Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

M

milkandmeat

New member
Just came in the mail, and It sounds pretty bad. I paly an LP with an 81. It's lifelss, cold, thin, grainy, buzzy etc, especially soling high up. I've messed with the eq for awhile, and changed the damping swithc, but nothing helps. This is the firts tube amp I've played, and I expected a lot more. Ultimately, I'm looking for metal tones and nothing more. My flextone got better metel tones (and my flex is awful). I'd make clips, but the cheap mic I have makes the amp sound completely different then it does right here. Not to mention the amp is insanely loud at idle. I expected it to be noisy, but not this bad. With the gain halfway and the volume at just 1, it's very loud. I messed with the polarity switch also, and it did nothing. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sending this amp back.

So my question now is what to get. I have a budget of about 500-600 max. That's not a lot I know. I'm just looking for something that I can get a smooth, somewhat warm tone from. The Metallica tone from the Load/Reload days would be ideal. I know I won't get that tone, but somethig similar hopefully. I'm thinking about getting a used 5150 212 off ebay. The thing is, I have nowhere that I can try amps, I have no good music stores near me.Would you guys buy a 5150 off ebay? They're kind of old so I'm kind of scared.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=187505&songID=3192316

That's from an fja modded 5150 combo, played with a bridge 707. That's pretty much the tone I would love to have, especially the soling at the end. Could I get similar tone from a stock 5150 with an emg 81?
 
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Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

Disappointed from the XXX? It was the first tube amp you've played!
As an ******* I would say the reason is you first played a "real" amp...
play at least a week with it and you're gonna like it (maybe)

the link doesn't work for me
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

ah just say you mean DSS3's clip... I really dig this clip too!! just wait til he joins...
*edit*
yeah and it's recorded + at least double tracking
 
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Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

Perhaps the tubes need replaced or the speaker needs worked in. I mean, I've never heard anything bad about the xxx, and I've read about many a mainstream speed/death metal band using them. From the reviews I've read and the clips I've heard, you should be able to NAIL every era of Metallica. Who knows, though. Quick question, though. How loud have you played it? Most tube amps need to be cranked a bit before the tubes saturate and you get your tone. I might just be way off, though. Sorry. Hope you get what you're looking for. Peace.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

speaker and maybe tubes need some break in time ... it's like a brand new set of strings...
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

The 5150 stock will get you damned near close, the 81 will make it a bit more trebly and clinical, like I mentioned on AIM. Otherwise, that's your basic 5150 tone. Yeah, its quad tracked, but that's just to compensate for transfering 4 12" speakers onto a set of desktop speakers for you all to listen to, via a mic ;).
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

the XXX should be able to get the tone you require. work with it.

germ
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

I've never been able to get anything more than decent sound out of it, it has to be the active eq I could never figure it out. Get a 5150, thats miles above the XXX. One word of advice is unlike many other amps, DONT boost the bass to ten. Try to keep the controls pretty balanced.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

lastwinj said:
the XXX should be able to get the tone you require. work with it.

germ
Click to expand...


Yeah, that's what I was also thinking. My friend Lord Alexander Boyd gets a tone better than mine, IMO, out of his XXX and trad. Mesa cab...


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=147856&songID=2668416


Remember that the ultra channel on that thing has an Active EQ, so start with everything at 2 or 3, and never go above 5 or 6.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

I think you get better tone out of your 5150, kinda sounds similar though.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

interesting point that someone brought up. the amp sells for about $950 on other site, except for MF.com where i got it "on sale" for 499. could there possibly be a reason that its so much cheaper?

and yeah, ive been messing with the eq for about 4 hours, and no dice. my flextone sounds like a dual rect compared to the xxx. and my flextone is very bad.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

milkandmeat said:
interesting point that someone brought up. the amp sells for about $950 on other site, except for MF.com where i got it "on sale" for 499. could there possibly be a reason that its so much cheaper?

and yeah, ive been messing with the eq for about 4 hours, and no dice. my flextone sounds like a dual rect compared to the xxx. and my flextone is very bad.
Click to expand...

Wierd the one I've played through was also on sale a few years ago. Hmm:reporter:
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

It's probably on sale because it wasn't selling as well as the larger 60 watt xxx combo. MF tends to do that with gear they have too much of... which is sometimes a good thing as you can score some sweet gear for cheap. I could be missing some, though. I think I'll read some other reviews on the xxx 40 efx. I'll see what other people are saying.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

well, im playing it low right now, but i cranked it up and it didnt make THAT much of a difference. it sounded better, but still not very good. will amps like this always sound ****ty at really low bedroom levels?
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

After glancing over the manual I am optimistic that there is a solution and that you wil get useable tone from that amp. At first I was worried that Peavey might have used a SS preamp in those and their marketing on that amp boasts an "all tube" power section but their preamp descriptions made me wonder. The manual lists 3 12ax7s though so that part is all good.

The other thing that sent up flags was the EXF prefix. Peavey, Crate and other makers have historically put effects into their lower end amps to make them sell better and to cover up marginal tone. Peaveys marketing for this amp statiing that this amp obviates (fancy word, huh) the need for pedals but its been my experience that DSP effects in an amp usually obviates the need for the amp itself. Once again, the 12ax7s and 6L6s ease my worries a bit.

Strip away all the extras and you have a 40 watt tube combo and thats not a bad starting point. The trick for you now is to figure out what all the buttons and knobs actually do to your tone and to dial in your tone. That amp has active tone stacks and EQing as well as quite a bit of preamp gain coupled with different boosts and shifts. You really need to remove or reduce alot of that gain at first and find the amps natural tone.

The harder you kick the bee hive, the louder the bees will buzz. Your amp is the same way. The more gain you add to your signal the more it will buzz. Graininess in your tone is most likely caused by you and your excitement over a new amp. "There is a button, push it - there is a knob, turn it" and make it go zoom thinking is common but often fatal to tone. With high gain amps less is often more and learning that is a hard lesson. Remember that all those active controls are meant for shaping your tone and with a 15 db boost available in multiple places you really have to go light on the controls or you will push your amp into ratty, harsh tones.

Instead of finding out how much torque that amp has, (I know thats why you bought it) try the opposite. Go to the clean channel and find out how warm and round you can make the tone. Set the tone controls to 12 oclock (no boost and no reduction), turn off any resonance, boosts, EQing or anything else that adds to the basic circuit. Your tone is too grainy now so find out what you can do with its most basic tone. From there you can turn one knob at a time and see its effect on the tone of the amp. Always return that knob to its original position before turning another and soon you'll see what some of the possibilities are.

From there start adding gain slowly and experiment getting a warm clip from the amp. This will sound like a warm, light crunch and will also sound more bluesy than metal. The distortion will increase the harder you play the guitar. Once again experiment with the controls one at a time to see how the amp responds.

Keep adding gain a little at a time and keep experimenting. As soon as your tone starts to get harsh find out why. That won't be easy as you have all sorts of control available but it will be easier doing it this way than it will be to turn everything on and to 10 and then start subtracting.
 
Re: Disappointed in XXX XXX Super 40 EFX Combo

This is the first tube amp you've had the chance to mess with and it's a fairly complicated amp. It's sort of like doing drivers training in a Lotus. Right now you are flooring it and running into brick walls. Ease off the amp and see what it's capable of before you try going balls to the wall.

My Marshall 2203 is pretty simple and for the most part its plug and play. It took me a bit of time to figure it out even though its a simple amp. My Mesa rack took me a couple of years to figure out to the point that dialing it in was intuitive and five years later I'm still tweaking my tone and finding killer new tones. Your amp is somewhere in between and it will take some time for you to figure it out. Your biggest problem is that your new amp has the capability to do many different tones well and you are looking blindly for one particular tone.

Before I forget, your amp will sound its best when it is reasonably loud and I am not a reasonable man. A lot of your depth and girth in tone will be lost when you are playing quietly because your power section is getting starved while your preamp is getting overworked. A 40 watt amp up in its power curve is going to piss somebody off. If no one has told you that you are too loud yet, you aren't giving that amp a fair shake. You need to apply some serious signal to the power tubes to get them cooking and sounding fat.

Tubes and speakers do need to break in and after 30-40 hours the amp should start to sweeten up for you but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't sound good right out of the box. At $499 you didn't take a major hit so invest the time and patients into getting every drop of tone from that amp.

It could be worse. My initial investment into my Mesa rack was close to $6500 and it took me two years to like my tone. Other people thought the amp was smokin' but I wasn't happy. The only thing that kept me from jumping off a bridge was the knowledge that other people made the same gear sound phenominal so I knew the tone was in there somewhere.

Do a little research and find a Peavey amp forum. Some one out there knows how to get tone from that amp and any shortcuts you can find to getting your tone will be helpful.
 
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