Best way to add reverb to a Marshall JTM45?

breadfan

I used the Talisman into a JTM45 for a few years. 

It sounded great with a clean amp and very good with just amp distortion or with drive pedals after it.

Most drives I put before it caused the preamp to clip. 

I subsequently replaced it with a One Control Prussian Blue. It’s perfect if you don’t need any bells and whistles.

soma1975

I'm finding the reverbs in my UA Del-Verb sound amazing with the mix around 9 o clock going into my SV20 with fuzz or treble booster before it. 

Jim54

How have you got your SV20 set Soma?

soma1975

Fairly light on bass because I tend to run a fuzz face and don't want it getting too flubby but my base tone is a smidge past edge of breakup even with a Strat

Jim54

Thanks Soma, I'll give these settings a try. Not settled on a greatvtone with Mr SV20 head yet. Some days it's good other days meh.

What input you going into there, normal high sensitivity one then jumpered into treble high sensitivity? 

soma1975

Thats a great question, which I don't immediately have an answer for because they are laid out differently than the head version shown in the manual! But I think it's jumpered High 1 to Low 2 and input is the High 2 

It's all running into a Tone King Iron Man 2 Mini attenuator

ICBM

soma1975 said:

Thats a great question, which I don't immediately have an answer for because they are laid out differently than the head version shown in the manual! But I think it's jumpered High 1 to Low 2 and input is the High 2

That will give quite a thick, slightly dulled tone - it’s usually best to plug into High Treble 1 and jumper Treble 2 to Normal 1.

ie just move the guitar lead to the unused jack.

Wazmeister

Just use a pedal. I'd be surprised if it sounds crap...

The Talisman was built specifically for this use.

goldtop

Wazmeister said:

Just use a pedal. I'd be surprised if it sounds crap...

The Talisman was built specifically for this use.

It only sounds like crap compared to doing it right.

The Talisman (et al) cannot find a way around the physics:

1. having a reverb tail before a compressing amplifier will cause the reverb tail level to increase, requiring you to turn down the Mix and/or Decay on the reverb pedal just to maintain the clarity of your dry guitar tone.
2. having reverb (or any time domain FX) before a distorting amplifier will give you intermodulation distortion - e.g. the E you are playing now is mixed with the reverbed D you played a moment ago and the combined E+D waveform is distorted by the amp, creating rogue inharmonic frequencies based on the difference between the frequencies (sidebands). IM distortion is not musical, and you can just about put up with a certain amount of it before you have to turn down the Mix - or the amp's distortion.

This is why the Fryette Power Station, a wet/dry rig or an amp properly engineered for distortion with FX loops are the only genuine solutions. Everything else is a make-do kludge.

ICBM

goldtop said:

This is why the Fryette Power Station, a wet/dry rig or an amp properly engineered for distortion with FX loops are the only genuine solutions. Everything else is a make-do kludge.

Or gives you the sound you want…

The Edge’s classic U2 sound is delay before an overdriven (and compressing) AC30. Doing it the other way round doesn’t sound right.

I usually prefer channel-switching amps with FX loops for time-based effects, for what it’s worth.

robinbowes

goldtop said:

 Everything else is a make-do kludge.

...or maybe it's just a different way of doing things?

You're assuming that there's only one "right" outcome.

Using delay/reverb into an overdriven amp will give you a different sound to applying delay/reverb *after* the drive (eg. in an FX loop, load box, or in post-production).

It's not wrong, it's different.

soma1975

ICBM said:

soma1975 said:

Thats a great question, which I don't immediately have an answer for because they are laid out differently than the head version shown in the manual! But I think it's jumpered High 1 to Low 2 and input is the High 2

That will give quite a thick, slightly dulled tone - it’s usually best to plug into High Treble 1 and jumper Treble 2 to Normal 1.

ie just move the guitar lead to the unused jack.

Ok so it's not that then because it definitely isn't a dull tone. 

Jim54

It looks like you're going into the normal high then jumperibg to the treble high, and the also having the treble loudness set higher than the normal loudness.  I wouldn't expect this to be dull.

ICBM

Yes, sorry - I was thinking it was the other way up because it's the opposite end from how it would be in a head. It's plugged into Normal high, and Normal low is linked to High Treble High.

You will still get a *slightly* brighter tone the other way round - guitar into High Treble high, and link High Treble low to Normal high.

soma1975

I've tested every permutation and this sounded best for my setup with enough bite but also being able to bring some fullness back in.