Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

[Lewguitar]

Went Sunday to hear some friends from Milwaukee play and the guitarist was playing a 52 Tele RI and a PRS with humbuckers through the new Satriani head and a 4x12 Marshall bottem. Sounded really good to me for 80's rock stuff but not quite perfect for the blues and R&B things they did.

They did some Journey and the guitarist got very close to those guitar tones without having to use an outboard overdrive. I'm not a huge Journey fan (I like Steve Perry but always thought they were a little commercial sounding...) but they did a nice job on Anyway You Want It.

I thought his tone was great (nice soaring 80's lead tone) when the amp was cranked for those 80's guitar god tones but sounded thin and to clean or thin and a little to buzzy when he soloed on jazz, R&B and blues tunes...songs with no overdrive or with a modest amount of overdrive for the guitar solos but not super overdriven.

So I'd say what I heard was a nice amp for 80's and heavy rock tones but at least the way this guy played, the clean and slightly overdriven tones left a little something to be desired.



Lew

 

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Did he scoop mids?

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

All modern amps has that "thin" quality that Lew describes.
Take some old Marshall SLP1959 and a 2204 JCM something....the latter is all midrange, almost no bottomend, more mellow top, less huge and more gainy!
The old amp....well you turn down the lows, you blend the bright with normal, you have a huge big uppermid fat wooden tone, got enough airy present highs, it is just more there, and it is oblivious to what ever you put in front of it...it roars!
Same with most other stuff, Fenders, Vox'es, Hiwatts...etc etc.
Very few modern amps has that same thing a vintage 60's amp has, only very few makes amps that resemble that tone!
The craving for overdrive/distortion has thinned out the sound, because nobody could control the lowend, it would flub out for most players.
Alot have tried to control and old Marshall or Tweed Fender, it is not for the majority to play on these things!
Same with old guitars, especially Gibson, those 50's and early and middle 60's ones....nobody knows how they sound anymore...they think that a modern day LP is about the same....well to me there is a enormeous difference.
As for scooping mids...in reality it cannot be done
Guitars is nothing but mids
You can onlu balance out the lower with the upper, and then have an amp with enough juice to provide that extra fat it needs, not very many amps has those huge old powersupplies of old times, or the lowgain for the clarity and body.
Modern stuff is compressed, overly tight(read small) gainy, well some sounds good, but most is just...well modern.
Not dissing anything here, I am just pointing out the differences of oldschool and modern times!

Well in broad strokes as well....hehe so take it for what it is!
Niels

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

All modern amps has that "thin" quality that Lew describes.
Take some old Marshall SLP1959 and a 2204 JCM something....the latter is all midrange, almost no bottomend, more mellow top, less huge and more gainy!
The old amp....well you turn down the lows, you blend the bright with normal, you have a huge big uppermid fat wooden tone, got enough airy present highs, it is just more there, and it is oblivious to what ever you put in front of it...it roars!
Same with most other stuff, Fenders, Vox'es, Hiwatts...etc etc.
Very few modern amps has that same thing a vintage 60's amp has, only very few makes amps that resemble that tone!
The craving for overdrive/distortion has thinned out the sound, because nobody could control the lowend, it would flub out for most players.
Alot have tried to control and old Marshall or Tweed Fender, it is not for the majority to play on these things!
Same with old guitars, especially Gibson, those 50's and early and middle 60's ones....nobody knows how they sound anymore...they think that a modern day LP is about the same....well to me there is a enormeous difference.
As for scooping mids...in reality it cannot be done
Guitars is nothing but mids
You can onlu balance out the lower with the upper, and then have an amp with enough juice to provide that extra fat it needs, not very many amps has those huge old powersupplies of old times, or the lowgain for the clarity and body.
Modern stuff is compressed, overly tight(read small) gainy, well some sounds good, but most is just...well modern.
Not dissing anything here, I am just pointing out the differences of oldschool and modern times!

Well in broad strokes as well....hehe so take it for what it is!
Niels

All this to say: I'll take my blackface or tweed Fenders over any modern amp with tons of saturated sounding overdrive anyday...especially for R&B, Jazz and Blues! LOL!

That modern "bagful of angry bumble bees" tone just isn't for me...and it's such a cliche.

Not that this guy sounded like that...his tone was pretty good through the Peavey Satriani and reminded me alot of Neal Schoen - more so than the buzzy grind of an 18 year old trying to sound like his favorite heavy metal guitar god. LOL!


Lew

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Hehe yeah....
When I get tired of all the highpower amps we have at work....I plug into my AC 15/30 head, it is made of old parts from the 60's, I just knows that this amp just smokes them all......without tearing off my face in the process
Just had my friends brownface Bassman head over for some work....man...that thing was so damn sweet it almost hurts, next week I will log in hours with his 67 Plexi 1987 head...

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Hehe yeah....
When I get tired of all the highpower amps we have at work....I plug into my AC 15/30 head, it is made of old parts from the 60's, I just knows that this amp just smokes them all......without tearing off my face in the process
Just had my friends brownface Bassman head over for some work....man...that thing was so damn sweet it almost hurts, next week I will log in hours with his 67 Plexi 1987 head...

There ya go!

Not that I want one, but are there any amps that get that over the top distortion the kids love and also have the sparkle and clarity of a vintage Fender or Marshall?

You said they thin out the bass in modern high gain amps...is that done in the output section (smaller coupling caps maybe?) so that getting the fat, warm, yet sparkling clean tone of a vintage Fender or Marshall is impossible?

Lew

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Yeah they favour that funny almost there, but hidden behind the sound lowend,
they sacrifice the bloom for tightness, getting it all choked up in the process.
Well that is how it sounds to me anyways!
Some amps have damping that can be dialed in, I like that, especially if it can get that more oldstyle Marshall thing I like, there are some amps that keep that magical touch to them, there is some guy who makes kits for Marshall heads, I cannot remember his name right now, but I know someone who have one of those amps in his shop for a tryout!
I will get to him and find out what the name was of that amp!!

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Basically if all of your gain can be had at low volumes from the preamp,the amp sounds buzzy and horrible and I'm totally not into that! The trick is to have an amp with the early preamp and power stage setup like the early Marshalls,Fender.Hiwatt.etc....

I sold my Tremo-Verb head because it always sounded like "angry bees" with all those gain stages it had...

I Like having a nice full sounding clean amp setup that offers me nice clear noting and a full,round fat tone.From there I find some great sounding pedals to stick in front of it...

It was good enough for the guys I grew up listening to and so it still works for me also....

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Basically if all of your gain can be had at low volumes from the preamp,the amp sounds buzzy and horrible and I'm totally not into that! The trick is to have an amp with the early preamp and power stage setup like the early Marshalls,Fender.Hiwatt.etc....

I sold my Tremo-Verb head because it always sounded like "angry bees" with all those gain stages it had...

I Like having a nice full sounding clean amp setup that offers me nice clear noting and a full,round fat tone.From there I find some great sounding pedals to stick in front of it...

It was good enough for the guys I grew up listening to and so it still works for me also....

Me too. My '54 Tele through a cranked tweed Fender Deluxe, maybe goosed with a MIJ Boss DS-1, gets me into Led Zep I territory, and even though those tones are now FORTY YEARS OLD (gasp!) that's the heavy benchmark for me.

Couple of old farts...aren't we? LOL! Reminds me of 1964 and the older generation complaining about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and saying "That's not music...now listen to THIS (puts on some Lawrence Welk or Dean Martin) now THAT'S MUSIC."

Lew

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

There ya go!

Not that I want one, but are there any amps that get that over the top distortion the kids love and also have the sparkle and clarity of a vintage Fender or Marshall?

You said they thin out the bass in modern high gain amps...is that done in the output section (smaller coupling caps maybe?) so that getting the fat, warm, yet sparkling clean tone of a vintage Fender or Marshall is impossible?

Lew

Bogner. Like a roomful of classic amps packed into one.
The cleans are as good as a Fender or Matchless, the plexi will out-plexi a plexi, and the gain isn't a bag of angry bees, it's a sky darkened with arrows! :doh: :scared:

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Here's one of these Satriani Amps on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Peavey-JSX-Joe-...ryZ38076QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

120 watts! My goodness... I think the guy I heard must have had it cranked down to no more than a 20 or 30 watt volume at tops...no wonder his clean tones sounded a bit lacking.

Why do people buy 120 watt amps when the size and tastes of most venues won't let them use anywhere near that output?

I like my smaller amps cuz 95% of the time, they're perfect and all that's needed for the gigs I play.

Seems nutso to have an amp that's to loud for 95% of the gigs a guy plays!

Lew

 

[Mephis]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Here's one of these Satriani Amps on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Peavey-JSX-Joe-...ryZ38076QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

120 watts! My goodness... I think the guy I heard must have had it cranked down to no more than a 20 or 30 watt volume at tops...no wonder his clean tones sounded a bit lacking.

Why do people buy 120 watt amps when the size and tastes of most venues won't let them use anywhere near that output?

I like my smaller amps cuz 95% of the time, they're perfect and all that's needed for the gigs I play.

Seems nutso to have an amp that's to loud for 95% of the gigs we play!

Lew

Because the same amps aren't avilable in a smaller size most of the time.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Because the same amps aren't avilable in a smaller size most of the time.

Then it's the wrong amp to buy in the first place...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

I seems like almost every high amp these days comes in 2 sizes...to big and stupid big...Im not sure why but 100+ watts is the "norm" these days. The only thing I can think of is that they are trying to get it so you use the master and gain controls for ALL the crunch and then having 100+ watts still allows for a decent clean tone...

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

I think there's a real hole in the market for low wattage highgain channel switching amps.

Right now, most of the mid wattage amps are combos or heads with few features. I wish someone would make something like the new JVM Marshall with 4 EL-84's in it, and transformers that don't dish out as much volume.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

I think there's a real hole in the market for low wattage highgain channel switching amps.

Right now, most of the mid wattage amps are combos or heads with few features. I wish someone would make something like the new JVM Marshall with 4 EL-84's in it, and transformers that don't dish out as much volume.

I would agree with you on the low wattage high(er) gain amps however...I personally fell that an amp with 4 EL84's is still too much power for most people to really get cooking and I am also of the opinion that the world needs another EL84 powered buzz bix like I need a hole in my head!

You can run 2 EL34's or 6L6's for as low as 20 watts or it could be done with 6V6's...Im just so bruned out on EL84 amps I could throw up but all that said a nice high gain low wattage amp woudl be a great thing for some guys...however even a 20-30 watt amp can be far too loud on top of a 4x12 cab!

 

[JustWendell]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

Originally Posted by Gearjoneser
Bogner. Like a roomful of classic amps packed into one.
The cleans are as good as a Fender or Matchless, the plexi will out-plexi a plexi, and the gain isn't a bag of angry bees, it's a sky darkened with arrows!

i hope to someday enjoy playing in the shade:headbang:

Originally Posted by Gearjoneser View Post
I think there's a real hole in the market for low wattage highgain channel switching amps.

hopefully scott will fix this with his new creation

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

I would agree with you on the low wattage high(er) gain amps however...I personally fell that an amp with 4 EL84's is still too much power for most people to really get cooking and I am also of the opinion that the world needs another EL84 powered buzz bix like I need a hole in my head!

You can run 2 EL34's or 6L6's for as low as 20 watts or it could be done with 6V6's...Im just so bruned out on EL84 amps I could throw up but all that said a nice high gain low wattage amp woudl be a great thing for some guys...however even a 20-30 watt amp can be far too loud on top of a 4x12 cab!

I keep coming back to two 6L6's or two 6V6's.

Loved my Matchless SC-30 with four EL-84's...but now never play it.

Loved my Matchless Chieftan with EL-34's...but now never play it.

Loved my '70 Marshall 50 watt with two EL-34's...but sold it. Guess why? Yep: I never played it.

I play my tweed Fender Super with two 6L6's and my Fender Deluxe and Deluxe Reverb amps with two 6V6's...for me, those tubes are where it's at.

Anything else I might like at first but eventually I get tired of.

 

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

I know, I know, you people are gonna roll your eyes, but I really do think, tha my Laney AOR 50MV Pro-Tube is the best of both worlds, I can get that bottom you are talking about and high-gain with my bass pull-boosted and it has that EL34 cream of course. As far as the cleans its cleans just rip a JCM800 a new one, problem is no channel switching, either or. What I met by asking if the dude's mids were scooped was that may be he turned down his mids way down for the 80s stuff and kept it there even during the bluesy stuff, and that's why his blues sounded kaka. Rid, do you think something like Laney Supergroup can tweaked for today's say ... eurometal and still have that vintage sonic pallet that you beleave amps from the 80s and on lack?

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Heard the Peavey Satriani amp the other night...

I keep coming back to two 6L6's or two 6V6's.

Loved my Matchless SC-30 with four EL-84's...but now never play it.

Loved my Matchless Chieftan with EL-34's...but now never play it.

Loved my '70 Marshall 50 watt with two EL-34's...but sold it. Guess why? Yep: I never played it.

I play my tweed Fender Super with two 6L6's and my Fender Deluxe and Deluxe Reverb amps with two 6V6's...for me, those tubes are where it's at.

Anything else I might like at first but eventually I get tired of.

I play through my 50 watt Marshall on about 3 to 4 all night and set for Fender clean type tone,then I'm forced to use pedals to get the overdrive/distortion tones in the venues we play at...Kind of a compromise,but that's the unfortunate compromise!

One of the reasons the Valvetronix amp has worked for me,is the built in attenuator on the back of the amp....I get decent tone and still have control over the volume...

Having a 100 watt Soldano or the JSX amp w/o some way of taming down that power is crazy....It would be nice to be able to crank the sucker up,but also have a built in attenuator to dial the power back for realistic and real life gigging situations!

If you mic your amp out to the mix,you can easily get away with a smaller amp w/on stage monitors etc..