Kinight Templar
New member
I have read quite a few posts about the ever under-appreciated Yamaha DG line, and since I have a DG60 (the one without presets and screen) myself I would like share a couple of inputs.
1) I bought it new at USD200, since that music shop had kept it in the warehouse for almost a decade. In fact, that place still has plenty of underrated treasures to be discovered. Not even the owner knows exactly what he has inside that place, since he doesn't have a proper database to track his storage. Anyway, I have owned the DG60 for 4+ years and I feel like I have not unveiled all the potential this baby is capable of. As many of you who probably know, all the DG amps offer 8 amp tones: Clean 1&2, Crunch 1& 2, Drive 1&2, Lead 1&2. Even this is the entry model of DG line with the most basic layout (no presets, no effects except reverb), one needs some serious fiddling to find the tones that sounds good cause it has 5-band EQ: Bass, Treble, Low Mid, Hi Mid, and Precense. Yamaha never opency specified which amps they were emulating, instead just gave a hint to the styles of certain ones. It is obvious that Lead1 is after British hard rock (Marshall and Orange), while Lead2 has an American voice like a certain Boogie. Thus, for years I have an impression that the 1s were after British amps and the 2 were their american counterparts. Until I saw this:
http://faq.yamaha.com/us/en/article/mus ... /802/6885/
Since I am not a pro hence my experience with all these classic tube amps is very limited, and the youtube clips are not that convincing due to compressed signals. But.......both cleans are Fender Twins? I thought Clean 1 was like Roland Jazz Chorus. Crunch 1 as Vox Ac30? I never heard any "chime" in that, unlike the same mode on the current THR line. Drive 1 as Fender Bassman? I thougt it was driven AC30. Drive 2 as Fender Twin again? I never thought the Twin had any crunch at all. MAybe that is because, Yamaha was just "implying", not "emulating", so the modeling was not exact. Anyway, if you ever wondered what amps they were after, there you go.
2) My DG60 can be a little picky with pedals. The effect loop seems to dislike analog pedals (Guyatone Flanger), however with Boss it is love at first sight. Of course in front it doesn't matter. If you plug the dirt pedals it seems the overdrive ones fare much better than the distortion ones. I used Boss OD-2, DOD250, and ProCo Vintage RAT Reissue. The Crunch modes are the friendliest with dirt pedals, to my ears I prefer Crunch 2 for that.
3) I have been intrigued by the fusion tones from the likes of Alan Holdsworth, and found out his setting was Lead 1, presence and bass down low, treble about 3-4, gain about 5-7, hi&low mids crancked, reverb cranked. And boy what the tone! Never thought I could get good tones with presence and bass way low! Lead1 seems to me the most versatile distortion ever: from jazz/fusion to brown sound to classic/prog metal....and then some!
However the Lead2 is meh. No matter how I set I cannot dial out the digital sound out of it.
1) I bought it new at USD200, since that music shop had kept it in the warehouse for almost a decade. In fact, that place still has plenty of underrated treasures to be discovered. Not even the owner knows exactly what he has inside that place, since he doesn't have a proper database to track his storage. Anyway, I have owned the DG60 for 4+ years and I feel like I have not unveiled all the potential this baby is capable of. As many of you who probably know, all the DG amps offer 8 amp tones: Clean 1&2, Crunch 1& 2, Drive 1&2, Lead 1&2. Even this is the entry model of DG line with the most basic layout (no presets, no effects except reverb), one needs some serious fiddling to find the tones that sounds good cause it has 5-band EQ: Bass, Treble, Low Mid, Hi Mid, and Precense. Yamaha never opency specified which amps they were emulating, instead just gave a hint to the styles of certain ones. It is obvious that Lead1 is after British hard rock (Marshall and Orange), while Lead2 has an American voice like a certain Boogie. Thus, for years I have an impression that the 1s were after British amps and the 2 were their american counterparts. Until I saw this:
http://faq.yamaha.com/us/en/article/mus ... /802/6885/
Since I am not a pro hence my experience with all these classic tube amps is very limited, and the youtube clips are not that convincing due to compressed signals. But.......both cleans are Fender Twins? I thought Clean 1 was like Roland Jazz Chorus. Crunch 1 as Vox Ac30? I never heard any "chime" in that, unlike the same mode on the current THR line. Drive 1 as Fender Bassman? I thougt it was driven AC30. Drive 2 as Fender Twin again? I never thought the Twin had any crunch at all. MAybe that is because, Yamaha was just "implying", not "emulating", so the modeling was not exact. Anyway, if you ever wondered what amps they were after, there you go.
2) My DG60 can be a little picky with pedals. The effect loop seems to dislike analog pedals (Guyatone Flanger), however with Boss it is love at first sight. Of course in front it doesn't matter. If you plug the dirt pedals it seems the overdrive ones fare much better than the distortion ones. I used Boss OD-2, DOD250, and ProCo Vintage RAT Reissue. The Crunch modes are the friendliest with dirt pedals, to my ears I prefer Crunch 2 for that.
3) I have been intrigued by the fusion tones from the likes of Alan Holdsworth, and found out his setting was Lead 1, presence and bass down low, treble about 3-4, gain about 5-7, hi&low mids crancked, reverb cranked. And boy what the tone! Never thought I could get good tones with presence and bass way low! Lead1 seems to me the most versatile distortion ever: from jazz/fusion to brown sound to classic/prog metal....and then some!
However the Lead2 is meh. No matter how I set I cannot dial out the digital sound out of it.
