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Post by splawndude on Jan 11, 2021 20:35:12 GMT -5
Hey Gents!
Hope you are all well and a great Holiday/New Year.
I've got some new toys but mostly just tubes and pedals. No new amps or guitars so it is only 'big' in regard to the wall of text. First up, I took PDC's advice and got some JJ EL34 II's from Eurotubes. I decided I wanted something a little hotter on the bias side as I have plenty of EL34s on the cold side. My amp is usually biased in the upper 20's. I also run at half power. As much as I bag on Eurotubes for their snake oil marketing I will say their communication, shipping and matching was excellent. Both tubes arrived at 34mA exactly. Just what I wanted. They have a bit more low end, which I enjoy and they have this cool 3D thing going on - which I partly attribute to the higher bias of course.
However, prior to that, I was having some serious noise and feedback issues. It had all the hallmarks of a bad preamp tube. So I did a ton of tube rolling and bought some extra JJs and Svetlanas and Groove tube 12AX7s. Then, I came to the conclusion that it must be my MXR ABY pedal. Because if I touched it or giggled the cables I could get the noise to go away temporarily. So I contact MXR and sent them a clip of what I was getting. Long story short, they told me I probably have bad ground or more likely a ground loop. This didn't seem right to me as NOTHING has changed with my set up for a long time. PS: Guitar plugged strait into either the Quick Rod or the Mesa Rectoverb was fine. Longer story short, they had me try a Ground Loop Lift insert. You know, one of those plugs you use if you have a 3 prong plug and a 2 pronged outlet. BINGO.
Once I got everything stable, I decided to burn my $500 in Guitar Center Gift Cards so I headed up to my local GC along with some old pedals that I didn't really like/use (Dano 6 band EQ, MXR Zakk OD, custom modified Wah, EXH Russian Big Muff). The Wah they wouldn't take because it was modded and the Big Muff they wouldn't take because I couldn't get the battery cover off the back (I used AC power so never needed it open. They only offered me $15 for the EQ-should have kept it. They offered me $30 for the OD and a guy next to me in line offered me $35 cash so I did that instead.
I ended up getting a used MXR Chorus (always wanted to try), a miss priced MXR Distortion Bad Ass '78 disti pedal because it was mis-marked. I also grabbed a few preamp tubes as mentioned. I grabbed some other random things but when I get to the counter, I was told that some of my Gift Cards were expired. WTH? So
So...I know this is getting long. If you are still with me then props to you. Due to the confusion with the GC cards I ended up bring all of them home. I called GC Customer Service and explained what just happened and they promptly reinstated all of the value of my cards. So then, on the fly I bought a Zoom Q2n4K, a VHT 150 tube tester, some accessories, some headphones, and some more tubes including some Mullard reissue EL34s. I thought the VHT tester was to test the life of an octel tube. NOT. It is just a glorified analog voltmeter. It actually says, for accurate results, plug a digital multimeter into the onboard ports LOL. I returned it.
Next up is that I bought a Suhr OG Koko Boost, MXR 10 band EQ, and a Boss NS-2 from a friend - Maddnotez.
The EQ and Noise Suppressor are pretty well known and straight forward. The Koko boost is insane. It is 2 pedals in one. A Clean Boost (green/left) and a Mid Boost (red/right). They interact to some degree but honestly, I have not figured that out yet. There is also a frequency switch for low/mid/high. And inside you can select whether the pedal is in true bypass or buffered mode - which is cool. Oh, and I bought a new Wah - Slash sig wah.
Below are a bunch of pics and a few videos I did with my new Q2n4K.
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Post by splawndude on Jan 11, 2021 20:36:25 GMT -5
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Post by splawndude on Jan 11, 2021 20:45:54 GMT -5
Here are a couple of sloppy videos with my new Q2  ABY comparison of Splawn and Recto MXR Chorus (this is dialed back quite a bit more now LOL) A little pedal demo thru the Recto Clean channel Both amps - gonna redo this for sure after I get more time with the new gear |
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Post by briman on Jan 12, 2021 7:19:52 GMT -5
Awesome Splawndude! Set sounds great! Very full sounding with both amps! I had a mxr analog chorus and they are one of the best imo. Only reason i sold it is because i am using a boss md500 now for its midi capabilities with my es8.
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Post by schmasty on Jan 13, 2021 5:58:24 GMT -5
Splawndude Thanks for posting your updates and info and Congrats on your new toy's too..
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Post by splawndude on Jan 13, 2021 10:48:13 GMT -5
Awesome Splawndude! Set sounds great! Very full sounding with both amps! I had a mxr analog chorus and they are one of the best imo. Only reason i sold it is because i am using a boss md500 now for its midi capabilities with my es8. Thanks Brian. This is usually how I play guitar (both amps) so it is cool to try and capture that. Splawndude Thanks for posting your updates and info and Congrats on your new toy's too.. Thanks Schmasty! |
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 20, 2021 18:58:51 GMT -5
Wow...you hooked yourself up nicely!!
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Post by cvogue on Jan 26, 2021 0:09:41 GMT -5
OK, how the hell did I miss this thread!?!!?!
Great posts, funny my first EQ pedal was a little Dano Fish and Chips, actually sounded great. Croaked after about 6 months, but I was kinda mean to it! Followed up with an MXR 6 band and then the MXR 10 band. Now I don't use any EQ, got my Street Rod sounding great without it.
$500 worth of GC gift cards? (cvogue salivates!)
Nice clips too, thanks for sharing all that!
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Post by splawndude on Jan 26, 2021 22:14:15 GMT -5
Thanks again guys!
Yeah, that Dano 6 band really is a decent EQ especially for the money.
Got the Mullard Reissue EL34s in finally from GC online but have not had chance to try them or test their mA.
The '78 distortion pedal is cool but really only geared from clean channels and I don't play on clean channels very often and when I do, it is because I'm going for a clean tone. Kind of reminds me of the Crunch Box (which might have been an MI Audio pedal).
Really digging the Slash Wah. Just the right amount of 'wah' and sweep for what like and not very noisy. I can't speak to the buffer stuff on this - I know some hear have complained about MXR Crybabys robbing tone?
Suhr Koko boost is probably a keeper. Lots of options on this guy.
Super happy with the EL34 II's that PDC turned me onto. I dog Eurotubes a lot but they really did well on this transaction and the tubes came in at exactly what I asked for: 34mA
Lastly really couldn't be happier with the Zoom Q2n4K and accessories I'm since got.
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 27, 2021 7:13:46 GMT -5
Just for the heck of it , try using the 78 as a boost.
Gain all the way down, level up.
I’ve been using the Friedman buxom boost if front of the dirty channel and it’s magic.
You’ll probably want to lower the gain on the amp
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Post by cvogue on Jan 27, 2021 11:59:10 GMT -5
Thanks again guys! Yeah, that Dano 6 band really is a decent EQ especially for the money. Got the Mullard Reissue EL34s in finally from GC online but have not had chance to try them or test their mA. The '78 distortion pedal is cool but really only geared from clean channels and I don't play on clean channels very often and when I do, it is because I'm going for a clean tone. Kind of reminds me of the Crunch Box (which might have been an MI Audio pedal). Really digging the Slash Wah. Just the right amount of 'wah' and sweep for what like and not very noisy. I can't speak to the buffer stuff on this - I know some hear have complained about MXR Crybabys robbing tone? Suhr Koko boost is probably a keeper. Lots of options on this guy. Super happy with the EL34 II's that PDC turned me onto. I dog Eurotubes a lot but they really did well on this transaction and the tubes came in at exactly what I asked for: 34mA Lastly really couldn't be happier with the Zoom Q2n4K and accessories I'm since got. Yeah looking at some specs, the Slash wah is "true hardwired bypass" which means it's not true bypass but likely doesn't have a buffer in there. gtrjunior and I both had the "auto on" version of the Crybaby (95Q version) and the buffer in there was pretty terrible. Although it sounded fine on my Blackstar it was awful with my Splawn. Anyway, the Slash model obviously doesn't have that problem! |
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Post by cvogue on Jan 27, 2021 12:24:35 GMT -5
Just for the heck of it , try using the 78 as a boost. Gain all the way down, level up. I’ve been using the Friedman buxom boost if front of the dirty channel and it’s magic. You’ll probably want to lower the gain on the amp Do you use the boost as an "on all the time" kind of thing or as a solo boost or if you just want more oomph? |
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Post by briman on Jan 27, 2021 12:52:32 GMT -5
I used to leave on all the time to tighten up bottom end.
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 27, 2021 12:52:55 GMT -5
Just for the heck of it , try using the 78 as a boost. Gain all the way down, level up. I’ve been using the Friedman buxom boost if front of the dirty channel and it’s magic. You’ll probably want to lower the gain on the amp Do you use the boost as an "on all the time" kind of thing or as a solo boost or if you just want more oomph? All the time on the dirt channel and an RC boost on clean. But not for gain, more for tone shaping and a little extra output for cleans. |
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Post by splawndude on Jan 28, 2021 12:41:57 GMT -5
Just for the heck of it , try using the 78 as a boost. Gain all the way down, level up. I’ve been using the Friedman buxom boost if front of the dirty channel and it’s magic. You’ll probably want to lower the gain on the amp I have it didn't turn out well LOL. I'm pretty sure it has some high clippers (diodes) that sound great on a clean channel but not on OD. I'll try it again with much lower gain and maybe a neck pickup. Most of my Humbuckers I use are med/high output. That said, the Suhr Koko boost works great with tube amps and high gain (as does my Digitech Bad Monkey and my old MXR Zakk Wylde OD). |
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