Post jam ques- PM boost

[DonaldDemon]

I finally got my Pro Mod out of the studio last night and took it to the rehersal studio for practice. It's the first time I got to play it with the band in the same room. I think it sound really great, esp the rhythm stuff. I had two problems though. First, when I switched to 3rd gear there was some bad noises. Hiss and major feedback/hum. The practice room is sort of small and has horrible acoustics but that shouldn't have happened. My master volume was only at 8:30 to 9:00. I hope nothing is wrong with the head because I have such bad luck with amps even though I take such good care of them. I havesome shows coming up and I can't afford to ship it off to Scott to fix.

Secondly, my leads sounded like piss for the most part. Very thin and not cutting. The EQ was basically 12:00 across the board with a slight increase in mids and treble. There are a few factors at play here, the deadness of the room being one of them. The other is the Marshall 1960A cab I was playing out of. I assumed it had Celestion 75's in it and they have probably been pushed to their limit too many times. I really hate those speakers but i am not about to drag my Bogner cab to the studio when they got cabs there. I think my V30's will sound much better and cutting.

Which finally brings me to my question: What is a good solo boost pedal for the PM's? I want something to boost the mids a bit and add some more OD/sustain to it. I am thinking either a Maxon-OD 9 or SD-9. Anyone use these on their Splawns? I have a few Boss pedals that I wouldn't dare use with my Splawn because I just think they make any amp sound cheap.

So any thoughts/comments/ques?

[TJ]

You need to tweak with the amp a bit. Find a tone that is comfortable to your ears. I never bring my splawn to rehearsal. For the simple fact that I can't get the volume where it needs to be because our rehearsal room is not that big. I bring a deluxe reverb and a boss OD for that. If your leads are sounding thin, cut back on the treble on the amp. You shouldn't need anything to boost your leads with more OD. Turn the amp up and turn your volume knob down. Crank it open for the rides. If you're dead set on getting a boost, try a Carl Martin Hot drive N boost. Use the boost side only. It adds some db and a bit of OD to your tone. You could also look at a fulltone Phatboost. Does the same thing.

I run my promod on the second channel for rhythm and use the OD2 for my leads. Hope some of this helps you out.

[DonaldDemon]

Hi tj, thanks for the response I don't think there's many PM owners left on here ). I did try a few different things that you suggested. I basically use a volume pedal in front of my amp and keep it backed off about halfway for my rhythms and then go to full for my leads. That has always worked well for me but it didn't seem to this time. I was mostly running Gear 2, OD 2, gain about 3:00. I did see a good change when going from OD1 to OD2 but it needed more volume still. I also didn't have the solo boost high enough I think.

I know the room sounded like crap but it wasn't too small where I needed a lesser amp. We usually practice in my bassists garage but it has gotten too cold for that. There I just use an old Sunn solid state head with a Boss overdrive/distortion because the room is too small and I like being able to leave my stuff set up so I can just bring my guitar. It gets too cold or too hot to leave a tube amp sitting in there. we have the larger room next week in the rehersal studio so many some of my problems will be alleviated.

[TJ]

I'd just work with the amp for a bit and see if you can dial in a good tone. I always keep in mine when working with a different amp that they are in fact different from one that I may be used to. For example, on my jubilees, I run the bass all the way up and treble and mids at about 10:00. For some reason that amp sounds great with those settings. The splawn differs from these and it took some tweaking to get the tone I wanted out of it. Becareful with the solo boost. When you get that thing opened up at a gig you'll notice that you need only a bit of boost. Definitely soundcheck the room you're playing to get it dialed in.

TJ

[DonaldDemon]

tj said:

I'd just work with the amp for a bit and see if you can dial in a good tone. I always keep in mine when working with a different amp that they are in fact different from one that I may be used to. For example, on my jubilees, I run the bass all the way up and treble and mids at about 10:00. For some reason that amp sounds great with those settings. The splawn differs from these and it took some tweaking to get the tone I wanted out of it. Becareful with the solo boost. When you get that thing opened up at a gig you'll notice that you need only a bit of boost. Definitely soundcheck the room you're playing to get it dialed in.

TJ

Yeah the 2 hour practice was not enough to really get the feel for it. Don't get me wrong though, it sounded killer for me being so unfamilar with it! I know the taper on the boost is super sensitive so that's why I had it down too low. Last time I almost blew out my spaekers when I kicked it on!
I always do a little soundcheck and tweak before we start at a show. Luckily the gig we have coming up at the House of Blues does a thorough sound check hours before show time and everything should be sounding good. I may just have to adjust for when the room is filled with people by raising the presence slightly.

[TJ]

Let me know how it goes.

[DonaldDemon]

tj said:

Let me know how it goes.

Will do. Its not for another month yet