Tone Quest in need of help :o(

[Anonymous]

To be fair im not sure on the level im after. The blues deluxe has a really twitchy volume knob, seems to have a massive volume jump from 1-2. See i've read mixed reviews on the marshall power brake. And then on the THD hot plate. The blues deluxe does have a drive channel, which is very vintage sounding. I'd just like to squeeze a little bit more out of it. Then again it goes against my train of thought, in thinking that the carlton sound doesnt have masses of gain!!! ahh When ive partnered the drive channel with a TS9 i've never quite got to what i was after! Almost but not quite. But perhaps the sound im after is changing as im changing as a guitarist?

You're right about the huge jump on the volume knob on the BD - it's a real pain for playing at low volumes, though it served me well for gigs for years. I would still be using my BD if I hadn't bought the Vibroverb.

I agree that the BD overdrive channel isn't too good with a TS9, but I found that I was using the TS9 (and maybe a Boss Overdrive too) through the clean channel and largely ignoring the overdrive channel. It worked for me, & that was using a Strat or Tele, not a 335. Backing off the tone on the guitar sometimes helped too. At living room volume it's not wonderful, but with the volume over about 5 it was pretty good, I thought.

Mike

 

[DrJzT]

Well to be honest I only use the BD for band stuff. It's too tempting to play loud in the house. I've just picked up a Wampler ectasy drive pedal from ebay for ?100 which pretty much nails the dumble sound ive been after.

For noodling around/practicing im using a nasty 10w park guitar amp. Which is pretty rank, but it was free, and when something is devoid of tone. I find (well imho) you tend to practice more. I usually run a pod through it, which is a bit like polishing a turd. But if im practicing in my room a 40w valve amp is just silly. (i used to practice through a TSL on 0.03 on the volume knob, now that was daft)

I might use the drive channel for something on the BD, just need to figure out what for ha ha I know for certain im not a high gain saturated kind of guy

Im in two minds about whether or not to sell the TS9 or not. Ive just picked up a tokai strat, and the SRV tone is quite addictive. But then i dont want to be another SRV sheep. When i've got the ES130 back from the luthier, and i get in a practice room, we shall see Although i might sell it to fund a looper pedal, or a fuzzface clone who knows

Thanks again everyone, really appreciate the advice. Once i get the guitar back and i get chance ill try and post a demo of the ES130 through the wampler and the BD (need to figure out how best to record it though)