Matt Schofield amp set up tips.

shaunm

A few weeks ago Matt was on TPS talking about how he sets his amps, pedals and guitars. Effectively saying that he turns each pot until its at its most effective point of its sweep and leaving it there. 

I thought id try it out and post it on here to show up the differences. 

This was before using Matts technique 

This was after the amp tweeks

Both were played on my Fender Supersonic 60 on the Bassman channel with the volume on the same level. 

I think there is a massive improvement after using Matts tips. It seems to have opened the amp up, its less bass heavy certainly. It seems to be a little clearer to my ears too. Although it's not on these clips my bridge pickup seems to be more useable too even though it's a brighter set up on the amp. 

This might be not be news to many of you as it might be an old technique but it's a bit of a revelation to me. 

ThePrettyDamned

I've tried this and it sort of can work - but not on every amp for sure. 

I mostly just twist them to ear - do I need more treble? Do I have too much bass? Etc. 

shaunm

@ThePrettyDamned that's what I was doing before but for some reason I always set it a little too bass heavy.

ICBM

The second clip sounds miles better, yes.

I'll admit I was initially a bit dismissive when I first read about it since I thought I already knew how perfectly well to dial an amp in, but although there appears to be very little logical reason why this should work, for some reason it does seem to. It's true that it doesn't always end up giving the tone you would think you wanted, but it does seem to somehow produce a more open and responsive sound than most other ways of setting the amp.

From what I remember, Matt Schofield's explanation is that by setting the controls at the most sensitive point, you make it easiest to affect the tone in either direction with your technique - I'm not sure if that's true either, but I can't think of a better reason!

It's always worth trying, anyway - if nothing else it will at least make you listen carefully to what the controls are doing, so even if you don't end up setting them where the amp seems to dictate, you'll have a better idea of how to get the sound you do want.

bbill335

So what is "the most effective/sensitive point" for the controls on, say, my Traynor YGM3? Does this work for distortion/overdrive/preamp pedals too?

Roland

You have to work that out for yourself. It depends on your amp, your guitar, and your playing style.

ICBM

bbill335 said:

So what is "the most effective/sensitive point" for the controls on, say, my Traynor YGM3? Does this work for distortion/overdrive/preamp pedals too?

Turn each control while you're playing and listen for the point where it makes the biggest difference over the smallest amount of turn. Sometimes it's surprisingly sharp - the control does very little for quite a long time, then suddenly a lot of change, then not much for the rest of the turn - and sometimes it's difficult to identify exactly where that is… it just depends on the amp. Some controls have more than one 'sensitive' position.

Also don't be afraid of "wrong" or extreme settings - ie a deep mid scoop, or a control at zero or up full. Sometimes that will be how the amp sounds best.

I haven't really experimented as much with it on pedals, but I don't really see why it shouldn't work as well - again not necessarily set in stone, just find out what the controls do and see if it makes a difference.

shaunm

@ICBM yes, with pedals it did exactly the same thing. It made them sound much better than how I had previously set them. 

You hit the nail on the head when you said that your technique (or lack of it see video) comes through. This would certainly be beneficial on the amps that he uses and due to the fact he has flawless technique.

The tone of the guitar comes through far more also. I'm especially enjoying the middle selection when both pickups are on.

bbill335

ICBM said:

bbill335 said:

So what is "the most effective/sensitive point" for the controls on, say, my Traynor YGM3? Does this work for distortion/overdrive/preamp pedals too?

Turn each control while you're playing and listen for the point where it makes the biggest difference over the smallest amount of turn. Sometimes it's surprisingly sharp - the control does very little for quite a long time, then suddenly a lot of change, then not much for the rest of the turn - and sometimes it's difficult to identify exactly where that is… it just depends on the amp. Some controls have more than one 'sensitive' position.

Also don't be afraid of "wrong" or extreme settings - ie a deep mid scoop, or a control at zero or up full. Sometimes that will be how the amp sounds best.

I haven't really experimented as much with it on pedals, but I don't really see why it shouldn't work as well - again not necessarily set in stone, just find out what the controls do and see if it makes a difference.

I will be interested to see how far away I get from my normal setting s when I try this tomorrow!

shaunm

@bbill335 it's worth doing. As you can see by these clips I ended up quite away away from where I had things set and it was the same story with my pedals. 

Strangely it actually made me rekindle my liking for my AC booster. As that has a separate bass and treble pots I found it responded well and became a little more transparent.