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It is at the right price point for a lot of people and it sounds acceptable to good most of the time.
Clean channel volume taper is weird (2 is louder than most people can use) and a lot of people don't like the drive.
I think the FX loop sucks as well.
40w is too loud for most gigs these days too.
I like using a Zendrive or SOV2 with it myself.
I find the more 'transparent' drives don't do it any favours.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
The clean channel is lovely but I found the drive channels utterly unusable.
Is a Vox AC not on your radar?
That’ll sort it for you.
I had the same thing with a HR Deville 4x10. Nothing, nothing, full volume with a hollow Gretsch screaming....
Permanently damaged the hearing in my right ear. Sold it sharpish...
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
fender wise I prefer the deluxe reverb to the hot rod.
You just have to be careful how you dial it in. I don't find the taper that bad, you just have to move it by a small fraction of a turn - which is actually quite easy, because the knobs are chickenheads. I can get a good low volume sound out of them...
That said Danny1969's Lion Tamer is a superb piece of kit which makes it a total piece of cake.
I can also get perfectly usable sounds on both the Drive and More Drive channels, although More is a bit too compressed really. Keep the drive control below halfway (preferably below about 4), dial the EQ in for the Drive not the clean (which can take care of itself), bright switch on the clean channel, presence quite low, and there's nothing wrong with it at all... as long as you don't expect it to sound like a Marshall or a Mesa.
Er... no. Or not unless you mean pushing a Lion Tamer into the FX loop jacks .
Changing the pots requires soldering, and taking the main board out which can be tricky if you haven't done one before - and it doesn't achieve that much anyway. If you really can't get it to dial in at the volume you need, the Lion Tamer is the answer.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Any tips in the meantime are most welcome though.
I actually find them quite similar though - maybe it's the type of guitars we use...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I do actually quite like the dirt channel for the same reasons you do, but for general use I'd prefer it to be exactly like the clean except with a little hair.
I'll study the schematic and see if it's feasible and exactly why they're EQ-ed differently.
The "Dirt Chanel" is fed from the same input stage as Clean via a separate volume control which is fed via a very small Capacitor (0.0015 uF) (1.5nF). This trims the bass response significantly which in my experience means that you can't match the basic tone of both channels. As I said in another thread, I have modified mine to increase the value of this capacitor to 0.0033 uF (3.3nF), this is still a little bass light compared to clean channel but helps with the tonal balance between Clean and Dirty. I'd say that "parity" between both channels would involve something like 6.8nF.....roughly.
There is also a low pass filter on the Drive Level Control, this cuts high end "post distortion" - I have removed mine completely (just clipped the ceramic capacitor leads). This also helps to equalise the tonal response between Clean and Dirty but would no doubt start to sound very rough if you drive that channel hard. With lower gain "grit" it's fine.
For me Blues Deluxe >>> Hot Rod. Although the Hot Rod is OK.
A better option is to look for a second hand Custom Vibrolux Reverb - either the current 'reissue' (yeah I know it's not really a Vibrolux') or the older made in USA Blackface styled ones. Plenty loud enough at 35W, but a bit more refined and 'classic Fender' than the others.
But it's not a home amp. I have a Carr Mercury for home use and keep it on 1/2 watt setting, which sounds amazing.
This!
I got to thinking about what I really wanted, which was great, Fendery cleans, a little grunt if needed, basically my Renegade, only in a back-friendly format.
It's a Tweaker 40 - so far, it sounds really good. I think that the "Tweaker" title is a misnomer; it's not a complicated amp at all, more like a Fender-type loud combo with several switchable EQ stages. For my tastes, it's going to be about setting it how I think it'll sound good and pretty much leaving it there. And it's pretty dang loud!
Still playing with it - it's a little boxy on some settings when compared with my Renegade, but it's a 1x12 so I'd kinda expect that. But there's definitely a shared heritage with that amp, it does sound remarkably similar in some respects, which is great because my Renegade is awesome.
Thanks for the help and advice, guys.
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72424/