Electro Harmonix Double Muff & Soul Preacher - The Chain Gang #6

Many people are left irritated and confused by the Double Muff. Me too.
It is one of those very sensitive effects and its sound is highly dependant on where you put it and what you choose to put into it.
It likes to be first in the signal chain, getting a high impedance signal (1 Mohm) from your guitar.
So there seems to be only one way of using it - as an overdrive in front of your already dirty amp, giving you more drive (Works nicely with some bass guitars actually).
And that's pretty much what it was intended for too.
Not very versatile.
I like to combine it with a compressor - and behold - the classic compressor into overdrive combination opens new doors.
Let's see:

I set my amp to slightly dirty, the volume of the guitar drives the preamp. With the Crate Palomino I use the Overdrive channel, setting the gain knob and the volume knob of the guitar so that I hear some crunch and setting the master volume as loud as I dare.
One might use the clean channel too but the Double muff gives such a huge volume boost when engaged that my amp simply gets too loud before I can reach the tone I am looking for.

Settings on the B.C.Rich Mockingbird - I like it with the neck pickup, the middle and bridge position gives me more treble if I want it. Tones are rolled back slightly, volume is set so that the pure guitar signal pushes the amp into overdrive. When I find "the spot" I prefer to leave it where it is at.

On to the pedals.
Setting the Double Muff is simple - just switch it to "single" and turn the "Muff 1" knob all the way up.
With that your amp receives additional volume and clipping and gets pushed further into overdrive.

Putting the Soul Preacher in front of the Double muff enables you to "overdrive the overdrive", tricking the double muff into thinking it's a distortion pedal.
The sustain knob of the compressor is all the way down, I just need the volume boost of the Soul Preacher to push the input of the Double Muff.

So with just two pedals I am able to cover the "core sounds" I am after:

Switch on the Soul Preacher into the dirty amp and play kind of clean.
Switch on the Double Muff without the Soul Preacher into the dirty amp and play crunchy rhythm.
Switch on both the Double Muff and the Soul Preacher for distorted lead sounds.

As I like to keep unity gain between my switching options, the hardest thing was to get the volumes at an even level.
The treble changes too when switching things on and off but once I found the right balance between amp, guitar and pedals, I was very happy.
As always, this is a mere reminder for myself, I tend to forget things and settings, so don't take this as a guarantee for great tone.

Electro Harmonix Soul Food & Soul Preacher - The Chain Gang #5

Praise the healer!
EHX allowed me to enhane the sound of my old Vietnamese amp so much, I might never switch off those two pedals anymore. Soul Preacher into Soul Food, what a lovely combination.

I have to post this "Chain Gang", lest I forget.
But keep in mind - these aren't any kind of recommended settings, just what sounds best with my setup.

So guitar goes into the Preacher, which goes into the Soul Food, which goes into the amp's intput.
The levels of the pedals are set at about unity gain, the pedals are both on all the time.
The Preacher gives me an even signal from the guitar, the different strings and pickup combinations.
The Soul Food provides a little bit of drive for the slighty dirty clean channel of the amp.

The amp is not set totally clean, the level is high enough to make the clean channel brake up when hit hard by the guitar signal alone.

Settings on the B.C.Rich Mockingbird, playing in the middle position, master volume rolled off a bit, as well as the two tone controls.
Now, if I changed to another guitar, the settings on the rest of the signal chain will of course change accordingly.

But as it is now, this combination just works great for me.

Compressor, my guitar's closest friend - The Chain Gang #4

There are three big reasons why I love to use a compressor as the first pedal in the signal chain:

1. To get the strings to equal volume.
2. To get the pickups to equal volume.
3. To push the pedal that comes after the compressor.

I like to play with my fingers most of the time. Now if you pick several strings at once and you don't have the perfect technique down all of the time, chances are that the strings will not sound equally loud and might not ring out equally long. The compressor mitigates volume and sustain differences for me.

I like to mix and match pickups on my guitars which often leads to huge output differences between two pickups.
So let's say you like the sound of two pickups working together in the middle position of a humbucker guitar but if you switch to one single pickup position, there's a change in output.
Now that may be exactly what you want, you might get a higher output and have an instant lead switch on the guitar to get a volume boost for your solos - say you play rhythm in the middle position and then switch to the bridge pickup for your louder leads.
Yes, I know that you can also try to even out the volumes of the pickups with the screws but that will only work as far as the turning of the screw goes and maybe you already found the perfect sound of your guitar in the middle position and don't want to change the height of the pickups around anymore.
So if you really just want to change the tone of the guitar without the increase or decrease in output, a compressor can even out the output differences of your pickups.

I like to use the classic compressor - overdrive - combination. You can use the compressor for a nice clean sound, use the overdrive for rhythm and engage overdrive and compressor at the same time for a lead sound. Stacking compressors and overdrives gives you a nice push in drive (not necessarily volume) and it enhances the harmonics of the overdriven signal.
So with say a single channel amp and two pedals you'll have the core sounds covered.

Hughes & Kettner Tubeman II -The Chain Gang #3

Clean, rhythm and lead at the tip of your toe. Quite ancient preamp now but it works well for certain situations.
With two low impedance outputs you can put it in the FX loop if you want to avoid your amp's preamp section or you can use the "Mixer signal" with the built in Red Box Pro straight into the line - in of your recording interface.

Don't put it in front of your amp though, stacking two preamp sections might work but most of the time it doesn't.

Technical Specs:

Input
Impedance 1 Mohm
Min. level -40 dB
Nominal level -26 dB
Max. level +17 dB

Output to Guitar Power Amp
Impedance 220 ohms
Max. level +12 dB

Output to Mixer
Impedance 220 ohms
Max. level +6 dB

Current consumption 540 mA at 13.1 V
Max. power draw 7.1 VA
Tube type 1 ECC 83 or 12AX7A

What to do with my amp's EQ - The Chain Gang #2

Depending on where you're at your sound is going change - change rooms, change position - Captain obvious strikes again...

I like to set my amp's EQ like thus:

Play the open low e and a string - set your bassknob.
Play the open d and g string - set your middle knob.
Play the open b and high e srting - set your treble knob.

Now that won't work all the time, but for me it is a good starting point.

Crate Palomino V32 - The Chain Gang #1

I'm still using it as a kind of practise amp.
30watts valve amp, 1x12 Celestion 70/80 speaker, spring reverb, FX loop, footswitch for the channels and the boost function.

Concerning channel switching: There's "clean" and "overdrive" and if I'm not mistaken, switching to the "overdrive channel" basically adds two clipping diodes (LED) to the existing circuit.

So in my eyes, the Palomino is essentially a one channel amp with two built - in pedals: A diode overdrive and a +10db mid boost, both accesible per the foot switch that comes with it.
There's no master volume but you could work around that by putting a volume pedal into the FX loop.

I tend to stay on "clean" which actually stays clean up to three or four on the volume knob, then it starts to break up and you get overdrive.

Since my guitars (luckily!) all sound quite different, I like to have this amp set rather "neutral" to check the "character" of an instrument. The Palomino reacts nicely to the guitars volume and tone pots (as a valve amp should) and it also takes pedals well.

As a bedroom amp it is actually way overpowered, it could easily hold its own at band rehearsals or small venues but I suppose it would not survive the hardship of everyday gigging and if I were a working musician I would never rely on it as my main amp.
Yet it still lives after all this years so that must say at least something about its built quality.

The bass response is very boomy - so you have to dial the bass EQ down quite a bit.
All other settings depend on the instrument and gear you put in front of it.

Two settings:

V32 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

OUTPUT POWER RATING 30Watts RMS @ 6 % THD, 8 ohm load, 120VACSIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO 71dB TypicalGAIN Clean 56dB, Overdrive 101dBTREBLE 12dB range @ 6kHzBOOST +10dB @ 900HzMID 10dB range @ 1kHzBASS 8dB range @ 150Hz
PRESENCE +8dB @ 10kHz
INTERNAL SPEAKER 12”, 80W Celestion, 8 ohm, 1.75” voice coil dia, 30oz magnet
PREAMP TUBES (3) 12AX7A
POWER AMP TUBES (4) EL84
POWER REQUIREMENTS 120VAC, 60 Hz, 35VA
100/115 VAC, 50/60Hz, 35VA
230 VAC, 50/60Hz, 35VA
SIZE AND WEIGHT 21” H x 17-1/2” W x 10” D, 44 lbs.

"The Chain Gang" - amps, pedals, gear

There will be some posts that will cover topics besides guitars, concerning the gear guitarists like to spend so much time with (instead of practising their instrument...).

It will cover stuff I tend to forget like gear specs, signal chains, settings etc. so I don't have to look things up everytime details might escape me.

I don't intend to give advice by posting my personal preferences - this is no guide to achive the "ultimate guitar tone", no "buyer's guide" or tutorial.
It's just what works for me - for my purposes, for my combinations of gear, for my budget, for my ideas... please keep that in mind while reading (whilst probably shaking your head over my foolishness...).

I will say this though: There is a considerable amount of research and reasoning behind the decisions I make and if you are interested in the thought process, feel free to ask or kindly provide your own point of view.

Regards, Bart Bowles.