The New Tone Thread

[Lt. Bob]

I got that gig which is part of my continued absence ..... also it's Bikeweek which has me gigging 8 days in a row.

But I did get the gig and the next job is Monday where I'll be expected to know my shit without having a chance to ever have any rehearsal with them.
We're doing some really cool eclectic stuff.
It's a 5 piece band with a trumpet player and me on sax and git.

Do a little T.O.P. but mostly obscure extremely cool funk stuff plus a lot of their originals and nothing that I've played very much.

I have about 60 songs that I have to have cold for Monday and here's an example ...... lol .... Greg will hate this! Listen 'till the horn line comes in ........

I'll be expected to nail this line in unison with the guitar and trumpet so if I miss a single note it'll stand out.
Good thing I'm bad-ass!

Anyways ..... I'm sure you'll see I have a lot on the learning plate and I have to squeeze in my studying between gigs.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Here's the Monday gig ...... we have some others booked and are gonna try to go after the festival circuit where we can make some money.

 

[Greg_L]

Lol. That is a pretty strange run there. I can kind of understand the melody and pattern to it though, or I'm just kidding myself, but I'm sure you'll kill it. I really like the guitar sound. Sounds like a hot Strat.

You go Louisiana Steve!

 

[Lt. Bob]

Lol. That is a pretty strange run there. I can kind of understand the melody and pattern to it though, or I'm just kidding myself, but I'm sure you'll kill it. I really like the guitar sound. Sounds like a hot Strat.

You go Louisiana Steve!

that's Bill ..... he gets killer tone ..... plays thru a Fender Pro-Reverb I think ...... an old blackface Fender amp you don't see a lot.
And he was likely using his strat although he has a seriously awesome melody maker/les Paul that he uses too.
Yeah ..... the backing is just straight funk but the run is pretty weird. It's just a matter of memorizing the notes because musically it doesn't make any sense.
Thankfully they don't do much like that ....... I get bored with stuff that was obviously meant to be weird just for the sake of being weird.

 

[Greg_L]

And for the record, I don't hate stuff like that. Lol. I'd much rather listen to some funky soul sounding stuff than standard cheesy blues rock Mustang Sally covers.

 

[Lt. Bob]

And for the record, I don't hate stuff like that. Lol. I'd much rather listen to some funky soul sounding stuff than standard cheesy blues rock Mustang Sally covers.

gotcha ...... well you might would like this band then. It's funk and soul .... everyone has that 'black vocal' thing going on so we should have great vox ..... and we would never do Mustang Sally!

I've learned to not get too excited about stuff, but if I were to get excited I'd be excited about this band.
The solo gig thing is great for your chops but it also gets kinda draining to never have anyone to bounce ideas off of.

Well ok ......... maybe I'm a little excited.

 

[minerman]

Congrats on the gig Bob, I knew you'd get it, as you're a bad-ass player all-'round.....The last band I was in, I had to do a similar thing, had to learn a whole set-list in about a week & 1/2....Again, congrats dude!!!

The clip you posted does sound good, but like the Gerg, it just ain't my kinda thing, although I do appreciate different stuff a lot more now than I did a few years ago....

Off to work guys, see ya!!!

 

[Greg_L]

Here's some fucking around. Still getting re-acquainted with the 2204. It's truly better than ever.

I wanted to see how it would do with the volume cranked, but with the pre gain way, way down low. I wanted almost pure power section. I've heard of people doing this for a dry Plexi type sound with these amps, but never tried it before because the amp wouldn't behave properly. But now that it's fixed, I have to say it does sound kind of Plexi-ish like that. Kind of. With some more experimentation I think I could get it closer, but this was just for kicks. I can just plug into my Super Lead for a Plexi sound. It's a comedy of options over here!

Anyway, enough bragging, here it goes...just for fucking around, I think I really like this sound.
Hallmark 60 Custom - P-Rails bridge pickup in P-90 mode.
Marshall JMP 2204
All tone controls - 5
Pre-amp vol - 2
Master vol - 10
Marshall 1960a 4x12 - G12-65 - SM57 on axis, on grill, just outside of dustcap
No EQ or fucking around in DAW
New York Dolls - Personality Crisis

 

[Greg_L]

This won't be everyone's cup of tea, probably only mine, but this sound is what made me want to play guitar. Still does. I've branched out a little bit, a very little bit, but for me this is the big bang of my guitar universe.

Imagine the musical landscape in 1976. Picture what passed for rock and roll in the early to mid 70s. And then imagine getting hit in the ears with this. It was much later for me, but this shaped my entire musical existence.

 

[Sky Blue Lou]

... here's an example .....

Alternate reality. Paul Barerre met Lowell George and they both stayed with the Mothers.

 

[rayc]

The Dolls and the Brothers in a couple of posts - covering my youth Greg. I remember reading about the Dolls when Malcolm McLaren took over their management - red leather days really.

 

[minerman]

Sounds good Gerg....I like the clean yet still dirty sound man, I dunno if you've noticed it or not, but my tones have been a little cleaner than I'd been using, going for clarity....Glad you got the amp sorted dude, sounds tits....

Not much on the Ramones myself, but I can appreciate that's your grail dude, I've got too many to mention really, but I will say Angus Young's tone on the live album "If You Want Blood" live album had a big influence on me wanting to play guitar, & by the time my sister took me to see 'em live, I was hooked....

Check out this thread in the Marshall Roadhouse:
The Marshall Roadhouse

This guy modded his DSL-1 to be like the big version, OD1/2, clean & crunch...He posted some shit about what's missing in the 1w version compared to the 100/50w amp, but I really don't have a clue what all that shit is...I could probably find out, but really, if I didn't know what I was doing, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to be fucking around inside the little amp...It sounds good as it is, & I'd be afraid I'd fuck it up beyond repair...LOL...

 

[Greg_L]

The Dolls and the Brothers in a couple of posts - covering my youth Greg. I remember reading about the Dolls when Malcolm McLaren took over their management - red leather days really.

The Dolls were destined to implode from day one, but Malcolm really sealed the deal. Everything he touched turned to shit for everyone but him. I really like the NY Dolls though. Their two studio albums are great to me. And you know I'm a big fan of Johnny Thunders.

Sounds good Gerg....I like the clean yet still dirty sound man, I dunno if you've noticed it or not, but my tones have been a little cleaner than I'd been using, going for clarity....Glad you got the amp sorted dude, sounds tits....

Thanks dude. I was pleasantly surprised with the sound of the amp set up like that. I need to fine tune the settings more, but I'd use a sound like that often. Played slow, it sounds kind of clean. Played fast and aggressively it's as dirty as I need to be.

Not much on the Ramones myself, but I can appreciate that's your grail dude, I've got too many to mention really, but I will say Angus Young's tone on the live album "If You Want Blood" live album had a big influence on me wanting to play guitar, & by the time my sister took me to see 'em live, I was hooked....

Yes, Angus is the cat's ass too. He sounds awesome to me on everything. That clip isn't my favorite Johnny Ramone tone, but the buzzsaw roar of it is pretty damn awesome to me. That's pure volume. No pedals, no tricks, no double tracks, not even a humbucking guitar. Just pure relentless energy.

Check out this thread in the Marshall Roadhouse:
The Marshall Roadhouse

This guy modded his DSL-1 to be like the big version, OD1/2, clean & crunch...He posted some shit about what's missing in the 1w version compared to the 100/50w amp, but I really don't have a clue what all that shit is...I could probably find out, but really, if I didn't know what I was doing, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to be fucking around inside the little amp...It sounds good as it is, & I'd be afraid I'd fuck it up beyond repair...LOL...

That's a cool idea. I didn't see any pics or soundclips from that thread. I'm reserving judgement until I hear it. Those mods he listed are probably easy to do, but there's one big area that's missing in the DSL-1 compared to the DSL 50/100 - the power section. I don't know if modding the front end of the little DSL to big DSL specs is a good idea without the right power section to go along with it. I gotta hear it. Maybe it's awesome.

 

[Greg_L]

Lol. Johnny Ramone recorded his tracks like he played live. Leather jacket and everything. There was no sitting cross-legged on a nice comfy control room couch recording tracks with the amps far away in another room.

 

[rayc]

I "reckon" that the noise, strings, almost feedback, bodymovements all add up to a little of the Bros magic.
I LOVE the Popeye T Shirt.

 

[Greg_L]

I "reckon" that the noise, strings, almost feedback, bodymovements all add up to a little of the Bros magic.
I LOVE the Popeye T Shirt.

Lol. Yeah Popeye is a pure american hero.



I had a butt puckering amp moment last night and today. So last night I'm recording some tracks with the Plexi at max volume into my A cab. Shit was sounding good. Good tracks. And then......bzzzt....silence. No warning, no smells, no smoke, fire, or weird noises. Just roaring sound and then instant nothing. Fuck! In a panic I fumble fuck my way around cables and shit. Nothing. I just flip it off and let it rest overnight wondering WTF is wrong. I'm thinking, shit I guess I'll be rebuilding another amp. So today I try it again. It works. So I get after it. Halfway through my first re-track....bzzzt....nothing again. Ack! This time it stayed off. I don't know wtf is going on. So I start swapping speaker cables, input cables, start swapping out tubes, checking fuses, nothing. No sound. The amp stays on, the tubes light up normally, but no sound except for a faint buzz inside the amp itself whenever I try to make some noise. I'm pretty sure that's the output transformer still working but hanging on by a thread. So I start investigating around the net like I did with the other one. Then it hit me....this cab has one of those moronic dual input stereo switching jacks on the back of it. The cab can run mono or stereo. I only use it mono, but the jack plate is a relatively complicated circuit board. So before I dug into it, I just plugged into a different cab. Kablam. The amp works. In all of my panic and switching cables and tubes, I neglected to just try another cab. With the amp working into another cab, I yank the jack assembly off the A cab, and sure enough, a fried connection. One little solder point has been burned apart and it smells like it's been cooked. So, I guess that's that and I'll be rewiring all of my cabs to be a single jack mono cab. No more stupid 1960 stereo switching clusterfucks for me. I think I dodged a bullet - the bullet being blowing up an output transformer.

 

[minerman]

Sounds like a butt-puckering moment for sure Greg.....I read somewhere that the Marshall transformers are really fragile compared to other amps (like Mesa & others), but don't know if that's true or not...Better to be safe than sorry with an amp like that though dude....I've also read about the jacks on their cabs failing quite often, good thing you caught it when you did, could've been replacing something in the amp, other than re-soldering the jack on the cab....

Sounds like you had a Popeye moment on the stereo/mono jack too: "I've had all me can stands, I can't stands no more!!!"...LOL...

 

[Greg_L]

Lol. Yeah, I always kind of knew this would happen one day. I'm just glad it didn't take anything out. I don't know if Marshall output transformers are any more or less fragile than anyone else's units. Mine didn't go poof, and it technically had no load on it while the amp was set at wide open throttle. I really don't know enough about how it works to understand why they blow and why they don't under different circumstances.

This is the switch I'm talking about (not mine)

What's strange to me is I'm not finding a metal one-jack replacement anywhere on the web. You'd think someone somewhere would make a drop in replacement with just one jack. There are plenty of metal jack plates, but none that match the original dimensions for a simple swap.

 

[Lt. Bob]

don't replace the plate ..... just use that one but rewire the jacks. Then you'll have two jacks in parallel ...... both mono.

I've run many an amp into no-load for one reason or another. It pretty much never instantly destroys an amp ..... it's possible but it doesn't usually happen super quickly so as long as you quit playing and turn it off once it goes quiet it usually will be ok.

It's another thing that's been grossly exaggerated in this day of players not knowing much about their amps.
It goes along with "OMG don't open the amp you'll be killed by voltages". It can happen but it's so rare that no one you know will ever know anyone killed working on an amp and, for that matter, google it and you also won't find any examples of it happening.

The "no-load instantly destroys an amp and makes you sterile" is a similar exaggeration although not as rare as the non-existant death from working on an amp scenario.
A worse thing for amps would be running into a short. That'll take 'em out.
But no-load for a moment usually doesn't cook anything.

 

[Greg_L]

don't replace the plate ..... just use that one but rewire the jacks. Then you'll have two jacks in parallel ...... both mono.

I've run many an amp into no-load for one reason or another. It pretty much never instantly destroys an amp ..... it's possible but it doesn't usually happen super quickly so as long as you quit playing and turn it off once it goes quiet it usually will be ok.

It's another thing that's been grossly exaggerated in this day of players not knowing much about their amps.
It goes along with "OMG don't open the amp you'll be killed by voltages". It can happen but it's so rare that no one you know will ever know anyone killed working on an amp and, for that matter, google it and you also won't find any examples of it happening.

The "no-load instantly destroys an amp and makes you sterile" is a similar exaggeration although not as rare as the non-existant death from working on an amp scenario.
A worse thing for amps would be running into a short. That'll take 'em out.
But no-load for a moment usually doesn't cook anything.

I was just thinking of that. I can use the existing plate, but remove the stupid switch and circuit board from the back and just use one of the jacks wired 16 ohm mono, or link the two so I can daisy chain another cab. I could theoretically run 4 cabs at once!
The only problem I have with the plate is that it's all plastic. I'd love to find a metal one that fits, or at least get metal jacks. I could keep the plastic plate, but put metal jacks in it.

I've never personally blown an output transformer or know anyone that has. I don't know how common or realistic the legend is. The way I look at it is if it's a possibility, then it's best to try to avoid it whether it's common or not. Go to any guitar center. You'll see dozens of people flipping on amps and trying to play them with no cab connected. They don't go pop all the time.