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Post by tronus on Jul 3, 2017 7:53:58 GMT -7
Hey all,
I bought my Jaz 20/40 in 2008 and it basically sat as I continued to search for an amp that fit my playing.
Coming back to the Jaz now, I mesh it with more than ever and more than any of my other amps. I love the clean tone.
I find myself having to run Treble, Middle, and Bass at like 8:30/9:00 for a darker and fatter clean tone. I've been hitting it with dirt pedals and it seems to be fairly pedal friendly when the eq is toned down like this.
Last night though I discovered if I just hit the front end hard with only a squished ROSS compressor and then turn the amp's Treble up to 12:00, it gives me a fat, responsive, drive sound with increased sustain. I feel like I've been trying to achieve this through pedals and wasn't getting it. It definitely get's brighter but this would translate better in a bandmix anyway. It actually sounds like more of an upper mid sounding boost to me but that could be because of my mahogany guitar.
I learned this from my Boogie Mark V, which suggests using the treble knob to control the character of the drive. Then you can use the amps graphic eq to counteract the increased treble in the drive section.
I guess I'm just reporting this find to you guys and seeing if any of you have found a similar behaviors in yours. Any tips on the EQ section? If I turn them all up to high the sound becomes very thinned and almost "active" sounding? Is this a thing? Is the EQ section active on this thing?
Oh yea, also, I have to turn the treble knob up and then back down a lot this way. What if I could switch between two different treble knobs with a footswitch?
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Post by nicholas on Jul 3, 2017 9:02:03 GMT -7
Hey Tronus. I think I know what you are relating to to a degree. Couple questions though, where do you usually run the volumes? Also what speaker are you using?
I went through a learning curve with it. I fought what I felt was a "too bright" thin-ish sound for a while. For me, and my playing style it was just a speaker swap away. I didn't find any Celestion speaker I really liked in it. Some were better them others with it. I tried a bunch! I found my perfect tone with a Warehouse G12 c/s. I also liked the Eminence CRex. For what it's worth prior, I always had my treble around 9:00, but with the G12 c/s my treble is always way higher. Or full. The c/s has a smooth speaker cone and sounds... well smooth.... lol. It really works great with this amp. For the 75 bucks they cost it might be worth a try? The best way I can describe that speaker with the JAZ is that it makes the EQ work better.
If you're any where near Buffalo NY you're welcome to try mine out.
Also consider I don't use any pedals with mine. I run the volumes around 1:00 with Les Paul. Then I just turn the guitar down for "clean".
Good luck with it. It sure is a great amp.
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Post by tronus on Jul 3, 2017 9:31:47 GMT -7
Hey Nicholas, thanks for the reply and thanks for the offer to give yours try! I'm over here in Illinois so that wouldn't work out but I'd love to give the 1x12 a shot. I have the 2x10 with the stock speakers. I was sold on that configuration after watching a Z Fest video of Buddy Whittington demoing the different configurations with Dr. Z standing by. That's all I had to go off of at the time of purchase as they were just sorta coming out at that time. I hear you on the Celestions though. I've tried a few different Celestion models (in different amps) and when I finally gave an "American" type setup a shot, I think I found it more to my tonal interests. Although, my 2x12 extension cab with Celestion G12H30's in it meshes pretty well with this amp. That's interesting to hear about your results though. Maybe I should try a couple different 10 inch speakers in there. I have done speaker swaps in the past and I know it can really have an effect on things. EDIT: I forgot to post about my volume settings. I have the master damn near maxed (and then a volume pedal in the loop controlling my overall level in the mix). I keep the pregain set to around 10:00. I have also experimented with running the master volume a little cooler as well. At 12:00 - 3:00. Hey Tronus. I think I know what you are relating to to a degree. Couple questions though, where do you usually run the volumes? Also what speaker are you using? I went through a learning curve with it. I fought what I felt was a "too bright" thin-ish sound for a while. For me, and my playing style it was just a speaker swap away. I didn't find any Celestion speaker I really liked in it. Some were better them others with it. I tried a bunch! I found my perfect tone with a Warehouse G12 c/s. I also liked the Eminence CRex. For what it's worth prior, I always had my treble around 9:00, but with the G12 c/s my treble is always way higher. Or full. The c/s has a smooth speaker cone and sounds... well smooth.... lol. It really works great with this amp. For the 75 bucks they cost it might be worth a try? The best way I can describe that speaker with the JAZ is that it makes the EQ work better. If you're any where near Buffalo NY you're welcome to try mine out. Also consider I don't use any pedals with mine. I run the volumes around 1:00 with Les Paul. Then I just turn the guitar down for "clean". Good luck with it. It sure is a great amp.
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Post by nicholas on Jul 3, 2017 10:12:24 GMT -7
I remember that video! As far as the 10" speakers I don't have any experience. Mike, (Doctorice) had that model for a long time. He'll probably chime in with some settings. I remember he once said to turn all the EQ knobs to Max and it sounds very "twin-ish" or something to that effect. I remember thinking he was nuts because I was always keeping the treble low and couldn't imagine cranking it up. But it does sound pretty awesome with them all up!
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Post by tronus on Jul 3, 2017 10:33:24 GMT -7
I just went back and watched it again and that tone is kind of what I'm digging about the treble increase for solos I was mentioning. Singing out instead of just being a clean platform. I think I saw a post here too about the maz front end or something (which I think the jaz has in it). Someone recommend turning all the eq up first and I was like "HUH?!" That gives me a super bright and weird tone. Maybe my ears just need to readjust but I dunnnnnnnno. I will mess with that method more today. All up, then adjust from there. I do really like the sound of them all lowish and then turning up that treble knob to around 12:00 for lead. It's the whole singing amp dirt vs boxy pedals with no depth. It's a stupid analogy but it's like there's a cable buried in sand. That cable is your fundamental note and the sand is all the harmonics around it. When you pick the string on a good amp dirt setting, you can almost feel yourself digging into all that harmonic goodness (sand) and getting to that fundamental note (cable) haha. With pedals, it's like you can't get to that core fundamental note and all that touch sensitive goodness around it, is this unnatural midrangey velcro-y mush (think of a fuzz pedal or a gained up tubescreamer into an unyielding, far too clean, amp). Haha, I've officially gone crazy after a 10 year search for a good lead tone. Amp dirt is where it's at! Rant finished... back to the EQ. I definitely notice that I get more volume out of the amp with the eq settings higher than I like to run them. This is kind of nice because I participate in some loud jam bandy jams, where more volume on tap is handy. Hooking up the 2x12 cab and running it with the 2x10's helps this out though and lets me run my lower eq settings. I remember that video! As far as the 10" speakers I don't have any experience. Mike, (Doctorice) had that model for a long time. He'll probably chime in with some settings. I remember he once said to turn all the EQ knobs to Max and it sounds very "twin-ish" or something to that effect. I remember thinking he was nuts because I was always keeping the treble low and couldn't imagine cranking it up. But it does sound pretty awesome with them all up!
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Post by nicholas on Jul 4, 2017 11:34:30 GMT -7
If you haven't ready, maybe try turning your guitar volume down a touch. Like to 8.5/10 or so. Then set up the amp for a nice rhythm sound. Then when you turn your guitar up to 10 it will be brighter and dirtier but not a whole lot louder. That's what I do anyway.
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Post by zpilot on Jul 4, 2017 15:01:01 GMT -7
If you haven't ready, maybe try turning your guitar volume down a touch. Like to 8.5/10 or so. Then set up the amp for a nice rhythm sound. Then when you turn your guitar up to 10 it will be brighter and dirtier but not a whole lot louder. That's what I do anyway. To my mind, a good technique with any amp.
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Post by doctorice on Jul 5, 2017 6:04:39 GMT -7
Yup, nicholas thought I had lost it when I suggested cranking all the eq knobs What prompted me to do this was hearing how the eq bypass mod affected my MAZ 18. The eq is passive, so turning them all the way up approximates this effect. Put another way, when the knobs are full up you then "subtract" gain in the knob's frequency band as you turn it down. As nick mentioned, it wasn't a recommendation to run the amp that way, just a new starting point. The tone will be affected by where the volume control is set as well. Of course, choice of guitar and pedal deployment are relevant too.
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