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5. Dialing in Your Sound
Preamp
The preamp design was conceived as a purist 1-channel design with a minimal number of
controls but capable of an unusually wide range of classic voicings. Voicings span from a
sparkling late 60’s clean tone to a thick, to a woody tweed tone, to a crunchy plexi tone. This
full range of voicings can be dialed in using only the bass and treble controls.
The bass and treble controls operate much differently than conventional tone controls. Of
course, they perform their intended function (i.e. turning the treble control up give you more
treble, etc.), but they also simultaneously affect other parts of the frequency spectrum and
affect gain/headroom as well.
If you turn the bass and treble controls all the way up, you obviously get a tone with a lot of bass
and a lot of treble, for a “mid-scooped” voicing that’s very much like the classic 60’s clean tone
(e.g. Deluxe Reverb for example). Since this type of setting is usually best for clean tones, you’ll
find that the overall gain is lowest at this setting, for maximum clean headroom.
If you turn the bass and treble controls to their midpoint (5), you get less low bass and less high
treble, which has the effect of making the midrange more prominent. This voicing can be
compared to a vintage Tweed tone, and can be tweaked by adjusting bass and treble slightly
one way or the other. Compared to the previous setting, you will note that the gain is higher
(with less headroom) so that it’s easier to push the amp into overdrive.
Moving on, if you turn the bass control all the way down (while leaving the treble control at its
midpoint – 5), you will get even less bass for a sound that’s dominated by upper midrange and
treble for a plexi voicing that’s great for an edgy crunch tone. The gain is significantly increased
at this setting so it’s easy to overdrive the amp and dial in a classic plexi crunch.
Going further, if you turn both the treble and bass controls all the way down, you get a voicing
that’s centered on the midrange and upper mids, but you also get even more gain as well. This
adds up to a saturated plexi tone that is more “singing” than “crunchy”.
To get started, I suggest trying these sample settings:
1)
60’s Clean Tone 1 (more “mid-scooped”): Vol 3; Treble 10; Bass 10; Master 10
2)
60’s Clean Tone 2 (less “mid-scooped”): Vol 3; Treble 6.5; Bass 6.5; Master 10
3)
Tweed Clean: Vol 3; Treble 5.5; Bass 5; Master 10
4)
Tweed Overdrive: Vol 7; Treble 5; Bass 5; Master [as desired]
5)
Plexi Overdrive: Volume 4; Treble 5; Bass 0; Master [as desired]
6)
Saturated Plexi: Vol 7; Treble 0; Bass 0; Master [as desired]
7)
Vox Bright Clean Vol 1; Treble 9; Bass 4; Master 10
