Plywood under the guitar cab for better tone? Tried it! Soundsamples!

[CharlesMonroe1989]

Hi Guys,

a few weeks ago i read in a guitar recording tutorial, that it would sound better if i place my cab on a big piece of plywood. If this helps? I just tried it...

Guitar: Schecter Blackjack with SD Blackouts
Reampbox: Palmer Daccapo
Amp: 6505 with El34
Cab: Mesa Rectifier 2x12 /V30
Mic: Sm57
Preamp/Interface: Focusrite Saffire 6 USB
Postprocessing: None! Just a Sonalksis and a GClip Plugin for more loudness.

I tried to keep all important circumstances static for the recordings. In the "mixes" the guitars are hard panned right and left. The Drumsound comes from SSD 4.0 (Metalkit 1 i think) and there is NO bassguitar.

This is the setup:

WITH plywood:

WITHOUT plywood:

EQ Settings:

Here are the clips:

WITH Plywood

Guitar:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17151953/musikerboard/Reamptest%20plywood/Reamp%20Test%20_w.mp3
Mix:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17151953/musikerboard/Reamptest%20plywood/Reamp%20Test%20_w%20Mix.mp3

WITHOUT Plywood

Guitar:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17151953/musikerboard/Reamptest%20plywood/Reamp%20Test%20_wo.mp3
Mix:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17151953/musikerboard/Reamptest%20plywood/Reamp%20Test%20_wo%20Mix.mp3


Tell me what you think!

 

[Tommy Evans]

404 my man.

 

[oroinvictus]

Yep, got all 404s.

 

[CharlesMonroe1989]

sry guys! fixed it!

 

[Djentkitty]

with sounds bigger, cool experiment

 

[Derykus]

Dialing in a better tone will be much more beneficial than the floor surface material. Also, those wood-backed pieces of foam are probably doing more harm than good.

 

[JeffTD]

Dialing in a better tone will be much more beneficial than the floor surface material. Also, those wood-backed pieces of foam are probably doing more harm than good.

This. Drop those mids/highs, lower your gain, pull the mic back a bit, and ditch the panels; they're just causing close reflections.

 

[CharlesMonroe1989]

This. Drop those mids/highs, lower your gain, pull the mic back a bit, and ditch the panels; they're just causing close reflections.

i agree with the lower gain. mids/highs are just my taste

i saw the acoustic foam panels in a video and just thought that they would avoid earles reflections above 800Hz. I think deeper frequencies go just through it.

And its not about "how to set your amp or mic position right" just the difference of the floor surface

 

[Wisheraser]

No reflections above 800Hz from thin auralex? It's probably more like none above 4kHz...if you're lucky. The issue though is the wood backing, not the auralex panels themselves. You'd be wise to ditch that.

 

[Shinozoku]

So the comparison is completely moot, right? Cuz he set up some panels to try and kill some resonance?

Did any of you pay any attention at all to the clips? (Mind you I haven't listened. Can't at the moment, but I will when I get the chance)

 

[JakeAC5253]

So the comparison is completely moot, right? Cuz he set up some panels to try and kill some resonance?

Did any of you pay any attention at all to the clips? (Mind you I haven't listened. Can't at the moment, but I will when I get the chance)

Yes. How could anyone judge a tone with all of that comb filtering? It's a silly premise too. The cabinet should be DE-coupled from the acoustic space, not trying to get it to couple more.

Not just trying to prove my own point, but I did prefer the w/o clip.

 

[Wisheraser]

Oh yeah, I forgot to write about the comparison earlier. My bad.

I'm not a big fan of either tone, but definitely prefer the w/o clip. The clip with the plywood seems to have this honky low-mid spike whereas the other clip seems more balanced.

 

[oroinvictus]

I couldn't tell a whole lot of difference between the clips on my cans, but I'd say the tone without plywood sounded better.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Fuck hell, the plywood clips suck shit.

Also: didn't care for the tones on the whole, but fuck that fucking plywood.

 

[Soundlurker]

You just managed to get extra comb filtering and boxiness with that plywood, definitely better without it.

 

[006]

With the plywood the sound is all whack from amp settings and the comb filtering. Without the plywood the sound is all whack from the amp settings.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

With the plywood the sound is all whack from amp settings and the comb filtering. Without the plywood the sound is all whack from the amp settings.

A nicer way of putting it.

 

[Shinozoku]

K, finally listened. I agree, without the plywood it does sound better. But the thread has served its purpose, showing that there IS a difference between having plywood and not having it

 

[Sloan]

^LOLWUT

 

[006]

I'm pretty sure nobody ever disputed having the plywood like that would produce a different sound...