Randolf Arriola (embryo) Guitar Gear 101
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embryo
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Good point to bring up about tone stacking and in this case of the Soldano it's placed at the end of the preamp unlike most classic amps.
The difference is quite similar to placing an eq pedal before or after your drive pedals. The effect i quite the same but the tonal behaviour is different. Also try pacing a wah before or after the dive pedals and you'll notice it sounds more exxagerated when placed after the distortion pedals. Good or bad really depends on the intended musical application.
The difference is quite similar to placing an eq pedal before or after your drive pedals. The effect i quite the same but the tonal behaviour is different. Also try pacing a wah before or after the dive pedals and you'll notice it sounds more exxagerated when placed after the distortion pedals. Good or bad really depends on the intended musical application.
embryo
New member
Every aspiring serious player should make it a point to at least experience to understand the different tonal characteristics of Pre and Power Tube Saturation against the difference between a 1x12, 2x12 and 4x12 Speaker cabinet. Open or closed backs also have significant influence on the tone.
Pay special attention to the almost mystical combination of the Pre Gain, Treble, Mids, Bass, Presense and Master Volume controls. Use your ears more than your eyes when setting these dials for the heart of the sun
Along the way, we'll touch on the other "voodoo" factors surrounding the mystical all tube guitar amp such as tubes, biasing, variac, attenuators, speakers, the cabinet's material and construction and miking techniques and post miking techniques for live and studio.
It's gonna be fun so hop on and hang on!
Pay special attention to the almost mystical combination of the Pre Gain, Treble, Mids, Bass, Presense and Master Volume controls. Use your ears more than your eyes when setting these dials for the heart of the sun
Along the way, we'll touch on the other "voodoo" factors surrounding the mystical all tube guitar amp such as tubes, biasing, variac, attenuators, speakers, the cabinet's material and construction and miking techniques and post miking techniques for live and studio.
It's gonna be fun so hop on and hang on!
embryo
New member
Ahhh! Here we go! The Attenuator This mystical device often spoken of with hush hushed tones among the kindred of the Mojo is really a wicked Tube Amp Witch Doctor's Voodoo technique used to allow one to crank up the tube amp's master volume and work those power tubes so you hear/taste some serious toneful juice! Mmmmm...(rubs hands) the sound of molten gold! HeeeHeee NICE NICE!
The Weber Micromass is very nice based on my experience of coupling it with a Fender Blues Junior. What I like and commend about Weber's attenuator designs is that they're based on reactive load by using a real speaker core. Very Nice!
Most other attenuators use fixed resistors which does the same thing except they dun replicate the way speakers react dynamically with the tube power amp section and output transformers. Interesting!
THD Hotplates are also pretty cool...errr hot i mean! Very Hot in fact Hot Hot Hot!
I personally use the Allan Holdsworth designed Rocktron Juice Extractor I've always been interested in Allan's own Harness II
Psssst! Shhhhh! Luk up the soft classifieds tot I saw a coupla Hot lukin Hotplates looking for a new lover! heheehehe!
The Weber Micromass is very nice based on my experience of coupling it with a Fender Blues Junior. What I like and commend about Weber's attenuator designs is that they're based on reactive load by using a real speaker core. Very Nice!
Most other attenuators use fixed resistors which does the same thing except they dun replicate the way speakers react dynamically with the tube power amp section and output transformers. Interesting!
THD Hotplates are also pretty cool...errr hot i mean! Very Hot in fact
Hot Hot Hot!I personally use the Allan Holdsworth designed Rocktron Juice Extractor I've always been interested in Allan's own Harness II
Psssst! Shhhhh! Luk up the soft classifieds tot I saw a coupla Hot lukin Hotplates looking for a new lover! heheehehe!
trianglebiscuit
New member
no wonder you were talking about raising the master to 6 luh. haha.
trianglebiscuit
New member
oh, i meant how it was conceivable for you to raise the master to 6, with an attenuator obviously haha.
embryo
New member
I'm not so sure if I understand u correctly about raising the master to 6 and above or the use of the attenuator with the master at 6...?
With your Soldano Head you can achieve this by lowering the pre amp to mininimum and then raising the master to 4 to 6 at first and then start gently bringing up the pre to the level. If this gets too loud but the tone is ideal this is where you'd want to consider getting an attenuator.
Question for Mr Randolf.
Having multiple drives on board. Why?
As far as I understand it, multiple drive pedals of varied tones offer... varied tones. Less noise. Its all about texture. Its about how the pedals interact with each other when stacked.
Randolf, I know you use quite a few dirt pedals... you stack them, you use them seperately for different sonic textures.
I think newbies & the experienced could benefit from a detailed (hopefully) run down of the dirt pedals you possess on board, why you use them and to what effect are they used for?
Reason I ask this is that, I see many SOFTies, via that pedalboard thread, possessing multiple drive pedals... some of them have variety. Say, a fuzz, an overdrive and a distortion. But the fuzz & distortion are high gained, the overdrive is a very high compressed sustain forever kind --> and I just wonder why they complain about hissing...
Many Softies sport similiar dirt pedals... e.g. DS-1, Fulltone Distortion Pro, Big Muff... all on a board --> which could yield limited tonal variety. To which one can argue " I like what " then so be it.
I think you could address 2 areas
1) Why stack dirt pedals, what would happened?
2) Why have a variety of dirt pedals (not quantity)
Having multiple drives on board. Why?
As far as I understand it, multiple drive pedals of varied tones offer... varied tones. Less noise. Its all about texture. Its about how the pedals interact with each other when stacked.
Randolf, I know you use quite a few dirt pedals... you stack them, you use them seperately for different sonic textures.
I think newbies & the experienced could benefit from a detailed (hopefully) run down of the dirt pedals you possess on board, why you use them and to what effect are they used for?
Reason I ask this is that, I see many SOFTies, via that pedalboard thread, possessing multiple drive pedals... some of them have variety. Say, a fuzz, an overdrive and a distortion. But the fuzz & distortion are high gained, the overdrive is a very high compressed sustain forever kind --> and I just wonder why they complain about hissing...
Many Softies sport similiar dirt pedals... e.g. DS-1, Fulltone Distortion Pro, Big Muff... all on a board --> which could yield limited tonal variety. To which one can argue " I like what " then so be it.
I think you could address 2 areas
1) Why stack dirt pedals, what would happened?
2) Why have a variety of dirt pedals (not quantity)
embryo
New member
Dummy Load is a loosely used term to mean power attenuator in tube guitar amp speak but may not necessarily mean it's definitely a reactive load design like a speaker core without the cone. If you placed your hand on a reactive load kind of attenuator whilst playing the guitar you'll feel the vibrations as that's the voice coil's magnet of the speaker core moving. Now I wouldn't advice cooking your hands on a fixed resistor load kinda attenuator. These things get really hot so be careful ya.
Fixed Load or Reactive Load, which is better? Well it's largely dependent on the individual player's feel really. Basically the fixed resistor load helps you get a more consistent kind of dialled in saturation from the power tubes good for all out rawwwk applications whereas the reactive load type is more dynamic hence more suitable for players with a more refined touch.
embryo
New member
Shreddy Moo asked;
Drive pedal stacking is actually a variation if not derived from Amp Gain Cascading technique. The modern prominent high gain amp makers like eg. Rivera, Soldano and Mesas etc use variations of this technique within their amp designs.
There's also another way by inserting a pedal type silicon based distortion unit within the preamp stage of a full tube amp head. Certain manufacturers employ this "drive pedal in the amp" to create that over the top gobs of gain stacking within tube amps.
Huh!?
Read the above again carefully if confused at this point
Ok about drive pedal stacking... Let me try to explain;
1stly, Tube amp cascading came about when players started experimenting by taking the maxed out or almost maxed out tone and signal from a smaller amp like a pint sized Fender Champ and feeding that to either a Fender Twin Reverb or Marshall Head. Santana and Jeff Beck come to mind as some of the more prominent guys to use this kinda setup to conjure up their own unique signature high saturation yet very pick sensitive dynamic singing lead tone from the tubes.
As a much younger fellow local meepok/nasi lemak eating kaki nang S'porean wide eyed young aspiring guitarist musician wannbe not unlike most of you, I was always inspired, baffled but also helpessly clueless. I was more curious as to how those magical tones were discovered than created. The technicalities and mechanics of creating the sound was not as fascinating as how the idea arrived... well at least for me ya Hehehehe
Ok anyway, this led me to researching more in depth and along the way I developed a better understanding about the history of tube amp technology among guitarists.
Today I see the range of distortion techniques for guitars with the following short list;
1. Tube Amp (Rectifier Tube, Pre Tube, Power Tube and Speaker distortion)
2. Fuzz Pedal (eg. Fuzz Face, Big Muff)
3. Overdrive Pedal (eg. TS9, SD1)
4. Distortion (eg. DS1, RAT)
5. MOdelling Tech (eg. POD)
6. Direct to Board or Computer audio input w/o simulator(eg NIN)
7. Analog Tape Saturation (retro 60's recording technique)
8. Tape Recorder Overloading (eg. Ritchie Blackmore's Akai reel to reel)
I will stop here for the moment and come back with more indebt about how to choose, dial in and use pedal stacking to your advantage in different situations to help you find your own tone.
Regards
Drive pedal stacking is actually a variation if not derived from Amp Gain Cascading technique. The modern prominent high gain amp makers like eg. Rivera, Soldano and Mesas etc use variations of this technique within their amp designs.
There's also another way by inserting a pedal type silicon based distortion unit within the preamp stage of a full tube amp head. Certain manufacturers employ this "drive pedal in the amp" to create that over the top gobs of gain stacking within tube amps.
Huh!?
Read the above again carefully if confused at this point
Ok about drive pedal stacking... Let me try to explain;
1stly, Tube amp cascading came about when players started experimenting by taking the maxed out or almost maxed out tone and signal from a smaller amp like a pint sized Fender Champ and feeding that to either a Fender Twin Reverb or Marshall Head. Santana and Jeff Beck come to mind as some of the more prominent guys to use this kinda setup to conjure up their own unique signature high saturation yet very pick sensitive dynamic singing lead tone from the tubes.
As a much younger fellow local meepok/nasi lemak eating kaki nang S'porean wide eyed young aspiring guitarist musician wannbe
not unlike most of you, I was always inspired, baffled but also helpessly clueless. I was more curious as to how those magical tones were discovered than created. The technicalities and mechanics of creating the sound was not as fascinating as how the idea arrived... well at least for me ya Hehehehe Ok anyway, this led me to researching more in depth and along the way I developed a better understanding about the history of tube amp technology among guitarists.
Today I see the range of distortion techniques for guitars with the following short list;
1. Tube Amp (Rectifier Tube, Pre Tube, Power Tube and Speaker distortion)
2. Fuzz Pedal (eg. Fuzz Face, Big Muff)
3. Overdrive Pedal (eg. TS9, SD1)
4. Distortion (eg. DS1, RAT)
5. MOdelling Tech (eg. POD)
6. Direct to Board or Computer audio input w/o simulator(eg NIN)
7. Analog Tape Saturation (retro 60's recording technique)
8. Tape Recorder Overloading (eg. Ritchie Blackmore's Akai reel to reel)
I will stop here for the moment and come back with more indebt about how to choose, dial in and use pedal stacking to your advantage in different situations to help you find your own tone.
Regards
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