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I dislike playing strats through blackface fenders


Faber

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Ta for the kind words ...


I don't know much about the DRRI, never having used one, but the Super Reverb is 40w and 4x10, which means it's both more powerful than the DRRI and has a greater sound dispersion ... I run mine with the tone controls all starting out at 12 o'clock, and then tweaked to suit the room, with volume starting out at 4 or 5. The only pedals I use are a wah (obviously not in use for that song) and a mains-powered, tube-driven Blackstar HT-Boost just to kick the amp harder for solos rather than to colour the sound.


Not all Fender black/silverface amps are created equal -- the classic 85w '65-style Twin was designed to deliver a clean tone at skull-crushing volume, whereas the lower-powered Super and Deluxe were designed for gentler use. Remember, the older tweed amps were thicker, richer and throatier, and the first Marshalls were based on those Fender tweed circuits -- Pete Townshend lugged a Bassman head into Jim Marshall's shop and said, 'I want THIS, only ten times as loud.' To me, the Vox tone is somewhere between a tweed and a 'face' (clean it chimes; cranked it growls), and Vox was what all the early-60s British bands (Shadows, Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Animals, Kinks etc) used until Marshalls came along, because imported Fenders were wicked expensive. The exception was The Who: Townshend used Fender heads with Marshall cabs.


Final word: it's always a prob using an unfamiliar amp unless there's someone there who's familiar with it to dial in just the tone you want.

 

 

You already know this, but for those who don't :

 

http://www.singlecoil.com/docs/magic-six.pdf

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I think the mystery of rock is a well dialed pedalboard into a slightly driven clean tube amp, and that my friends is what melts the butter on the biscuit! :thu:

 

And a Strat into a Blackface will get you there Hallelujah...

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you can get the killer bee sound w/a pedal, no?

 

 

Or by cranking that mofo. Tweed Deluxe Reverb is much better for that; those things can do a decent Marshall imitation once you take it beyond 2 o'clock.

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+1 : dislike Fender amps in general - there's a certain "honky-ness" in the upper mids that isn't pleasant


Mad respect to those who disagree with me and all the terrific music made/being made with them . . . it just isn't my tone

 

 

i was like that until my late 30's.

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What about a Mesa DR? I am thinking of getting a Strat to get some completely new tones, ground that my Gibson Explorer cannot cover. It's another amp or another guitar, I can't afford both.

 

 

Strats and Rectos play very well together. I have a few strats and teles and tend to use them through my DR far more than my les paul.

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Strats and Rectos play very well together. I have a few strats and teles and tend to use them through my DR far more than my les paul.

Thanks. I will have to get down to my local store, take over their amp room and grab a nice Strat. I am excited at the prospect of some new tones :thu: I am thinking every self respecting guitarist should own at least one Strat if they can afford it.

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Not very much like Hank Marvin, whose classic sound was a Strat into ...


An AC30.

 

Dayam, now that's some killer vintage tone right there.:eek: The Strat and Blackface is a match made in heaven IMO. I can see where it wouldn't work for Nu-metal however.

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Strats and Rectos play very well together. I have a few strats and teles and tend to use them through my DR far more than my les paul.

 

 

I strongly disagree. But then again, I didn't really think my Recto played well with anything except for HBs and high gain. Total one trick pony on the distortion side with a decent clean.

 

The DRRI is a pretty polite amp by itself. But it can get pretty mean if you crank it up and feed some pedals into it. You can't make a dirty amp clean, but you can make a clean amp dirty.

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I enjoy the Fender amp sound. However I really get off with a Marshall, and the strat is a good thing.

 

I had my Mesa Mk1 re-issue voiced more like a Marshall (upper mids) , now I love it even more.

 

my fave strat sound is Marshall on the edge of breakup

 

and I distort it for a metal sound luckily my strat has a bridge PAF

 

lots of edgy highs that ring out from the ash/maple combination :love:

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Dayam, now that's some killer vintage tone right there.
:eek:
.

 

Aythengyow!

 

Just for the record, the amp is indeed True Vintage (like I sometimes say to younger musicians I play with, 'I got an amp that's older than you') ... but the Strat in that clip is a 2006 model loaded with Hot Noiseless stacked-'bucker PUs -- yunno, the ones some folks claim can't give you a REAL, AUTHENTIC-type classic-Strat tone.

 

And Fretsy ... thank you, mang. All I can say is: takes one ta know one ...

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clarity is definitely what they're made for. That high end glassy tone that is really smooth and clean. I personally love putting a compression/sustainer and/or a boss blues driver in front of one for the perfect mix between marshall and fender

 

 

Exactly - it's a fantastic sound in the right hands, but there's too much glass in them for my liking.

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It really depends on the music you're playing and what you want to hear. Fender blackface amps ( and all their re-issues ) were designed to sound fairly clean and with a scooped mid range. Leo wanted them to sound "hi-fi". You really need to push them before they start to give up the goods in terms of some "hair" ( read : distortion ). But with the amount of pedals available today, it's not hard to get a fat, throaty, driven tone from a blackface Fender amp. They are generally very pedal friendly. Also true is the harder you drive the front end with the guitar ( humbuckers ), it breaks up quicker. I have a Princeton Reverb that is a tone monster. My blackfaced Vibrolux, while great for cleans, lacks in the midrange. Just too scooped for my tastes. Vox chime they do not have. Marshall grind they don't have. They are their own thing. A strat ( or a Tele ) through a blackface can rip your face off if you don't watched your treble controls. Don't use the bright switch of single coils. Way too much treble. And replace the stock speaker with a more neutral sounding speaker. Some of the scooped sound is due to the speakers. When I put a Weber Cali in my Princeton, all the mid glory came. back

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Different amps and guitars are 'colours' you can blend for your tonal palette -- but I'm reminded of the 'purist' position voiced by Uncle Keef in an interview I did with him some years back:

 

CSM: What amps do you like these days?

 

KR: I haven

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Fenders and Marshalls just have different voicing to the tone controlls.

I run my old Blackface Bassman along side My Marshall in the studio recording. They do indeed have different sound qualities.

 

A really big factor though is the speakers you're driving and how soon they break up. I prefer running the Blackface through Jenson 4X10" alnicos. This is much different from running them through Ceramics. The difference of how they break up and how they're voices can be night and day for the amp tone or anything running through it.

 

The type of fender pickups can make a hugh difference too. If you use truely vintage pickups with no effects, the best you may be able to get is a jazzy tone super clean, or crank the trebble and get more of a James Bond type theme or surf type sound with some reverb.

 

To get the brown sound you really need to drive the front end with the right boxes if the amp is mostly clean. Targeting the correct midrange frequencies to get the proper feel out of the strings does take some time is you are used to targeting another amps tone controls.

 

Since I use both a marshall and fender I have to compramise between the two to get the tone I want. I can use a marshal govenor and have the marshall tone through both, or I can use a tube screamer and get a browner sound through both. Recording both on separate mics, there is a difference in tone on both tracks and I often EQ one differently than the other to get them to blend like they sound live. As far as one being better than the other consistantly, its all dependant on the song and what you're trying to get.

 

Lastly, I tend to find the fender can sound brighter up close, whereas the Marshall requires a bit more distance to hear its full tone. In my case this is partially due to the Marshal pushing a 1960 cab with celestions. But even with the heads swapped and the marshall pushing 4X10s, the same seems to be true.

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