Background
I’ve struggled with my express build being too bright, to where I usually set the treble and mid controls at around 9 o’clock, or lower. At first I thought that I had an issue with my build and thus replaced the tone caps twice, replaced all pots with pec; completely rewired the preamp section three times, and the power section twice (ended up with solid core 99% pure copper hookup wire). The solid-core copper wire really did darken it a bit. In all, the amp sounds great; it’s just too bright when the treble and mid are engaged too much. Interestingly, I use the 100pf bright cap setting. I find that it adds the correct amount of air/sparkle to the tone. 500pf hurts. Without using any bright cap, it’s too dull from around the 2k frequency and up. Turning up the treble and/or mid pots (without the bright cap) only adds harsh upper mids while not affecting any of the higher frequencies. Hope that makes sense. So, my usual setting for this amp is: 100pf bright cap, treble 9oclock, mid 9oclock, bass 12oclock, and presence is off. With the added Lar-Mar MV, I set the volume around 11oclock and the MV around 12:30-1:00 oclock.
Fanes
This past weekend a friend allowed me to borrow his 2x12 oval-back avatar cab loaded with a Studio 12L, and a Medusa 150. What a great combination. It’s definitely quite a bit darker sounding than my 2x12 closed-back Scumback M-75’s. They are thick and chunky. Think heavy dark roast as opposed to a breakfast blend. You can tell I live in the Northwest (coffee snob of sorts). They’re not so dark that the upper frequencies are masked. No, they’re simply softened and sweetened a bit. To my ears the Fanes are a much better match with my express amp. I enjoyed it so much that I took that setup to my church gig this weekend. The senior tech dude had nothing but compliments about the tone; and he showed my were he set the EQ on my channel. He high-passed around 120hz, scooped a touch at around 530hz, and from there up the EQ was set flat. Pretty cool. That proved to me that even when micing (the Medusa in this case), the speakers are big, dark, and rich, with no ice-pick in the forehead.
Anyway, just thought I’d share a bit about the Fane speakers, and offer them as a great option for any amp that needs some darkening.
Below are some low-fi pics from my iPhone at the venue.
