What would be the effect of changing plates resistors from..

[Jazz P Bass]

Awesome!

[potatofarmer]

Reminds me of a joke: guy goes to the doctor complaining of constant, silent, odorless flatulence. Doctor gives him a prescription. Guy comes back the next week saying "what did you give me, now my gas smells terrible!" and the doctor says "great, now let's work on your hearing."

I tried that very amp briefly when I was checking out an SG. I didn't spend much time with it, but I couldn't get a decent "Fender" clean tone out of it so I figured the hubbub was largely from people who didn't know any better. If daz is on the modeling bandwagon though, I've got some serious reconsidering to do. April first is a long way off...


I've never noticed a difference in tone (or noise either) switching between CF and MF. If I'm planning a build out, I usually order MF but if I'm just tweaking with a build I'll use whatever's on hand and those cheap grab bags of CF tend to dominate my parts drawers.

[daz]

I tried that very amp briefly when I was checking out an SG. I didn't spend much time with it, but I couldn't get a decent "Fender" clean tone out of it so I figured the hubbub was largely from people who didn't know any better. If daz is on the modeling bandwagon though, I've got some serious reconsidering to do. April first is a long way off...

You have to understand tho, the stock patches are anywhere from horrible to a best of maybe " ok". There are guys swearing the 65 twin tone is killing and at least one said it made him shelf his real twin. Personally i haven't found that at all, as the clean fender models even after tweaking don't sound that great to me, tho to be fair it's particle board cab with 1-12" celestion so consider that. Plug it into a twin's speakers and all bets are off. The supersonic and marshall models are great. haven't really messed to much with the fender and vox models yet aside from trying to get a killer fender clean which i failed at. It was nice, but not like the real thing. I haven't spent much time on that tho so maybe once i have things will look different.

But anyways, don't judge the thing till you've spent a few hours tweaking. Figuring it all out is the easy part. trying endless combinations of speaker sims, bias tweaks, sag tweaks, tone control and other things will eventually have you understanding how to quickly get a good sound and feel. But the stock patches won't even give you a remotely close idea of what it can do. The thing is, this modeler like any other that has come as far i'm sure, are still capable of getting that sound and feel we all have come to hate from digital modelers. The difference is that tweaking makes for a completely different animal. And for some reason they really set the stock patches with the dumbest settings like cabs that are dull and dark sounding to a fault with normal tone settings. I thought the thing was a mud machine till i found the cab sims ! (u can turn them off too)

I can't say everyone will love this thing, but i'm pretty hard to please and i DO think almost everyone will agree it's in the ballpark at the very worse. At least once they hear/feel it at it's best. Oh, there are tons of user made patches to download so if you don't want to spend hours getting there, those may give you an idea of what it's capable of. They are rated by uses so try the highest rated ones and i'm sure some will show the amp's worth.

[Audiotexan]

Do what I'm doing now...closet the tube stuff, forget about resistors and caps and cathode bias vs fixed and all that time wasting stuff and get a fender modeling amp!

Heresy!! Burn the witch!! lol

Grats on finding an amp you're happy with! =)
At least one plus on 'modeling' they don't have the weight to have to drag around!

[loudthud]

At least one plus on 'modeling' they don't have the weight to have to drag around!

And when it breaks, you can just throw it away because you either can't find the problem, or can't get the parts.

[uneumann]

And when it breaks, you can just throw it away because you either can't find the problem, or can't get the parts.

Actually, you can probably gut the PCB and use the chassis, spkr, and cab to build a nice project tube amp.
At current prices, you'd actually get pretty good value from all that.

[daz]

Or you could just buy a new one for less than you'd have spent in tubes with a tube amp since you bought it.

[uneumann]

Or you could just buy a new one for less than you'd have spent in tubes with a tube amp since you bought it.

Actually, I'll bet your almost right. It would be like laptop or flat-panel TV repair - "repair" means replacement of entire PCBs. Probably a bit cheaper than an entire new amp - but more than replacing screen resistors.

[daz]

The really are cheap, but i've repaired a tone of SS amps and i can tell this one is sturdier than most SS fenders. But i was exaggerating a bit. It may last quite well tho, and it may not be a perfect replacement for tube amps, but it's damn close and more than makes up for any shortcomings with more advantages than there are illegals on the north side of the USA/mexico fence.
The next thing i wanna try is the DI out to my tube amp's PA. But it has XLR out so i'll have to make an adapter and also put a jack in my amp to access the PI input. But i bet that will be amazing.

[g1]

Yeah, and when we're all like, replacing (or nitpicking over) our worn/defective tubes, where are you going to be? Yeah, that's right, playing! pfffft. .
(or maybe you'll be doing software updates )

[Chuck H]

Early in my playing I thought if I ever discovered a SS amp that sounded the way I like that I would convert from tubes without looking back. It hasn't happened. Of course I hadn't found a tube amp that sounded the way I like either or I probably never would have started modding circuits

I have heard a few SS amps that I thought had a "useable" tone, but not inspiring for me like the best tube amps (a lot better than bad tube amps though). I haven't liked a single digital amp yet, but times... they are a changin'. Anyone can see the writing on the wall. Tube amps will ultimately be replaced with more efficient digital amps and our antiquated notions of "tone" will become dated in perception and concept. At least tube amps are setting the standard for where this path starts. Maybe it won't be so bad. And if Daz's experience works for others, who knows? Maybe it can even be good. How many of us here have looked at our lives and wondered how it might have been if only we had focused on playing instead of the gear!?! The digital age may free a certain sect of new generation players and allow them to explore the art without giving them the option to obsess about the gear as much.

[daz]

You know, the best way to describe it is this, and it's without going into the tonal details. Ever notice how digi stuff always affects you the same way? It's always the same scenario....you plug in, you may be bit surprised that it sounds decent, maybe even really good, then shortly you realize it's just not right, usually due to feel and dynamics. It's stiff and lacking dynamics. To describe my experience is to say not only did that NOT happen. I could go on about it but thats the first time that happened, and it's gotten better since. This is not the digital stuff I knew and hated.

You really forget you aren't playing a tube amp because it has absolutly realistic sag and dynamics. It has those as well as any tube amp aside from a non MV cranked. Perfect? No, but neither are tubes, and as i get better at tweaking it gets closer. the biggest worry is this.....you know how even a great single channel tube amp can sound like god one minute and you're scratching your head the next? well, thats not the amp as you know. It's human biology. Thats where the worry comes in....when that happens with a digi amp you can't just turn 2 or 3 knobs and be ok. There are all these patches and to tweak them all every time that happens would be a nightmare. Your entire life would be based around tuning your patches. The way i will deal with that is as follows....i will have 1 to 3 main patches that will be my base sounds and i will likely end up liking one best and thats the only one i will tweak when my ears change. The others will be there for me when they happen to jive with my ears. if not, i always use my #1 patch. Any way you look at it even if that one patch is all i ever used i'm still way ahead in many ways....no tube issues, no wait time to start up, tons of effects if i want them, built in tuner....oh, and by the way i kid you not,.....best simple digital tuner i have owned to date. Try it and i think you'll see why. It's great. Anyways, i'm still trying to tweak it to perfection and till i am 100% used to it and know i have it as good as it will get for me i reserve final word on it for later. Gotta say tho, this thing is fun as hell ! No brainer for the $.

Early in my playing I thought if I ever discovered a SS amp that sounded the way I like that I would convert from tubes without looking back. It hasn't happened. Of course I hadn't found a tube amp that sounded the way I like either or I probably never would have started modding circuits

I have heard a few SS amps that I thought had a "useable" tone, but not inspiring for me like the best tube amps (a lot better than bad tube amps though). I haven't liked a single digital amp yet, but times... they are a changin'. Anyone can see the writing on the wall. Tube amps will ultimately be replaced with more efficient digital amps and our antiquated notions of "tone" will become dated in perception and concept. At least tube amps are setting the standard for where this path starts. Maybe it won't be so bad. And if Daz's experience works for others, who knows? Maybe it can even be good. How many of us here have looked at our lives and wondered how it might have been if only we had focused on playing instead of the gear!?! The digital age may free a certain sect of new generation players and allow them to explore the art without giving them the option to obsess about the gear as much.

[Tom Phillips]

The forum is seems to be experiencing a lot of hijacked threads lately.
It's too bad about this one because the latest posts contain a lot of interesting discussion that will now be archived under the subject "What would be the effect of changing plates resistors from.. "

[daz]

Takes 2 or more to tango ya know.

[Chuck H]

Well, I guess I was tango-ing too. But I was the last member to render a topic related post so I get a pass.

What's the matter with you daz!?! Keying up and writing all this digital trash. Shame on you! (have you tried changing out the caps and speaker yet? )

I'm going Chuckledamus here and predicting that it's only a matter of time before you start tweaking your digital amp.