Amps without a "Mids" pot?
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Davey
Goliath of Tone
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
yes it can be used.. but not in the same manner as a Mid knob ON the actual amp, as that one influences the whole amp and it's stages, whereas the EQ pedal will accentuate your sound. not a bad thing at all, but it's not the same as a mid knob.
yes it can be used.. but not in the same manner as a Mid knob ON the actual amp, as that one influences the whole amp and it's stages, whereas the EQ pedal will accentuate your sound. not a bad thing at all, but it's not the same as a mid knob.
F
Falstaff
Guest
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
Depending on the amp, you can just add a mid pot (lots of people do that to old Fenders, often in the ext speaker jack).
Depending on the amp, you can just add a mid pot (lots of people do that to old Fenders, often in the ext speaker jack).
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
Yeah, the pot just takes the place of a preset resistor in the amp;however if the amp has a baxandall eq, you get more tonal versatility than a fender,vox, or marshall tone stack is capable of... The early feander's had baxandall eqs in some of them, and as a result could get a true mid boost.
You have to see a schematic of the amp to know what circuit it has, a lot of boutique amps with two controls are going back to the baxandall tone stacks.
Also, when you change that mid resistor, or turn up the mid control, you are also turning up the bass and treble as well. The FV&M style can't actually get the mids louder than the treble, or cut the treble lower than the mids.
Falstaff said:
Yeah, the pot just takes the place of a preset resistor in the amp;however if the amp has a baxandall eq, you get more tonal versatility than a fender,vox, or marshall tone stack is capable of... The early feander's had baxandall eqs in some of them, and as a result could get a true mid boost.
You have to see a schematic of the amp to know what circuit it has, a lot of boutique amps with two controls are going back to the baxandall tone stacks.
Also, when you change that mid resistor, or turn up the mid control, you are also turning up the bass and treble as well. The FV&M style can't actually get the mids louder than the treble, or cut the treble lower than the mids.
Bluesman75
New member
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
I don't think a mid pot is even necessary. I've got a mid 70's Deluxe Reverb that has no mid pot and I've never missed it. I've owned it for 16 years and it has always sounded fantastic with any guitar I play through it.
I don't think a mid pot is even necessary. I've got a mid 70's Deluxe Reverb that has no mid pot and I've never missed it. I've owned it for 16 years and it has always sounded fantastic with any guitar I play through it.
Hot _Grits
Buttery Toneologist
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
The tone stacks on Pre-blackface fender circuits generally tend to have more midrange push than blackface amps, though if you're looking to scoop, usually reducing the treble control will get you where you need to go. If I want to try and impersonate an 80s metal tone with my non-mid control vibrolux, I tend to drop the treble to 1 or 2, and get some presence from my G2D classic pedal, which is a plexi simulator.
personally, I've never met an eq that didn't emasculate the tone of a tube amp.
By the way, EVH once said that his favorite tone was the tweed champ he used as his living room practice amp. And that thing has one tone knob...
The tone stacks on Pre-blackface fender circuits generally tend to have more midrange push than blackface amps, though if you're looking to scoop, usually reducing the treble control will get you where you need to go. If I want to try and impersonate an 80s metal tone with my non-mid control vibrolux, I tend to drop the treble to 1 or 2, and get some presence from my G2D classic pedal, which is a plexi simulator.
personally, I've never met an eq that didn't emasculate the tone of a tube amp.
By the way, EVH once said that his favorite tone was the tweed champ he used as his living room practice amp. And that thing has one tone knob...
Luke Duke
PRSlustologist
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
I know alot of two knob amp designs have dual gang pots too that increase mids or presence or both. Also remember that vox's AC-30s had no mids control but always had a very prominent mid hump. Dr. Z has had good luck with the same fool-proof interface as the old fenders. A lot of those old amps also had non-negative feedback loops I think. (for whatever it's worth) Don't get me lying about what that means the true electricity gurus around here can tell you what that means.
Luke
I know alot of two knob amp designs have dual gang pots too that increase mids or presence or both. Also remember that vox's AC-30s had no mids control but always had a very prominent mid hump. Dr. Z has had good luck with the same fool-proof interface as the old fenders. A lot of those old amps also had non-negative feedback loops I think. (for whatever it's worth) Don't get me lying about what that means the true electricity gurus around here can tell you what that means.
Luke
Hot _Grits
Buttery Toneologist
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
I can't tell you what a negative feedback loop does, but I can tell you about what it sounds like. My vibrolux was designed by Bruce Zinky to sound raw and overdrive ealy, and one of the main tweaks was to remove the negative feedback loop.
I needed more headroom, so I had one installed, and made it switchable. With the loop out, the amp crunches up earlier, and has a slightly more present, raw tone through the mids and highs. With it in, the amp stays cleaner longer, and sounds a bit more restrained. It's a very cool mod.
I can't tell you what a negative feedback loop does, but I can tell you about what it sounds like. My vibrolux was designed by Bruce Zinky to sound raw and overdrive ealy, and one of the main tweaks was to remove the negative feedback loop.
I needed more headroom, so I had one installed, and made it switchable. With the loop out, the amp crunches up earlier, and has a slightly more present, raw tone through the mids and highs. With it in, the amp stays cleaner longer, and sounds a bit more restrained. It's a very cool mod.
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
And those have a BMP style tone stack, the tone gors completely thru them as well ... may be one knob, but it two circuits.
If you are referring to the same type of tone stack, then most had a 6k8 or 4k7 resistor there, most mid controls added later were 10k to 25k (25k showed up in some regardless of what fender said) ... the mid control allows you to scoop the mids more, or raise the overall level of the system ... the gain cut you mentioned is a result of *where* Fender put the tone stack ... not the tone stack itself ...Hot _Grits said:
And those have a BMP style tone stack, the tone gors completely thru them as well ... may be one knob, but it two circuits.
Re: Amps without a "Mids" pot?
The true reason for negative feedback is to compensate for the rise in higher frequencies that happen because the transformer's impedance ... although people quickly learned that by using one cap value and variable resistance (via a pot) the presence control was born. Yes the do effect the way the power amp reacts and compresses ... In that light they are a cooler form of EQ than just sticking a latter eq stage somewhere later in the preamp (like some modern amps do and call it presence).
Hot _Grits said:
The true reason for negative feedback is to compensate for the rise in higher frequencies that happen because the transformer's impedance ... although people quickly learned that by using one cap value and variable resistance (via a pot) the presence control was born. Yes the do effect the way the power amp reacts and compresses ... In that light they are a cooler form of EQ than just sticking a latter eq stage somewhere later in the preamp (like some modern amps do and call it presence).
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