Meet Lori Pearl

[Big Jim]

Hey Gibsonman,
Congrats on the new amp. I have never played an amp that roars like the Express. If you plan to do your headcab in Cherry wood, I have a pretty good supplier. Just shoot me a P.M.
Jim

[Gibsonman63]

I used my new Express for rehearsal last night. It is much louder than I had originally thought and I can easily get over the drums with the volume on 2. Of course at that level, it doesn't have the gain and drive I am looking for. My parts arrived yesterday for my airbrake, so I am going to start there and play for a while before making any real adjustments.

I also noticed that the amp is a little brighter than I like, but I'll wait to see what the airbrake does for me before voicing, plus I am still waiting for my Scumback to ship and I am hoping to use that in a 1 x 12 cabinet for gigs. I did, however, rediscover the neck pickup on my '79 SG. On my Marshalls, I only use the bridge pickup. On the Express, the neck pickup is mean and throaty. I still want to get back to the bridge pickup because it is much better at coaxing BFG style squawks out of the amp. That bright switch on the amp is pretty handy. The really bright position works well with the neck pickup, but the not so bright position is still too bright for the bridge pickup.

I'll be back inside the amp over the weekend and I will post my voltages.

[Gibsonman63]

Of course my drummer suggested that I number all the controls to make them go to 11.

My bass player came up with a better idea and suggested that I number them from 1 to 3 then when my wife or my soundman complain that I am too loud I can say "It's only on 2 1/2. What do you expect me to do?"

[Cliff Schecht]

A good enclosed 16 Ohm 1x12 (preferably ported) is a great compliment to the Express. The reason I say 16 Ohms is because you can run it into the 8 or 4 Ohm jacks and get a slight volume drop without killing sound. I quit using my attenuator, it doesn't really muddy up the sound or anything but I hate having to carry another piece of equipment around. My current setup requires 4 things to be moved: Head, cab, guitar and cable bag. I'm usually the first one setup onstage with such a simple setup.

As far as settings go, I use the following with my Tele (these are out of 10):
-Volume: 3-4
-Treble: 3
-Mids: 2-3
-Bass: 6-7
-Presence: 2-3
-Bright switch up high (500 puff cap)

For humbuckers, I tend to drop the mids a hair more and keep the volume at about 3. Perfect clean to mean sound. YMMV however, especially considering different pot tapers and what not.

[Gibsonman63]

Thanks, Cliff.

I am running my treble at around 3 and my mids and bass turned way up, but I haven't done any tweaking yet. I should be able to put the attenuator together tonight, then I can field test again tomorrow at my Thursday ice-house session and then do some tweaking over the weekend.

I have a closed back 1 x 12 cabinet with a 16 ohm speaker in it and I ordered a Scumback for it. I could always build a new back for it if need be.

I am not trying to get down to bedroom levels, just knock off enough power where I can get more crunch out of the amp.

I don't mind carrying stuff to the gigs since I got my trailer. I just try to keep the practice stuff separate from the gig stuff as much as possible and let the gig stuff live in the trailer.

[Gibsonman63]

I finished my Air Brake last night and it seems to be the ticket with this amp. On my 1x12 cabinet, using the air brake, the amp isn't overly bright and I can crank it up enough to get some crunch out of it.

I have a field test tonight. More tweaking to come.

[Gibsonman63]

Here is a down and dirty clip. I haven't played with the mic placement and I have a few thing rattling in the studio that I need to track down.

[Gibsonman63]

I did another field test at my local watering hole last night. I was showing off the amp and turned if to almost half volume. Played a few clean chords and some jazzy licks and everything was clean and chimey. I rolled the volume out on the guitar, hit a power chord and I got a couple of seconds of fuzzy sustain followed by silence. Apparently, the port in my 1x12 cabinet can't keep up with the speaker. Anything over a certain volume (or playing my Strat) builds up too much pressure in the box and pushed the speaker cable out. I managed to get through the evening by keeping the volume down to about 1/3 and duct taping my speaker cable to the box.

My Scumback is scheduled to arrive today. I'll double check the speaker input on my box to make sure it is nice and tight and see how this speaker behaves in the box.

[Structo]

That's got to be a first!
Never heard of blowing a plug out of a cab!

If any amp could do it though, the Express is the one!

[Gibsonman63]

I thought you guys might enjoy some more pics.

[Gibsonman63]

A few more

[Gibsonman63]

I can't stop myself!

[Gibsonman63]

pics

[KellyBass]

She's a beaut! Very Nice!

I'm curious to get your opinion of the scumback...? Tried it yet?

[Gibsonman63]

I tried the scumback in a 1x12 closed back box. It is nice and throaty sounding, but sounds restricted even though the cabinet is ported in the front. I used if for my gig last week and it sounded great mic'ed up with a 57 to the PA. I wanted to like it more since I paid a lot for it and had to wait so long for delivery, but not so much that I would have to order a bunch more of them for the rest of my cabinets . I may try making a partial back for that cabinet.

Unfortunately, all of my speaker cabinets are closed back cabinets. I have a 4 x12 cab with Vintage 30s and it is a little cleaner sounding, but still not perfect. I am thinking a 2 x12 with either an open or semi-open back would be the ticket. and still be small enough to haul around for gigs. I have a 2 x12 closed back cab with Heritage series speakers and they aren't bad.

The amp is really sensitive to my playing dynamics. I generally have no problem adding bottom to my sound by slightly muting with my palm close to the bridge, but it can easily get overwhelming if I don't use it subtly. I seem to be having a problem now finding a cabinet that can do everything tonally that the amp can do and sound balanced doing it.