I'm curious what was different between them. Did you compare them to see?
Yep! The one that worked is unprocessed, creamy, still raw and very powerful 1959SPL, close to all eleven, with a drive in front of it, incredibly noisy with single coils, pushed through the 4x12 T75s. I had to switch to HB because the venue had bad electricity on top of cranked 1959SPL being already very noisy.
Mine was Matchless Chieftain, with probably too many Youtube compressor tricks, but still, but also quite cranked, with Klon in front of it. More "open sounding" and direct to my ears, but... My friends in the audience told me it sounded "digital" and "flat". It sounds just great with any backing I use at home at any volume. But sucks live.
When I got it, I ended up following some isolated guitar tracks as a guide.
I use factory presets as a reference. If I feel like my preset sound way off from factory presets, it's a red flag I "overdid" it. But the problem is that I cannot find the sound I'm looking for in the factory presets, so I just have to mess around with stuff, and when I "use my ears", I end up with presets which don't sound good live.
That said if you can't trust your ears then....not sure even how to respond. How would one have any idea what a good vs a bad sound is?
That's the problem right here. There are at least a few definitions of "good". Like - "if it sounds good, then it is good", right? But this might not be working live, meaning it is not actually good. And the opposite! What is "good" at the venue, just isn't fun to play at home, just not "good" enough. I don't see myself using Moore's preset at home, ever.
I test my presets playing with music at a decent volume. It gives me a pretty good idea of how it will work with other musicians as far as cutting through.
I play with recordings and backings at least 50% of the time. Pretty loud. But yeah, totally not what I hear at the venue, staying close to a drummer on one side and a bassist on another.
Unfortunately we're at the mercy of the sound person...
That might also be a part of the problem - that guy was really bad. Like I had to come to him a few times and ask to make someone louder, he just didn't pay any attention. But only a part of the problem - Marshall still sounded absolutely glorious. One other player asked me if he can play through it and he sound just better than everyone else, cutting through the mix.
