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1967 Super Reverb sounds harsh

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  • #46
    And, some guys chase tone their whole career. IMO, because their idea of tone is constantly changing- or else why would it take so long? I have a friend who goes through more amps than a music store. Each time he picks up a new one, it's "the one". He claims he's done searching and has found his perfect tone. A couple months later, it's gone and he's playing through the new perfect amp. Lather, rinse, repeat.
    "I took a photo of my ohm meter... It didn't help." Enzo 8/20/22

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    • #47
      Nothing wrong with being a tone chaser. But I submit in practical terms, if you need to go thru 10 or 20 of the same amp to find whatever it is you are looking for, the problem is in your head.

      Now I shall sit back and collect likes on this post.
      It's weird, because it WAS working fine.....

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      • #48
        Originally posted by The Dude View Post
        And, some guys chase tone their whole career. IMO, because their idea of tone is constantly changing- or else why would it take so long? I have a friend who goes through more amps than a music store. Each time he picks up a new one, it's "the one". He claims he's done searching and has found his perfect tone. A couple months later, it's gone and he's playing through the new perfect amp. Lather, rinse, repeat.
        I did that for awhile. I always had "my" sound no matter what I played. Always workable, but never exactly what I wanted. Then I started modifying my own gear. I modded for another year or so before landing in a happy place, The more I understood about the circuits the better things sounded and it just took time to get there. I've been pretty happy with my amps since then. Happy enough that I'm no longer chasing "my" tone and instead have made several one off custom orders. Which is like having the game right back where I started, except that I can always plug into my own amp and be home I actually enjoy the troubleshooting and fine tuning of a circuit that's new to me. My wife knows me well enough that when I'm working on a project and I'm in a tricky spot, swearing occasionally, going back and forth to the computer and just generally acting a little stressed she'll ask "Are you having fun?" Which I am. Though it wouldn't seem that way to anyone else.
        "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

        "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

        "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
        You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

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        • #49
          Ive seen bits of either side of the fence, over the years. Im not too far on either side. There's a great interview with Randall Smith, from Mesa, who talks about this kind of stuff. I can't remember the exact words, but he said something like: if you look at all of the tolerances in all of the parts in those vintage amps, its not surprising one in ten or fewer have "that sound". In another great interview he talks about the process of designing a new amp and getting it into production. He had a story about an amp they were working on. They had an engineering prototype, brought in the famous guys to play and listen, and said they had nailed this design. The pro's loved it. So, they made a few more prototypes from the engineering R&D unit, brought the guys back in and they all said "What is THIS? This isn't the amp you showed us!". he talks about going back into the lab for months to find out what it was that caused the change in tone. He wouldn't say what it was, but basically, some of the things we think don't matter, really do. Now to most of us non musicians, like me, I probably couldn't tell the difference. But to, say a Carlos Santana, or Jeff beck, or one of the many fine lesser known guitar gurus, . . . Smith said in another interview, and its probably an exaggeration but knowing the guy it fit, he said: everything in a guitar amplifier is a tone control. And I do remember back in the day, mid to late 70's, lots of guys had mostly fender, but a few Sunn, and Marshall and Ampeg and a few other lesser known amps, lots of them sounded pretty crappy. OK admittedly, many were in need of repairs, but few sounded what I would call 'great'. Its an interesting discussion.
          The only good solid state amp is a dead solid state amp. Unless it sounds really good, then its OK.

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          • #50
            Originally posted by mikepukmel View Post
            Everything in a guitar amplifier is a tone control.
            Thinking about sig-ing this
            "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

            "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

            "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
            You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

            Comment


            • #51
              Originally posted by mikepukmel View Post
              everything in a guitar amplifier is a tone control.
              Including the speaker(s), nobody should forget that.

              AND the room it's in, what mic is used for recording/PA, & I'm sure a couple other things. Leo Fender was spot on when he considered amp + guitar to be a system.
              This isn't the future I signed up for.

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              • #52
                In youtube live gigs you can see them on at least one song. Not sure which, you'll have to watch them. I've had all the oldies fender amps (I'm 61) and my bet is they are vibroluxes. They all sound a little different form each other ie I have a blackface vibro champ, and it is not a small version of my super reverb. It's good, it's just not a low wattage version of the same thing. btw virtually the only good used amp you could get 40+ yrs ago were fenders, so it wasn't an unusual thing to have a tweed Vibrolux (best amp I ever had, should have kept it. I think I paid $180 for it) or a Super Reverb, a Vibratone, a blackface Princeton Reverb, or a 50 watt slant front half Marshall stack. Anyway, Badfinger soounds like Vibrolux crunch. That doesn't make me an expert, just that my money is on Vibroluxes. I coul dbe wrong.

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                • #53
                  Originally posted by mikepukmel View Post
                  Ive seen bits of either side of the fence, over the years. Im not too far on either side. There's a great interview with Randall Smith, from Mesa, who talks about this kind of stuff. I can't remember the exact words, but he said something like: if you look at all of the tolerances in all of the parts in those vintage amps, its not surprising one in ten or fewer have "that sound". In another great interview he talks about the process of designing a new amp and getting it into production. He had a story about an amp they were working on. They had an engineering prototype, brought in the famous guys to play and listen, and said they had nailed this design. The pro's loved it. So, they made a few more prototypes from the engineering R&D unit, brought the guys back in and they all said "What is THIS? This isn't the amp you showed us!". he talks about going back into the lab for months to find out what it was that caused the change in tone. He wouldn't say what it was, but basically, some of the things we think don't matter, really do. Now to most of us non musicians, like me, I probably couldn't tell the difference. But to, say a Carlos Santana, or Jeff beck, or one of the many fine lesser known guitar gurus, . . . Smith said in another interview, and its probably an exaggeration but knowing the guy it fit, he said: everything in a guitar amplifier is a tone control. And I do remember back in the day, mid to late 70's, lots of guys had mostly fender, but a few Sunn, and Marshall and Ampeg and a few other lesser known amps, lots of them sounded pretty crappy. OK admittedly, many were in need of repairs, but few sounded what I would call 'great'. Its an interesting discussion.


                  Yep it could be damn hard squeezing tone out of an amp in those days, you had fuzz boxes and that was it, no master volume knobs, gigging coul dbe painful because your rig wouldn't cooperate. I had a 1961 Stratocaster that to this day do not regret selling, it was such a dog, low power, dead spots all over the neck. Nowadays it's an easy fix to get a rig playable, but back then we had no clue. A major innovation was putting fat frets on Fender guitars. You could commonly buy Fenders with thoise infernal skinny frets, and if you wanted fatter frets, you'd have to buy a Gibson. We didn't know anything about changing the frets. IMHO you don't need a classic Fender amp or anything "classic" in order to sound fucking excellent. The old shit does sound different, but the myth is bigger than the real differences. And no matter what setup you play through, you're going to have to make compensations for it, which is easy nowadays.

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