Getting the most out of a Tweed amp

Moltisanti

I recently picked up a MJW tweed in a trade, it's very cool sounding but a totally different sound and feel than i'm used to.

I'm curious to hear how people use Tweed style amps in the real world.

I know Joe Bonamassa ditched all the pedals and fx except one boost and a wah, and he has his running hot and dirty backing off the guitar volume to clean up.

Do you run your tweed clean (ish) with pedals on top ? or balls out roaring using the guitar to control it ?

Gassage

Turn everything to 10, control off guitar.

professorben

Gassage said:

Turn everything to 10, control off guitar.

Might need a noise gate brah 

shaunm

I used to have the tone at 3 o'clock and he gain to about the same (depending on guitar). Fat setting on and whack the volume up to 1-2 o'clock.  

After that I'd never touch the amp, use the guitar controls for everything. It's really responsive when used that way. I found myself using the volume and tone controls more than I ever had. 

57Deluxe

@Moltisanti This is a non-exact science. The Lazy Js are a minor circuit tweak on the 5e3 circuit to 'get more' but there are limiting factors with the overall 5e3 design.

First: The Cab. The size is great for portability but the nature of the circuit/tube config means that you get a very flubby sound from it in addition to the infamous baffle rattle at full bore.

This brings in the second limiting component - The Speaker.

The traditional and earlier Jensens fitted  were NOT the Jensen P-12Q as in the latter Fenders but probably more likely  Jensen C-12Q. These allow for more 'girth' with your cleans but flub-out when pushed to the limit due to the immense sound pressure wave  - compressed further by the diminutive cab. You also hear this with the Champs. So, many aficionados install a Celestion Blue.

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Tansformers. Many of the original batches of The Deluxe were fitted with Heyboer Transformers. The switch to Mercury Magnetics option is a more recent phenomena. This though is another area to change the character of your Deluxe.

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In operation: Look at any player's control panel and it mostly always looks  set like this:

Input= Bright, Strat = Vol 4 Tone ~9  Les Paul= Vol 4 Tone 8.25(!)

However - I use mine like this for my best tones:

For Strat: = Jumper - Bright 1 into Normal 2 and guitar plugged into Normal 1, then turn down Normal vol so that it *only just* registers (~2.5) and set Bright Vol ~3-4. Tone 7-10. This to my ears is more edged but with still a bright tone.


 For Les Paul/Best Neil Young tone: Jumper + Tone 8.25 (ish!) vols both at 4

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Pedals:

You don't really need Reverb - just place the amp against a hard reflective surface and on an uncarpetted floor. A little Analogue Delay gives masses of 50's vibe though!

Not every drive pedal works as you'd hope as really the tone for these amps is in your guitar and fingers combination - But whoever put the broken MUM MULTI Ultra Metal in the goodie bag(!) then you need to know that it sounds exceptional into my Deluxe for liquid lead lines - is a perfect match & instant LazyJ - who'd have guessed!

My Panel:
http://i59.tinypic.com/i3s26o.jpg

Jota

Use both channels interactivity to get more headroom.
I've been using the second input of the bright channel, volume on 3 or 4, tone on 4 and the normal channel volume around 11 to get more headroom.
it's not a blackface kinda clean but it's pretty good.

victorludorum

Although @Moltinsanti's amp is called a Tweed, I think it's only for naming purposes as it has a 5E3 style preamp. The controls are different (Vol, Gain, Tone), so I don't think it's possible to do the same things as a 5E3 Deluxe, i.e. use both volumes to affect the tone. I have the same 'Tweed' Bantam, but the head version. I run this through a 5E3 deluxe style cabinet which helps cut down on the massive amounts of bass that it puts out. To me it doesn't sound like a Tweed Deluxe, and has more of a Marshally flavour. I guess this to do with the EL34 output section. I haven't run it at full bore, but it does a clean/breaking up tone that i like a lot: thick, but clear. I use a Celestion Blue too, so that probably helps a bit. I think @Moltinsanti's amp is a 2x10...

Moltisanti

thanks for the input fellas, the MJW I have is now for sale as I did a deal on a Lonestar and need to move the tweed to help fund it.
Will definitely re-visit the tweed sound in the future