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........... ..The Variables & Mechanics Of Guitar & Tube Amp Tone
This is a brief synopsis of how we approach zeroing in on the best tone from our equipment. Essentially we take the view that less is more and as such tend to follow as an operational precept of the purist's principles to guitar and amp tone. There are several dynamics which all affect tone in both the electric guitar as well as the tube amp. We will touch on the main points of the issues.
..............Woods, Pickups, Magnets, Strings, Set Up & Signal Path
Relative to the state of functional performance of a guitar we treat it as a living thing which is affected by it's internal components and construction as well as the external environmental conditions. For that matter this also applies to the tube amps. The wood from which the guitar body is constructed and it's density will be the first parameter to affect the instruments eventual tone. For example Mahogany is a warm sounding wood as opposed to Ash which is generally dense and bright sounding. The neck when constructed from Mahogany is warmer and will add an overall bassiness to the sound as opposed to maple which is harder and brighter. The fingerboard when constructed from Ebony or Rosewood is a warm sound as opposed to Maple. Guitar pickups and their magnets affect output and tone. Ceramic magnet pickups are generally constructed to have extremely high outputs where Alnico magnets tend to have low to medium outputs and a warmer sound. The output of a pickup or it's strength can affect tone. Extreme output pickups tend to sound brittle and can be void of some of the subtle nuances of their lower powered siblings. We prefer Alnicos that run in the medium to hot range without going to the ceramics. But that's a subjective individual preference. Trust your ears and follow what you think sounds good to your own ears. The more that you do this the more you will learn to use your ears and become a discerning tonealist. String to pickup height will affect the elliptical pattern of string vibration and perceived loudness as well sustain or the length of time that the string continues to vibrate after it it struck. Generally the heavier the string gauge (thicker) the more sound they will generate. String thickness varies from musical genre to style, Jazz and Rhythm players will tend to select heavier gauges where Rock and lead players will select lighter gauge for "bendability". Your set up and intonation will affect the playability of the guitar and it's harmonics. Spend the $50 for a good set up from a pro if you don't understand the mechanics of a good zero set up. Opening up the signal path is something that we have done with all of our guitars. We have changed the tone and volume pots on all of our guitars to open up the signal path and allow the maximum natural signal strength to be carried out of the guitar. Most of the time this results in a guitar that has longer legs and can really stretch out (overdrive) our amps without the necessity of using pedals to drive the amp. Our objective is to try to avoid the use of boxes when possible to kick an amp into overdrive. Again this is subjective and some instances may call for the use of stomp boxes to get a particular sound. Use your ears.
Some of our thoroughbreds. Yeah, we like Marshall's.

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Musical Instrument and Equipment Cables
Get the best cables you can afford. This seemingly simple little piece of equipment can rob you of tone. Cheap cables don't have high grade shielding and further won't conduct as much signal.
Amplifier Inputs, Signal Path, & Tubes
Tubes are the life and lungs of a tube amp and the speakers are it's voice. Filter caps allow the transmission a clear full signal and at it's proper frequencies to the tubes. So don't expect your tube amp to sound very good unless it has these components fully up to spec. In other words periodic maintenance by a qualified amp tech will reward you with a beautiful sounding amp. Tube amps like all things analog can generally always be fixed and brought back to life. Vintage solid state amps sometimes catastrophically fail and can not. Another reason we prefer tube amps. Sometimes we tweek our amps to clear the signal path beginning with the inputs which have resistors. We change the value or remove it all together to allow the incoming guitar signal to remain undiminished and go into the preamp section hot. This is done depending on the amp. It varies from amp to amp and must be examined on an individual basis. Outside of this rare modification we tend to not monkey much with our tube amps except to upgrade components. Today's premium components can often offer increased performance over 1960's and 70's technology. So our upgrades incorporate matched sets of JJ tubes which in our opinion are the best on the market today. Upgraded amp tone and volume pots and input plugs.
Speakers, Combos, & Sealed Cabinets
Big, fat, thick, waves of gut juggling sound is what trips our triggers. That's why we love the Marshall 4 X 12 cabinets, especially the 1960 vintage which has the richest sound to our ears. There are many variations which accent the high, mid or bottom frequencies. Your speaker selection and the construction of the cabinet as well as weather it is an open back or a sealed unit will affect what it sounds like. As previously stated, output tube saturation is what we try to achieve and in a lot of cases we do this using a lower powered amp runningflat out through one of these premium cabinets. We are having several custom heads built at the moment which started life as low powered tube amp combos. These are a few. The 1962 Ampeg Reverbrocket sounds so god that we decided to purchase a custom built head box from grooveboxes Inc. at http://www.groovescabs.com. They do absolutely beautiful work and can supply you with a custom amp head box or cabinet in virtually any configuration necessary. Our Reverbrocket, Fender Musicmaster, Blues Deville and Hot Rod Deluxe are all getting transplanted to head boxes to be more compatible and run our sealed 4X10 and 4X12 cabs. We are currently looking to acquire a few Marsahll rack mounted stereo amps.