My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

as jgcable knows... it's all in how you tweak it.

and this goes with any type of rig. you have to tweak it for the volume you'll be playing at. period. that is why they invented the loud button on home and car stereos.

[Twisteramps]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

Most amps are going to sound 'raw' if you just crank the gain, bass and volume to the moon. Here are a few tips if you're playing loud - and I've used them for tube and modelling amps.

1) Less bass. It amazes me how many people crank the bass on their amp to get a full sound when they are playing alone at low volumes, and then wonder why the heck when it's cranked it sounds muddy.

2) Less gain. Louder your amp is, less gain you should need.

3) most important for modelling amps - set your tones for your volume level/application. What sounds good at bedroom level is going to sound like crap loud. I have three sets of my favorite presets on my vetta - one for bedroom, one for direct recording, one for gigs. Sometimes I have to tweak my gig ones a tiny bit, but I can generally do that with the global controls on the front.

4) Speakers have a lot to do with it too. If you're using lower wattage speakers, they are going to distort. If you're using a cab and speakers that aren't designed for higher volume playing, it's going to get farty if you have much bass.

To the guy who said his pal's vetta II combo sounded like crap when it was cranked - some of that is the open back speaker design. There's a reason why marshall doesn't make an open back 4x12 - they generally sound like crap for high gain / loud playing.

Your mileage may vary, but I'd bet that proper tweaking of your amp would help make it sound at least decent loud.

Pete

[Newc]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

Au Contraire on the open back cabs - my Carvin VE212 cab maintains the same clarity at all levels with a Fender RocPro1000 head or my ADA/Digitech rack setup - there's no crappiness at all (well, due to the cabinet/speakers, anyway - just the player [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] )

While I do, as was mentioned, have to have separate live vs D.I. patches, and yeah it's always the bass [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Twisteramps]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

I've never been able to get a tone I liked with any open backed cab for high gain sounds. Clean sounds better to me w/open backed, but high gain? eccchhh. Just my opinion tho!

Pete

[jgcable]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

My Mesa 3/4 back cab (1/4 closed) sounds incredible for metal. I prefer closed back cabs for metal too.
High volume farts, woofs and mud are almost always a direct result of too much bass and gain.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

[ QUOTE ]



2) Less gain. Louder your amp is, less gain you should need.

Pete

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what I thought of too.

[Newc]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

Question: Is an open-back cabinet fully 100% open? Like 4 walls and the front and absolutely no back at all? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] I've seen closed-backs, where there's a solid back on it from corner to corner, but my Carvin has about half (or more?) of the back covered, the rest open.
I thought this is what was meant by "open-back cabinet", but you say there's a 3/4 open back? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[jgcable]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

My Mesa is a 3/4 back which means 3/4 of the back is closed.

[jazzman]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

I'll agree with that. A lot of people seem to take their "bedroom tone" and just turn it up and it don't work. I remember when I got my ADA years ago. I tried the tones I saved at home for practice and it sucked! After that I set all my tones at practice at full volume and it worked great. I think I drove the band crazy because I had them play the same stuff over and over, but it worked.

[Thor Von Clemson]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

Yup... less gain seems to have worked. Turning it down smoothed out the sound more as the volume went up.. thanks guys. One question though. How does less gain at higher volumes solve my problem? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

More gain, less clearity.
Also some amps seem to add extra gain when you turn the volume up.

[jazzman]

Re: My tone is too raw when amp is loud.. help?!

Ditto!