Have you found “your” amp in the FM3?

OT but the Vox conversation has me curious about something. I have been listening to old Brian May videos the last few days. Of course his tone is amazing. A treble booster into AC30’s. It’s not a bright tone at all. Lush, defined, and huge, well rounded. No ice pick. Not the result I get when I try the treble boost drive block. How does he get that tone out of that combination?
 
skolacki said:
OT but the Vox conversation has me curious about something. I have been listening to old Brian May videos the last few days. Of course his tone is amazing. A treble booster into AC30’s. It’s not a bright tone at all. Lush, defined, and huge, well rounded. No ice pick. Not the result I get when I try the treble boost drive block. How does he get that tone out of that combination?
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FM3?

If so...the Treble Booster block doesn't work right in the FM3. Real ones have an insanely low input impedance that loads the pickups and drastically changes their frequency response and resonant peak, but they have to be the first thing after the guitar to do it. There's a reason Brian May has a treble booster on his strap before his wireless.

The nicer fractal units have analog circuitry on the input to emulate that behavior, but that's one of the things that was cut from the FM3 to hit the price point. If you're using an FM3 (or set the input impedance of one of the nicer fractals wrong), the Treble Booster in a drive block has basically nothing to do with what a real one sounds like. It also won't work if there are any buffers between the guitar and a fractal set correctly.

You'll honestly get closer with almost any random distortion pedal than a treble booster used the way the FM3 does it.

ETA: there is one passive treble boost pedal that's made to go after a buffer or clean boost. It works very differently from the originals. But...if you're buying a pedal anyway...there are a lot of rangemaster clones that work right as long as they're first in line.
 
Chromatizm said:
A few days back I clicked on the Chiefman preset and just can't stop. Scene 2 is. Pure bliss with single coils. I just can't stop, can't play any other preset now!


Please try Scenes 1 and 7 on Chiefman preset and LMK if this is what you are looking for!
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I think I deleted that preset or modified and saved it under a different name... oops!

JRFarmer said:
The AC20 (and all the other Vox-style models) also sound great with greenback IRs. I use Leon Todd's TV Mix IR with AC20 often.
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Yeah, I've been using the YA 2x12 Matcheless w/ M25 and H30 Blend. They help quite a bit!
Dave Merrill said:
Re thinning out at low gain, is there a bright switch you can turn off, I don't remember?

Or just use the tone controls or output EQ?
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I actually do prefer the bright switch on... but it's set to a low value... and I just back off on the amp controls. So things I've done:

Lowering all the trims, gain, master, switching to KT88s, lowering speaker drive and compression, bumping the bass on the amp, adding a bit of 125hz in the output eq, and using the YA Matchless V2 2x12 irs got it sounding alright.

Sean Meredith-Jones
 
Cam Heiliger said:
Try the AC20 EF86 Bass model and really roll down the input drive or the roll back the input trim. That will maintain the thicker character of the amp while cleaning up. Also, look at using some different IRs. I find that mixing the AC20 1x12 cab coupled with a fender cab (I like the brown super 2x12) really fills out this amp nicely.
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Yes, I did like that model a lot. It did get me there w/a lot less futzing. Thanks!

Sean Meredith-Jones
 
smj said:
I think I deleted that preset or modified and saved it under a different name... oops!
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Here you go
I think it is pretty much the stock preset - I only added Scene 8, was experimenting with stacking drives.
Oh, and also removed wav/chorus/flange blocks - never use them anyway. If you'd like the sound in general, I think we'll find you a default preset!
 

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  • Matchbox Chieftain (Chiefman).syx
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Cam Heiliger said:
Try the AC20 EF86 Bass model and really roll down the input drive or the roll back the input trim. That will maintain the thicker character of the amp while cleaning up. Also, look at using some different IRs. I find that mixing the AC20 1x12 cab coupled with a fender cab (I like the brown super 2x12) really fills out this amp nicely.
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Man thanks again for this. This is a great amp as I was just setting up scenes for tomorrow morning. It's kind of funny to read Cliff's comments for it on the wiki page.... basically teeing off on the design flaws of the AC30 and how superior he feels the AC20 is...lol.

Sean Meredith-Jones
 
My Main amp for clean right now is the Morgan AC20 (in another band I use the Mesa MkIV clean )
My main gain amp is the 1959 Jumped Marshall... The original specs started with the Austin Buddy...Then
I have basically "Jose'd" it...
Saturation, Variac, Post phase... I have switch tubes between Mullards and the 6ca7, Fat switch...
 
smj said:
Man thanks again for this. This is a great amp as I was just setting up scenes for tomorrow morning. It's kind of funny to read Cliff's comments for it on the wiki page.... basically teeing off on the design flaws of the AC30 and how superior he feels the AC20 is...lol.

Sean Meredith-Jones
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The AC20 is my main amp. With the right speaker curve and IR it can be almost Marshall like along with the regular Vox tones with the traditional speakers and IRs. I tried my presets after the 6.0 beta and they sounded off. Then I found out the updated AC20 amp block isn’t done. So hopefully it will be back better than before. Are you guys experiencing the same thing?
 
Leon Todd just released a badass set up on YouTube. A/DA MP-1. Sound is incredible!! My new favorite. I ended up loading his TV Live Mix cab as well.
 
I haven't yet from my own experience, but I heard someone else use a Recto model through a PA50 and it was literally the best thing I've ever heard.
 
smj said:
Love the DC30…. But I really have to fight it to get it to clean up. When I do get it cleaner, I have to fight it more because it really thins out.

What’s the cleanest Vox style amp in there?

Sean Meredith-Jones
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Turn the Negative Feedback up to @ 6.00, this should clean it up quite a bit but keep it from thinning out. You will need to reduce the Level as increasing the NF also increases volume. I've attached a quick Matchbox D-30 EF86 clean from a preset that already had that amp - Scene 1.

This is my 'experimental' preset so the other scenes haven't been dialed in. I use this preset to try different amps and cabs as well as just for messing around once I find something I like.
 

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JoKeR III said:
Turn the Negative Feedback up to @ 6.00, this should clean it up quite a bit but keep it from thinning out.
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I've thought seriously about trying this. I need to get around to it.

As much as I like the idea of an amp with no negative feedback, it seems like I don't actually like them in practice. (I'm assuming that it's similar in that regard to Voxes). Voxes without NF don't really do the edge-of-breakup thing....it's a smooth transition from chime-y clean to distortion. That's definitely it's own thing, but....it's apparently not what I want. I'll give that preset a try at some point.
 
I'm curious now what this would do to say the 1959 SLP Jumped amp...cranking up the gain and master and the NF...hmmm..i shall experiment later
 
cnemitz22 said:
I'm curious now what this would do to say the 1959 SLP Jumped amp...cranking up the gain and master and the NF...hmmm..i shall experiment later
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you could start here..
TD 7 ND 2.5 MV 7 Input Boost on, Fat and Bright on, I added depth 4,
Sat 4, Variac 75%, MV Location Post phase
 
Lately it’s been the Das Metall and PVH 6160+ Lead for metal, and the Wrecker Express and Fox ODS-100 for overdriven tones. Man those sound beautiful. I love messing with plexi amps too, but those 4 are my current faves.
 
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