of is to, spend minimal time chunks hashing out a tone. Speaking only for myself i will sit down with some headphones or my monitors and try to jam out a tone, i used to sit for extended periods of time hours sometimes just trying to find my sound.

Doing this was kind of over exposure and after about 15 mins i think my brain lost all sense of what it wanted to hear.So like, i'd record with this stuff and reference a day later and guits sounded crappy.

So now i sit down and if i want to make a new tone i'll just take a quick stab at it say 10 mins or so, and i have been kind of happy with the results.
 
Another big thing is keep a record of what you do!
I've got some decent tones recorded and not really clear exactly how to reproduce them.
 
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