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Have you ever been unhappy with ANY amp tone?

5K views 66 replies 46 participants last post by  FatStrat2 
#1 ·
I have been dabbling with amplitube recently. The marshalls and both the mesas and fender collections. What I found is that after the last time I played. I wasn't really ripped about the tones on Amplitube and tonight it was a love hate with my traynor (ycs90).

I figure it's just an off night

Do you folks go through these same "Everything is meh" moments?
 
#10 ·
Thanks. I'll be honest, I ditched all attempts at using the laptop and the G3 as an interface. I got it working ok with the Th3, but I wasn't ready to buy as it was still a bit buggy. (I could get it to work, then not, then working...)

Finally I bought the Irig HD and stole my wife's iPad mini. Love it. I'm going to wipe the laptop and start all over and see if S-Gear will work. I might just keep it for my music library patched into my home stereo, and use the iPad for amp sims through studio monitors so I can jam along....have not decided yet.

The odd time ya, something seems off. Like my Strat is not qwacking right or something. I give it up for night. Next day everything is back to normal.
I'm thinking this will be the case. Will see tonight. Incidentally, the Strat has never sounded better through the Fender sims.

In addition, you might have been tired, not as interested/enthusiastic and/or distracted by something that was on you mind.
Actually, I think you nailed it. It was a pretty trying 13 hour day. I spent the morning powering through a stack of work trying to hit the road for Cambridge, Oakville and Whitby. Heading home came with a myriad of issues; GPS "saving me time" with alternate routes to get me out of gridlock that turned into goat paths in the dark, trying to find a good place to eat, a Santa event traffic jam (on top of the several I encountered already) and bumbling idiots not knowing where they were going. Fortunately the last 40 mins of my drive was peaceful and clear sailing. One thing that kept coming back to my mind was the ex-coworker who dropped in on me before I hit the road. I hadn't seen him in a year and he had been recovering from a disease that nearly killed him. I didn't recognize him at first and had difficulty with the whole thing...couldn't get it out of my head.

Tonight will be a better night
 
#13 ·
What a hell of a day you had yesterday!
I'd be in ICU by late afternoon if that happened to me.
I hope I did not come across as dramatic - just an outline of my day. Never thought about being drained, was probably playing on autopilot so to speak

Pleased to hear that you have something sorted out.

I stole my wife's Mac laptop and run it into my stereo in my basement "studio"
(you are allowed to laugh as you have been there) and then I can play backing tracks from YouTube via WiFi. I'm thinking of finding a used iPad for that purpose.
No laughing, nothing wrong with your "studio". It's a cool space to me. iPads are pretty great rent they? I may have to buy her another lol
 
#14 ·
I hope I did not come across as dramatic
Not at all. I just felt exhausted after reading it.

No laughing, nothing wrong with your "studio". It's a cool space to me.
It is comfortable and fun ...especially if you like to go back to the 1970's

iPads are pretty great aren't they?
My wife has a MacBook Air.

However, I have used iPads that others owned and I'm sure an iPad would be perfect for what I want to do. Actually, anything that is Wifi capable would be fine.
 
#5 ·
Yes, but then again, I've never had anything better than small bedroom practice amps... not even the newer modeling ones either. Until I started dabbling with all the tones available through my PC, the best I ever had was a fender champion 110.

But with so much available now I can generally find something I'm in the mood to play when the mesa dual rec clones aren't cutting it for me
 
#7 ·
Every now and then I get in a fight with the Blues Junior when it won't give me a tone that I can work with. Other nights it's perfect.

Friend of mine has some kind of 50w SS Marshall combo that I have never gotten a usable sound out of, but my neighbor has a different older SS Marshall that rocks hard.
 
#8 ·
There've been nights when I've take out the DRRI or YBA1 and not be totally into the tone. With amps like that, you kind of get what you get, tone-wise, and if it ain't happening on that night, it ain't happening. I can still play but it doesn't seem to have the vibe it should have (but, as they say: A bad on the gold course [jamming] is better than a good day at work [not jamming], if you know what I mean.....).

I find this to be less of a problem with either of my Mesa's because they have such a wide range of tonal options, I can usually get somewhere that's inspiring and interesting. Especially the TA15 - that little sucker can take you from Voxy stuff to tweedy/Marshally/Mark type tonality with a flip of a switch or two. Where do you want to go? Totally under-rated amp, IMO.
 
#9 ·
I had this problem a lot when I was younger. Sometimes it would go on for weeks. They were really frustrating times. It took me a long time to get over it. Now, I just have nights where I don't feel like playing but things always sound good. My Fender GDEC helps that out.
 
#16 ·
except, it's really not. you can get some pretty good tones from software if you have good monitors.


i have noticed in the past that some days my amp delivers awesome tones, and then the next day sounds terrible, even though everything is the same, including the settings. i suspect (although i don't know ) that barometric pressure plays a role in this. logically if you are using the same gear in the same room with the same settings, the tone should be the same too. but it's not always.
 
#18 ·
Generally I set my amp and leave it. Today it's working out much better. I really do like this amp. It is very Marshall-esque without the need for pedals. (Though I do use an EP booster). I roll back the volume to clean it up if it's a little too gritty.

I have a good set of headphones for the software, and I'm looking forward to getting a set of powered monitors. That might make a big difference right there.
 
#19 ·
Yes, and thats why it's taken me years to decide which of my 2 amps to sell. When I think I've made a decision, the next time I play them, I'm right back to where I started from. They're both excellent amps and I'm lucky to have such a problem, and I haven't heard anything to justify ditching both of them.
Bogner xtc classic
CAA OD-100
 
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#22 ·
i have noticed in the past that some days my amp delivers awesome tones, and then the next day sounds terrible, even though everything is the same
I presume it's my ears and brain that are varying my perception of the tone more than pressure and humidity.

Although I will say, since I switched to using the Normal channel on the DRRI instead of the Vibrato channel, things seem consistently better. :)
 
#23 ·
I also have periods where i can't dial any good tones out of my amps...The worst are when i am playing live. Sometimes it feels to be the amp settings, but it can also feels like i've chosen the wrong guitar for the setlist, but at the end, i really tend to say that this situation is created by my brain! I am also sure that barometric pressure, the humidity and maybe some others elements can change the tone, but the more i experience thoses days, the more i am seeing that my brain seems to do a crappy job with my ears depending on my humor/feelings!

That is hard to pass over, but i know my amps and my gear, so, for theses times, i am simply using settings that rocks normaly and do the best i can ignoring the tones i hear!
I rarely have such hard moments with the 11rack at home, as there is so much settings and different tones that i always find something usable at time...But still i prefer my tube amps!!![emoji869]
 
#24 ·
i really tend to say that this situation is created by my brain! I am also sure that barometric pressure, the humidity and maybe some others elements can change the tone, but the more i experience those days, the more i am seeing that my brain seems to do a crappy job with my ears depending on my humor/feelings!
i feel like that's a distinct possibility. it's why i said i don't actually know when i mentioned barometric pressure. it could be all in my head, and you just might be spot-on.
 
#25 ·
I just ran into that with my Marshall Mini Jubilee yesterday. For whatever reason, the tone I had been enjoying (I hadn't touched the dials in a few weeks) suddenly sounded off to me, so I spent some time fiddling with knobs and ended up with a sound I liked again.

It's possible that, because I'd been using a totally different model/cab IR on my AmpliFire through my FRFR cab, that it messed with how I was hearing the amp. Either way, it was fun to experiment.
 
#30 ·
This.
Today.
Playing LP into my Fuchs ODS & 212 (celestian gold alnico 12 & V30), just... off. Honky and if I dug deep into the note almost distorted, Trebley attack.
Was wondering if, "is it the guitar? Tubes? Placement? Volumes? .............me?!?!?"
So gave up for the afternoon, see what's what in the morning.
 
#32 ·
I had a tweed BJ w/Jenson. My dog kept pissing on it so the one corner was starting swell so i traded it in at L&M. But i loved the raspy overdriven sound i got out of it. Great amps i think.

I had a DSL40 that i thought totally sucked balls. Thin and flat.

Couldnt find a sweet spot with the Mesa Recto-Verb 25 either and sold it for what i paid.

The Marshall 2525c i plan on holding onto.
 
#34 ·
I bought this used amp at L&M and it is just amazingballs. Tweed BJ w/Jensen. One corner is swollen up but it is THE BEST sounding amp I've ever heard. Chimey! 3D! Haunting mids. Cyrstal lattici out the ying-yang! EVERY DAY! A real keeper. Some magic going on with that puffed-out corner, I guess.
 
#36 ·
I went through a period where I couldn't get a good tone out of my current setup (after a period where it sounded pretty much how I wanted) but I ended up figuring that out. I sometimes change things around but usually I don't need to do a thing, it always sounds like what I've been after my whole life. All it took was figuring out the right boost in front of the right analog solid-state distortion into the right cab sim.

I always play with a stereo setup and basically any combination of the main four preamps I like using sounds good. I can mix in other gear I own but I find I prefer my analog amp-in-box type pedals and solid state heads over my POD or my 'normal' distortion pedals.
 
#38 ·
I totally agree. I envy people who have fixed settings on their amps, and say "I haven't touched my settings in years!" I wish I was like that, but I'm constantly tweaking and assessing the tone. With my YBA1-Mod1 I've discovered that it's a bit of a struggle not only depending on volume (which affects gain stages and perception) but also whether I'm using ear plugs or not (duh!). With that amp, I also find that after about 15-20 minutes when the tubes have warmed up properly the sound is different than when I started playing. So that whole time after I turned on the amp and looked for my tone - it's largely useless. But I do it every time.
🤦‍♂️
 
#40 ·
If you play through a setup like I do it's sorta like cheating, I don't need to consider room dynamics when I'm playing through headphones, I don't need to worry about the inconsistencies of tubes (except with the SLO clone, but then it's only preamp tubes) and don't have to worry about if changing the volume impacts tone because I can turn it up at some other point in the signal chain without touching the settings on my gear. It's also just a dry, high-gain tone so it's nothing too complicated.

I wonder how much time you spend tweaking stuff is from those factors (inconsistencies in the environment you hear your tone in) vs. that a traditional amp is a bit harder to tweak. I'd imagine we both started in a similar spot (oh, this amp sounds good) and worked from there but I can flip through dozens of speaker and cab combos to find one that works well, same with mics and in theory same with power amps (I leave that feature off but it'll emulate 6L6s vs. EL34s as well as the smaller types). As much as it felt like it took forever to get things tweaked it was also very easy to focus on the process piece by piece.

Of course, my goalposts have been stationary for years, if yours move around that's gonna make it harder to set it and forget it.
 
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