A method of getting a good sound from your amplifier

This popped into my inbox, it is a method of getting a good sound from your guitar amp.  Might be worth a try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmZ0BbhTfGk

It's kind of what I do. 

Click-baity title: check
Weird confused or pooping face on thumbail: check

According to recent threads here, it is destined for success!

<axisus>I haven't watched it but</axisus> is the simple trick to adjust the controls whilst actively listening and thinking about what it sounds like, until you get them where it sounds good?

ElectricXII said:

It's kind of what I do. 

Did he actually say "That being said", "go ahead and" and "jump in", one after the other in his intro? Three of the most annoying, over used and unnecessary phrases employed by what seems like the majority of US content creators.

First rant of the day, and breathe.

You missed the fact that this tricked changed the game for him (I'm watching it now and trying not to stab myself in the eyes).

You can polish a fender hotrod deluxe as much as you like. 

Possibly the most annoying screenshot / clickbait face so far amongst so pretty stiff competition.

So this guy’s tone sucked until he learned one simple trick.  Probably not the guy I’d be taking tone advice from … 

It's OK, but not any better than any other way really imo.

I usually put the eq in the middle to begin with, including guitar controls. Reverb, presence bright switch etc off. 

He does look like he's shat himself in the thumbnail, which is unfortunate. Poor guy. Hope he didn't get any on his Two Rock. 

Is there really a method here?  OK he does it in a certain order, but it basically just looks like dialling the knobs until you like what you hear.  Following which, tweak them a bit until you like what you hear even better.  Isn't that what everybody has always done?

Let me guess: adjust all the controls until the tone wasn't terrible?

I'm not going to click this time!

susbemol said:

Click-baity title: check
Weird confused or pooping face on thumbail: check

According to recent threads here, it is destined for success!

No gesticulating though: fail!

Call it clickbait if you will but there is a degree of sense in the method. Rather than setting everything at 6 and adjusting to taste as most do, an alternative is to set every control at zero and start adjusting from there.  This method makes a lot of sense to me. 

topdog91 said:

Let me guess: adjust all the controls until the tone wasn't terrible?
...

...and make sure your wah pedal is off ;)

Rocker said:

Call it clickbait if you will but there is a degree of sense in the method. Rather than setting everything at 6 and adjusting to taste as most do, an alternative is to set every control at zero and start adjusting from there.  This method makes a lot of sense to me. 

I actually think it makes more sense to set everything to fully open first and reduce what you don't want rather than adding what you do.

Setting them in the middle though means you aren't trying to tune one control while the other two are at extremes. Everything will sound different when you start to add them.

I suppose it depends on the type of amp and tone section as to how it reacts, and how much one control effects the other. Or certainly how you perceive the other. 

digitalkettle said:

topdog91 said:

Let me guess: adjust all the controls until the tone wasn't terrible?
...

...and make sure your wah pedal is off ;)

Have you been stalking me?!?!

I clicked and five seconds in I feel dirty. :sob:

"Do you ever sit down, plug in your guitar, and just try and get a sound out of your amp that you like, and you just can't do it?"

No.

Well the first thing he's doing wrong is plugging into the #2 input... instant dull tone.

(And the drive channel of the Hotrod sounds perfectly good if you learn how to use it.)

The way I've found which is the quickest to get a good tone from any amp is to turn the tone controls until you find the point where they do the most over the least turn range, and leave them in the middle of that. Exactly why this works I'm not 100% sure - but it does seem to. It's not necessarily the sound you want, and you can adjust from there if you need to, but it's a good starting point.

I used a 4x12 last time I rehearsed and it was too bassy compared with my 1x12. So I found this brilliant method for reducing bass, I turned the bass knobs down until it wasn't too bassy. Seriously if players can't dial in an amp they need to buy an acoustic.

slacker said:

I used a 4x12 last time I rehearsed and it was too bassy compared with my 1x12. So I found this brilliant method for reducing bass, I turned the bass knobs down until it wasn't too bassy. Seriously if players can't dial in an amp they need to buy an acoustic.

A lot of electric players seem to ignore the controls on their guitars too.

slacker said:

I used a 4x12 last time I rehearsed and it was too bassy compared with my 1x12. So I found this brilliant method for reducing bass, I turned the bass knobs down until it wasn't too bassy. Seriously if players can't dial in an amp they need to buy an acoustic.

No, according to the comments they just needed this video!

Thanks a lot! I’ve been playing for 80 years, but only now i’ve achieved good sound. My settings are all 12 o’clock with slight rolloff on highs. Cool!

THANK YOU!!! Thank you for this video. I think you just freed up hours of time for me. I've needed this video for 40 years.

;)

ElectricXII said:

A lot of electric players seem to ignore the controls on their guitars too.

I don't. I turn them all right up, because that's how they sound best. 

Next for the playlist, tips for peeing right. 

Sporky said:

ElectricXII said:

A lot of electric players seem to ignore the controls on their guitars too.

I don't. I turn them all right up, because that's how they sound best. 

I find they only sound best all right up if that's how you have them when you set everything else up, but that then means you can only use them to reduce. 

I generally turn all knobs on a Fender amp about half way and that's normally good enough. I'm always mic'ed up and the sound through the PA will be a bit different anyway. As long as it's not boomey or teeth cringing toppy I'm happy. 

With a lot of Marshalls I put bass on full and the treble only just on and leave the mid centred as a starting point. Some of them are too toppy for me even set like that though. 

slacker said:

I used a 4x12 last time I rehearsed and it was too bassy compared with my 1x12. So I found this brilliant method for reducing bass, I turned the bass knobs down until it wasn't too bassy.

You should totally make a video about this. People years from now will refer to this as the 'slacker method'. Or something.

ICBM said:

The way I've found which is the quickest to get a good tone from any amp is to turn the tone controls until you find the point where they do the most over the least turn range, and leave them in the middle of that. Exactly why this works I'm not 100% sure - but it does seem to. It's not necessarily the sound you want, and you can adjust from there if you need to, but it's a good starting point.

It’s a while since I’ve thought about this but somewhere in the past I’ve watched videos with Matt Schofield and with Richard Thompson (perhaps some irony in my response as I know you don’t like his guitar sound!) both being asked when on tour and they get supplied backline how do they get the amp to sound good and it’s this method. Twiddle the EQ knobs one by one until you find the shelving point so the amp is as close to it’s core sound as it’s going to get and adjust from there. Even on different amps of the same model it can vary a bit. 

Rocker said:

Call it clickbait if you will but there is a degree of sense in the method.. 

There generally is a small degree of sense in most clickbait, enough to intrigue, but not enough to make it worth watching.

AntonHunter said:

slacker said:

I used a 4x12 last time I rehearsed and it was too bassy compared with my 1x12. So I found this brilliant method for reducing bass, I turned the bass knobs down until it wasn't too bassy.

You should totally make a video about this. People years from now will refer to this as the 'slacker method'. Or something.

It's a lifehack.

ICBM said:

Well the first thing he's doing wrong is plugging into the #2 input... instant dull tone.

(And the drive channel of the Hotrod sounds perfectly good if you learn how to use it.)

Sell it and get a vox