donvan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 7:14 pm
Thanks Gil.
Over the past several months I may have been reading your posts in the wrong order.
I have been manipulating the tone controls on my both my strat and amp to finesse the OD tone using suggestions from you with good results.
I am able to get both clean and OD sounds/tone that I love. The problem is, I set up the amp and guitar for clean tones that I love but when I switch in OD I find that I need to back down the treble on the guitar a bit as well as adjust tone controls on the amp. Not the end of the world but there's nothing wrong with trying to make something better.
When I came across your old entrance and treble cut mods I was hoping that I was on to something that might require less tweaking when I switch to OD mode.
Just to be clear, my issues are only with a strat. Not so much with a tele or 335.
Thanks,
Don
What pickup or pickup combination are you using for your clean with the Strat? And same question for OD? Maybe we can start there.
ayan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 7:47 pm
What pickup or pickup combination are you using for your clean with the Strat? And same question for OD? Maybe we can start there.
G.
I replaced vintage noiseless pickups with 57/62s - your recommendation in an old post. I love those pickups!
In clean mode I love the neck pickup but it's heavy on the bass in OD (need to turn amp bass down to 2 or 3). The best Dumble-like OD tones come from the bridge pickup but with the guitar treble backed off a bit to reduce the fizz and also with the amp bass backed off.
ayan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 7:47 pm
What pickup or pickup combination are you using for your clean with the Strat? And same question for OD? Maybe we can start there.
G.
I replaced vintage noiseless pickups with 57/62s - your recommendation in an old post. I love those pickups!
In clean mode I love the neck pickup but it's heavy on the bass in OD (need to turn amp bass down to 2 or 3). The best Dumble-like OD tones come from the bridge pickup but with the guitar treble backed off a bit to reduce the fizz and also with the amp bass backed off.
that's how I use my ODS amps with my telecasters, I've got used to riding the tone knob like I ride the volume. May I recommend Dunlop super pots, best guitar pots I've ever used.
ayan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 7:47 pm
What pickup or pickup combination are you using for your clean with the Strat? And same question for OD? Maybe we can start there.
G.
I replaced vintage noiseless pickups with 57/62s - your recommendation in an old post. I love those pickups!
In clean mode I love the neck pickup but it's heavy on the bass in OD (need to turn amp bass down to 2 or 3). The best Dumble-like OD tones come from the bridge pickup but with the guitar treble backed off a bit to reduce the fizz and also with the amp bass backed off.
A lot of us were, at least at some point, visually influenced by the old Robben Ford amp settings, with the bass turned up and the treble turned down. You do get a special sound that way, but his amp had the large bright cap (68 pF) on the master which was a part of the recipe I was never able to get along with it. Also, a side effect of using those settings is that the amp sounds a lot thinner when the traditional PAB is engaged. On a Skyliner amp, I think setting the treble (250K 30% taper) about halfway up, the middle (250K 10-15% taper) lower and the bass (500K 10% taper) lower still should work well with just about any guitar using either the neck or bridge pickup, with PAB on or off. When playing live brighter is usually better and bass tends to get in the way of things, unless you're playing in a power trio, so I find these settings to be very band friendly. Now, going from the neck for rhythm to the bridge for lead on a Strat spans a wide range... But if you wire your 2nd tone control to the bridge pickup only, you can turn that down a notch and solve the problem. The only time that will not work is if you use middle + bridge for clean, which sounds dull to me when the tone control is rolled back.
Hey, glad you like those pickups, mine have been in my 62 HR Strat for well over a decade.
Well, well, well. Novice/new guy here. This thread helped a ton. I didn’t like the .0047uf and 4.7 meg. My only guitar right now is an Epi 335 (nice guitar I’ve had for 15 years) but the Sheptone pickups are incredibly bright. It amazes me how bright it can sound. Anyway, I then tried the 470p and 4.7k. It was too bright BUT I noticed the low strings were starting to lose the low-toned, buzzy fizz. I had tried a 250k with no cap (series-ed with the 220k) last night but it didn’t do much of anything. I was about to give up on this approach.
So I went up on resistance today. Started with 475k plus the 220k (no cap) and things started looking up. I now have a 1 meg before the trim pot (no 220k). For the first time, my overdrive channel sounds just like my clean tone but overdriven. I still need PAB to get good feedback going but it’s a beautiful thing. It still doesn’t sound nearly as good as clips I’ve heard here, or the YouTubes of my favorite Dumbles but I’m really jazzed. I was resigned to having a really cool sounding amp that had amazing cleans and damn good dirt but not Dumbleish dirt. Knocking that gain down was a huge, huge step.
I might post a clip soon. I’ve never had an amp with this clarity, dynamics, and sustain. It’s still really bright but I can dial it out and it still sound awesome. Thanks!
donvan wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 11:17 pm
Glad to hear that you were inspired by this thread and found some success. Looking forward to your clips.
You mentioned that you are working with a modified Princeton Reverb. Is it modded with ODS-like circuitry?
Yes. I’m chasing Dumble tone. It was actually started by someone else a few years ago. A few weeks ago I copied the 70s schematics at schematichaven. It’s been a ride. Amp sounds amazing to me but not all the way there.
I wouldn’t have posted if the 1 meg before trim pot wasn’t such a big step for me. I’m sure you guys could figure out why it’s needed there but I couldn’t. I was In a big fight with the OD section. The first big step was putting a .01 uf after v2a and .005 after v2b. But when I started playing with the ideas in this thread the OD finally came together.
I’m very happy with it but I have to wonder why I couldn’t get the amp to handle that signal without the 1 meg. Wondering if it could be the power amp. I can’t really tell how “good” or close it is when I’m playing through it but I sure do enjoy it. I’ve only played a 335 through it. Will be running some other guitars through it soon.
raveonstevie wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:56 am
I wouldn’t have posted if the 1 meg before trim pot wasn’t such a big step for me. I’m sure you guys could figure out why it’s needed there but I couldn’t.
If you were to post the schematic of your current configuration I suspect that you would get some valuable input regarding what your 1 meg resistor is actually doing to the circuit.
raveonstevie wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:56 am
I wouldn’t have posted if the 1 meg before trim pot wasn’t such a big step for me. I’m sure you guys could figure out why it’s needed there but I couldn’t.
If you were to post the schematic of your current configuration I suspect that you would get some valuable input regarding what your 1 meg resistor is actually doing to the circuit.
I’ll do that. I’ve drawn one up but need to correct values. Thanks for your help.
raveonstevie wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:22 am
Okay, I have a schematic. I also started to make some clips. I’ll stop hijacking your thread though. I’ll start my own.
Is there a particular place to post non-real Dumble-style clips? Thanks all.
Yes, in the 'Dumble Discussion' forum. Anything dumble related can go there... just not on the specific 'real dumble sounds only' thread.
raveonstevie wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:22 am
Okay, I have a schematic. I also started to make some clips. I’ll stop hijacking your thread though. I’ll start my own.
Is there a particular place to post non-real Dumble-style clips? Thanks all.
Yes, in the 'Dumble Discussion' forum. Anything dumble related can go there... just not on the specific 'real dumble sounds only' thread.
Things that helped being able to successfully get rid of it were: proper orientation of coupling caps (paramount) and... use of selected components (resistors and caps) throughout the preamp.
Proper orientation of the coupling caps, is that the outer wrap thing or how close the middle and bass caps are go each other?
Select components, this always a controversial topic, some people swear they can hear the difference between different resistor brands while others say they don't hear it.
Gil has built quite a few amps using different brands of caps. I wonder what are the caps that work and how did how he/you determine that?
Was there a scientific approach?
EDIT: I later realised I've asked this question before.
