Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do
Technical/Info
First – there are various ways to slave – all have pros and cons. This is presented as if it is “the” way to do it. This showed a way to do it for a particular circumstance. And the video at one point contradicts itself (more on that later).
It would have been extremely informative to let listeners know that there are basically two ways to “slave” and amp. The preferred way (for modern use) is to run a preamp-out to a post preamp in. You do this to use one preamp tone and the slave amps power section.
Why? You preserve the tone of the preamp by by-passing the first amps tone stack/controls.
Some uses: Taking a mega-loud head, and running it into a small combo for your apartment or a small club. Taking a tiny amp and running it into a mega amp for a large venue.
Another way is to run out of a first amp and directly into the front of another amp. The issue here is that you impact the tone of the first amp because you hit all of the preamp impact of the second. The bonus is you can do this without effect loops.
A reason this was often done was to cascade Gain stages. Example: Mid gain Marshall into mid gain Marshall = 60’s hot rod Marshall!
This vid only presented an old Marshall into an old little Fender, as if it was the only way, or best way. It needed some contect.
Comments on the Hotplate: States that the tone is messed up going through the Hotplate because the Hotplate impacts the tone. Tone is in the ear of the beholder. The compression added by that Hotplate would be excellent for say early VH or Boston tones. State the impact, not the opinion, or state that you have an opinion. Meanwhile – the Fender ALSO impacts the tone – obviously in a way that the author likes.
Stating that there is a product that is different than the Hotplate was excellent. Many may not know these exist.
The author then states, regarding going into the Fender “Either way it will sound great” Opinion – no it won’t. There are absolutely Amp/Slave combos that will sound crap. And some Fenders will crisp/bright/brittle up an otherwise sweet fat tone. Clean Fender “RE-amps” in the notes - yes it does, setting a Flat eq is important and should have been in other than a callout box.
The delay/verb note for an Old Marshall was really good info. This is a great reason to do this. The Speaker Load issue should have been really emphasized too. That’s critical when dealing with old amps.
Now – WTF were the sound clips. I couldn’t tell jack about what the impact of all of this was. Here is what would have been great to hear:
1. Marshall through a stack as a base tone
2. Marshall through Hotplate at low and high attenuation just to see what OP was talking about
3. An AB of Marshall on it’s own (at sensible level for comparison) and Marshall through the Fender – with EQ set to be as close as possible.
4. Marshall Hot plated vs Marshall Slaved to Fender would have been nice too.
Finally – here is a REAL problem I had. After all of that how to use your Marshall – the Author puts a preamp in the FX chain!!! SO we have: Marshall Head, Preamp, Fender Tone Stack. I do not believe this sounds at all like the original cranked Marshall – not that we heard it.
So yes – this does do a fantastic job of showing you how to
a) Take a non-loop Loud head
b) Put it into the front of a non-loop small combo
c) Add an fx loop
What would have been awesome would have been also showing how to do that into an FX loop to really preserve the sound.
It would have also been really informative to explain how the amp could have a pre-stack out, a post stack out, or a pre speaker out (which would capture output tune glory as well, if you are into that – and that each could be a little different.
A head with an FX loop (or dedicated Slave out) into a Power amp in on another amp, is a very different thing than a Speaker out to a amp input. None of that was covered at all.
But – you did learn one way to do this. But it isn’t the only way, the best way, or informative enough for me to make an informed decision on it.
LLL – not hating on you personally. A lot of people throw up random clips of tiny little slices of information. This is just a very recent example of it. As Bruce said in the earlier thread – you turned the Marshall into a Dark Matter. Pretty much. And a lot of info was left out about how NOT to do that! Like Marshall into a combo with an FX loop and the Suhr box. THAT would have been an awesome show – how the Hotplate cranked the front is different than the Suhr box into the loop!
