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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 22, 2017 20:26:21 GMT -5
Tubes arrived today but I won't have a chance to install them until Saturday.
On a different note I just ordered a new bridge pickup for the Les Paul. I went with a Dimarzio Gravity Storm based on a Dimarzio rep's recommendation. The BKP Rebel Yell's that are currently in there are just a bit harsh in the treble frequencies. They sound great through my Marshall and Blackstar but my QR is my #1.
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Post by cvogue on Jun 22, 2017 22:49:13 GMT -5
OK, did some redialing in of the amp:
First took out everything, pulled the cables out of the loop (send/return) no cable even hooked up. Plugged directly into the front bypassing all the up front stuff.
The Splawn magic was back! Other guitarist helped me dial things in, he knows tone and likes to tinker so I played and he adjusted things, basically we found that it's more important to have the channel volume up than the loop less attenuated, the Street Rod likes the channel volume up around 10 or better. He also bumped up the gain to 2-3:00 I had it on 1:00 before.
Sounded great... OK, so what up with the pedals. First step was to bring back in the loop. I put the whole chain in and it really didn't affect the tone much (I have an MXR EQ, Zoom G3 multi effect and a TC Spark boost) so I left everything in. I did find that setting the G3 to "passive" sounded a bit louder and better, makes sense, I have the Splawn loop set on -10dB for instrument level effects.
I realized then that I needed my tuner, so I put only the tuner in the chain in front of the amp, sounded good. I took out the wah and put everything else back in and it still sounded good. Didn't get a chance to put the wah back in the chain, didn't want to really since at this point we were practicing and they were getting a bit tired of my tonal experiments!
So, brought the wah home and tried it out with my little practice amp and also through my Boss Micro BR with headphones. There is tone suck there, subtle depending on the amp and tones involved, but sometimes it was very noticable. I've heard (I think from gtrjunior and others) that Splawns are pretty picky about buffered pedals, especially wah pedals.
Anyway I may get to practice early on Saturday (didn't bring my amp home, too damn heavy!) and bring the wah and see what it does given the new settings etc... Or, just forget about the wah and enjoy my new tone!
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Post by cvogue on Jun 22, 2017 22:52:06 GMT -5
Tubes arrived today but I won't have a chance to install them until Saturday. On a different note I just ordered a new bridge pickup for the Les Paul. I went with a Dimarzio Gravity Storm based on a Dimarzio rep's recommendation. The BKP Rebel Yell's that are currently in there are just a bit harsh in the treble frequencies. They sound great through my Marshall and Blackstar but my QR is my #1. Nice! The Gravity Storm looks like a slightly lower output Duncan JB. |
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Post by splawndude on Jun 22, 2017 23:47:48 GMT -5
OK, did some redialing in of the amp: First took out everything, pulled the cables out of the loop (send/return) no cable even hooked up. Plugged directly into the front bypassing all the up front stuff. The Splawn magic was back! Other guitarist helped me dial things in, he knows tone and likes to tinker so I played and he adjusted things, basically we found that it's more important to have the channel volume up than the loop less attenuated, the Street Rod likes the channel volume up around 10 or better. He also bumped up the gain to 2-3:00 I had it on 1:00 before. Sounded great... OK, so what up with the pedals. First step was to bring back in the loop. I put the whole chain in and it really didn't affect the tone much (I have an MXR EQ, Zoom G3 multi effect and a TC Spark boost) so I left everything in. I did find that setting the G3 to "passive" sounded a bit louder and better, makes sense, I have the Splawn loop set on -10dB for instrument level effects. I realized then that I needed my tuner, so I put only the tuner in the chain in front of the amp, sounded good. I took out the wah and put everything else back in and it still sounded good. Didn't get a chance to put the wah back in the chain, didn't want to really since at this point we were practicing and they were getting a bit tired of my tonal experiments! So, brought the wah home and tried it out with my little practice amp and also through my Boss Micro BR with headphones. There is tone suck there, subtle depending on the amp and tones involved, but sometimes it was very noticable. I've heard (I think from gtrjunior and others) that Splawns are pretty picky about buffered pedals, especially wah pedals. Anyway I may get to practice early on Saturday (didn't bring my amp home, too damn heavy!) and bring the wah and see what it does given the new settings etc... Or, just forget about the wah and enjoy my new tone! Ha Ha...no reason to post this 3 times in 3 places LOL. This forum is slow enough that everyone will see your post no matter where you put it.  But all kidding aside. I really enjoyed reading your update. For several reasons. For one, I like to tear my rig down and build it back up again at least once a year if not twice. Also gives me a chance to vacuum the carpet below and clean everything up. Rerun the cables and I like to do what you did. Just run the guitar straight in with nothing else going in/on. Everyone should do this at least once a year. Good to get back to that core tone and it helps you to relate to what goes into your overall tone, for better or worse. Secondly, it must be great to have someone there to tweak knobs for you while you play. That HAS to be so much faster and more productive. For me, I have to do that the slow way. Going back and forth. That can sometimes sap creativity and time and so therefore I end up just leaving everything where it is at. Good on you and thanks for posting that. :cheers: |
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Post by cvogue on Jun 23, 2017 0:16:06 GMT -5
Yeah I wondered about that... a lot of forums chastise people for multiple posts but I took a chance!
It was nice to have someone tweak the knobs while I played, I could stand back and judge and it was a lot more efficient since when you stop playing and adjust you have to go by memory when adjusting (even though it's just a second or two). When someone adjusts things it's a great immediate comparison of what's going on.
NP, trying to get things going on here a bit. Great forums just wish they were more active.
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 23, 2017 5:49:06 GMT -5
OK, did some redialing in of the amp: First took out everything, pulled the cables out of the loop (send/return) no cable even hooked up. Plugged directly into the front bypassing all the up front stuff. The Splawn magic was back! Other guitarist helped me dial things in, he knows tone and likes to tinker so I played and he adjusted things, basically we found that it's more important to have the channel volume up than the loop less attenuated, the Street Rod likes the channel volume up around 10 or better. He also bumped up the gain to 2-3:00 I had it on 1:00 before. Sounded great... OK, so what up with the pedals. First step was to bring back in the loop. I put the whole chain in and it really didn't affect the tone much (I have an MXR EQ, Zoom G3 multi effect and a TC Spark boost) so I left everything in. I did find that setting the G3 to "passive" sounded a bit louder and better, makes sense, I have the Splawn loop set on -10dB for instrument level effects. I realized then that I needed my tuner, so I put only the tuner in the chain in front of the amp, sounded good. I took out the wah and put everything else back in and it still sounded good. Didn't get a chance to put the wah back in the chain, didn't want to really since at this point we were practicing and they were getting a bit tired of my tonal experiments! So, brought the wah home and tried it out with my little practice amp and also through my Boss Micro BR with headphones. There is tone suck there, subtle depending on the amp and tones involved, but sometimes it was very noticable. I've heard (I think from gtrjunior and others) that Splawns are pretty picky about buffered pedals, especially wah pedals. Anyway I may get to practice early on Saturday (didn't bring my amp home, too damn heavy!) and bring the wah and see what it does given the new settings etc... Or, just forget about the wah and enjoy my new tone! Just as I suspected....same issue with my 95Q. I think you're going to find that just doesn't play nice with the Splawn. |
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 23, 2017 5:59:17 GMT -5
Tubes arrived today but I won't have a chance to install them until Saturday. On a different note I just ordered a new bridge pickup for the Les Paul. I went with a Dimarzio Gravity Storm based on a Dimarzio rep's recommendation. The BKP Rebel Yell's that are currently in there are just a bit harsh in the treble frequencies. They sound great through my Marshall and Blackstar but my QR is my #1. Nice! The Gravity Storm looks like a slightly lower output Duncan JB. From what I can tell it's eq curve is quite different from a JB. The GS has rolled back highs and more pronounced lows and mids while the JB has more pronounced highs and rolled back lows. I've only played a guitar with a JB once....I quite liked it actually. The GS has slightly less output than the JB and slightly more than the BKP Rebel Yell it's replacing. And the Rebel Yell imo is a pretty powerful pickup. |
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 23, 2017 6:01:08 GMT -5
I emailed Scott about pickups too...he said that he has been using the Duncan Custom Custom for several years now. The only reason I didn't go with those is because I wanted something that didn't pronounce the high end. Iirc, splawndude plays the CC...? |
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Post by cvogue on Jun 23, 2017 12:56:46 GMT -5
I emailed Scott about pickups too...he said that he has been using the Duncan Custom Custom for several years now. The only reason I didn't go with those is because I wanted something that didn't pronounce the high end. Iirc, splawndude plays the CC...? Oooooh, the CC is a *nice* pickup! I had one in my Kramer-stein at one point. Was totally into EVH at the time (well I still am!) and ended up replacing it with a custom made one from SK Guitar Specialties that is supposed to be very close to what Ed used early on. Yeah I know, everyone says that "We've got EVH's tone right here!" Now the reason I got the CC was that supposedly the rumor is (and Duncan is not disputing it, probably because it sells a lot of CC's!) that EVH asked Seymour to create a custom pickup for him and that pickup was the Custom Custom. All I know it was a really nice sounding Alnico 2 pickup with good output but not too much. I liked it a lot. |
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Post by cvogue on Jun 23, 2017 13:02:58 GMT -5
Hey, I've got two stars now, no longer a newb! |
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 24, 2017 13:40:52 GMT -5
I just had a chance to install the new tubes I got from PM Tubes. First thing I noticed is their construction....they look almost identical to the older short grey "ladder" style tubes from RCA, Sylvania, Raytheon etc...
So I put the HG( high gain) one into V2 and noticed maybe a slight bump in the gain....it was hard to tell while in Gear 3 OD2 so...yeah. Lol
It did very noticeably smooth out the top end, which I liked. It's a nice warm sounding tube and not at all brittle.
I put the other tube into the PI but honestly didn't notice any difference. So I took it out and put it in V3....again very smooth and warm. Seems to compliment the V2 tube well. It's gonna stay there in V3.
I think I might order a Sovtek LPS for the PI. I had one in my JVM and liked it there a lot. Too bad I left it in when I sold the amp.
The PM Tubes, for $19/each are well worth the money. I'll definitely be looking into getting more...
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Post by cvogue on Jun 24, 2017 14:22:55 GMT -5
Cool! Glad they worked out for you, small investment for better tone! B)
Ya know I've seen all over the 'net that the Sovtek LPS is the "best tube" for the PI, but when I took my Peavey Ultra 120 Plus to the best amp tech in San Diego (he also built the amps for Dean Deleo of STP) he said that the LPS was the *worst* choice for the PI in that amp, something about the fact the voltage was too high. I had problems with the amp and he said that the PI tube was blown (LPS) and he replaced it with a different tube, was fine after that.
Just FYI, YMMV etc... As we've discussed before different tubes work differently in different amps.
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Post by gtrjunior on Jun 24, 2017 14:35:57 GMT -5
Cool! Glad they worked out for you, small investment for better tone! B) Ya know I've seen all over the 'net that the Sovtek LPS is the "best tube" for the PI, but when I took my Peavey Ultra 120 Plus to the best amp tech in San Diego (he also built the amps for Dean Deleo of STP) he said that the LPS was the *worst* choice for the PI in that amp, something about the fact the voltage was too high. I had problems with the amp and he said that the PI tube was blown (LPS) and he replaced it with a different tube, was fine after that. Just FYI, YMMV etc... As we've discussed before different tubes work differently in different amps. That's like the JVM....the V3 was the cathode follower position. It needed a tube that could handle a higher voltage. A typical spiral filament tube couldn't handle it. Iirc, splawndude likes the JAN 5751 tube in the PI....maybe he can chime in with some info here...? |
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Post by cvogue on Jun 24, 2017 18:25:26 GMT -5
Cool! Glad they worked out for you, small investment for better tone! B) Ya know I've seen all over the 'net that the Sovtek LPS is the "best tube" for the PI, but when I took my Peavey Ultra 120 Plus to the best amp tech in San Diego (he also built the amps for Dean Deleo of STP) he said that the LPS was the *worst* choice for the PI in that amp, something about the fact the voltage was too high. I had problems with the amp and he said that the PI tube was blown (LPS) and he replaced it with a different tube, was fine after that. Just FYI, YMMV etc... As we've discussed before different tubes work differently in different amps. That's like the JVM....the V3 was the cathode follower position. It needed a tube that could handle a higher voltage. A typical spiral filament tube couldn't handle it. Iirc, splawndude likes the JAN 5751 tube in the PI....maybe he can chime in with some info here...? Yup, that's the circuit type, cathode followers shouldn't use LPS tubes in the PI! |
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Post by splawndude on Jun 24, 2017 22:18:17 GMT -5
Yes I use and recommend the Custom Custom and any JAN 5751  |
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