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Post by jkramsey1991 on May 7, 2015 8:20:30 GMT -7
New member here! Recently acquired a 2013 Stangray combo with Celestion gold. Some of the best cleans I have ever heard!
Question. It seems this amp is really scooped in the mids. Is it my ear or does it really have a scooped sound. I like this tone clean but it's hard to dial in my overdrives with it as it tends to make them sound brittle and thin.
Main overdrive is an OCD and a slightly modded SD-1.
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Post by John on May 7, 2015 12:36:05 GMT -7
Welcome to the forum!
Yes, the 'ray has rather scooped mids. Or put another way, it has crispy clear highs...and firm, unflabby low end. And the mids get over shadowed.
That's the reason most people use a mid oriented speaker. (Like the gold) With the general tone of the 'ray, and the fact that it's got that EF86 up front, most people find out they have to adjust their pedal settings.
And if that Gold is ever too loud for you (at 100db)...you might try out a Celestion creamback M. It's 97 db...a LOT quieter. It allows you to crank the amp up more. And the Gold and creamback are in the same ballpark. (yes, there are differences I know.)
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Post by Ridgeback on May 7, 2015 13:15:45 GMT -7
Congratulations and welcome. After having quite a few Z models over the years (not nearly as many as some around here), after the Z-28, the Ray was my favorite. I had a Gold 1x12 cab with it most of the time and pretty much bought it just for the cleans. Didn't use pedals so I can't help you with the OD thing. Drew is your man around here for getting OD out of the Ray. I'm sure he will toss his 2 cents in at some point.
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Post by jkramsey1991 on May 7, 2015 14:03:12 GMT -7
I've drastically changed pedal settings. Running things a lot darker than I do with my Splawn Streetrod or Classic 30. I've overcome a lot of brittleness by playing my dynacomp in the loop with a medium compression say 12 o'clock. Seems to bring the mids up a bit without taking too much of the shimmer out of it.
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Post by John on May 8, 2015 5:35:22 GMT -7
Also, don't be afraid to drastically turn the tone and cut knobs, especially below noon. The 'ray can have a sometimes piercing high end. With my tele, I ran both knobs down around 10:00 o'clock. (sometimes even lower.) My advice: adjust these two knobs with your eyes closed. The tone knob on the 'ray is like a combined bass & treble booster. The more clockwise you turn the knob, the more bass and treble you get. So don't be afraid to turn it below noon for more mids.
All too often, we are accustomed to turning all the eq knobs up past noon....never below. But with many Z amps, running them below noon can be necessary.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2015 9:29:33 GMT -7
Congratulations and welcome to the forum.
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Post by jkramsey1991 on May 8, 2015 12:54:22 GMT -7
John, thanks for the settings! I did the 10 o'clock on both knobs and really dig it I actually brought the tone done a bit more and the cut up just a bit more and it's pretty dang great.
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Post by captainron (Ron) on May 8, 2015 13:57:22 GMT -7
New member here! Recently acquired a 2013 Stangray combo with Celestion gold. Some of the best cleans I have ever heard! Question. It seems this amp is really scooped in the mids. Is it my ear or does it really have a scooped sound. I like this tone clean but it's hard to dial in my overdrives with it as it tends to make them sound brittle and thin. Main overdrive is an OCD and a slightly modded SD-1. Welcome to the Zville! Lot of great players/people here! Info is a click away.
I came in the same way with my first Z a 2014 Ray 1x12 combo with Celestion gold. I now have another Ray Head that I can use with a creamback M, or Blue. (sounds great with my Avatar 2x12 as well).
I have been playing with different EF86's and Rec. tubes of late. They can take some of the high end sting out of the ray as well. John knows what he's talking about with the tone and cut as well...I run my tone and cut around 4ish on the head..(it has more bottom end because of the tubes)...combo tone around 5.5, cut around 3.
As far as od's.. I love my Timmy pedal. I love to stack it with my Klon Klone (from Shane), and for the real heavy stuff I use a JHS Angry Charlie. I used a EP booster, which I love with the Ray, but replaced it on my board with the Klone.
Hope this helped...
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Post by jkramsey1991 on May 13, 2015 5:11:09 GMT -7
I have played and played with this amp and as much as I love it clean it's just not up to my standards when played dirty. Not sure if it's the ef86 preamp or what. I think going to try and sell it and get a remedy or srz65.
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Post by drew on May 13, 2015 15:12:16 GMT -7
Bummer, I feel for you, that's a hard pill to swallow. Something to thing about; for rock music tones I did not like an alnico speaker with the Stangray. I preferred alnico for all other types of music but not for rockin the Ray. To get the Ray rockin with a single 12 in an open back cab I used a G12-65 ceramic speaker and it made a huge difference. Plus that speaker is very inefficient so you can crank up the Ray. I used a head so your situation is not as simple plugging into a different cab. One of my favorite rigs with the Stangray is a stock Z-Best (V30 and G12H) with the ray's volume at 2:00 - 3:00. OMG talk about rockin like Dokken. Airbrake on 2 required. Cranking the Stangray's volume up to 2:00-3:00 range and putting an OD or Dist pedal in front I was getting firebreathing tones with a HUGE thud factor that rivaled a Marshall into a 4x12 cab. And sustain for days... It's not for everyone and YMMV but the Ray can Rock. Of course I'm biased toward Stangrays. :-) If you're talking about rock a Remedy or srz65 will work well. Or maybe a Therapy or if you want to blow the doors off the place an Antidote. Ignore the faceplate. The three controls on the left is how I set the Ray to rock with a Z-Best using humbuckers guitars.
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Post by jkramsey1991 on May 19, 2015 5:18:12 GMT -7
I've playe it about 10 hours or more. I can dial it in do sound good with the OCD but it sounds bad with the SD1 and my tubescreamer then. Dial it in for the SD1 and it sounds bad with the OCD.
It's now listed for sale on my local craigslist. I love the cleans but I need a little more friendly to pedals as my band plays a wide variety and one OD isn't enough.
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Post by jkramsey1991 on May 27, 2015 5:40:52 GMT -7
Not having much interest in selling it so I keep messing with it. I think I've found a great setting with it
Volume to taste Tone at about 10 o'clock Cut a like 7 o'clock
With the cut low it takes all pedals like a champ. Something about the cut creates a harshness that I'm not a fan of. Might keep it if a good trade doesn't come along.
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Post by Norrin Radd on Jun 13, 2015 12:05:14 GMT -7
I like to think of the Cut knob as: "Hey! You want to get through the live mix? Turn this knob here." I rarely have my cut above 10:00 and mostly play with it around 8:30-9:00. Especially with single coils. With humbuckers, 10:00 is my starting point. At those positions I don't have to futz much at all with ODs to get them to sound good.
Also, IME, to truly get great tone out of the Ray, you NEED to have the volume up around 9:30-10:00 to truly push the amp/speakers. This amp craves to be pushed. And when you do - you'll find those mids were really just hiding and have now come out to play! YMMV, but that's what works for me. I also prefer running all of my pedals out front on the Ray. Something about the loop does something funky to my tone. But I digress. Turn up that volume!
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Post by captainron (Ron) on Aug 10, 2015 20:36:49 GMT -7
So give us an update. Did you sell it? I hope not. Did you find the right pedal?
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Post by jkramsey1991 on Aug 12, 2015 5:52:33 GMT -7
I still have it. I've learned all my problems are with the cut knob. As long as it's kept below 9 o'clock the amp is awesome any more than that and overdrives sound bad.
Played around 5 gigs with it and at gig volumes it sounds a lot better too.
I like it but if the right trade came along it would probably be gone though.
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