Favorite Crunch Tones

[mavrick102000]

Peanut Butter Cap'n was my favorite in my youth...

It's all fun and games until you finish the bowl and have the tiny little meat stalagtites hanging from the roof of your mouth.

However, it's still less violent than lava hot melted cheese from a hotpocket - that's entering skin graft territory.

 

[EOengineer]

I have a couple of go-to crunch amps in HX that I will use depending on what guitar I'm playing and what I'm looking for out of the amp.

Brit Trem Brt: This gets used with a PAF-loaded Les Paul and various IRs for a general LP/Marshall crunch - greenbacks are classic here. Gain is anywhere from half to all the way up depending on your pickup output, bass is under halfway, mids/treble/presence get pushed up 6-7 or until the amp's response gets a little more glass and tightness. Rolling down the guitar volume should clean up pretty well. This also works really well with Teles.

Mesa Mark IV: Used with Teles and LPs, drive ~8, treble 6-8, mids 3, bass 0-3, classic V on the graphic with the mid-band brought back up to ALMOST the center line so the guitar doesn't disappear in the mix. There other variations of this that I use with more treble and less bass (more aggressive) or more bass and less treble (rounder, less gain) that can be very useful. I use either greenbacks or V30 IRs depending on how woody I want the midrange to be.

Deluxe Reverb (vib): This one is not intuitive, but it's one of my favs and kind of a hidden gem. Crank the drive up into the 6-10 range so the amp is overdriving. Drop the bass below 3, push the treble up around 6-7, and put it through a 4x12 or something with a closed back. In other words, almost treat it like a Mesa Mark amp in the EQ and gain structure. Its a very punchy, raw OD tone that takes pedals well and cleans up into a greasy clean tone with some hair and compression.

 

[Stone]

Carol Ann Tucana is awesome

 

[dronerstone]

I really enjoy the "Moo))n" in Native, it's very close to my Model T preamp, and actually all the channels sound pretty cool to my ears, no matter if normal/brite/jumped.

 

[James Freeman]

For cranked NVM I like the Helix US Deluxe Vib model, to me it sounds better wide open and cleans better than other British NMV Plexi style amps in the Helix.

Spoiler: Helix - US Deluxe Vib - my settings

 

[Jarick]

In Helix, I really like the 2204 and the Placater Dirty. Both do crunch to higher gain really well in different ways.

In Fractal, I like the Brit 800 with the bright cap lowered down to about 100 pF, and you need to crank up the gain more because it's a stock 800 and not modded like the Helix.

 

[EOengineer]

For cranked NVM I like the Helix US Deluxe Vib model, to me it sounds better wide open and cleans better than other British NMV Plexi style amps in the Helix.

Spoiler: Helix - US Deluxe Vib - my settings

View attachment 7199

Humbuckers? Stock cab?

I’ll give these settings a whirl later, but even with the bright cap out of the circuit at those drive settings I would have imagined the treble and presence would decapitate you if using a single coil guitar. Have you tried this with your Strat?

The deluxe reverb is one of the most overlooked and under appreciated models in the HX ecosystem. Maybe people don’t get excited about a deluxe anymore. It’s an old boring workhorse amp but there is a reason these have been on stages longer than I’ve been alive. Awesome clean, amazing mid gain tones, and surprisingly cool crunch tones if that bass gets turned down as the drive goes up. Sounds awesome through a 4x12 too.

 

[Baba]

For cranked NVM I like the Helix US Deluxe Vib model, to me it sounds better wide open and cleans better than other British NMV Plexi style amps in the Helix.

Spoiler: Helix - US Deluxe Vib - my settings

View attachment 7199

You have me REALLY interested, because I've never tried this. Do you have any clips with this setting?

 

[TubeStack]

In the modeler world, the Fractal Cornford MK50 was my favourite, also loved the SLO100 crunch.

In the real amp world, I love the crunch (blue) channel on my Mesa Electra Dyne head. That, along with a JCM800 50W I had, would be my two favourite crunch tones ever.

 

[James Freeman]

you need to crank up the gain more because it's a stock 800

JCM800 50W

Not all 2203/4 are equal, they had several revisions from 76 to 86+ mainly related to B+ voltage and filtering.

In '81 the JMP series had a facelift and was changed to the JCM800 Lead Series, the sound didn't changed at first.

Between '82 and '83 the 50W 2204 JCM800 power transformer was changed from a lower B+ (380v-400v) to a higher B+ (460v-470v) without changing the series dropping supply resistors to the preamp, resulting in a lower gain preamp.

Around '85 the 100W 2203 JCM800 changed to PCB mounted pots and horizontal inputs, but also less filtering caps and one less series dropping resistors to the preamp resulting in a lower gain 2203.

Now the mid-80s JCM800 both the 2204 and 2203 had lower gain than the late-70s JMP's and early-80s JCM800's.
There are AT LEAST four different revisions of the JCM800 2203/4 that look exactly the same externally but with different amounts of gain.

A tech that knows his shit can bring any JCM800 to the early 80s 2204 spec by soldering a few resistors, this is the most sought after revision.

 

[Jarick]

I think Line 6 has said theirs was modded. It's fairly high gain with the preamp on about 3 out of 10 which isn't normal.

 

[Mooselake]

Hmm, this changes for me frequently over time. Today ...

Helix

Elmsley amp model, defaults except I bump up the presence slightly. I put a Rangemaster model in front of it. Currently blending two cabs, the Helix Bluebell 2X12 (sm57) and Bluebell 1X12 (421). Post-amp I have the dynamic plate reverb, ampeg liquifier chorus, triple rotary, and last the dynamic ambience reverb. The basic crunch is just the gain, the amp, the cabs, and the two reverbs. Everything else defaults to off. Oh, and I have a couple delays post amp rarely get used, one for slap back and a longer one for ambience--don't remember the models. It's a bit of a chimey crunch.

 

[metropolis_4]

That’s tough, there are so many and it changes all the time for me. These are some of my current favs (all Fractal):

Super Reverb Vibrato
Hot Kitty
AC15 TB
5F8 Tweed

 

[Bob Zaod]

For cranked NVM I like the Helix US Deluxe Vib model, to me it sounds better wide open and cleans better than other British NMV Plexi style amps in the Helix.

Spoiler: Helix - US Deluxe Vib - my settings

View attachment 7199

I gotta try this compared to the Park 75 brt I have set up for low-mid gains

 

[DrewJD82]

'59 Bassman Bright in the AxeFX

Didn't touch the volume knob at all, just switched pickups and smacked the stringers harder.

 

[the swede]

I have two and is my preferred way.

Deluxe Nrm with stock deluxe cab or greenback (have to try the creamback sometime…)
With my telecaster i need the drive det to 6-7 as a base. Then i play around with the drive effects… like “todays flavor”.

Litigator also with deluxe cab (just feels right to me). This amp doesnt really need anything in front. Has a great drive of its own.

 

[GravityWell]

I gotta try this compared to the Park 75 brt I have set up for low-mid gains

Definitely try this, it is cool.

 

[GravityWell]

'59 Bassman Bright in the AxeFX

Didn't touch the volume knob at all, just switched pickups and smacked the stringers harder.

That '59 Bassman is such a demon, thanks for sharing this.

 

[Deadpan]

For me it would be my Kemper profiles of a Friedman Jake E Lee JEL100.

 

[la szum]

'59 Bassman Bright in the AxeFX

Didn't touch the volume knob at all, just switched pickups and smacked the stringers harder.

Mmmmmmm..... Crunchy Noodles.