Lately something has come to my attention,

[uOpt]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

I read an interview where Blackmore said he had to have a reel to reel tape machine in his signal chain before the amp. If I remember correctly, I think he said it smoothed out the treble.

It wasn't reel to reel, it was a tapedeck. People are unsure whether this did much more than simply raise gain or acted like a so-called trebel booster (which is really a treble smoother).

Later he used actual treble boosters, namely the HS booster than you can still buy today.

 

[erksin]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

It wasn't reel to reel, it was a tapedeck. People are unsure whether this did much more than simply raise gain or acted like a so-called trebel booster (which is really a treble smoother).

Later he used actual treble boosters, namely the HS booster than you can still buy today.

It was an Akai reel-to-reel - you can see it in plenty of the Deep Purple and Rainbow live videos on YT. The treble booster was a Hornsby-Skewes and AFAIK he used it along with the Akai for as long as he was running that rig.

0:37 you can see it clearly:

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

When I play with my band I get to 2 on the volume knob of my 60 watt mesa and I'm being told to turn down.

I hear that. I'm at about 1.5 and I'm told I'm too loud even on stage. I'm literally playing in the spot on the volume knob where if you move it a millimeter it falls off to almost zero. I've had to tell a sound man, "Sorry I actually can't turn down any further."

 

[uOpt]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

Oops. Sorry for the tape mixup.

Nice video but somebody's got to replace the audio.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

I hear that. I'm at about 1.5 and I'm told I'm too loud even on stage. I'm literally playing in the spot on the volume knob where if you move it a millimeter it falls off to almost zero. I've had to tell a sound man, "Sorry I actually can't turn down any further."

I've heard that same story many times. I wonder where these guys come from...
"What are you, a sound man, or a whisper boy?"
"My drummer doesn't play with toothpicks."
"Dude, we are not in a library."

What's the problem with turning a guitar amp up a bit for a gig? The guitar bleeding into other tracks? Proper mic choice and positioning should take care of that. Guitar cabinets are rather directional, especially the closed back kind. They don't make a lot of noise outside of the radiation cone.

A small, highly reflective venue would be a problem. But then, why would you even want to play in someone's bathroom in the first place.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

A small, highly reflective venue would be a problem. But then, why would you even want to play in someone's bathroom in the first place.

Most venues are small and have lots of reflective crap. The guitar amps, especially multi-speaker cabinets with no angle between them, are highly directional and blast away some people and don't reach others well enough. Some Mesa amps are excessively loud and as people have pointed out, there is a real design problem there in where the pot sensitivity curves have been placed.

Best part is that if the amp is on the floor, level, then it often kills some audience members but the owner has his ears 5 feet above the amp and doesn't notice a thing.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

That's why we always bring our own sound guy. He's a good friend of the band and myself for about 10 years, loves the records and knows how we're meant to sound.

The result is people who aren't even guitar players coming up after and telling me I've got an awesome guitar sound and currently I'm the only guitarist and I'm also the singer...

As a kid I was always about loud. Dad switched me on to tube amps and I loved them ever since a 30w tube amp would leave the line 6 whatevers the other kids were using absolutely for dead.

A good mod to try is to have a tech change the way the PI works so that instead of staying clean until it can't take anymore, you get gradual levels of saturation from the power section.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Lately something has come to my attention,

If I remember right Brian May's Signature AC/30 didn't even have eq or anything, just a volume knob.