Speaker Impedance Curves - A Whole Lotta Magic....

Stratoblaster

Stratoblaster

Fractal Fanatic
Finally had some down-time and spent several hours having fun playing around with the Speaker Impedance Curves, pairing them with various amps, etc.

Starting with my production/gigging preset that I've been using since last spring (I'm really happy with it...it sounds and feels great) I just went to town playing the various 4x12 SIC's with my current amps.

I'm a 4x12 player so I stuck to those curves with a low end resonance peak ~115HZ +/- range.

What I'm looking for is a smooth and full high end but not glassy nor strident, a throaty, fat, round midrange, and a low end that's full, punchy, but not overwhelming/woofy.

And, just as important, I'm also paying huge attention to the feel and the kind of 'push back' and response that I like.

I use 7 main tones/scenes with an HSS guitar and these are the current amps/SIC combinations I've found sound and feel the best for me:

Single Coil Neck:
Clean: Shiver Clean, #61 4x12 Brit Greenback
Blues: Suhr Badger 18, #62 4x12 Brit TV
Single Coil Lead: Friedman HBE2010, #62 4x12 Brit TV

Humbucker:
Class-A: Class-A 15W Top Boost, #61 4x12 Brit Greenback
70's Rock: 5153 100W Blue, #62 4x12 Brit TV
Metal: Friedman HBE V2, #62 4x12 Brit TV
Humbucker Lead: Friedman HBE V2, #62 4x12 Brit TV

There may be a pattern here heh...I'm clearly gravitating to the #61 4x12 Brit Greenback for cleaner/mild-OD tones and #62 4x12 Brit TV for everything else.

The # 66 4x12 Hipower is a very interesting SIC and I'll be playing around with it more. It has a very rude, articulate clang with a snotty, clear low end punch, especially when using a single coil neck pickup. It feels very lively and responsive.

The various load box curves are also intriguing. Sometimes it's nice to experiment with synthetic impedance curve and I had a couple of amps sounding good with them, mostly on the cleaner/mild-OD tones.

I find there is a big effect on feel with different curves. Some definitely connect better with the right hand and you get that all important push back and liveliness.

Getting the right SIC really can bring an amp to life and is worth playing around with.

Am interested in what others may be using for amp/SIC combinations.
 
I let Dynacab's auto IC mode set it to the correct / accurate native curve for the amp/cab combination I select. I don't want the added artificial (since SIC is auto-set irl when pairing a real cab + tube amp) step of auditioning various SICs on top of the often challenging (even with graphic IR selection) process of finding an amp + cabIR + mic(s) + FX combo that matches a sound in my head.
 
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Interesting to read what you landed on. For a long while I was only playing though the Plexi 6CA7 with various ODs, and I was stuck on the Factory #1 cab #811, the Brown Super, but I found that I loved that set up with either the Brit Greenback or Brit TV curves. I would use the GB for anything nasty and the TV for anything heavy. I loved that, because it just had so much character. Man, it’s been so long since I tried that, need to go back and give it another whirl!

Another thing I did for a while was to use the most accurate curve I could but then tweak only the low end peak to match whatever song I was playing. Tremendously effective for metal with any of the high gain amps.
 
The speaker impedance curve introduction and subsequent improvements were, by far, the biggest ‘feel’ improvement throughout the firmwares up to now. For me, anyway. I remember when Cliff added the ‘Gain Enhancer’ and everyone was raving about it (rightly so). Then the speaker impedance thing was added and I could not believe how good it was. It was the final step in terms of amp ‘feel’ for me. I love the JTM45 curve for a lot of my presets, but swapping different curves can bring an amp to life.
 
sprint said:
I let Dynacab's auto IC mode set it to the correct / accurate native curve for the amp/cab combination I select. I don't want the added artificial (since SIC is auto-set irl when pairing a real cab + tube amp) step of auditioning various SICs on top of the often challenging (even with graphic IR selection) process of finding an amp + cabIR + mic(s) + FX combo that matches a sound in my head.
Click to expand...

I used the default SIC curves for all amps for a while now but was finding I was tweaking a lot of the bass response (and low cuts) on a lot of the open-back cabs/Fender type amps where the resonance was defaulting anywhere from ~55Hz -> 100Hz +/-.

I found I liked other SIC's in general with the low res ~115Hz and with less mid-suck and the strident/thin highs some of the default curves can have.
 
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State of Epicicity said:
Interesting to read what you landed on. For a long while I was only playing though the Plexi 6CA7 with various ODs, and I was stuck on the Factory #1 cab #811, the Brown Super, but I found that I loved that set up with either the Brit Greenback or Brit TV curves. I would use the GB for anything nasty and the TV for anything heavy. I loved that, because it just had so much character. Man, it’s been so long since I tried that, need to go back and give it another whirl!

Another thing I did for a while was to use the most accurate curve I could but then tweak only the low end peak to match whatever song I was playing. Tremendously effective for metal with any of the high gain amps.
Click to expand...
Hmmm that's interesting. I can see how dialing in a solid low-end punch that is 'in tune' with a given song might just add that extra 'something'. Cool....
 
kplooksafterme said:
The speaker impedance curve introduction and subsequent improvements were, by far, the biggest ‘feel’ improvement throughout the firmwares up to now. For me, anyway. I remember when Cliff added the ‘Gain Enhancer’ and everyone was raving about it (rightly so). Then the speaker impedance thing was added and I could not believe how good it was. It was the final step in terms of amp ‘feel’ for me. I love the JTM45 curve for a lot of my presets, but swapping different curves can bring an amp to life.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. So much of the mojo of a tube guitar amp is the interaction of the speakers with the output section and accurate modelling of that interaction is paramount to achieve a proper dynamic feel. I was super excited when all of that appeared, as well as any amp/cab development over time.

I too found that the right SIC can work wonders making a great amp sound and feel so much better.

I found that to be especially using the #62 4x12 Brit TV SIC vs the matching/default one for the Friedman. The amp played and sounded more lively and had a bit more weight to it.
 
Stratoblaster said:
Finally had some down-time and spent several hours having fun playing around with the Speaker Impedance Curves, pairing them with various amps, etc.

Starting with my production/gigging preset that I've been using since last spring (I'm really happy with it...it sounds and feels great) I just went to town playing the various 4x12 SIC's with my current amps.

I'm a 4x12 player so I stuck to those curves with a low end resonance peak ~115HZ +/- range.

What I'm looking for is a smooth and full high end but not glassy nor strident, a throaty, fat, round midrange, and a low end that's full, punchy, but not overwhelming/woofy.

And, just as important, I'm also paying huge attention to the feel and the kind of 'push back' and response that I like.

I use 7 main tones/scenes with an HSS guitar and these are the current amps/SIC combinations I've found sound and feel the best for me:

Single Coil Neck:
Clean: Shiver Clean, #61 4x12 Brit Greenback
Blues: Suhr Badger 18, #62 4x12 Brit TV
Single Coil Lead: Friedman HBE2010, #62 4x12 Brit TV

Humbucker:
Class-A: Class-A 15W Top Boost, #61 4x12 Brit Greenback
70's Rock: 5153 100W Blue, #62 4x12 Brit TV
Metal: Friedman HBE V2, #62 4x12 Brit TV
Humbucker Lead: Friedman HBE V2, #62 4x12 Brit TV

There may be a pattern here heh...I'm clearly gravitating to the #61 4x12 Brit Greenback for cleaner/mild-OD tones and #62 4x12 Brit TV for everything else.

The # 66 4x12 Hipower is a very interesting SIC and I'll be playing around with it more. It has a very rude, articulate clang with a snotty, clear low end punch, especially when using a single coil neck pickup. It feels very lively and responsive.

The various load box curves are also intriguing. Sometimes it's nice to experiment with synthetic impedance curve and I had a couple of amps sounding good with them, mostly on the cleaner/mild-OD tones.

I find there is a big effect on feel with different curves. Some definitely connect better with the right hand and you get that all important push back and liveliness.

Getting the right SIC really can bring an amp to life and is worth playing around with.

Am interested in what others may be using for amp/SIC combinations.
Click to expand...
The speaker impedance curves have a significant effect on the final sound for sure, especially bottom and top end.

I will often audition (pin the page) multiple different ones when I sense an amp isn’t quite sounding like I want.

Having these option helps so much! Another reason why the Axe-FX III and it’s little brother and sister are the best digital amp modelers on the planet.
 
austinbuddy said:
The speaker impedance curves have a significant effect on the final sound for sure, especially bottom and top end.

I will often audition (pin the page) multiple different ones when I sense an amp isn’t quite sounding like I want.

Having these option helps so much! Another reason why the Axe-FX III and it’s little brother and sister are the best digital amp modelers on the planet.
Click to expand...

Agreed...! I find it's almost mandatory to play with the curves in general to find a sweet spot. Many amps that I may pass over for various reasons can come to life and work for me after a curve tweak.

Oh yea, having these options is indeed amazing...14 years of playing with Fractal gear and the ride continues to impress and provide unparalleled, deep custom tweakability like nothing else.
 
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