Alternative to the 800 for solos?

J

james...

Experienced
I really love the mid-gain crunch I get from the 800 and the Shiva lead. But when I start to hit those high strings, things get piercing. I've tried some little tweaks like high cut and GEQ, but for some reason I can't really dial out the frequency without compromising the tone.

Are there any marshally sounding amps you guys particularly like for solos? The 6L6 lead sims are usually a bit too modern for me and don't have enough mid-hair.
 
Are you using a drive in front of the amp ?

If you are ..., I saw a thread titled "wicked cool" tip for ....

I think they said to attach a controller to the tone parameter of the Drive and trigger it by pitch. The higher you play on the neck the more the tone control is mellow'ed out ....

I'd think that should do it ... ?

Good Luck !
 
Try to play with the warmth parameter in the advanced tab of the amp parameter, should tame those highs you're talking about. It would help if you would tell us about your rig configuration, are you using the poweramp sims of the axe fx or not etc.
 
I have a preference for the Euro Red with a drive in the front, Tube Driver these days seems to work best for me. Not sure its a substitute for the 800 though.
 
O.K., I FOUND it ....

1st – Grab one of your favorite drive blocks and go to the advanced “TONE” Parameter.

Then change the settings to:

• Source: Pitch
• Start: 50%
• Mid: 30%
• End: 10%

Adjust all the normal settings to fit your taste ….

With the tone source as pitch, all your lower notes are pretty much normal, but the higher you go the more the tone rolls off and smooths out your leads ….

Keeps definition in the lower chords “and” makes your leads just sing. Try doing that with a real stomp box …. Ha !



2nd – You can do the same kind of thing with the advanced “GAIN” Parameter.

• Source: Pitch
• Start: 50%
• Mid: 65%
• End: 80%

Viola ! Less Gain for Chords, and more gain for solos !
 
yek said:
Wow James, been a while since I saw you post here. :)
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Yep! I don't get much time to tinker during the colder months but now that summer is ramping up I'm redoing my setup and back to annoying you guys again.

tonygtr said:
Try the CAE sims. CH2 is a based on a modded 800 circuit.
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I actually used to use the CAE stuff almost exclusively for leads. After a while though the 6L6 power section (mesa 2/90/2?) I believe started to annoy my ears. The highs with 6L6 stuff are just too fizzy for me. I kept wishing cliff would make an el34 version but eventually I gave up hope and kinda moved on.

I'll try that tone knob trick that A.D. found. Sounds promising.

Dinkledorf said:
I have a preference for the Euro Red with a drive in the front, Tube Driver these days seems to work best for me. Not sure its a substitute for the 800 though.
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I keep trying to like the Euro models because (in theory) they should be perfect for me. But for some reason they always sound a little too woody to me. I know this is supposed to be the beauty of that amp, but it kinda rubs me the wrong way.
 
AdamCook said:
You could also just roll off the tone knob on your guitar slightly...

Maybe I am too old school or something.
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Adam,

I was thinking the same thing lol

Back in the day, things were simplier. Just go to the neck pickup and roll off the tone control.

I'm thinking the word smooth in this thread does not mean woman tone :) Of course, now a days, women are smoother, so it does make some sense to us old timers :)

- Richard
 
AdamCook said:
You could also just roll off the tone knob on your guitar slightly...

Maybe I am too old school or something.
Click to expand...
I thought this too. But apparently the frequency I'm hearing isn't affected by the tone knob. It rolls off most of the highs except for this one frequency that won't dial out.
 
I think I found my amp gentlemen.

I gave the Hairy Brown Eye a real working over. Finally got the sound I needed like this.

Master - 4
Gain - 5.3
bass - 4
mid - 6.4
treb - 6.22
pres - 6.22

Put it through the red wirez bogner vintage 30 with an sm57 on the cap edge. Using an 89 LP custom.

This was EXACTLY what I needed. Not muddy on the rhythm's, but the high strings are not piercing at all. It's the best of both worlds. Most of this amp is focused in the mids and high mids which is exactly what I like. So that explains a lot.

For anyone who cares, i play worship music and this is my main crunch/lead sound. Ala Hillsong style.
 
R.D. said:
O.K., I FOUND it ....

1st – Grab one of your favorite drive blocks and go to the advanced “TONE” Parameter.

Then change the settings to:

• Source: Pitch
• Start: 50%
• Mid: 30%
• End: 10%

Adjust all the normal settings to fit your taste ….

With the tone source as pitch, all your lower notes are pretty much normal, but the higher you go the more the tone rolls off and smooths out your leads ….

Keeps definition in the lower chords “and” makes your leads just sing. Try doing that with a real stomp box …. Ha !



2nd – You can do the same kind of thing with the advanced “GAIN” Parameter.

• Source: Pitch
• Start: 50%
• Mid: 65%
• End: 80%

Viola ! Less Gain for Chords, and more gain for solos !
Click to expand...

This is a really excellent idea - thanks!
 
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