Would Someone Please Give Me A Biref Tutorial On...

Steve Feldman · From: Central MA USA

...tube amp overdrive/distortion?...(or spelling?)...

I have a 40w Fender Blues DeLuxe and a Tele (stock pickups)...and I apparently can't use either...but I HAVE managed to get a nice, sweet-sounding, mild, bluesy overdrive by fiddling around with the dials. My settings:

- 'drive' knob set to ~1:00
- master volume at ~9:00
- bass ~12:00
- treble ~11:00 to 1:00
- mids ~9:00 (I guess you don't need any more mids with the Tele...)
- presence ~3:00

Question: what is the drive knob doing? Does this saturate the preamp or the power amp tubes? And then does the master volume just do the overall volume as the name suggests?

Thanks a bunch for any info and suggestions on how to tweak this setup for either the Tele or a rack system for steel.

[This message was edited by Steve Feldman on 15 February 2001 at 11:14 AM.]

Joe E · From: Houston Texas

I'll give a non tech discription.

The Drive knob is were you will develope the distortion overdiriving the pre-amp. The master volume is used to adjust the output of the power amp.

With the Master all the up and drive down, you will be as clean as posible. With the Drive all the way up and master down you will be as distorted as posible. Most people find a happy medium.

I find that the mids have the greatest coloration to the saturation. By either increasing or decreasing them.

Scott Swartz · From: St. Louis, MO

The drive control is only affecting the preamp saturation, and the master is essentially a volume control at the end of the distortion channel in the preamp. This allows you to balance the relative volume of the clean and distortion channels. If the master is set low, you will get preamp only distortion, but if the master is cranked up, the signal into the phase inverter and power tubes will be high enough that they distort also.

You can find a schematic for this amp at:
http://blueguitar.org/

Look in the schematics section.

Steve Feldman · From: Central MA USA

Thanks guys. That helps a lot.

Dan Tyack · From: Olympia, WA USA

Steve:

Three words: THD Hot Plate

With a tube amp, you have two choices. Turn it up to sound good, or get an attenuator (the THD Hot Plate is unquestionably the best in the biz, check out Brent Mason's rack, he has two of them). The only way to drive the power tubes is to drive them. Without an attenuator, this means loud. Or very loud.

IMHO preamp distortion (with tubes or modeling) is ok, but really no better than what you would get with a good analog distortion stomp box like the FullTone unit. Where it is at with tube amps is driving the power amp. This is where you get the presence and complexity.

They aren't cheap (probably cost as much as your amp), but the Hot Plate will be one of the best sonic investments you will ever make.

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www.tyacktunes.com

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