Amp up high, guitar down low?

jaygtr

PolarityMan;21644" said:

Im another vol and tone on full guy. Everything else just sounds worse.

Me too, I've been trying it for the last wek or so and I can't get it to work.

The only thing that works for me is half volume for rhythm and flat out for lead.

Although I haven't tried any of this at gigging volumes yet, which might be why.

markjwgraham

This is a great way to learn how to use the controls on your guitar to 'remotely control' tonal aspects of the amp. It takes time to get an understanding of this, but with great single channel amps this really works a treat.

I have a love affair with great single channel amps, and I love how you can get so many different tones out of just one, single channel amp... but most people don't bother to learn how to do this. They just buy a basic amp and loads of pedals. It's allegedly easier, but I think you just end up in this cycle of 'it doesn't sound right.. must buy more gear to fix it!'... and without the amp and guitar combination working together WITHOUT pedals, then it's fighting a losing battle.

Such is my love affair for single channel amps, I'm actually setting up a website dedicated to getting great tone out of single channel amps - www.singlechannelamp.com - the site is not 100% ready yet, but there is already content available (free of course!) that you can get just for signing up. I want to create a resource for people going over and demystifying that mentality of 'all you need is a great single channel amp' ... while this is true, I think it is oversimplistic and makes the idea of a single channel amp being 'all you need' a bit of a mystery to many.

If you love single channel amps or want to learn more about them, please do sign up at www.singlechannelamp.com - the more people get involved, the more I can create content tailored to what people want. If you love amps, just sign up, you'll be really glad that you did!

ICBM

Some single-channel amps look like channel-switching amps. I'm not trying to be funny, this is a serious point .

There are some channel-switchers which genuinely use two different audio paths - this has the advantage that each can be optimised for the type of sound you're going for, typically some sort of Fendery clean channel with few gain stages and the EQ near the beginning, and some sort of Marshally overdrive channel with more gain stages and the EQ near the end. I used to think this was better because it's close to "two amps in the same box", so you can dial in the sound you want on each with the minimum compromise. The downside is that the amp can sometimes seem to have too little character of its own.

But there are other "channel switchers" which use basically the same audio path, with extra boost stages and controls switched in to give the dirty 'channel'. These usually involve more compromises in the design and often in the way you use them, but they sound more characterful and distinctive, to me.

And then there are some (rare) amps which use exactly the same audio path and number of gain stages for both channels, but simply allow you to switch between two different sets of control networks and preset voicing adjustments - essentially, you're using a single channel amp but you can set it in two different ways with a footswitch. To me this gives you almost as much flexibility as the independent-channel amps, but with as much character as a single-channel amp... because it really is one.

The difficulty is that unless you can see the schematic it can sometimes be very hard to tell them apart - even stuff like separate EQ doesn't give it away, it depends how it's done inside. And do you count a switchable single-channel amp as a channel-switcher or not? (I suspect you do, but is it right to?)

EricTheWeary

And, sort of conversely,switchable channel amps that get used as single channel amps. In lots and lots of interviews I have read guitarists who only use one channel of a two or multi channel amp. There is a desire to make two channel amps sound like two different amps but they often end up sounding like one decent sounding amp and one not so decent sounding amp. So in the low to mid budget range there are very few single channel amps because channel switching is seen as such a desirable feature. Yet a single channel amp made for the same money might be more focused and actually sound better.My case in point would be the Orange TT - okay it had the lunchbox thing going on but basically a single channel, relatively affordable valve amp that did one thing well and these sold by the shedload.