General Gear and Tab Season IV: Can it play barre chords?

[Jaicen]

Until they end up like this

 

 

Nah, I understand the new board has thicker traces and a slightly different design, so I shouldn't run into that problem.

 

You have the 5 watt don't you? How is it?

 

I went with the 15c as I wanted the 12" speaker. It's amazing as long as you understand it will only ever sound like a Marshall DSL. It's also pretty bright and has more gain than Arnold in his prime, so i will probably swap the tubes for some Harma Ecc83's to calm things down a bit. For OOS through to early abso its spot on though. As a side note, there's very little hiss or hum too, so that's a bonus.

 

I hope I don't have any issues like the above, I haven't heard about any probs with this model to be fair.

 

Edit: I might still get the 5c as it has an awesome power amp stage using ec99's with a true long tail PI. In the 1/2 power mode the clean channel has a really tasty Hendrix thing going on that the 15c doesn't seem to conjure up at the levels I play at.

[Witz]

See what you did there.

 

I'm here all week sadly

[james90]

I went with the 15c as I wanted the 12" speaker. It's amazing as long as you understand it will only ever sound like a Marshall DSL. It's also pretty bright and has more gain than Arnold in his prime, so i will probably swap the tubes for some Harma Ecc83's to calm things down a bit. For OOS through to early abso its spot on though. As a side note, there's very little hiss or hum too, so that's a bonus.

 

I hope I don't have any issues like the above, I haven't heard about any probs with this model to be fair.

 

Edit: I might still get the 5c as it has an awesome power amp stage using ec99's with a true long tail PI. In the 1/2 power mode the clean channel has a really tasty Hendrix thing going on that the 15c doesn't seem to conjure up at the levels I play at.

 

Will those make a difference though? I thought they're just rebranded JJ ECC83s. I don't really like JJ tubes, and neither does Phill (we've both had bad experiences with them!) Having said that, I guess the ECC83s are alright, but I wouldn't trust using any of their tubes in the power amp.

 

And you shouldn't. It was just the early DSLs from 2000 or so (mine is a 1998) which had really thin traces on the board, and eventually they'd develop a problem with bias drift. I recall the earlier DSL40 combos (from before 2004?) had overheating issues as well.

 

This one is pretty quiet for the most part. Not sure how it was originally, though.

 

as for the 5C, that's interesting. I thought it used something like a single EL84. Have you changed anything with your 15C? I rarely bother with upgrading caps and stuff like that in new amps, but I do have this 90s Orange amp which had all of those rectangular grey caps switched out with WIMAs. But that was done before the amp was actually functional, so I don't know how much of a difference it made...it does sound great anyway.

[scottST]

Is the 40c any use?

[Jaicen]

The new dls40 is awesome, has a pair of EL34's.

if you need gigging volumes it's a no brainer.

Re the JJ/Harma tubes, I don't know if they are rebranded or not. I like them in my 5w el84 combo, they're darker and smoother than the stock ehx. Basically, I don't need high gain tubes, this thing has way more than I need anyway.

I have considered some mods, I'd like more gain on the clean channel, as I can't get the output tubes to break up at home friendly volumes. I would like to tame some gain and brightness from the gain channel, but not enough for me to open her up. Yet.

[scottST]

Thats cool, its in consideration for being the amp i get. Trying one out soon. Used to have TSL602 and loved it, but its fx loop broke down. Assuming build quality is alright on the DSL reissues?

[Mittle]

Kemper question. Powerhead or not? Why?

[james90]

The new dls40 is awesome, has a pair of EL34's.

if you need gigging volumes it's a no brainer.

Re the JJ/Harma tubes, I don't know if they are rebranded or not. I like them in my 5w el84 combo, they're darker and smoother than the stock ehx. Basically, I don't need high gain tubes, this thing has way more than I need anyway.

I have considered some mods, I'd like more gain on the clean channel, as I can't get the output tubes to break up at home friendly volumes. I would like to tame some gain and brightness from the gain channel, but not enough for me to open her up. Yet.

 

I don't know, I was looking for a combo recently and didn't really like the sound of that one.

 

The orange combo I bought instead is exactly what I wanted anyway, but it doesn't have an effects loop. The sound makes up for it, and I only put the delay and EQ in the loop which I never use anyway.

 

It looks like there are two different harma ECC83s.... going by the pictures, the STR is DEFINITELY a JJ, and the retro looks like a russian 12AX7. Probably a rebranded tung sol (which isn't all that different from the EHX)

 

darker and smoother (and muddier) would suggest JJ though.

 

I don't know about gain levels though. I've never actually bought low gain 12AX7/ECC83s intentionally, and the high gain ones don't make a difference and are just noisier. I will say that when I was buying into the NOS craze (which I try to avoid now) I got an amperex ECC83 for the first slot in my super lead... for a second I thought the amp was broken as it would barely distort (makes sense, doesn't it?)

 

Not sure how the gain ratings usually work, but a 12AX7 is usually around 100, and this one was somewhere around 60, which, according to this, is more like a 12AY7

 

http://www.thetubestore.com/Resources/Guitar-Amp-Info/Gain-Factor

[Dave.]

Kemper question. Powerhead or not? Why?

 

Want to use a cab/use it live? Powerhead

 

Solely for studio use? No powerhead.

[james90]

Dave has spoken

[Dave.]

Dave has spoken

 

You know it

[Mittle]

Lol. But cant you use the std. Directly into the pa?

[Dave.]

Lol. But cant you use the std. Directly into the pa?

 

You can. But you wouldn't be able to run a cab for stage volume.

[matthijs]

It'd be usable with in-ears, but you can't do any feedback things obviously, and band members won't hear you on stage if you don't have proper monitors.

[Neil.]

Bass chaps, I have a question about bass effects.

 

I was looking up about some of Sigur Ros' recording techniques, and how they play live etc. I noticed that a lot of their live gear is from EBS. Lots of valve drives, compressors and distortions from EBS. The valve drive is of interest to my question, because it appears on the pedalboards of both the guitar and bass players in Sigur Ros. Pedals like the valve drive and compressor are pitched as being "universal" in that they work just as well for bass as they do for guitar.

 

What I'm wondering is how common is this? Or, how well in general do guitar effects work with bass? The reason I'm asking is that I'm considering doing a run of the tube pedal I recently built. Tone wise, I tried to be as transparent with it as possible. Its neither treble nor bass heavy, and when designing the circuit, I made a conscious effort when selecting caps to avoid picking values that would shift its characteristics in the direction of guitar or bass. Ideally, I'd like this pedal to be as friendly to a bass setup as it would be to guitar. So from a bass player's point of view, I'm curious as to how well guitar pedals transition to bass?

[Dave.]

Bass chaps, I have a question about bass effects.

 

I was looking up about some of Sigur Ros' recording techniques, and how they play live etc. I noticed that a lot of their live gear is from EBS. Lots of valve drives, compressors and distortions from EBS. The valve drive is of interest to my question, because it appears on the pedalboards of both the guitar and bass players in Sigur Ros. Pedals like the valve drive and compressor are pitched as being "universal" in that they work just as well for bass as they do for guitar.

 

What I'm wondering is how common is this? Or, how well in general do guitar effects work with bass? The reason I'm asking is that I'm considering doing a run of the tube pedal I recently built. Tone wise, I tried to be as transparent with it as possible. Its neither treble nor bass heavy, and when designing the circuit, I made a conscious effort when selecting caps to avoid picking values that would shift its characteristics in the direction of guitar or bass. Ideally, I'd like this pedal to be as friendly to a bass setup as it would be to guitar. So from a bass player's point of view, I'm curious as to how well guitar pedals transition to bass?

 

Sigur Ros don't really use bass as a low-end instrument. It's more low melody. The reason I imagine they use EBS stuff from bass and guitar to compensate for that lack of a low-end instrument. That and EBS just make great pedals.

 

I use a Boss BF-2 and a Digitech Digiverb on my board, both of which aren't normally bass effects and there are bass variants of both available. But I use these pedals because they don't effect my low end in any noticeable way. That's the key with using a pedal with bass, it's effect on the low end. Now, with a clean blend it is possible to maintain your low end. But if you have something that completely wipes out your low end (Like a Boss DS-2), a clean blend won't magically make it work on bass.

Generally I find that unless the low end has been purposely removed in order to tighten up the sound, it can be used on bass with/without a clean blend depending on the retained low end of the pedal. If you haven't shifted the caps to either guitar or bass, then I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[Neil.]

Ah ok. I think there might be 2 caps in my design that might take out some of the lower end. Dave are you still in Waterfunk?

[Dave.]

Ah ok. I think there might be 2 caps in my design that might take out some of the lower end. Dave are you still in Waterfunk?

 

If it doesn't completely destroy the low end, a clean blend could make it work well with bass.

I am indeed.

[Neil.]

Ok, in due course, would you be interested in testing two versions of it? One stock, and one with a few cap mods to avoid possibly taking out the low end?

[Dave.]

Ok, in due course, would you be interested in testing two versions of it? One stock, and one with a few cap mods to avoid possibly taking out the low end?

 

When were you thinking of testing them? I'm doing my leaving so weekdays aren't really an option.

[Neil.]

Ah right, I was thinking late may/early June, but I'm fairly sure that's when it kicks off, so I'm probably thinking post lc. How's the revision going? (I did my leaving twice. Missed the points for architecture by 10 the first time, so I'm well familiar with what this time of year is like!)

[Dave.]

Ah right, I was thinking late may/early June, but I'm fairly sure that's when it kicks off, so I'm probably thinking post lc. How's the revision going? (I did my leaving twice. Missed the points for architecture by 10 the first time, so I'm well familiar with what this time of year is like!)

 

Oh if you can do it after the leaving then I'd be happy to do it! I'm finished on the 10th of June.

Revision is starting the speed up now. I nearly have all my practicals (engineering in a weeks time) so it's coming to a close.

The course I'm looking at is Music, Media and Performance Technology in UL which isn't crazy points so I'm quite confident going in.

[matthijs]

Bass chaps, I have a question about bass effects.

 

I was looking up about some of Sigur Ros' recording techniques, and how they play live etc. I noticed that a lot of their live gear is from EBS. Lots of valve drives, compressors and distortions from EBS. The valve drive is of interest to my question, because it appears on the pedalboards of both the guitar and bass players in Sigur Ros. Pedals like the valve drive and compressor are pitched as being "universal" in that they work just as well for bass as they do for guitar.

 

What I'm wondering is how common is this? Or, how well in general do guitar effects work with bass? The reason I'm asking is that I'm considering doing a run of the tube pedal I recently built. Tone wise, I tried to be as transparent with it as possible. Its neither treble nor bass heavy, and when designing the circuit, I made a conscious effort when selecting caps to avoid picking values that would shift its characteristics in the direction of guitar or bass. Ideally, I'd like this pedal to be as friendly to a bass setup as it would be to guitar. So from a bass player's point of view, I'm curious as to how well guitar pedals transition to bass?

 

EBS is great stuff because it works so well on bass; anything that works on bass ought to work well on guitar. The other way around: not so much.

However, the other way around I've yet to see: most guitar pedals really lose bottom end fast.

[heyjackk]

so my axe fx arrived today

 

hoe lee fuck

[Neil.]

EBS is great stuff because it works so well on bass; anything that works on bass ought to work well on guitar. The other way around: not so much.

However, the other way around I've yet to see: most guitar pedals really lose bottom end fast.

 

Yeah the more I look at the one I've made and compare it to the valve drive, I think mine will be much the same. At the cathodes, there's two caps that, put simply, add gain to selected frequencies. I think I have it setup to add gain primarily to the mids for guitar. Now that being said, it wouldn't be that difficult to change a few values so I get the same gain but not restricting the frequencies that get all the gain, so its more uniform.