Amp suggestion?

cje

cje

Inspired
Hey, everyone.

I’ve been diving deep into my first kitchen sink preset which is based around two amps - the Two Stone J35 and the Vibrato Verb Custom. The Two Stone is the cleaner of the two, and I use that most of the time with a few drives in front of it. The VVC I often use with no extra drive pedals and just turn the guitar volume up a bit (or a lot). I’m switching between the two with a per-preset override switch that controls the multiplexer. I’m just starting out in the Fractal world and have a lot of questions, but for now I’m just looking for some amp suggestions as an alternative to the Vibrato Verb Custom. This has proven to be one of my favorites, but it breaks up into its fantastic overdriven sound a little too easily for me. I’m wondering if there’s something very similar but with a bit more clean headroom that the amp gurus here might be able to point me toward?

Thanks.
 
Don’t mean to sound sarcastic here, but have you tried turning down the input gain and raising the level? If you’re happy with the sound but want less gain, this seems the logical solution. You can also turn down the input trim to do something similar.
 
While you're doing this, Cooper Carter has a quite cool couple of videos on this sort of thing.


 
For sure, I’ve tried gain staging. That’s something that I’ve always paid special attention to. Right now, gain is at 3 and level is at -4. I suppose I could go a bit more extreme, but everything else sits so well around there. I always set my presets up with my guitar volume knob between 6-7.

I can play with the gain staging a bit more, but would really appreciate an amp or 2 with similar characteristics, just more headroom - if it exists.
 
The VibroVerb is a blackface circuit so it’s already pretty high headroom compared to the Tweed and Brownface models. The Band Commander is a higher headroom amp, but it doesn’t break up in the same way. You could try a couple of the different Twin models as well. They might get you close.
 
cje said:
For sure, I’ve tried gain staging. That’s something that I’ve always paid special attention to. Right now, gain is at 3 and level is at -4. I suppose I could go a bit more extreme, but everything else sits so well around there. I always set my presets up with my guitar volume knob between 6-7.

I can play with the gain staging a bit more, but would really appreciate an amp or 2 with similar characteristics, just more headroom - if it exists.
Click to expand...
You may lose "authenticity", but turning up the Negative Feedback parameter in the Power Amp page will give you more headroom.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Look at the Twin and Super Reverb models.

Also look at the Double Verb factory preset.
Click to expand...
That Super has some juice as well. It models the V1 pull mod, so you will need to turn down the Master if you want more headroom on that model. It might actually get you in a similar ballpark to the VibroVerb though. Both have unique breakup characteristics - you may like the Super more. It just depends what sound you're going for. Do you have any clips or references for the sound you are going for? If it is specific, we may be able to be more helpful. Also, what IRs/Cabs are you using?
 
I'll take a closer look at the negative feedback parameter for sure, if the transition to breakup is not too jarring, it could work out. I don't have any clips, but this and most presets I make will mostly be made to play through the effects return of my guitar amp (Groove Tubes Soul-O 45, tube, but incredibly transparent and has no breakup to speak of on its own), so basically the outs are:
Out 1: Balanced analog out to UA Apollo x4 driving Genelec 1030A speakers
Out 3: Amp effects return

Out 3 is picked off just before the cab block (the last block in my chain), and that's what I'm playing through the overwhelming majority of the time, so cabs are not really a big consideration at all.

However, I plan on bringing the F9 into rehearsal studios so rather than chose another amp's effects loop, I will be running it into the PA. In this case, my cabs are as follows:
4x12 Rumble-12L 160 A
2x12 Two Stone 160 A

I'm very open to exploring different cabs, it just has not been a priority based on my live setup. I would, however like to get a decent sound into the PA for rehearsal purposes.

My music is mostly low to mid-gain jam-band music.
 
I think the other Vibrato Verb models have a bit more headroom, too... But it's been a while since I played with them. They are different amps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom