| Author | Message | ||
     cerebralsugar |
Anybody using an Attenuator between there output and speaker to get output grind at low volumes? If so what are you using? I like the sound as is but I think in the future it may be the thing to do. | ||
| Carlo |
probably no one would be because this amp sounds best clean or they just use the master volume (which old marshalls etc dont have and hence use a power soaker) hope this helps Carl BTW your tremolo hannel is softer than your clean channel and run your amp on half power all the time, quiter and saves valves, overdrives a bit sooner. Also do you like the crunch on musicmans? i suggest maybe tubes screamer as a boost at low volumes. Also muck around with your bright switch, it cuts the bass but gives you more sustain on those bends. Still waiting for those sexy pics, catchya mate. | ||
| Cerebral |
The distortion you can get by cutting the master volume and cranking the tremelo channel volume is cool with me. I know some people hate it, I think it sounds cool. I never have liked violin like distortion, but i'm scottish so i have ragged square bagpipe waves in my blood. :-) But my favorite sound though is the sound cutting the channel volume to 3 or 4, cranking the verb, and the master. It sounds to my ear still pretty clean, but the output tubes are starting to compress the signal just right. It sustains nice but is still clean. The only problem is that even at half power, the room I play in most of the time, that ends up being too loud. (Resturaunt room with a high ceiling that sounds absolutely like shit if you're too loud). I have a tubes screamer, a rat, and some other distortion devices. I like them well enough, but the MM, especially with 10's, has this beautiful high-midrange-treble sparkle thing, and using a distortion pedal undoes that, as far as I have gotten it to work this far. I die for the sound of the music man in larger rooms where I can open it up a little wider and the tubes (and probably the speakers) really start rounding the sound. Thats why I was thinking of looking into that down the road. | ||
| cerebral |
I have a switch on the back of my chassis for 8 or 4 ohms - with just the 4 10's inside (and i think they are stock), it should be in the 8 ohm position, right? I am still thinking about this idea - I think what most of us are really after isn't so much distortion but compression. People talk about Larry Carlton's tone as great distortion, but it sounds really clean to me - what I think they mean is the way his sound is compressed, really lets him sing. I discovered this the other day using my tube screamer. I was thinking.. this sounds distorted but not compressed. Since I run the amp in half power all the time anyway, I might buy a weber mini-mass. they are $100 for the 50 watt version, and like I said I'm in low power all the time already. Anybody have any experience with them? | ||
| Ed Goforth (ed_goforth) Username: ed_goforth Registered: 06-2006 |
Ok, it's been a while since this was posted, but for those who want to know, I have a 100 watt Weber Mass. It works fine with the Music Man amps. It does sound a bit darker than running without it, but not in a bad way if you tweak the settings well. It is basically a speaker without the paper cone and a resistor and rheostat is series with it. It attaches to the amps output passes signal through the Speaker motor (voice coil/magnet) attenuates through the Rheostat and out to the speaker. I have added a treble bleed cap across the rheostat like you would a brite switch on a Fender amp and it helps with the darker tone if it is an issue for you. You get the reactive load to the amp and I also like to use a Palmer PDI-09 for direct recording with the MASS. It seems that having the MASS before the PDI-09, it may get a little more compression or color, where placing it after the PDI-09, you get more of what the PDI-09 does. You of course want to tap the line level from the PDI-09, not the MASS line out. You need to have some kind of load on the amp at all times, if using the PDI-09, you need to attach the speaker to the through jack on the PDI-09 or have the MASS attached to the amp or the through of the PDI-09, this is very important and most of you know this already. The Palmer PDI-09 does an excellent job emulating a mic'ed speaker, and is great for also running to effects and into a board or stereo power amp system. Both ways you get useful tones, especially if you want to do late night recording without disturbing others. I am installing a VVR power scailing device into a RD-50, it will only scail/regulate the screen grid voltages, for attenuation that keeps the cranked amp tones relatively in tact, at all levels and is great for smaller venues, as those of you know, a RD-50 can get loud  Hopefully all goes well and I will post on this site the results for those interested. I love Carlton's and Ford's tones! Tommy Johnston of the Doobie Brother's used a HD-130 212 for a while somewhere in the late 70's and when he was doing his solo act in 79' and I have seen John Mcfee, also a Doobie use them in the past. I recently updated a RD-50 Rev A to a Rev E in the transistor driver area and the results were amazing, giving the amp more BEEF and great tone! rebiasing the 12ax7 in the RD-50 Limiter circuit and some other tweaks really opens up the tone and overdrive abilities to be on par with Dumble/Boogie Mark I tones, but still retains the Music Man sound. |