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Some of you may remember that I just bought a B52 AT100. Well I also have a Crate BV120, and a Randall RGT100.
I bought the B52, optimistically hoping that it would sound killer, and that it would become my main rehearsing/live amplifier. Well, so far, I haven't been able to get THAT sound out of it, and there are other issues as well. So here's the deal.
After messing with the B52 for a while, it seemed like something was changing the sound drastically while I was playing. I would dial in a good sound, and start playing with the knobs trying to fine tune it, and suddenly it would sound like garbage without me touching anything. So I turned it off, intending to go back to it later. Later on, same thing. So, at this point, I say fuck it, and plug in the Crate.
Before I bought the B52, I had just installed a set of Mighty Mite Motherbuckers in one of my guitars, and the combination of the Blue Voodoo, and the Motherbuckers is truly a match made in heaven. I really wish I could post a sound clip of this thing. You all would shit yer panties.
Anyway, I gave up on the B52 (for now), and plugged the Crate back in. Why I ever thought I had to get the B52 is a mystery.
So, I brought the B52 back home, and noticed that one of the reverb springs is hanging out of the tank. Yes that's right, hanging out. I take the amp apart, and remove the tank. Sure enough, it is a crappy 2 spring tank, with one of the springs broken off at the end. Fucking fantastic! So at this point, the B52 has had a bad connection on the pilot light (now fixed), a busted reverb tank, and intermittent changes to the essential sound of the amp. Not very good if you ask me. I am going to contact B52 directly, and see if they can shed any light on my problems. Maybe they will be willing to send me a new reverb tank. Maybe the sound anomaly is a tube issue. I will say that the amp looks incredibly well made, and I just know that there is a good sound in there somewhere.
And finally, the Randall. I bought this amp dirt cheap off Ebay. I think I payed $150 or something. These things are damn rare, and I have only ever seen one other on Ebay in the last several years. When I got it, I built a new cabinet for it, because the original one was particle board and was broken from being (presumably) dropped. The amp sounded great right from day one, but with a little tweaking, I got it sounding almost awesome. Then I spent a whole pile of time trying to get that last little iota ouit of it that it needed. It never happened, and it became my practice at home amp. Well, last sunday, my bass player gave me his new Taiwanese made Boss SD1, and a mod kit he got off Ebay, so that I could perform the mod for him. I just got around to doing it today, and had to try it out. So, I plug into the Randall, and set the SD1 like this:
Level - 10 oclock
Tone - 2 oclock
Drive - 3 oclock
I start playing, and goddamn it if I didn't have the exact sound I was trying to get. I could not get it with my own (Japanese made) SD1. Maybe there is something wrong with it. I don't know. All it really does is compensate for the amplifier's inherant "bouncy" bottom end. At high volumes, the Randall sounds kind of harsh, but has a ton of bottom end on tap to take away the harshness. Unfortunately, when you crank up the ass, the crunch disappears, and turns "bouncy". The SD1 puts it back. Cool stuff!
I bought the B52, optimistically hoping that it would sound killer, and that it would become my main rehearsing/live amplifier. Well, so far, I haven't been able to get THAT sound out of it, and there are other issues as well. So here's the deal.
After messing with the B52 for a while, it seemed like something was changing the sound drastically while I was playing. I would dial in a good sound, and start playing with the knobs trying to fine tune it, and suddenly it would sound like garbage without me touching anything. So I turned it off, intending to go back to it later. Later on, same thing. So, at this point, I say fuck it, and plug in the Crate.
Before I bought the B52, I had just installed a set of Mighty Mite Motherbuckers in one of my guitars, and the combination of the Blue Voodoo, and the Motherbuckers is truly a match made in heaven. I really wish I could post a sound clip of this thing. You all would shit yer panties.
Anyway, I gave up on the B52 (for now), and plugged the Crate back in. Why I ever thought I had to get the B52 is a mystery.
So, I brought the B52 back home, and noticed that one of the reverb springs is hanging out of the tank. Yes that's right, hanging out. I take the amp apart, and remove the tank. Sure enough, it is a crappy 2 spring tank, with one of the springs broken off at the end. Fucking fantastic! So at this point, the B52 has had a bad connection on the pilot light (now fixed), a busted reverb tank, and intermittent changes to the essential sound of the amp. Not very good if you ask me. I am going to contact B52 directly, and see if they can shed any light on my problems. Maybe they will be willing to send me a new reverb tank. Maybe the sound anomaly is a tube issue. I will say that the amp looks incredibly well made, and I just know that there is a good sound in there somewhere.
And finally, the Randall. I bought this amp dirt cheap off Ebay. I think I payed $150 or something. These things are damn rare, and I have only ever seen one other on Ebay in the last several years. When I got it, I built a new cabinet for it, because the original one was particle board and was broken from being (presumably) dropped. The amp sounded great right from day one, but with a little tweaking, I got it sounding almost awesome. Then I spent a whole pile of time trying to get that last little iota ouit of it that it needed. It never happened, and it became my practice at home amp. Well, last sunday, my bass player gave me his new Taiwanese made Boss SD1, and a mod kit he got off Ebay, so that I could perform the mod for him. I just got around to doing it today, and had to try it out. So, I plug into the Randall, and set the SD1 like this:
Level - 10 oclock
Tone - 2 oclock
Drive - 3 oclock
I start playing, and goddamn it if I didn't have the exact sound I was trying to get. I could not get it with my own (Japanese made) SD1. Maybe there is something wrong with it. I don't know. All it really does is compensate for the amplifier's inherant "bouncy" bottom end. At high volumes, the Randall sounds kind of harsh, but has a ton of bottom end on tap to take away the harshness. Unfortunately, when you crank up the ass, the crunch disappears, and turns "bouncy". The SD1 puts it back. Cool stuff!
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