Why do people ONLY care about an amp's clean channel?

[RaVenCAD]

I swear there are a lot of me out there, who play on the verge of breakup of an amp and so find channels to be a weird curiosity.

Set the amp so that it's clean with the guitar on 5, slightly breaking up on 7, and kinda nasty on 10..

[Help!I'maRock!]

Set the amp so that it's clean with the guitar on 5, slightly breaking up on 7, and kinda nasty on 10..

 

i find that i don't like the clean with the guitar volume that low, and that there's too much of a volume boost when turning up to 10. i usually play with the guitar's volume around 7, and set 10 for slightly breaking up. pedals do the rest.

[tlbonehead]

I'm old and the dirt channels are definitely what sells the amp to me. I usually check the clean channel as an afterthought.

[RaVenCAD]

i find that i don't like the clean with the guitar volume that low, and that there's too much of a volume boost when turning up to 10. i usually play with the guitar's volume around 7, and set 10 for slightly breaking up. pedals do the rest.

 

 

OK, but I like my cleans CLEAN, and when I'm playing really clean, it's usually something soft and mellow. 5 is perfect for me on my Joe B. and CT.. Both have fairly loud humbuckers in the neck (where all my cleans live) For my Strat, it's gotta be a little louder because the single coils aren't as loud as the humbuckers. So it all depends on which guitar I'm using.

 

Oh, and I don't own any pedals. If my amp can't do the job, my POD can..

[animalwithin]

I check both clean and dirty channels, I like an amp that can do both reasonably well.

[docjeffrey]

I have noticed......yup...... I agree. But....as fast as Hetfield is all downstroked 32nd notes@ 180bpm WOULD be impossible...must be a typo.

 

Yeah, it's more of a hyperbole than a typo:-)

[Hubert Stumblin]

Someday you'll be old. And I can almost guarantee you won't be playing metal when you are.

Geez, I hope you're wrong about that. Who will we have to make fun of in our old age if he stops playing metal?

[docjeffrey]

You need at least two amps. Very few amps can do both pristine Fender or Vox-like cleans and brutal Uberschall-like metal tones. That's why Hetfield uses a Roland Jazz Chorus along with his Mesas (or whatever he's using these days...). Classic rock tones, clean and dirty, are possible to get from one good amp like a Vox AC30 or a Dr. Z. But few true metal amps have outstanding clean tones. Some of them do a decent job, but I still think you should buy an amp for clean/blues/classic rock and metal if your range requires it.

 

I don't think that any serious metal player uses scooped sounds these days. The sound of metal is aggressive midrange with beefy lows and delicate highs.

[BlueSteam]

My focus has always been the dirty channel because I don't like what od pedals do to your tone. I've always lived with whatever clean I've gotten... But I like dirty cleans, so I'm always playing with some type of pushed tube dirt going on anyways.

[timmyfirst]

I use all the channels on my Laney! it does the Voxy style bold cleans on the clean channel and then varying degrees of filth from the other three channels.

[s1120]

Set the amp so that it's clean with the guitar on 5, slightly breaking up on 7, and kinda nasty on 10..

Thats the sweet spot I like also!! Or eaven just a slightly more aggressive strumming hand will kick it over the wall into overdrive!!!

[docjeffrey]

And why should age have anything to do with the kind of music you play? Don't tell Iommi, Dave Murray, Dave Mustaine or KK Downing that they are too old to play metal. Even Kirk Hammett is well into his 40's. Machine head has been around for 15+ years. Those of us in our 50's grew up with some of the best metal players ever! And a lot of them are still out there getting it done every night, piloting their own jetliners and selling out 100,000 seat soccer stadiums.

[honeyiscool]

Set the amp so that it's clean with the guitar on 5, slightly breaking up on 7, and kinda nasty on 10..

I set the amp so that it's slightly breaking up at 10, clean at 8, and unusably quiet at 5. But I prefer to use a bass cut to clean up, instead of the volume knob, so that it still remains bright.

 

Then I use a boost pedal to reach silliness.

[honeyiscool]

 

And why should age have anything to do with the kind of music you play? Don't tell Iommi, Dave Murray, Dave Mustaine or KK Downing that they are too old to play metal. Even Kirk Hammett is well into his 40's. Machine head has been around for 15+ years. Those of us in our 50's grew up with some of the best metal players ever! And a lot of them are still out there getting it done every night, piloting their own jetliners and selling out 100,000 seat soccer stadiums.

 

Seriously, people act like metal is some extreme music that only young people listened to. Isn't that what people thought about rock music, too? It's not like you got old and started playing bebop.

[GAS Man]

 

If an amp has a crap OD channel, you can make it sound good with pedals. OTOH, if an amp has a crap clean channel, nothing is going to help that sound better...

 

 

^ This.

 

 

 

It really does depend upon your music style. Like if you like crunch, you might want to drop some serious coin on an Orange amp, but that's not what you're going to get if you want surf.

[kayd_mon]

 

^ This. It really does depend upon your music style. Like if you like crunch, you might want to drop some serious coin on an Orange amp, but that's not what you're going to get if you want surf.

 

 

Why not? I think you could surf just fine with a Tiny Terror, a Jazzmaster (or Strat, or Tele, or really whatever), and a good reverb and tremolo pedal in front.

[PrawnHeed]

 

Rembrandt didn't start with beige canvas.

 

 

Actually he often did. He used the technique called impasto to cover the canvas (or the picture he was painting over) and give texture.

[Wayne2]

I used to think an amp without a master volume or a drive channel was dumb. Now I think I sort of get it. I want a DRRI or Twin Reverb.

[Grant Harding]

Seriously, people act like metal is some extreme music that only young people listened to. Isn't that what people thought about rock music, too? It's not like you got old and started playing bebop.

I was mostly teasing, but you have to admit that metal exists within some pretty tight stylistic boundaries. Metal IS rock music, but with a whole bunch of macho and anger layered on top.

[honeyiscool]

Some metal has a lot of macho and anger. Iron Maiden is just goofy and full of fun and badass riffs.

[Gay Guitarist]

because you can run dirt into a clean channel, you can't run cleans into dirt.

[WRGKMC]

Amp staging is simple. People judge amp quality on the clean channel because its an

indication of how good the power amp section is. Theres less stageing and the power

amp transparency is obvious.

 

If I try an amp and its clean channel sounds bad I dont care how the drive channel sounds.

I know how amps work and know the power amp is handicapped at that point.

It may have nice drive tone but you basically got a one trick pony.

 

Drive channels drive into the same power amp as the clean channel does.

The drive channle may have additional gain stages to clip the sound and different EQ voicing for different tones

but it still has to pass through the same power amp and if the power amp sucks the amp handicapped.

 

Of course there are plenty of amps that have great clean channels and suckey drive channels.

I own a few older amps like a Sunn Concert lead and a Fender M-80 and a Blackface Peavey that

have some old school drive channels thay just plain suck turds.

The power amp and clean channels on them are good, they just didnt design very good drive channels into those amps.

 

 

The other critical item for those who use floor boards with pedals "know" time based pedals like Chorus Echo and Reverb sounds

sound great with drive before tham and sound like a horses ass if you add drive after them. Unless the effects are placed between the

preamp and power amp in its effects loop the amps drive channel is pretty much unusable.

 

My Marshall is that way. It has a fairly decent clean chrunch and drive, but I'm currently using a floor board and running it in stereo with a second tube amp.

If I was to go back to rack units and tie the time based effects through the effects loop I could go back to channel switching. May be a little boaring bacause I'd be giving up

using 5 different drive boxes. I could run the second amp as a slave to the first and use the same drives on it or put different effects between the two.

There again, just plugging into a good tube amp with no crutch boxes is a whole other method of playing.

 

Wiring effects options are all part of individuals getting they're own unique sounds. No one way is wrong or right.

[Doctor49]

Actually he often did. He used the technique called impasto to cover the canvas (or the picture he was painting over) and give texture.

 

 

I love it when this happens.

A free education when you least expect it!

Well done both.

[GAS Man]

 

Why not? I think you could surf just fine with a Tiny Terror, a Jazzmaster (or Strat, or Tele, or really whatever), and a good reverb and tremolo pedal in front.

 

 

Sure, but I like a deeper thunkier tone for surf, like a '65 Twin, Vibro King, Super Reverb, etc. Something that more naturally sounds like a cavern.

[Belva]

Wanna see sumtin' funny? Take all distortion, except for the distortion that is inherent in all guitar amps. Have the metal guy play his wicked leads using just, say, a good blackface clean. You'll hear so many mistakes, flubs and just plain {censored}ty playing it will make you laugh at the suckah.

Point being, if you really want to improve your playing, put away the electric geetar for a while. Practice those wicked leads on your acoustic. When you get them to where they sound decent, pick up the electric again.