Post by skinvoyager on Jan 7, 2013 8:52:15 GMT -7
I happened across some videos describing Billy Gibbon's setup. I know he doesn't use Z amps, but something struck me as interesting: he runs his rig with the treble completely down. I've always run mine at at least 12:00, usually a little higher. I'm always worried about too much bass making everything sound flubby, so in all these years I never really worked with the treble as much as I should have.
I know Joe Bonamassa also runs a very dark rig, but as a Strat player, I didn't think I'd want to lose the sparkle and detail. But this past weekend, I used the M12 at a gig. There wasn't much of a crowd for the first set, so I set the bass at about 1:00 and the treble at about 10:00. This isn't an extreme of a setting as Billy Gibbons, but I wanted to hear the difference.
I was surprised by how good it sounded. Obviously, it wasn't as ice-picky (not that it was bad before) and just sounded a lot smoother. I still hat plenty of top end. My cleans really sounded a lot fuller. On my board, I go into a Xotic SP compressor > Lovepedal OD11 > Fulltone OCD. The OD11 is set for very low gain and is almost always on. With its bass and treble I can fine tune the tone if needed, but I left them at around noon, with a slight treble cut. The OCD sounded very full and warm with the M12's treble dialed back. With this particular pedal setup, I can get a very big mid to hi-gain sound out of the OCD, but I never really take the gain past 11:00. No need. (By the way, I sold my Boiling Point after buying the M12 because the OCD sounded so much more amp-like with it, where with my previous 65 Amps Ventura it was the other way around.)
Anyway, in 23 years of gigging I had never taken the treble down that far, and it sounds great. I guess that just goes to show you that you can always learn new tricks, and you should really experiment before writing off a piece of gear. Mind you, I was already in love with the M12, but now I like it even more. Thanks, Billy Gibbons!
I know Joe Bonamassa also runs a very dark rig, but as a Strat player, I didn't think I'd want to lose the sparkle and detail. But this past weekend, I used the M12 at a gig. There wasn't much of a crowd for the first set, so I set the bass at about 1:00 and the treble at about 10:00. This isn't an extreme of a setting as Billy Gibbons, but I wanted to hear the difference.
I was surprised by how good it sounded. Obviously, it wasn't as ice-picky (not that it was bad before) and just sounded a lot smoother. I still hat plenty of top end. My cleans really sounded a lot fuller. On my board, I go into a Xotic SP compressor > Lovepedal OD11 > Fulltone OCD. The OD11 is set for very low gain and is almost always on. With its bass and treble I can fine tune the tone if needed, but I left them at around noon, with a slight treble cut. The OCD sounded very full and warm with the M12's treble dialed back. With this particular pedal setup, I can get a very big mid to hi-gain sound out of the OCD, but I never really take the gain past 11:00. No need. (By the way, I sold my Boiling Point after buying the M12 because the OCD sounded so much more amp-like with it, where with my previous 65 Amps Ventura it was the other way around.)
Anyway, in 23 years of gigging I had never taken the treble down that far, and it sounds great. I guess that just goes to show you that you can always learn new tricks, and you should really experiment before writing off a piece of gear. Mind you, I was already in love with the M12, but now I like it even more. Thanks, Billy Gibbons!