The Tone Thread

[rayc]

As an aside here's a quote from a Sydney luthier..."Open up and say ah. A neat new Gibson Les Paul that's in to have the standard 'Gibson smile' repaired. Unfortunately due to the new holographic sticker under the lacquer, it became a more noticeable break than usual.
Upon closer inspection when doing the final setup, it was found the truss rod adjuster has been lacquered over at the factory rendering it inoperable. With some time and effort, the truss rod was freed and relaxed to get it setup for optimum playability.
Unfortunately the gamble is real when purchasing a Gibson."
It was one of last year's auto tuner jobbies too.

[muttley]

As an aside here's a quote from a Sydney luthier..."Open up and say ah. A neat new Gibson Les Paul that's in to have the standard 'Gibson smile' repaired. Unfortunately due to the new holographic sticker under the lacquer, it became a more noticeable break than usual.
Upon closer inspection when doing the final setup, it was found the truss rod adjuster has been lacquered over at the factory rendering it inoperable. With some time and effort, the truss rod was freed and relaxed to get it setup for optimum playability.
Unfortunately the gamble is real when purchasing a Gibson."
It was one of last year's auto tuner jobbies too.

I am not at all surprised.

[Minerman]

While miner's modding flowerpots into midi-cowbells, I think I've decided to try an amp mod on one of my amps.

The test subject will be a 50w Plexi reissue. I picked this amp up for a steal a few years ago so I figure what the hell. It's not an original Plexi, nor did I spend a ton of money on it, and it's so basic that surely I can't screw it up too badly. Hopefully.

Anyway, I have two things to do to it.
1) PPIMV - Post Phase Inverter Master Volume. Pretty self-explanatory and should be pretty easy.
2) One-Wire Cascaded gain mod. This one is *supposedly* one of the simpler gain mods you can do to a NMV 4-holer Marshall. This mod will yield an 80s hair shredder type tone. Not that I'm an 80s hair shredder nor do I like that horrid music, but I do like the "brown sound" type tone.

My concern is that the mod will keep the amp from also functioning as stock, so I'll need to find a way to make it switchable, hopefully with a push/pull pot. I don't want to drill new holes, nor do I want to make the amp useless because I do love it's raw natural sound.

So a Plexi works as a two channel amp. You have a bright channel, and a normal channel. They are independent of each other, but they can be combined by linking the channels together with a small jumper cable. This doesn't stack them though, it just combines them in parallel. You do this more for tone shaping than adding gain. The mod will add gain by cascading the gain stages into each other. The first gain stage will cram the signal into the next gain stage instead of them just running next to each other. The normal channel inputs will not be normal channel inputs anymore. They will become mega hair metal gain shred inputs. The bright channel inputs will hopefully remain as stock for the classic Plexi sound.

So stay tuned mofos.

Looking forward to this Greg, the hot-rodded plexi sound is way up there on my list, & I'm pretty curious to not only hear the results, but see what you had to do in order to get there....Cool dude...

[Greg_L]

Looking forward to this Greg, the hot-rodded plexi sound is way up there on my list, & I'm pretty curious to not only hear the results, but see what you had to do in order to get there....Cool dude...

Yeah if it works, it should yield that hairy EVH/Randy Rhoads type sound. I need to find a good set of instructions. Wiring and soldering is no problem. I don't understand coupling caps and cathodes and plates and all that shit, so I can't just do it off know-how, because I have none. I can just barely read a schematic. So guidance will be a must. I just don't want it to turn the amp into hair-shred only. I still want it to be stock if possible. I already ordered the kit to do the PPIMV. That's reasonably straight forward.

[Minerman]

Yeah if it works, it should yield that hairy EVH/Randy Rhoads type sound. I need to find a good set of instructions. Wiring and soldering is no problem. I don't understand coupling caps and cathodes and plates and all that shit, so I can't just do it off know-how, because I have none. I can just barely read a schematic. So guidance will be a must. I just don't want it to turn the amp into hair-shred only. I still want it to be stock if possible. I already ordered the kit to do the PPIMV. That's reasonably straight forward.

I'm sure you'll do fine dude & FWIW the Marshall Forum has a lot of info on mods, you'd just need to wade through the bullshit to find it...

I think it's cool you're gonna make the mod switchable too, very cool....

[Greg_L]

I think it's cool you're gonna make the mod switchable too, very cool....

That's only way I'd do it.

[Minerman]

I think it's cool you're gonna make the mod switchable too, very cool....

That's only way I'd do it.

Yeah man, that's how you do a mod, have it where you can simply turn it off when you wanna...

I'm looking forward to this dude, so when you get it up & running, be sure to post some pics & info for future reference...

[Greg_L]

Yeah man, that's how you do a mod, have it where you can simply turn it off when you wanna...

I'm looking forward to this dude, so when you get it up & running, be sure to post some pics & info for future reference...

I'll make a whole thread for it documenting the ruining of a good amp and the electrocution of a Greg.

[rammer24]

OK, so mainly because nobody has posted a tone in a while, here's something I'm working on.

So, I'll tell you guys what I used for this after. Not because I want to fool anyone or anything like that. There's no sorcery or tricks going on here. I just don't want anyone to be influenced by knowing what I used to record this. I might have even used my amp and not changed anything.

This actually starts about halfway through the tune. So, you'll hear a little break and then a sort of "solo", followed by an actual solo, and then the outro of the tune......

As usual, excuse the drum machine. I did some half-assed programming for one of the parts, but it sounds like shit until I put real drums on.

Gilligan's Asshole.mp3

[Greg_L]

OK, so mainly because nobody has posted a tone in a while, here's something I'm working on.

So, I'll tell you guys what I used for this after. Not because I want to fool anyone or anything like that. There's no sorcery or tricks going on here. I just don't want anyone to be influenced by knowing what I used to record this. I might have even used my amp and not changed anything.

This actually starts about halfway through the tune. So, you'll hear a little break and then a sort of "solo", followed by an actual solo, and then the outro of the tune......

As usual, excuse the drum machine. I did some half-assed programming for one of the parts, but it sounds like shit until I put real drums on.Gilligan's Asshole.mp3

Sounds pretty good to me. It has your tell-tale quacky picking, but more gain than usual, and smooth gain as it is. Sounds very 70s to me. Well done.

[rammer24]

It has your tell-tale quacky picking

HA! That's classic. I pick with the end of the pick, I've noticed. It's like I'm trying to get those Billy Gibbons chirps on my notes, even though that's not what I'm really trying to do. I just somehow developped that style of picking from who knows where.

I'm glad it sounds ok. Hopefully I don't change too many things and fuck it up by the time I finish the actual tune.

Thanx Greg.

[Greg_L]

Okay after much research tonight, I feel pretty strong about getting the PPIMV figured out and installed on my 1987x. So that will be phase one. That's a hundred dollar mod I'll be doing myself. Yay!

[rayc]

I would say throaty rather than quacky but it is something of a signature sound and it sounds great Rami.

[rammer24]

I would say throaty rather than quacky but it is something of a signature sound and it sounds great Rami.

Cool. Just out of curiosity, do you guys hear that as part of my sound on all tracks, or just when I'm playing lead?

[Greg_L]

Cool. Just out of curiosity, do you guys hear that as part of my sound on all tracks, or just when I'm playing lead?

To me it's pretty much all the time. It's not a bad thing. Most people would kill for something immediately identifiable that sets them apart. I always say I think I could pick out a Rami tune blinfolded, and your guitar style is part of it.

[rammer24]

That's weird. Cool, but weird. It can't be all in my fingers, can it? My guitar(s) must have something to do with it or something. I can understand the way I pick on leads can really affect a sound, or the way I bend or attack a note, etc....But I can't imagine my "playing style" affecting how I strum a D chord, for example, or any other kind of chord. But maybe it does. I was just curious. If I have some kind of distinctive sound, cool, why not.

[Greg_L]

That's weird. Cool, but weird. It can't be all in my fingers, can it? My guitar(s) must have something to do with it or something. I can understand the way I pick on leads can really affect a sound, or the way I bend or attack a note, etc....But I can't imagine my "playing style" affecting how I strum a D chord, for example, or any other kind of chord. But maybe it does. I was just curious. If I have some kind of distinctive sound, cool, why not.

Well yeah, strumming a chord is just strumming a chord, but you do a lot of picking notes even in your rhythm tracks. It's really not a bad thing. It's your style. It's how you play, the way you write and arrange your guitar parts, and the way it all comes together as sound is distinctly Rami.

[rammer24]

Cool. Wasn't looking for affirmation, but that makes sense. I rarely write parts that involve just washed out chords. I'm always picking or whatever, more than just strumming chords, so that makes sense.

I got to give a name, like "Brown" sound. It's the "Slightly off-white" sound.

[Greg_L]

I got to give a name, like "Brown" sound. It's the "Slightly off-white" sound.

Lol yeah, you should make it a contest. "Name My Sound".

[rammer24]

That's only asking for insults.