Check out these guitar tones!

  • Thread starter Thread starter telewacker
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eyema_believer said:
Nice!
I own two Crate Palominos... a 1x12 and a 2x12.
What's a "Pre Rola G12S?"

~Shawn
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The Holy Grail of vintage speakers are "Pre Rola" Celestion Greenbacks. They have Pulsonic cones that are reputed to be unrivaled and impossible to duplicate. They are from the late 60's-early 70's. They are G12S (small magnet, 20 watts) G12M (medium, 25 watts) and G12H (heavy, 30 watts) They can have either lead or bass cones. I am always hunting for them on ebay. The track "Terraplane" in the original post of this thread is a Marshall 4x12 with Pre Rola G12Ms. Here's the definitive discussion on the topic.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=67646
 
Sloan said:
Yeah I just fixed it minutes ago!
It was that common problem where the heater fries that molex connector on the tube board because they can't take all the heat. Easy fix, you just solder the wires directly to the board.

Have you experimented with different tubes in yours? Mine still has the stock SLM Electronics "HOT RODS" tubes. I've got some JJ's in a Blue Voodoo that I'm thinking about throwing in there....
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You bet. I have NOS Mullards inthe preamp, except a plain Chinese 12AX7 in the PI, and I love JJ KT88s in the power amp. If NOS are too expensive the best 12AX7s made now are Electro Harmonix, imo.
 
So I quickly surfed over here from my home computer before I left from work to check your stuff out since everyone's been raving...

...and finally had to tear myself away about halfway through because I was going to be seriously late for work if I didn't. :p Great stuff, man. The sax influence is quite clear, and would it be totally off base to accuse you of listening to a bit of Danny Gatton now and then? I actually thought it was a Tele you were playing, based on that tone, and was wondering if you had a B-bender on it or were just copping the bar-dip sound with light strings and aggressive bending. :lol:

I'll listen to a bit more when I get off work, as I really liked some of the raw-er sounding raked stuff you started doing halfway through. My roots are a little more, oh, torn and frayed than yours are, and I'm way more into that kind of stuff - any particular track you'd recommend I'd start on?

Anyway, excellent stuff - oodles of technique, but only to serve the music. Well done! :D
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
So I quickly surfed over here from my home computer before I left from work to check your stuff out since everyone's been raving...

...and finally had to tear myself away about halfway through because I was going to be seriously late for work if I didn't. :p Great stuff, man. The sax influence is quite clear, and would it be totally off base to accuse you of listening to a bit of Danny Gatton now and then? I actually thought it was a Tele you were playing, based on that tone, and was wondering if you had a B-bender on it or were just copping the bar-dip sound with light strings and aggressive bending. :lol:

I'll listen to a bit more when I get off work, as I really liked some of the raw-er sounding raked stuff you started doing halfway through. My roots are a little more, oh, torn and frayed than yours are, and I'm way more into that kind of stuff - any particular track you'd recommend I'd start on?

Anyway, excellent stuff - oodles of technique, but only to serve the music. Well done! :D
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I played a Tele for years (hence the name) but I've been playing a Strat for 15 mos. and the whammy is like an appendage now. There is more fiery chops oriented playing on some of the live clips like Jungle Strut or Rock House, straight ahead hollowbody jazz on Love For Sale, lots of saxophone too. So root around a bit and hopefully you'll find something you like!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=823181&content=music
 
The first piece sounds kinda Jeff Beck "Wired"-esque. I like it a lot.
 
These amps, Ampeg VL1002, VL502 are the best kept secret out there.
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yea they are. i have a vl-1002 myself, and the thing smokes...well, it did, until it totally f*cked up on me

1st it did the toasted molex thing. no biggie...took it to a tech, had it fixed, all was good. then i swapped the original, 10+ y/o power tubes for JJ EL34's, cranked it for around 30 seconds, and it went dead on me.

turned out the power x-former got toasted. i had a tech install a new x-former, but i still don't have the amp back(after more than a year of sitting in his shop), because he said that it's drawing around 2 amps of power, where it should only draw an amp, and that if i use it as is, it'll keep blowing through transformers.

ugh. now i'm stuck with the decision of dropping more coin into this amp, or just ditching the thing and picking up something else in its place.
 
Ironklad Audio said:
yea they are. i have a vl-1002 myself, and the thing smokes...well, it did, until it totally f*cked up on me

1st it did the toasted molex thing. no biggie...took it to a tech, had it fixed, all was good. then i swapped the original, 10+ y/o power tubes for JJ EL34's, cranked it for around 30 seconds, and it went dead on me.

turned out the power x-former got toasted. i had a tech install a new x-former, but i still don't have the amp back(after more than a year of sitting in his shop), because he said that it's drawing around 2 amps of power, where it should only draw an amp, and that if i use it as is, it'll keep blowing through transformers.

ugh. now i'm stuck with the decision of dropping more coin into this amp, or just ditching the thing and picking up something else in its place.
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Send it to Lee Jackson and get it fixed right!
 
telewacker said:
Send it to Lee Jackson and get it fixed right!
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Yeah, as far as I know, he still does work and mods on them. Ampeg did some cost-cutting when they manufactured them and there's a few other things he does to make them even better. If I had money, I would definitely be up for sending mine to him.
 
Send it to Lee Jackson and get it fixed right!
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i'd thought about that, but the cost to ship it to TX and back, plus the $$ he charges per hour, is more than what the amp is worth

the whole situation behind that amp is pretty messed up...i recently moved from CA to IN, and had to leave the amp at the tech's house with the hopes that he'll get it fixed at some point and send it to me, because i didn't have the money to pay for the work he's done so far before i left.

i think what i'm going to do is have him send it to me as-is, then get a hold of the tech in indianapolis who i took it to when the molex toasted and have him look at it, for he seems to be infinitely wiser than the guy who possesses it right now.

edit: and FWIW, if anyone might be interested in buying this beast and having it shipped to them, i'd be willing to entertain offers...i'd really actually prefer to have a 2x12 combo at this point, and selling the ampeg and my marshall cab would almost cover the cost of a 5150 combo.
 
Great Playing Telewacker! Great tone, very Jeff Beckish for sure. My Strat lays unused alongside all my Teles. I might have to re-examine my neglect of the wammy bar! I just started playing with fingers about two weeks ago. I was too lazy to go downstairs for a pick! I've been hybrid-picking for years, but somehow the naked thumb doesn't feel too bad now, and I really like the Flamenco options for downstrokes. You seem to play a lot around modes rather than scale, yes?
 
mikemorgan said:
Great Playing Telewacker! Great tone, very Jeff Beckish for sure. My Strat lays unused alongside all my Teles. I might have to re-examine my neglect of the wammy bar! I just started playing with fingers about two weeks ago. I was too lazy to go downstairs for a pick! I've been hybrid-picking for years, but somehow the naked thumb doesn't feel too bad now, and I really like the Flamenco options for downstrokes. You seem to play a lot around modes rather than scale, yes?
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Thanks for the kind words! Modes, scales, chromatic passing tones, chord shapes, all fair game. But I'm really trying to play melodic lines that evolve in my head as I play...one idea generating the next. That's the goal anyway!

Check out my music!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=823181&content=music
 
Superb! Thanks!

My guitar path leads directly to where your sound is.....hope I run into you someday for a quick jam!

Is it possible to get kind of sound with a Mesa and some alnico Weber Blue Dogs?? Seems odd to find someone getting that sound without a compressor. WOW!

Very nice! :cool:
 
soundchaser59 said:
Superb! Thanks!

My guitar path leads directly to where your sound is.....hope I run into you someday for a quick jam!

Is it possible to get kind of sound with a Mesa and some alnico Weber Blue Dogs?? Seems odd to find someone getting that sound without a compressor. WOW!

Very nice! :cool:
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Thanks man!! The key for my tone is a Lee Jackson designed amp and Celestion Pre Rola speakers. No pick and Lollar Strat Special pups. The whole signal chain is described upthread. The pups have a silky shimmer and thicker sound than stock Strat pups. The amp has tons of smooth saturation and really focused harmonics, and the speakers have that woody crunchy tone with the sweetest top end. Then it's all about touch and working the guitar's volume.
 
Well, I know what you mean.

I've cycled thru a dozen amps in the last 2-3 years, and 3-4 dozen speakers before I got into the alnico stuff. I've settled on Weber Blue Dogs (12") and Blue Pups (10"), and both 12 and 10 inch Tone Tubbys, in birch cabs, open and closed back. I never did shell out the bigger bucks to try the Celestion alnico drivers. The ceramics all sound pretty much alike to me. If I were going with ceramics, I'd probably stick with Webers, TT's, and Eminence, and the Jensen C12K and Blackbird has always been a closet favorite too.

I cant afford the truly boo-teek amps, but I am for the time being happy to fiddle with a Mesa Express 5.25.

I have a 40th anniv Std. MIA Strat, and the only experience I have with pickups is having hot noiseless put in to get rid of the excess hum. I have them set low to tame the high freq response.

And I have recently learned about the advantages of not running the guitar volume knob at 10 all the time. I do play with my finger quite often, especially for finer touch fast strumming. I've noticed a slightly worn and softened felt bass pick can give a nice smooth tone.

I have come close to getting your tone, but not until I put a EHX Black Finger compressor in my chain. After I fiddled with the BF for a few hours, I promptly posted and sold all of my overdrive pedals. Since the BF is tube in and tube out, with high voltage in between, it does have a slight hum in it at high gain. So for clean stuff I use a BBE Opto stomp compressor, since it is virtually 99.9999999% noiseless. It doubles for bass tracks as well, works nicely for that.

I've been reluctant to experiment with pickups. Demo recordings are useless for estimating sound, and they are hard to repack and return once they are installed. It's a gamble I haven't been real enthused about taking, and I'm never sure how much difference it will make anyway. But I do know I DON'T like high gain, high freq, top end sizzle. I want it so sing, but I cant stand that buzzy distortion that is so easy to get these days.

Your tone is excellent. I'm going to experiment with renewed enthusiasm today, thanks to your recordings! Appreciate it!
 
soundchaser59 said:
Well, I know what you mean.

I've cycled thru a dozen amps in the last 2-3 years, and 3-4 dozen speakers before I got into the alnico stuff. I've settled on Weber Blue Dogs (12") and Blue Pups (10"), and both 12 and 10 inch Tone Tubbys, in birch cabs, open and closed back. I never did shell out the bigger bucks to try the Celestion alnico drivers. The ceramics all sound pretty much alike to me. If I were going with ceramics, I'd probably stick with Webers, TT's, and Eminence, and the Jensen C12K and Blackbird has always been a closet favorite too.

I cant afford the truly boo-teek amps, but I am for the time being happy to fiddle with a Mesa Express 5.25.

I have a 40th anniv Std. MIA Strat, and the only experience I have with pickups is having hot noiseless put in to get rid of the excess hum. I have them set low to tame the high freq response.

And I have recently learned about the advantages of not running the guitar volume knob at 10 all the time. I do play with my finger quite often, especially for finer touch fast strumming. I've noticed a slightly worn and softened felt bass pick can give a nice smooth tone.

I have come close to getting your tone, but not until I put a EHX Black Finger compressor in my chain. After I fiddled with the BF for a few hours, I promptly posted and sold all of my overdrive pedals. Since the BF is tube in and tube out, with high voltage in between, it does have a slight hum in it at high gain. So for clean stuff I use a BBE Opto stomp compressor, since it is virtually 99.9999999% noiseless. It doubles for bass tracks as well, works nicely for that.

I've been reluctant to experiment with pickups. Demo recordings are useless for estimating sound, and they are hard to repack and return once they are installed. It's a gamble I haven't been real enthused about taking, and I'm never sure how much difference it will make anyway. But I do know I DON'T like high gain, high freq, top end sizzle. I want it so sing, but I cant stand that buzzy distortion that is so easy to get these days.

Your tone is excellent. I'm going to experiment with renewed enthusiasm today, thanks to your recordings! Appreciate it!
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Those Lee Jackson designed Ampeg VL1002 amps are cheap...$500 on ebay. Just saying.;)

There is no speaker made that sounds like the Pre Rola Celestion Greenbacks. I just bought two on eBay for $330, which is a good price considering new Scumbacks or Heritages are as much but can't touch the tone. I use a Weber Ceramic Blue Dog in my Ampeg Gemini 1, but for the tone in my clips it's Pre Rolas...that's where I would spend my money first. I'm building up a collection.

I use a Suhr Silent Single Coil system along with the Lollars to avoid pickup hum. It allows you to use traditional single coils and get rid of the noise without changing the tone, so if you prefer the sound of single coils there's an option available now.

Anyway best of luck to you on your quest for tone!!
 
hey, great beautiful tones, I accidentally clicked on lofi and that does not do it justice but that's a wonderful sound you're getting. It's funny my last band did a lot of solo work so I actually started listening to sax players for ideas. I swear they have the most fluid solos.
 
drfringe said:
hey, great beautiful tones, I accidentally clicked on lofi and that does not do it justice but that's a wonderful sound you're getting. It's funny my last band did a lot of solo work so I actually started listening to sax players for ideas. I swear they have the most fluid solos.
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Thanks!! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
 
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