Engl Fireball 60 live

[sambencuda]

I was ready to dump this amp. It's the best tone I've ever had, but it just didn't cut through whit a whole band let alone another guitar player. You may have seen my other post about changing the tubes to Tung Sol 5881's and what a huge difference that made. I also had a post about how my Fireball would match up to my other guitar players Blackstar HT50 live. Sounded great at rehearsal. Well, we played at Toads last night and heres how it went down. I have never been this happy with my tone. My gear kicked ass. Since I changed the tubes over, I also started using a Marshall 1960AV (vin 30's). It was unreal. It's crunchy mid to high end. cuts through everything. I've been chasing this tone for years. Now onto the Blackstar. His tone was amazing, but it couldn't get anywhere near the Fireball. I totally crushed him. (I don't mean that in a good way like I was competing). You coud barely hear him.

Here's what I think the problem is. I think the Blackstar, just like Marshall's, needs to be pushed volume wise to get it to cut through. I think his stage volume was way too low which made his tone a little flat and almost muddy. I'm sure the sound guy was pumping him up but, he had my Engl on the other side. He's kinda bummin about it and is looking into new tubes and maybe an EQ in the loop, but I think he just needs to pump up his stage volume. I bet the next time we play at a smaller venue where we don't run the guitars through the front end, they will play better together.

[xenophobe]

Have someone you know and trust, that knows guitars and equipment, that's familiar or can get familiar with your set list and that shares similar tastes in music to soundcheck your bands rehersal tone... and either let them made adjustments to all of the members settings... with all your gear playing at volume without a PA. A band with 1 guitarist, obviously, does not need to do this. Either that or record practice and listen closely. It's usually not that difficult to figure out what needs to be changed.

A great chugga chugga practice tone usually has the lows and lower mids pushed way too high with the real mids scooped way too much, and when you get two guitarists together like that, it usually sounds like shit.

While it's quite possible two boutique amps may not compliment each other well, it's usually the settings and not the amps themselves that are the problem.

[Maiden89]

It sucks when your not getting the tone you want live.

I've been wanting to get tube amp lately I've been looking into engl's and Carvin's V3

[ulijdavid]

Sorry, nothing to add to this post. Just had a quick stroll down memory lane when you mentioned Toads in Connecticut (New Haven?). Haven't been there for 30 years. Saw a lot of great bands there back in the day. Thanks for the memory jolt!

[jgcable]

I was at the show. The levels were very balanced. The difference was the Fireball has alot more presence live. It cut through the mix and believe me, it was a very hot mix. Huge drum and bass sound. You needed a mans amp to cut through that sonic assault!!
I think that Jay needs to increase the level on his solo boost, he needs to bring up the midrange and the presence on the amp. I wouldn't go crazy changing anything. I think its a matter of dialing it in correctly. Its not that easy for any amp to compete with a Fireball. Another suggestion would be for you and Jay to switch sides or put Paul on the end of the stage. His bass rig would prevent you and Jay from hearing each other on stage.
BTW.. you guys sounded great.

[sambencuda]

Thanks John! I was watching some youtube videos today and I was amazed at how good it actually sounded. You can't beat Toads for sound and lights. We just need to tweak a little. Thanks for comin John. We gotta split a bill sometime.

[ulijdavid]

Thanks John! I was watching some youtube videos today and I was amazed at how good it actually sounded. You can't beat Toads for sound and lights. We just need to tweak a little. Thanks for comin John. We gotta split a bill sometime.

Links? What's your bands name?

[sambencuda]

Here's some crappy vids, but you get the idea. The name of the band is Chaos Theory. Hard roack/metal covers.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jay71mont&oq=jay71&gs_l=youtube.3.0.35i39.4203.6624.0.9048.5.5.0.0.0.0.244.546.1j2j1.4.0...0.0...1ac.MzfSHtfK5M0

[ulijdavid]

I would pay cover charge to hear you guys any day of the week. That was great. Didn't know the first and last tune, but you guys did a great job on "The Trooper" and "Electric Eye". Doesn't look like it was anything more than an Iphone or Handycam, but the sound was good for how it was recorded. Nice to hear a singer that did both Dickinson and Halford pretty well. Big bonus that you guys hit the recorded solos. I need to move back to a state where live music is still around.

[sambencuda]

Thanks man! Our singer John has a great voice plus he plays guitar too so we can do a lot of harmony stuff with chords underneath.

[MetalMedal II]

Yeah, great songs! Toad’s is a great venue! It must've been cool as hell to play there.

I saw several memorable shows in my brief time in New Haven and those clips brought back a lot of memories, ..Mastodon, Down, The Haunted, Carnivore, Rob Zombie, even George Thorogood was great to see there! Thanks for posting those!

[sambencuda]

Toads is a great place to play. The last show I saw there was Slayer in 2002. There was a chain link fence dividing the under age crowd from the drinkers. Half way through the show, the crowd took down the fence. Thats the second time I saw Slayer and both times I thought I was gonna die. Hatebreed opened It was a great show. There's definitely mojo on that stage. Plus you will never play through a house system like that. Talk about a monitor mix you can hear!