Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

[Spirit of 76]

Wanted to hear everyone's suggestions on the ideal bass, mid and treble amp settings for generating classic rock tones.

What have you tried and which band did it most sound like?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

It’s difficult to answer this for a single amp, let alone for anything remotely approaching an across the board comment. Not to mention, Classic Rock can range from ultra clean through to saturated leads.

If you had to generalize, I’d say treat the gain and volume controls as tone controls as well. The volume is higher than you think and the gain is lower, the treble and mids are higher than you think and the bass is lower. Of course the best thing is to use your ears. Most amps have a “sweet spot” where they come into their own. We treat amps like stereos “just a bit more bass, and less treble”, but the tone controls are interactive to the gain staging of the amp. Getting the treble control up usually increases crunchy breakup, not just increases treble.

What amp and guitar are you using and what tones are you looking for?

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

My Blackstar combo sounds different, if the OD channel's channel volume is set high (and master low)
or the other way around...

I think it sounds the best with the channel volume cranked. This does it make not match up with the clean channel, (which overdrives when turning up the volume)

I'd say, just turn the knobs and find your sound. I personally prefer a midrange rich sound, with a smooth treble, and not too much bass.

 

[Spirit of 76]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Using an Orange 20RT and a Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker through a Epiphone Les Paul Classic (currently getting a set of Whole Lotta Humbuckers installed).

I see a lot of people talking about upping mids, and have done that with some success, but something still seems off. Of course any settings will need a tweak once I have the new pickups in.

Really like the sound from Bad Company or at least something similar.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Just learn how to play really well.

You'll find your amp settings along the way.

But I will say that for classic rock (50's, 60's, 70's) most younger players use way, WAY to much buzzy sounding overdrive.

IMO.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

A Fender-based and Marshall-based amp will have different EQ settings. You might be able to answer this with a very specific rig (Les Paul + Plexi! Tele + Deluxe!) but in general, that would be a hard question to answer.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Start by diming everything, then just roll back the bits that sound bad. If you want to play classic rock, you have to start by thinking like classic rock.

 

[Condemnedsoul]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

WLH is a great choice for the LP and deserves a good signal chain.


As a current Orange Crush [ CR60 ] owner, my amp didn't survive the honeymoon without a speaker change. It didn't take long for me to realize the amp sounded like it had a comforter covering it. So I swapped out the speaker with the Emmence version of a V30. The speaker swap opened up both the clean and OD channels [ note clarity, note separation, overall tone, I discovered that the clean channel has a nice soft breakup as I turned up the gain, and the OD channel is now something that I use quite often. ]


I would like to make a suggestion.
Is there is any chance you are going to keep this amp around for awhile?

If you are not sure or going with a maybe ... Please consider upgrading the speaker. This upgrade will let you hear what your guitar is actually doing.


There are very few 8"guitar amp speakers.

https://www.eminence.com/guitar-bass/patriot-series/


https://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=820H

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...inch-20-watt-replacement-guitar-speaker-4-ohm



https://wgsusa.com/8-g8c-20-watts

https://celestion.com/product/8/eight_15/


and LEWGUITAR speaks the truth: Learn, practice, play ..... and you'll find your sounds along the way.

 

[Spirit of 76]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Yes, I just got it in March so keeping it for a while. I have been playing on an old Peavey Rage 108 from from the early 90s so it was a upgrade for me. I liked it because it had a built-in LED tuner and the price was decent.

It doesn't sound bad but I will check out those speaker options though. Thanks for suggesting.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

So many amps have different settings for the same thing.

My Mesa: Most stuff stays right around 5, occasionally I'll LOWER the treble
My Hughes & Kettner: treble on7/8, mids maybe 67
My Peavey: Bass 3, Mids 2 Treble 6/7


You just need to spend the time. And of course, in the mix vs solo is different too.

In the mix, less bass, more mids.

But...if you want a few key sounds, fine:

Bass, Mid, Treble:

Try 7/3/7 for a classic thump a scream, with less mids for thickness. Also good for clean!
Try 3/7/7 for crunchy raunch
Try 3/5/7 a cutting rock sound with high gain
Try 6/8/4 for a fat punchy bluesy sound
Try 7/8/4 for jazz on clean

My comment: Spend the time and learn how to play the AMP. 80% of you sound is gonna be from there anyway. Learn how much gain to use. It's almost always less. Learn how the mids change the sound. Figure out how the highs impact your guitar.

Mid example. Learn a song, play with 5/2/6 with a decent amnounbt of gain, play along with stereo. Then play the same thing again with 5/6/6 and see the different about how the guitar stands out.

 

[beaubrummels]

Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Here's some settings I've tried. None of them are your Orange 20, but you asked about bass, middle, treble, so here you are and good luck translating. I post this because you'll notice different guitars require different setings to sound similar with the same amp, and different amps require different settings with the same guitar to sound similar.

The Emery sounds like a Marshall on the edge of breakup, using an actual Tesla EL34 from my Marshall SL-X
The Wallace is handwired Marshall Plexi heaven - pick your guitar hero, this sounds like it
The HiWatt is Pete Townshend clean to breakup a la '67 Who Sell Out to '69 Tommy era
The SuperReverb is slide blues and Pete Townshend Who's Next type break up

This is for an SG with P90s. Bass rolled off is like a Marshall. Dime the bass and it's Black Sabbath.

This is for a vintage Strat. Notice the difference in presence and gain.

This is for a vintage Strat

This is for an SG with 498/490, everything hard rock from 1970 - 1990

This is for an SG with 498/490 set to sound similar to a Marshall

This is as loud as I can make it before I have to leave the room

The top AC30 sounds lilke early Beatle recordings, the bottom AC30 sounds like everything in the 1960's through U2

Now, armed with all that information, what should an Orange 20 be set to?

I learned a great lesson in the studio once. I was given the opportunity to play through a famous guitarist's Marshall. I leaned over to memorize the knob settings and the engineer waved me off and said, "Don't memorize the settings, memorize the sound. Your amp has different tubes and different circuitry and sounds different. Memorize that sound, then go figure out for yourself what knobs to turn on your amp to get that sound."

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Nice amps, man!

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Best amp settings are found by ear, not by numbers.

 

[playas]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

The post above about using your ears is highly important.

Bearing in mind you're starting out with an lp straight through an Orange (I'm not familiar with individual models of either and I wouldn't use anything else unless you think it actively adds something) I'd try starting from baseline of having the gain a bit less then you think is what they were using playing also with the volume, and treble bass and mids all rolled back to zero, then slowly crank the mids until you think you are close, add potentially plenty of bass.

At this stage I'd hope you're getting reasonably close, adjust treble to taste and once you're close then play with the gain & volume again to make final adjustments, bearing in mind it may need more or conceivably less gain than you think.

If you're playing through an 8" speaker I doubt you'll get the bass sounding like you want, but hopefully good enough to make you happy.

Bear in mind that I'm not an expert and this is how I would approach it, based on a quick listen back to Bad Company and Shooting Star based on the crunchy rhythm tones i.e. it's opinion. Most importantly, use you ears to judge.

HTH

Sent from my Redmi Note 8 using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

The interesting thing is that a basic classic rock sound is pretty lo-fi. Plug in a great guitar into a great amp and turn the knobs until they sound good. The rest is just recording technique for the original albums. But it started with a great sound.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

I think the "think like classic rock" is spot on.

But in the end - every amp, every song is different. You have to learn the amp and use your ears.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

Best amp settings are found by ear, not by numbers.

Agreed . . . with one caveat. Don't start messing with your amp settings after a two hour gig at high volume. You need to set everything up at the volume you're going to play at . . . but while your ears are fresh.

 

[Diego]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

EQ settings don't matter for sweet old school tones if you're using a Randall Satan or something.

First get your gear right, then EQ settings won't matter as much. My friend's Vox AC15 sounds like classic rock no matter what EQ you use.

Also, classic rock was loud as balls. So crank your **** up.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

There's some great advice in here and pretty illuminating around the different amps!

My ideal classic rock sound is beefy mids and just a tad loose in the low end, with raspy highs when pushed. Guitar volume on 6-7 I have a round and sparkly dynamic clean, vol on 10 is a good mid-gain lead sound

My main amp is my Mesa so before I reach for the Graphic EQ, I am happy on Ch 2 with drive pushed in at 8, tone at 2/6/8 and presence shift pulled. Through 2x12 speakers this is great! Through anything less than a 12" speaker I don't think I'd be as happy. But this is totally based off this amp's qualities.

So what do you prefer OP? Are you in the bassy camp or the tight high cutting camp?

Sent from my SM-N975W using Tapatalk

 

[Spirit of 76]

Re: Best Amp Settings for Classic Rock?

All excellent feedback, thanks everyone.

Soon as I get my guitar back from the shop will be having some fun with all this