More clean headroom

[alex1fly]

I'm having issues getting enough clean headroom with my Roadster for live use. I've got a mad dirty tone on channel 3, vintage, 50 watt and diode. Spongy setting too. Les Paul, Pearly Gates bridge, channel 3 master at about 12. I'm running into an SD SFX-01 pickup booster, gain at about 12, so that notches my preamp gain to around 9-10. It's a good volume level for practicing with a drummer and I use the Output knob to tweak for the room.

The problem I'm having is with cleans, they just aren't loud enough. The closer I get to my desired volume level (just loud enough to be heard with a drummer) the more distorted it gets. I can get loud cleans when I use the output knob for volume, but then I have to adjust my dirty channel's volume down and I lose the juicy power tube saturation. When I turn my guitar's volume down it helps kill the fizziness of the clean tone, but not the distortion. Any thoughts?

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: More clean headroom

12at7 in v1, and PI if there isn't already one in there

 

[alex1fly]

Re: More clean headroom

12at7 in v1, and PI if there isn't already one in there

You may have to elaborate, I'm still pretty new to tube amp terminology.

 

[James Rock]

Re: More clean headroom

v1 is the first tube socket. Put an 12at7 in there instead of a 12ax7 is basically what was meant by drew_half_empty.

 

[alex1fly]

Re: More clean headroom

Oh, okay. What will that do for me?

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: More clean headroom

give you more clean headroom

12at7's have about 30% less gain than 12ax7's

 

[rainsong86]

Re: More clean headroom

hard bypass the loop (which disables the master output).. use the "clean" instead of fat clean, of course.. 100 watts.. diodes.. bold works better for more headroom but you'll still be fine if you want to use spongy because of your dirty tones.. turn the channel master volume almost all the way up and EQ it to a pleasant tone without too much treble (treble translates to gain in mesa's).. a somewhat scooped tone without too much bass (yea mesa's always have more bass than ordinary) will offer a clean spanky tone.. using your neck pickup turn your channel gain up gradually until you hear breakup.. back it off a bit and you got your volume for cleans.. then you have to sacrifice a bit of power tube saturation for channel 3 in order to match volume levels.. it won't be too much but you might have to either turn down your channel 3 gain or volume, or just a bit on each (depending on what kinda tone you're going for).. now when you flip that switch and engage the effects loop and solo/output controls you'll be able to use the output to suit for each performance/room

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: More clean headroom

give you more clean headroom

12at7's have about 30% less gain than 12ax7's

Those have helped me in the past! As long as V1 is just for the clean preamp, you won't notice any gain issues with the rest of the amp (sometimes the preamp tube can be used for both channels in which the overdrive would be sacrificed).