She said, Tell me where you put your knob(s), Rocket Man.

[rooster]

OK, so, those of you who do have the Rocket amp, or an AC30, where do you put your knobs? Since the amp is not typical, i.e., the 50pf treble cap in the tone stack and the 'cut' control combined, I think there is a lot of options. I mean, it has occured to me that if you see the amp as having a typical tone stack with some type of 'presence' control you are missing the boat.

So let's do the knob as a 1-10 kind of thing (V is at 4), my settings are (using PEC pots here):

T = 3.5, B = 3.5, C = 7

FWIW, I used to turn the T up (7), and turn the C down (3), but found this to be *not as good* as what I now run. And, too, if you have an AC30, and you use the Normal channel, you realize that the C control is typically on 10 to get a clear tone out of the amp. Which also speaks to the history of the amp, and where a lot of players who knew the AC30 amp were coming from, KF included. (BTW, does anybody know if he (Ken) had a comment or two on setting the knobs on his Rocket? That would be good to know.) What I do know is that Ken was old school here, in that he played plenty of AC30s before he ever built his Rocket. Which leads me to believe that he would be approaching the Brilliant channel differently than, say a cat playing Fender amps his whole life. See my point? OK, so share your settings. I don't think the Edge will steal them.

[rawnster]

With my tele:

T = 12:30 (5 1/2)
B = 11:30 (4 1/2)
C = 1:00 (6)

[redshark]

I know that Ken liked and voiced his amps to sounds the best with flat eq(all knobs at 12 noon) and then made minor adjustments for room and instruments.

[M Fowler]

T = 5
B = 5
C = 7

[nickt]

Haven't got a rocket yet but did build a Lightning clone. Been playing an AC30 for, well, 35 years!

T maybe slightly on (say 6:30).
B maybe slightly on (say 6:30).
C full on (ie no cut - can't recall what this equates to as I haven't touched in decades

Interesting thing I noticed was the more gigs I did the lower the volume control went - eventually had it on 1 o'clock.

Nick

[rooster]

Cool. So Nick, are you saying that the T and B numbers are like 2, above being completely off? And then C is on 10?

Or is yours a real deal English wired amp with the controls wired backwards? So, translated, this means that your 'C' is actually 'off', and the T and B are on 8? Clear this up please?

Mark, oh yeah, and you are the LP guy, right?

redshark, OK, but remember that the Rocket is not a gound up build. Its the TB channel from an AC30 with a (very beautifully) Ken adjusted/altered power supply. And I suppose there may be a guitar out there that can sound good with all the amp controls in the middle area, sure. But I don't own that guitar, , and yet I am still trying to get the best out of the circuit with the guitars that I do own. Which is to say that I am starting to think that the key to this may be to take a 'new' look at the the use of the tone and cut controls.

I know there are some original Rocket owners that visit here, 2tone comes to mind, but I don't know if he would want to sound off on this. I for one would like to know his take on the controls in general because I know he loves his amp. 2tone?

[M Fowler]

Rooster, I play LP, Tele and Strat depends on the songs I bring all with to the gig as we do a variety gig.

Mostly not by choice I use the strat these days as it gets the tone the band needs.

But your right I prefer a LP.

[nickt]

Cool. So Nick, are you saying that the T and B numbers are like 2, above being completely off? And then C is on 10?

Yep and T and B are often completely off - if you put the AC30 tone control through Duncan's modeler you find that T&B off gives a flat response (albeit one where signal is attenuated about 20dB). So the setting makes some sense. (It did take 34 1/2 years for me to find this out though)

I used to get a lot of "wow that's a great tone" but everyone hated playing through my amp - so YMMV

And yes it is a UK original 1967 Top Boost!! I play a strat through it and it wizzes and crackles like a vintage amp is supposed to

cheers

[rooster]

Mark, so do you alter things slightly from Strat to LP? I know you have talked about your LP pickups and that they are reasonably bright - I think you said something like this at one time. This would be good to know, actually. And aren't you running Webers?

[rooster]

Nick- Yeah, I see what you mean when using the Duncan stack. (Man, and isn't it just wrong that someone doesn't make a modeler that includes a 'Cut' control?) I did not know this about the circuit, BTW, and that is good to know.

I realize your speakers are unique, too, but, I do see some similarities between your settings and mine. Maybe given the fact that my speakers are brighter and tighter, our settings are even closer. Interesting. Thanks for sharing.