Pristine Clean Sound: Amp & Cab

PRS513

PRS513

Inspired
Greeting Fractalites :)

I've had my XL (shipped with FW-14.3) for a few weeks now, and overall i am love love loving it. I've modded or written about 18 sounds to start off with and try during live at gigs. Light to medium gain as well as high gain sounds are all pretty good so far. After several gigs the difficulty I'm having is coming up with a Clean sound that I'm happy with. I need a clean tone with no clipping of any kind that is warm & punchy, yet has a nice crispness to the upper mids and high end without being shrilly. Oh, and I'm using the CLR Neo wedge at the moment.

Can anyone suggest the right Amp block to achieve this, along with the right Cab choice even if i have to buy the cab (don't mind doing that at all!). Or would anyone be okay with posting their favorite clean preset?

This is pretty much my last stumbling block through what's been a fairly big learning curve!

I'd appreciate any help anyone is willing to offer.

Thanks!
Steve
 
PRS513 said:
Greeting Fractalites :)

I've had my XL (shipped with FW-14.3) for a few weeks now, and overall i am love love loving it. I've modded or written about 18 sounds to start off with and try during live at gigs. Light to medium gain as well as high gain sounds are all pretty good so far. After several gigs the difficulty I'm having is coming up with a Clean sound that I'm happy with. I need a clean tone with no clipping of any kind that is warm & punchy, yet has a nice crispness to the upper mids and high end without being shrilly. Oh, and I'm using the CLR Neo wedge at the moment.

Can anyone suggest the right Amp block to achieve this, along with the right Cab choice even if i have to buy the cab (don't mind doing that at all!). Or would anyone be okay with posting their favorite clean preset?

This is pretty much my last stumbling block through what's been a fairly big learning curve!

I'd appreciate any help anyone is willing to offer.

Thanks!
Steve
Click to expand...

Can you post a youtube video or two of the tones you're seeking?
 
It's very easy to get a good clean tone from the Jazz 120. It doesn't overdrive easily. I'm a big fan of the vibroverb block, but you'll have to dial the drive way down and maybe back off the master to keep it totally clean.

I've been using the USA for clean lately, Here is the patch, the cabs are ultra res that came downloadable with fw 14 (I'm still using FW 14). The top cab is the OH_412_mar-cb_m-sb-75 studio mo and the bottom is the 1x12 TweedVerb R121. I quite like it.
 

Attachments

  • usa clean.syx
    6.3 KB · Views: 19
The ODS clean is my absolute favorite clean tone, especially in 15b. Just gorgeous. I put an Esoteric RCB in front with low drive level. I'll post a recording with my preset soon.
 
Try the ac15 with gain around 3. Fantastic, punchy clean tone. Use the amp factory vox or. The basic preset is on the factory presets no6 I think

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
The Bulb clean patch uses the Shiva Clean I believe. There are so many options. Given your impressive list go guitars I'm surprised this is an issue for you. I use the following:

Vibrato Verb
Bogfish Brown
Shiver Clean
Jazz 120
Bogfish Strato
CA Tucana 3
DIV/13 CJ
 
Wow thanks guys for all the suggestions! I'll give them all a go tonight. I scrolled through some of the factory presets again last night, and the Studio Clean (#100?) was very clean. I had ear fatigue by then, so I'll start fresh tonight.

One of my bands does clubs and weddings, I need a pristine clean, as I call it, for old wedding standards. I have been able to get decent clean tones for rock material, and great light clipping tones in spades! It's those darn wedding cleans that are elusive! LOL

I think my biggest stumbling block, aside from endless parameter possibilities, has been the cabs. I need to learn a lot more about both.

Keep the suggestions and presets coming!

And thanks again everyone for taking the time to help it's greatly appreciated :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
As already mentioned above, there are certain amp models which excel in "staying clean". Unlike fashion top models.

59 Bassguy
Various other Fenders
AC-20 (Drive below 2)
Bludojai Clean
Div13 FT37 Lo
HiPower
Jazz 120
ODS-100 Clean
Shiver Clean
USA Clean
 
For cabs start with the wiki recommendations. They just about always sound good out of the box. Forget about UR IRs if you're not up on it. That'll come with time. (Although the UR IRs are more versatile.)
 
Last edited:
If you find an amp model that you like the tone but it's still a bit furry, roll down the input trim (to .5 or even .3). That and rolling down the master cleans up lots of amps.
 
Try the Shiver Clean paired with the Doubleverb Mix IR. Keep the input drive low (around 9:00 - 10:00 o'clock), push the master volume up and use the output level in the block to compensate for volume. Add a little bass and treble, then set the mid and presence to taste. Maybe add a little light compression after the cab to smooth out any spikes.

I also really like the 3x10 Vibrato King IR for this application.

Karma
 
scorch said:
If you find an amp model that you like the tone but it's still a bit furry, roll down the input trim (to .5 or even .3). That and rolling down the master cleans up lots of amps.
Click to expand...

+1 this. A lot of the "clean" amps are quite easy to push into overdrive, sometimes too easy. It tends to fool your ears because it's not stupid loud when it starts breaking up. Pushing a real twin reverb into overdrive will definitely cause some ringing ears and angry neighbors. I end up turning down the input trim quite a bit on some models, especially when using humbuckers. Input trim doesn't affect the tone the way the drive control does. This lets you keep the drive control a little higher for a fat and punchy tone, yet keeping the input trim low keeps it clean. Personally, I usually like a tiny bit of breakup in my clean tones. Perfectly clean tones are sometimes a bit too sterile sounding for me with some pickups. A little throaty quality makes it sound more interesting.
 
Also remember,

Fender controls are 1-10 and the Fractal is 0-10.

So 3 on the Twin would be 2.22 on the Fractal.
 
Last edited:
Andre Antunes said:
Arent Fenders 1-10 ?! That way 3 on a Fender would be 2.22 on a fractal
Click to expand...

Thanks and edited!

The Fractal number is lower than the front panel Fender number for the same amount of break up.

IMO, this has led to some controversy on the forum over the Fenders breaking up too soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom