#115 and overall bass response in other amps

[Max]

But I do like some low frequency grind when I am playing barre chords.

Hi Tom,

did you allready try the "deep" switch (with and without the bright switch "on") for this kind of "low frequency grind"?

All the best,

Max

[Structo]

No, I have a D'lite 50 watt currently.
It does not have the Rock/ Jazz switch or the Deep switch.

I have mid PAB, Mid boost, and Bright on the three panel switches.

I am currently building a 100 watt ODS amp.

I haven't quite decided on whether or not I'll use a Deep or Mid boost switch on this one.

Do you prefer one over the other and if so, why?

[dogears]

Exactly. Well said Max! This is how I feel as well. I am able to create what i feel when I play my rig tuned to my taste. It sounds like me. Not RF. Maybe with some textural similarity, but like me!

But a Dumble ODS is not made to provide a "Robben Ford tone" or "Larry Carlton tone" but to provide an experienced player with "his own tone". What an ODS does extremely well is to showcase all the tiny nuances in touch and technique and musical approach a player has to offer.

[Max]

Exactly. Well said Max! This is how I feel as well. I am able to create what i feel when I play my rig tuned to my taste. It sounds like me. Not RF. Maybe with some textural similarity, but like me!

Hi Scott,

to be honest, my impression is that you dig even deeper and with a different approach into the textural web of every note than RF does this. When I listen to your clips they sometimes remind me of impressionist music like "Images" or "Suite bergamesque" of Debussy as an example. It is like painting with tone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKd0VII-l3A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLbpQl1cCl8

And I think your current rig(s) which I hear on your more recent clips is/are a perfect match for this kind of shaping each note and tone into some kind of emotional image. I really like your way to play the electric guitar and think this is a very personal and interesting approach.

And as I completely understand that many painters do not like to buy premixed colours but prefer to produce them by themselves - I understand that you like to fine tune your amps because these are of course a most important part of the colours on your palette. It's a bit hard to express this with words, but perhaps you can nevertheless understand what I am talking about?

All the best,

Max

[Mr Dumble]

None of the Dumbles I have played have had big bottom ends. They are all very well balanced. Many of the clones have far more bass than any Dumble. Not sure why. Especially HRM clones.

[Max]

Do you prefer one over the other and if so, why?

Hi Tom,

My impression was that #121, with an unusual kind of skyline tone stack and a mid switch (labelled "deep"), was a great combination. Perhaps because of its giant transformers and other technical specs it had a lot more bass than a usual ODS - a bit more similar to a DL or Singer (indeed Alexander thinks of the ODS 150W amps as some kind of combination of an ODS and a Singer as he once told). These low frequencies of #121 you then could adjust with the bass control to the amount you like best and then you have the mid switch, too, for all the fat sounds with a PB etc.. "Lots of fun" -indeed (at least up to the moment when you have to lift or carry one of these beasts).

But somehow I've found a way to get really juicy fat sounds out of a "classic" circuit too, and because of this I like these with their deep switches usually a bit more than the usual skyline circuits. The best classics still have more of a Singer for my ears than the skyline amps I have played and I really like these glassy sustainy polished OD strat tones like in this RF / Miles Davis video I've posted in this thread.

So these "classic" amps have the versatility that I like from fat and juicy (at least if you know how to set up a "classic" for "fat and juicy") to "crisp and glassy". But to get a "fat and juicy" tone is perhaps a bit more easy with a skyline / mid switch amp than with a "classic" / deep switch amp. A tone like the one you hear in Scott's clips as an example is much harder (if possible at all) to get with a "classic" amp.

So in the end my recommendation would be to try both (deep and mid) - each variant perhaps for some weeks or months - and then decide. As you can see in Tony's layouts, the differences between #124 "skyline" and #124 "classic" are not that big. Only around ten parts and the coax are different AFAIR, at least not 50. So it would perhaps be possible to try both circuits in a general #124 structure and then chose the one you like best?

Have a nice day,

Max

[stratcat62]

@stratcat62:

Here is an example of a 4th generation "classic" ODS that AFAIR has been fine tuned to be fed by an all original ’56 strat: http://www.gbase.com/files/store_images ... 2lf_so.jpg

The original owner asked Alexander to build an amp, which stays completely clean in its clean channel, even at high settings of the volume control.

Talbany,

I had no idea about the Annandale show, though I couldn't have made it either. I played this amp in Maryland.

Max,
That is the amp. The seller also mentioned that it had a sister amp when I tried it out. I guess that explains the clean all the way up. The OD was somewhat grittier than in the Ford with Miles clip; it sounded pretty nice with slide. The reason I felt that it wasn't pairing well with my Strat is because none of the tone controls seemed to do very much, like the amp was going to sound that way regardless of what I did. The lack of bass could probably also be from the midrange-y voice the amp had. The most interesting thing was that from 1 to 10 on the bass control was very little difference in the amount of bass. On a Fender amp for example, that amount of bass sweep exists between 2 and 3 on the bass knob. I recall the deep switch adding a bit of low end, but not too much. Please don't get me wrong, the amount of bass the amp had was really nice. I'm always trying to dial bass out of amps.
If you'd like to chalk my experience up to user error and lack of experience with this type of amp that would be fine. I couldn't figure out how to get what I wanted out of the amp and it while it was obviously very good at what it did, it wasn't the best amp for me.

[Max]

and it while it was obviously very good at what it did, it wasn't the best amp for me.

Hi stratcat62,

yes of course personal tastes are very different as is proven alone by the fact that you find a lot of rather different guitars and amps with different sounds and features on the market, which all find (some more, some less) customers who like them. And indeed - often our first intuitive impressions don't betray us.

But what you tell about the EQ controls and how they worked is indeed not very similar to what I still remember of those of #123, the sister amp. But of course, what I think of as beeing a sufficiently working tone control may not be effective enough from your point of view. But maybe both amps just are less similar than I assumed from what their original owner once told. One question: Did the preamp boost have an obvious effect (volume, gain, tone?) when you engaged it with the footswitch?

Cheers,

Max

[talbany]

I also played the sister amp 123 (classic) here at Music Exchange in Catonsville(been a while) and remember getting a good sweep on all the controls (maybe more so than my Skyliners) though I could never get it bass heavy at the time with a Strat plugged into it's matching 2X12 cap EVL's..I didn't really get a chance to run it through it's paces at the volume (breakup levels) I wanted but got a good idea.. I came away with a sounds nice but not really blown away but then again I never really spent the time I wanted with it.. I can say with real conviction here that for me I much prefer my 2nd generation 100w #13 hybrid without equivocation...
Hope this helps!!

Tony

[Structo]

I think I will try my amp with the Deep switch first.

I may also include the Mid Boost on a relay or replace the PAB with a different type of boost, such as the BM type PAB.