Amp setup help
HeavyMetalNyge
Posts: 144
I'm looking to change my amp setup a little bit. I love mike and stone's tone from TOTD,ten, and vs. I even love stone's tone from MLB. I have a Marshall JCM 900 SL-X and I'm wondering how I should have it set. I only use this amp for my distortion. I have a Peavey classic 50 for clean and a fulltone fulldrive for light crunch through that. I'm a little confused with something also. My Marshall has a preamp knob and a gain knob. What is the difference in these 2? Should I set the marshall to a lower distortion and use either my boss sd-1 or my fulltone fulldrive for distortion, or should I just set the amp to balls out distortion and just use the peavey for the lighter stuff? What do you guys suggest?
Also, any recommendations on eq and presence settings?
Also, any recommendations on eq and presence settings?
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The SL-X is essentially Slashes model JCM 800 right? Not sure the exact configuration. I'd treat the the preamp like another gain stage. You'll have to experiment. I'd say dial in a little more mids, a little less gain, in fact use the clean channel on the Marshall and crank the gain and volume, then get over the top with the fulldrive, if you need more swap channels and experiment the lead channel with the gain low and mids warm boosted with both the fulldrive, I'd use the SD-1 on the peavy use an ABY box to get both amps at once, and dial in a good loud clean with the peavy then experiment.
I suggest the ABbox and both at once, you can cut one or the other out for clean or crunchy stuff etc. It's all experimentation really, go with what you think might work and try things in different orders, try dialing in a slight breakup with the peavy at a loud volume and see if you can't take it over the top with the two od's.
The main deal is you have to crank the volume, you have to get the power tubes working not just the preamps, they aren't strong enough. You may need some attenuation but you'll definately need ear plugs.
I'd say just for starters, forget about the peavy and focus on the Marshall.
Start with the clean channel gain and volume up, midrange just shy of 5 Treble up at say 8 and Bass to taste. Maybe a little reverb. Play and then kick in the Fulldrive and tweak that to taste, then kick in the high gain channel with the gain at say 4 or 4.5 with the volume again fairly high, and the EQ to taste. It should work pretty well.
The peavy is great too and can add some clean or dirty layering but I think the above should work pretty well, you'll just have to experiment.
I do have the Morely ABY box which is nice, and you're right, I should use both amps at once. It's just that when I solo, I can only boost the marshall. But I'm definitely going to try your suggestions. I actually have a gig tonight, so I might just have to mess around with my sound a little in the live situation.
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channel a is the clean tone and i hit it with a rotosphere on a slow setting or a some reverb for playing things that require a clean tone. i leave my master volume on 7 with the preamp/gain on 6 and it sounds like mike's clean. if i want a little light distortion i crank my guitar volume and just turn up a little of the preamp to 9 or so.
channel 2 is trickier. the 900s are known to be very gainy and trebley even on a low gain setting. that is the problem with the 900s and why more people covet the 800s and jmps. my eq is set up with presence at 4.5, bass at 9, mid at 3, and treble at 1.5. the presence is basically a midrange boost and makes the sound fuller. if i crank the mid on mine it gets all muddy. it looks funny to read those eq numbers at those levels, but that is what we came up with after hours of fucking with it, you have to keep the treble low b/c of all the gain, if you hit a crybaby with the treble much higher than that you will split some eardrums in the first few rows. i set my master volume for channel 2 at 7 and usualy put the preamp at 12 and bump it up to as much as 17 (yes it goes to 20) depending on what we are playing.
you have a much more complicated set up than i, but if you are going to use stuff with a ton of distortion i would try the marshall with a set up similar to what i posted. that slx is made to be cranked and play heavy rock, not the lightly distorted stuff. that is why kiss used them exclusively for a few tours in the 90s. the only reason i went with my 900 over the slx is because i thought it was just too much gain for what my band was trying to accomplish. hope that helps...
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