Tonestack Question

O

Ochanomizu

Inspired
Sorry to be bothersome, but could someone point me to a link that explains what the "tonestack" in the Axe FX amp sims does, what's it used for, and why one would need to change it or under what conditions one would change the tonestack of an amp sim? I did a quick search on the wiki and didn't find anything specific.

If you change the tonestack on a Fender type sim to a Marshall tonestack for example, does it change that amp to a Marshall? If so, I'm not sure what the point of doing that is, i.e. why not just choose the Marshall amp sim to begin with? Obviously I'm not getting conceptually what it is used for... :oops: :oops: :oops:


Thanks.
 
In simple terms think of it like this...You've got a real Fender amp and you've got, let's say a real Soldano amp right in front of you. Both of them have tone controls which inside are attached to capacitors etc. etc. . Now, you take the whole tonecontrol part out of the Fender and put it into the Soldano. Since by design they both use different 'voicings' to suit the amp they were designed for (ever realized how little the bass control on old Marshalls does), an amp with a different tonestack will get a slightly different character. You can certainly not change a Fender entirely into a Soldano this way, but you can get some of its character. At least a bit of the frequency response.
 
I'm not an amp expert, so take my answer with a grain of salt, maybe the experts chime in.

An amp consists at least of the pre-amp, the tonestack, and the power-amp. The tonestack is the thing with the bass, mid & treble pots etc. on it. You can select if you want it to be before the pre-amp, in between pre- and power-amp, and after the power-amp. So if you change the tonestack, only one component of those three is exchanged, resulting in different sound characteristics.

Hope this helps,
H
 
ang said:
So if i understand this right, this just affects the way the tone knob works?
Click to expand...
No. Different tonestacks sound different because of the way they were designed. If you change pots, capacitors and all that around, your bass knob for example would end up sounding different (some amps are for example known for their interaction of the toneknobs and that's part of the 'design'). You could for example build a tonestack that sounds like an old AM radio. Very limited frequency range. Now if you took that tonestack and would put it into your super full frequency range hi-fi amp...well it would sound different.

The way the knob 'works' or 'reacts' is affected by 'active' or 'passive' setting of the tonestack.
 
The tonestack is basically just the EQ part of the preamp. Different tonestacks cover different frequencies and the bands can interact with each other in different ways, since for the most part these are not "ideal" EQs but cascading tone pots (which produce interesting, characteristic sounds, which is why we continue to use them).

So changing the tonestack will change the EQ circuitry of the preamp, but will not change the gain stages around the tonestack - ie, if you put a tonestack from a clean amp into an amp with a lot of gain in the preamp, it won't sound the same as swapping out the entire preamp (but still potentially cool, which is why you can do it).
 
If that's the case, then why do you hear such a change in the tonal character by changing the tonestack when all the parameters are set to "zero," "noon," "default"... whatever you want to call it?
 
Good question. That's because "noon" isn't flat in most (or any?) of the tonestacks. For instance, the Fender Blackface tonestack has a pronounced mid scoop, so in order to get a flat EQ you need to set it to somewhere in the vicinity of 2-10-2 (mids all up, bass and treble most of the way down).
 
I think this is another one of those 'use your ears' situations. Just think of interchangeable heads on other peoples bodies. Say, put Julia Roberts head on Pam Anderson's body, you'll get a different overall effect than if you put Megan Fox's head on there...

Can't believe I just came up with that analogy.

Anyway. Try different ones to see what you like. Generally, what you're used to hearing in recordings are going to be a Twin preamp with a Fender power section, but you get very cool sonic variations if you throw a Recto power section after that Fender. It's like modding your own roomful of amps.

EP
 
No don't use your ears... use the factory settings or else other members will say you're doing it wrong.
 
electronpirate said:
I think this is another one of those 'use your ears' situations. Just think of interchangeable heads on other peoples bodies. Say, put Julia Roberts head on Pam Anderson's body, you'll get a different overall effect than if you put Megan Fox's head on there...

Can't believe I just came up with that analogy.

EP
Click to expand...

Hahaha... I´d like to see that in real life. But your way of words is good...
 
electronpirate said:
I think this is another one of those 'use your ears' situations. Just think of interchangeable heads on other peoples bodies. Say, put Julia Roberts head on Pam Anderson's body, you'll get a different overall effect than if you put Megan Fox's head on there...

Can't believe I just came up with that analogy.
Click to expand...


Me either. You completely left Megan Fox's body out of the equation. :roll:
 
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