If an amp doesn’t sound good with the controls at noon…

[deadpool_25]

I honestly don’t give a damn. That measuring stick seems completely irrelevant to me and it annoys me a little when folks demo amps and even say that shit—it just makes me roll my eyes a bit. And when they leave the knobs like that as if it’s painful to adjust the tone I wanna reach through the screen and bitchslap them.

What matters to me is if I can dial it in to find a sound I love. The knobs may be far from noon at that point but why the hell would I care? I’ll probably just leave it on one setting or close to that anyway once I find that tone.

Anyway. I just had to get that out of my system. Kbye

 

[sleewell]

each time you move a knob they charge your account a few bucks hahahahaha

 

[Baba]

it's just a comfort/ease of use thing with guitar players. A lot of us got it into our heads that knobs at noon should be a good starting point.

There are many amps that are designed to either sound good, or be VERY close, with all knobs at noon, and many amps that are the opposite.

 

[metropolis_4]

Agreed. I’m so used to doing the “rule of 6” thing on Fender amps and settings like bass=0 mid=10 treble=0 on Plexi’s I don’t have any expectations of setting an amp to “everything at noon”

 

[Orvillain]

Crank those controls baby!!!

 

[CorrosiveMatter]

I agree. I like to start a new amp I have never tried before at noon but I expect to turn knobs to find the sweet spot.

 

[Chocol8]

That measuring stick seems completely irrelevant to me and it annoys me a little when folks demo amps and even say that shit—it just makes me roll my eyes a bit.

Drives me nuts as well. It's complete ignorance about how the circuits work and how they were designed. There may be some modern amps designed by young people raised with this nonsense where they did think about how it is voiced at all 5's, but the classic designs were not designed to sound good or have any particular sound with controls at 5. Many modern amps are still using parts of these circuits or modified versions.

Most amps have passive tone stacks so anything but 10/max is a cut. It would make more sense to start with everything on 10 in that context. That said many tone stacks have a built in mid scoop and might be flatter with B and T at 0 and M at 10 if there is one (Tweed Bassman and derivatives!) but then is flat really a good measuring stick anyway? If anything, starting at all 0 and adding what you want is a pretty good strategy for dialing many tube amps.

When played loud most classic Fender and Marshall amps have way too much low end with the bass on 5, and can you imagine how (un) popular Mesa Marks and Rectos would be if people thought they were meant to be played with all controls at 5 and the geq flat? Yuck!

 

[Chocol8]

There are many amps that are designed to either sound good, or be VERY close, with all knobs at noon

Which ones have the designers made that claim about? Last I looked there were only a couple.

 

[metropolis_4]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Marks and their funky EQ settings!

In general I would actually say “everything at noon” is by far the exception for guitar amps, not the rule.

I’m trying to think of an amp designed to sound good with everything at noon…

 

[adam]

*Laughs in Mark IV*

 

[sleewell]

lolololol if you are 555 then i am 0 10 0 or whatever that scary boy band said

 

[la szum]

I honestly don’t give a damn. That measuring stick seems completely irrelevant to me and it annoys me a little when folks demo amps and even say that shit—it just makes me roll my eyes a bit. And when they leave the knobs like that as if it’s painful to adjust the tone I wanna reach through the screen and bitchslap them.

What matters to me is if I can dial it in to find a sound I love. The knobs may be far from noon at that point but why the hell would I care? I’ll probably just leave it on one setting or close to that anyway once I find that tone.

Anyway. I just had to get that out of my system. Kbye

Haha! Yup.

Tell me the FOH/Sound Engineer who is world class at his or her job and leaves all the sliders
on their EQ flat.

You can't.

Tone takes time, effort, and ain't gonna be spoon-fed to those who happen averse to those necessities.

 

[la szum]

Agreed. I’m so used to doing the “rule of 6” thing on Fender amps and settings like bass=0 mid=10 treble=0 on Plexi’s I don’t have any expectations of setting an amp to “everything at noon”

Schenker and DiMeola both would like a word with you about those "settings."









Both roll off the Mids and Treble to near "0" and crank the Bass to "11."




It's a good sound. And then there is the crank everything to "10/11" EQ/Tonestack method
that also sounds freaking killer.

I think the Plexi/Superlead/800 Marshall tonestacks are just that friendly.

 

[Chocol8]

Both roll off the Mids and Treble to near "0" and crank the Bass to "11."

That's perfectly reasonable because turning the mids to zero effects every frequency and keeps the bass level in check. Whatever sounds good to you is good, but there are some very valid physics rules in play as well that play a big role in what combinations work and why.

 

[metropolis_4]

Schenker and DiMeola both would like a word with you about those "settings."









Both roll off the Mids and Treble to near "0" and crank the Bass to "11."




It's a good sound. And then there is the crank everything to "10/11" EQ/Tonestack method
that also sounds freaking killer.

I think the Plexi/Superlead/800 Marshall tonestacks are just that friendly.

I thought DiMeola’s thing was bass and mids to 10, treble and presence to 0?

I love the Plexi EQ. It’s so weird, but somehow it’s so easy for me to know how to quickly get exactly the sound I want

 

[fetishfrog]

each time you move a knob they charge your account a few bucks hahahahaha

Is Musk selling amps now?

 

[sleewell]

Is Musk selling amps now?

Let's hope not

BMW made heated seats a monthly charge a while back

 

[Richard_G]

BMW made heated seats a monthly charge a while back

I fu**ing hate subscription schemes...

 

[laxu]

It is indeed stupid to assume that an amp should sound good with knobs at noon. It's not based on reality.

That said, I can totally understand why amp manufacturers might want to cater to people by making the amp sound its best at settings that are +/- noon. There's a weird psychological phenomena at play where people think that if they need to adjust a knob close to one of the extremes, they're doing something wrong. Despite the amp being designed to allow that adjustment.

Maybe more people need to use Mesa Mark amps because that quickly teaches you that extremes are ok. Hell, I wish the MK1 mode on my Mark V allowed for even more bass reduction via the knob EQ.

 

[newholland]

i think i only have one amp that i use even close to 5-5-5, and really its generally closer to 6-5-4 with SOME guitars- and thats a big throttley solid state amp at low volumes.

i know numbers are useful on amps for repeatability, but i wish they had blank 'training knobs' to break people of the habit of thinking amps work that way by default- especially the midrange knob. if you look at a fender 'flat' is closer to 0-8-0. ive dialed that in, and while i liked it.. its not exactly an everyday sound. closer than you might think though!