Members gdsmithtx Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 So I dropped my 9 y/o son off at his friend's house for a birthday party sleepover at 1pm today, and came home and sat down to play: a little Trower ("I Cant Wait Much Longer"], " ], and "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" [in tribute to the immortal Etta James, who died yesterday]). As soon as I struck the first chord, I noticed that it suddenly sounded much better than it had last night ... like 33% better. And I've made no changes whatsoever since I played exactly the same equipment last night. WTF? It sounds so good that I've played for about 5 hours straight. The guitar/amp combo is as follows: G: Red MiM Strat with Toneriders City Limits pups and the Deaf Eddie Fat-o-Caster wiring mod, mostly on Neck, Middle and Neck+Middle settings. The best sound is on the neck pup, with the tone at approx 75-80%. A: Fender Mustang 1 with a little editing of the Mustang presets via Fender Fuse, but I am certain that not one setting has changed since mid-December. I have only a Digitech Bad Monkey between the guitar and amp, but the Monkey's settings (a perfect -- level 92%, gain 8%, bass 38%, high 40%) haven't changed in months. Now I will admit that I got stoned this afternoon, but only after couple of hours of screwing around with this wonderful 'new' sound and experimenting with settings and levels to see of it would suddenly disappear. It didn't. It sounded so good that I've been playing almost continuously for at least the past five hours. The MiM strat was my #1 for a long time, but I recently bought a new 60s CV Strat which is connected to my SCXD in my office. The MiM strat was demoted to the living room, but has still been played pretty much every day through the Mustang 1 since. The notes seem to be louder and have more gain, more 'bloom', and more clarity and presence, but not enough to drive the speakers into early breakup. I've had the amp since last August, and it's been played at least every other day since then, so I'm pretty sure it's not the speaker 'breaking in'. Absolutely nothing that I know of has changed that could alter the guitar sound for the better, let alone to this extent .... yet here it is. What the hell happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bubbluz Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Welcome to my world . My ears are so finicky that I don't trust myself to try out amps anymore. Sometimes things that sound good one day sound like crap the next without turning a dial. The reverse is also true,some thing I think stinks sound like gold the next day . Don't even get me started on trying to find a 'good ' tone by way of mp3 files or youtube vids . I just count myself lucky that I'm not a real picky tone hound . Tone is in the brain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bro Blue Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 You're still stoned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kulardenu Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 It's your mood n pick attack! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 It's all in your mind. Or your mood. Or maybe the air is more dense in the room. Or maybe it's a subconscious manifestation of your desire to convince yourself to buy more gear that is more 'consistent'. But probably the first one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdsmithtx Posted January 22, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 You're still stoned. And your point is ... ? Seriously, though, I only got stoned hours after the new sound had manifested ... and in fact, the new sound was so nice that I played for 1.25 - 1.5 hrs straight before realizing that it sounded so damned good that I had to stop and investigate why. I have an Ibanez SZ520 (Dimarzio Air Zone/Dimarzio Bluesbucker) that I expect such tones out of, but this is a Strat that sounded nowhere near this phat last night at identical volume levels. WTF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slushpup96 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Maybe you weren't paying attention earlier and are paying more attention now, so it sounds better now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 This is much more than that ... it's like the sound was 'thickened' without any change in audio settings. Well... seriously... if there aren't any tubes involved... and no changes were made... do you think it's more likely that the capacitors and resistors heated up in a different manner one morning vs the night before or that you perceived the same equipment in a different manner? Occam's Razor, my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Maybe your 9 year old son dialed in the perfect tone for you. He's probably been sitting back thinking, "Oh man, dad's tone {censored}ing SUCKS dude!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frets99 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 You played the right tunes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flatspotter Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 This happens to me all the time. I find that my perception of good tone changes depending on what I heard just before playing. I have a bunch of tones dialed into my M13, and if I play a classic rock tone, it sounds great. I then play a scooped metal tone, go back to the classic rock tone, and the classic rock tone sounds muffled. I keep playing the classic rock tone, and in a few minutes, it sounds great again. A given tone can sound great or terrible when I first fire up my rig. One's perception of tone is not a constant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scott944 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I think Flatspotter absolutely nailed it. I've experienced it, too, in both directions. Did you turn up a little more with the little one out of the house? Volume makes a huge difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SciFiGuy Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 It was the Adjustment Bureau. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pigman Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 What the hell happened? Stick with me, here. How did the weather change from the night before? Two of my guitars have the finish stripped off, making them extremely sensitive to humidity changes. The tone goes from lifeless one day to godlike the next. Humidity can also affect any component of the system and especially the air between the speaker and your ears. I've noticed that the best tone occurs around 45-50% RH, but we got a foot of snow yesterday in New Haven. The RH is now 24%, and it's not even worth playing. I suggest getting a cheap digital humidity gauge and keeping track. I got one at WalMart that also tracks the high and low for the day. You can then use a humidifier to help make the tone more consistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dwerlin Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 +1. Even with the same guitar setup just switching between pickups will do this to me. This happens to me all the time. I find that my perception of good tone changes depending on what I heard just before playing. I have a bunch of tones dialed into my M13, and if I play a classic rock tone, it sounds great. I then play a scooped metal tone, go back to the classic rock tone, and the classic rock tone sounds muffled. I keep playing the classic rock tone, and in a few minutes, it sounds great again. A given tone can sound great or terrible when I first fire up my rig. One's perception of tone is not a constant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdsmithtx Posted January 22, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Thanks for the input. After screwing around with the amp half the night trying to satisfy my curiosity, I guess I have to conclude that the speaker has just finally broken in all the way. In addition to my living room MiM Strat, I tried two other guitars in the same setup (CV 60s Strat and Ibanez SZ520) and all three just sound better on a variety of Mustang I presets, both with and without the Bad Monkey, and through my Rocktron Utopia G300 floor unit. I've discovered that at higher volumes, it doesn't sound as 'farty' as it did before either. I've never seen a speaker take this long to loosen up; I have at least 80 hours of play time on it (though mostly at living room volumes while watching TV, so that may have delayed the break in). What I usually do to break a speaker in is record a few minutes of guitar loop (usually a little 12-bar rhythm and lead) on my Jam Man, then plug it into the amp in an upstairs closet and let it play the loop overnight for several nights. I had purchased the Mustang to take with me on vacation last summer and didn't get a chance to do this to it. I was already pretty damned happy with the Mustang as a versatile little noodling-around-in-the-living-room-while-watching-TV amp, but now I'm even more impressed with it. I had been considering trying to shoe horn a spare Ragin' Cajun 10" into the Mustang, but considering how much better it suddenly sounds, I'm in no hurry. For a $99 amp, this thing sounds stellar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Or maybe you just play better now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Thanks for the input. After screwing around with the amp half the night trying to satisfy my curiosity, I guess I have to conclude that the speaker has just finally broken in all the way. In addition to my living room MiM Strat, I tried two other guitars in the same setup (CV 60s Strat and Ibanez SZ520) and all three just sound better on a variety of Mustang I presets, both with and without the Bad Monkey, and through my Rocktron Utopia G300 floor unit. I've discovered that at higher volumes, it doesn't sound as 'farty' as it did before either. I've never seen a speaker take this long to loosen up; I have at least 80 hours of play time on it (though mostly at living room volumes while watching TV, so that may have delayed the break in). What I usually do to break a speaker in is record a few minutes of guitar loop (usually a little 12-bar rhythm and lead) on my Jam Man, then plug it into the amp in an upstairs closet and let it play the loop overnight for several nights. I had purchased the Mustang to take with me on vacation last summer and didn't get a chance to do this to it. I was already pretty damned happy with the Mustang as a versatile little noodling-around-in-the-living-room-while-watching-TV amp, but now I'm even more impressed with it. I had been considering trying to shoe horn a spare Ragin' Cajun 10" into the Mustang, but considering how much better it suddenly sounds, I'm in no hurry. For a $99 amp, this thing sounds stellar. To add to the pot, perhaps it was only your imagination that made you think it sounds better... maybe just on one guitar, but once you believe it sounds better, it DOES sound better... to your ears. It's not a bad thing, my friend and to be honest, I'd just quite questioning it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.