Correct amp for my gtr?

[slgeyer]

I am using a mexican made telecaster with a double-humbucker pickup in the front and a single coil on the back. The guitar plays great and is my favorite electric but I can't seem to find the right amplifier to get a good rhythm sound. I'm using a Fender Blues driver amp from about 4 years ago, which is a tube amp but the sound is very high end unless I really turn up the bass and use the full double-humbucker and then it's too muddy. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions?

[R Whittington]

I guess the first question I'd ask of you would be what style of music are you playing and what type of sound are you looking for...for example...Blues with slight overdriven sound?...or maybe Metal going for over the top distortion?...

[slgeyer]

Thanks for responding. First, let me correct myself. My amp is a Fender Blues Deluxe(tube, '97 or '98). For the most part when I play electric I'm playing Rock, some Blues. I've tried to get more of a full, less tinny sound by using pedals but haven't achieved a sound I like yet.

[teleguy]

If you are looking for an amp with nice distortion level, and an awesome clean channel that will really bring out the sound of your Telecaster, you should check out Randall Amplifiers. They Rock!!!!!!!!!!

[slgeyer]

Thank you for that suggestion, I will start the search. Could you also recommend any pedals that might help me in the meantime, or that might work well with the Randall when I find it?

[R Whittington]

slgeyer,
I think your amp will do the trick for you..you may need to augment it with some sort of overdrive pedal for your heavier rock stylings (Boss has a great selection..Blues Driver comes to mind)...but your amp should provide you with a nice blues sound as is. In your playing environment, are you able to turn the amp up to somewhat of a loud level?...if so, try maybe cutting back the treble on the amp just a bit..and giving some gas to the master volume...you'll introduce some overdrive/distortion that only comes from pushing a tube power amp section a bit...
Also there's no law that says you can't roll the tone control on your tele back a bit to round the highs off as well. When I'm using my teles for heavier stuff I always back the tone off maybe a quarter turn...and that takes the harshness out of the sound
Randall amps are great too by the way..but I think you can get your rig to please you with out giving up on it.

[slgeyer]

Thank you, I will try that tonight. I had been considering a Blues Driver pedal but have wasted my time and money on so many pedals that I was weary of getting another without a recommendation so thanks again.

[zedhed]

I know just what you're talking about -- I use a very similar setup. It seems like the Fender amp is either too bright (it stings) or the bottom end is too mushy. But I agree that you can get what you want from it - you've got a good amp!

My solution is to first make sure that speaker is aimed directly at your head so you're hearing exactly what your amp microphone is hearing. Then tweak the amp until the glare or sting is gone - my treble control is usually at or near zero (or I guess it only goes DOWN to one - what an amp) and roll off all of the lows that you can. Again, my setting for bass is one. In fact, at one point I found the capacitor that directly affects the bass control (from the schematic) and removed it so I could clip in a few different values until I found one that would roll off a little more of the low end. (That's a good trick for your guitar's tone control too if you're not happy with it).

You'll have to deal with two disadvantages of this idea, though. 1). If you're a vocalist, your sound tech won't exactly love hearing your amp in your vocal mic (put the amp behind your cardioid mic) and 2). You'll be stone deaf before you go bald. I tweak my amp first, then the foam (or rubber for flatter response) earplugs go in for the rest of the gig. Too little too late for me, though. Tinitus has long since wiped out any reasonable high frequency content. Between ear-splitting vocal monitors and ear-piercing guitar amps my inner ears are hamburger.

Finally, I replaced my 6V6 power tubes with a couple of "Yellow Jackets" which are just tube sockets that plug in to your tube sockets. They turn your push-pull style output stage (Class B) into a Class A amp. This cuts the output power in half (about) and enables you to use EL84 tubes in the Yellow Jackets. And because it's now a Class A amp, you don't need to rebias. If you don't like it or you hit a hall where you need the extra power, just yank out the YJs and put your regular power tubes back in. For my taste, the YJs are what finally tightened up the low and AND rolled off the "glare" in the high end. It's an expensive mod, though. They run about 50 bucks apiece.

(pant, pant) Didn't intend to write a book. But making an old Fender amp responsive and tight was a long process. Maybe you can shave some time off your setup.

[slgeyer]

Thanks for the help. I just printed this out so I can look it over at home and digest it in good time.

[kornowsd]

Another thing that you can do, and I do this a lot w/ my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, is put a BOSS GE-7 in the effects loop of the amp... I can't remember if the amp that you have, has one, or not. The GE-7 is a graphic EQ... pull the 6kHz (which Fender has a lot of), 3.2kHz down (another prominent frequency in the Fender amps)... boost a little bit on the 100Hz... and voila, instant fatness. Then you can set the amps pre-amp tone controls to something that really makes the distortion, of the pre-amp and the distortion pedal, sound good.

Another BOSS distortion pedal that easily "crosses" from Rock to Blues is the BOSS OD-1. It's setup much the same as the Blues Driver, but w/ a greater range of distortion on it... it's just doesn't have the mid-range emphasis that the Blues Driver has... but, w/ the Tele you're not going to have to worry much about that.

Dar

[ERICP]

first of all your not going to get a great tone out of a mexican
telecaster, they are made of inferior woods and sub par hardware.if
you like a tele i would suggest an american made model.as to the
reply made as to modify your amp to accept el 84s, this would
make your amp sound more in the british mode. this is fine if this
is what you're looking for. as to the reply about randall amps these
amps are goor for one thing- heavy distortion. i would imagine the
guy who suggested this plays dropped d tuning with the gain on full
most of the time. he probably doesn't understand the fender sound
or he wouldn't have suggested buying one of those solid state turds.
i would adjust your amp with a satisfying clean tone and then use
an ibanez tube screamer for your dirty sound. a graphic eq is fine,
just adjust the eq to flat and take unwanted frequencies out so as
not to add unwanted noise.i'm also suprised nobody suggested using
your tone and pickup settings on your guitar.they're there for a reason
and can make dramatic differences in your tone. that's one advantage
of a fender guitar.

[R Whittington]

...I did suggest using the tone control in my reply...;)