Re: How do I make a Blackstar Series One 100 sound decent?
When I say decent I just mean that I've heard a few okay clips on youtube but I haven't heard any by really good players, or players with tone that impressed me. I never said it couldn't do those tones, in fact I'm looking for ways that will help me achieve a better tone on it. A good start would be showing me some examples where it sounds great so I can get a feel for the potential of the amp.
Well settings are you using for basic clean and overdriven sounds? What kind of guitar, pickups, pedals are you using? I have several suggestions depending on those things. Series One amps are pretty sensitive to external factors like any good boutique amp. Cheap cables will dull the treble response and be noisier, high output humbuckers will drive the amp and might attenuate the treble a little, pedals might cut some of the bass in order to keep things tight while adding mids at the same time, etc... That's one thing. The other thing are your basic sound settings which kind of revolve around two things. First, the volume you play at dictates how much DPR you use. If you're at home then the DPR has to be all the way up pretty much, but as you open up the volume, you lower the DPR in degrees. It's very rare that you're going to use the full power of that head for the usual club and bar gigs so you might always have the DPR set 1/2 to 1/3 when it's loud. You have to play with the DPR control and listen to how it works the valves so you can find a few combinations of DPR/vol. for the loudness levels you play at.
The second thing is the ISF control. Counter-clockwise sort of gives you a basic Mesa Boogie type sound which is a bassier with brighter top end, clockwise goes to a warmer British tone with a lot more mids and a little darker overall. The ISF doesn't really affect the tone controls, and pretty much all it does is affect the frequency range that the tone knobs control. All the way counter-clockwise makes a V curve in the EQ which has bigger bass and higher treble. At 12:00, the ISF resembles a fairly balanced EQ which is a more subtle V curve. At this setting it has a more balanced low end, a little less treble and a little more high mids, but there is still a bit of a V right in the middle. Turn the ISF clockwise to 3:00 and the mids peak in the middle and low mids and the treble warms up. All the way clockwise is a very low midrange based sound.
I personally prefer the British (clockwise) side of the ISF. Once you turn it to the right though, you have to adjust the presence and treble to bring out more sparkle. The tone controls are interactive so when you increase the treble and presence (I think the treble is kind of the strongest interaction in the tone network), it kind of lays back the bass and low mids a bit, calls a bit of attention to the high mids, and thus you move into Marshall territory.
The key is finding a workable range of the ISF that's generally where you like it. My personal ISF range is from about 1:00 to 4:00 ISF, but it depends on what kind of gear I'm running through it and what kind of speakers I'm using. It works like this:
* Essentially you dwell around where you generally prefer the ISF.
* Then you adjust it to the gear you are using. For instance, if you like the ISF at noon but you are using Greenbacks and want to keep a little more sizzle and low end, you move the ISF to the left a bit.
* Then you adjust the gain and EQ to taste. The gain control has a little effect on EQ so keep that in mind as well.
That's not the only way to build your sound, but it's an easy way to get started. Then there's the matter of the clean channel and that's kind of a different ball of wax. There are two cleans on the Series One, a warm clean and a traditional clean. One is more easily overdriven and the other offers a bit more headroom. Which one you choose and how you set the ISF depends on how much you work the volume knob on your guitar and how pristine you want your clean sound. An interesting thing about the clean modes are that they kind of exemplify the difference between the left side of the ISF (traditional) and the right side (warm). Therefore, a neutral ISF may be the easiest setting if you play clean a lot or use pedals to get most of your distortion.
For example, if you have the ISF at 9:00 on the traditional clean and it's very clean with little or no breakup, you might have a hard time cutting through in a live mix. Therefore, you would turn the bass down a little, set the treble around noon, and set the mids somewhere between 11:00 & 1:00. I'm just throwing those settings out there because I'm assuming that most people prefer less mids in their clean sound.
Keep in mind that the more DPR you use, the more power tube warmth you get which basically gives you a thicker tone so you have to consider that when you're deciding if you want an inherently bright tone, or something dark and jazzy or scooped for thrash.
I don't know if I made that too complicated. The best thing to do is this:
1. Set everything on 12:00 and first start playing with volume and DPR until you find the ideal mix for your volume level.
2. Move the ISF left and right and see where it generally seems most workable for you.
3. Fine tune with the EQ knob
