Tube Saturating

[Symbiant]

Curious question. Say you want to saturate your distortion some more to round off the head distortion. I have a Randall Valve Dynamic 150D G3, I haven't gotten a cabinet yet but the distortion sounds a little zippy. The highs are too much, maybe with a cabinet this will change instead of running the line out. But anyways my question is, is there any sort of tube pre or something in rack mount that i could run through the FX sends that could to the trick? Or does anyone have a great suggestion on getting past this?

Thanx

Cheers..

 

[Alcaline]

I don't think more distortion is the answer to your problem. From what I can see, those heads have masses and masses of gain. I think you would be better off getting an EQ pedal to put in the loop and have it extract high frequencies more intricately than you can with the controls on the amp.

Of course, you could run the head clean/slightly dirty and use something like a Damage control distortion pedal that actually has a valve in it. You would run that through the front of the amp. That would give you the most authentic 'tube' tone, although you could also look into conventional distortion pedals just to provide a different distortion to what your head does.

 

[Symbiant]

I'm trying to reduce the amount of pedals in front of me.. I'm just saying like some sort of a tube thing i can run to round it off. I am getting a graphic EQ DBX rack for my set up..

 

[TomAwesome]

If you're just trying to make the highs sound less harsh, the cab will do most of that. Guitar tones involving lots of gain will pretty much always sound awful without a cab.

 

[Symbiant]

Thats what i thought. Thanx guys. Another question, Is there any sort of fx or rack that can help sustain the head distortion?

 

[TomAwesome]

Maybe a compressor or something.

 

[Symbiant]

Maybe a compressor or something.

Got one an alesis 3630..

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Get a good cabinet with V30s or CL80s. CL80s are much smoother and tighter than V30s, and they're my personal preference for speakers.

 

[Symbiant]

Awesome. Thanx again matt

 

[razoredge]

I cant speak for the newer randall heads, but my old RG80 is the same kind of thing. We once lined out into a mixer board & 4 track and what you are calling zippy is the perfect description. The other guitar player lined out of a Marshall and he was zippy as hell too. My old Randall is much better through a 4/12 but still totally differnt tone than a Marshall or my Carvin tube amp (the only other heads its been played with) It does cut through the mix very good though. I've mentioned it before but if you want awesome sound get a second tube stack and play through the two with an effects rack in stereo, its a great sound. You have two totally different tones coming out behind you and mixing in the open air. Words cant describe. I also mentioned that now I have that ART SGX 2000 which has tube preamp and solid state circuits so I no longer use the gain from either amp and its even more awesome. I have less into all that than a new, quality single stack tube amp. Not that Im saying the new amps arent awesome, just alot of money.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

I cant speak for the newer randall heads, but my old RG80 is the same kind of thing. We once lined out into a mixer board & 4 track and what you are calling zippy is the perfect description. The other guitar player lined out of a Marshall and he was zippy as hell too. My old Randall is much better through a 4/12 but still totally differnt tone than a Marshall or my Carvin tube amp (the only other heads its been played with) It does cut through the mix very good though. I've mentioned it before but if you want awesome sound get a second tube stack and play through the two with an effects rack in stereo, its a great sound. You have two totally different tones coming out behind you and mixing in the open air. Words cant describe. I also mentioned that now I have that ART SGX 2000 which has tube preamp and solid state circuits so I no longer use the gain from either amp and its even more awesome. I have less into all that than a new, quality single stack tube amp. Not that Im saying the new amps arent awesome, just alot of money.

I can't wait to get my stereo rig going! ENGL E530 into a G Major, split into a VHT 2150 power amp. Thanks for making me anxious for it.

 

[razoredge]

That should sound sweet...Theres nothing like it, Im tellin ya I kept looking over my shoulder thinking "is that me?". I cant understand someone going with two identical amps but then I havent tried that either. Im liking the SS on one side and the tube on the other myself. A good friend of mine played two Pitbull half stacks for awhile but got tired of lugging them both to gigs and they downsized sometime after I stopped roadie'in and doing their sound. I felt bad but I was going to die on the way home one night, 24 hours without sleep once every week just wasnt working for me. I've missed it since though.

Today with current sound systems someone could probably do great with two different 2/12 combos and save some space & lugging. but damn, all the mic cables and stands and main trunk and board and cabs. You have as much time seting up and tearing down as playing.

Ah, for the love of music!