DetroitBlues Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Has anyone tried to make something like this without spending a fortune like this one? I'm thinking of an isolation like cab just for the sake of getting the sweet spot without being too loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 When I play at church these days, my Blues Junior is just off stage, pointed backwards, mic-ed up, and coveraround the top, front, and back with acoustic foam rubber pieces. No plexi-glass shield, although that's what we do around and over the drum kit, and mic it up. After I watched your video, this was one of the suggestions at the end. I'm just not sure you'd want to lug it around everywhere you play. Grubber has an attenuator for sale currently? Good Luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koula901 Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 It sounds like you like a scooped sound, Detroit, or the dumble sound. Buying one of those just seems like a lot of expense, and trouble to set up and break down. I'd go one of the more traditional routes: 1) less wattage, crank 'er up. I've seen a guy play a 5 watt Marshall tube amp, cranked up the whole time, during a gig at a bar and it sounded great 2) what Schundog said: attenuator. There are also amps that come with power scaling built in, they're pricey, and sound great. 3). pedals (but you knew that) 4). turn the tone pot all the way down on your strat -scoop the mids, you'll get that tone No one in the audience will notice your tone. Just you, and other guitarists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 Turn the tone pot down on the strat, then scoop the mids out? Never thought to try that.... I'll have to give that a whirl when I get home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I respectfully disagree; scoop the mids you will be lost in the mix. if anything, I boost mids. (But what do I know?!) not much. Hey, give it a shot, it may work for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koula901 Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Hey Schundog, I defer. You're probably right, you have a lot more experience than me and I hadn't thought about getting lost in the mix, but it sounds like a good bet that he would. Tone pot manipulation works at home but probably that kind of sound would get lost in the mix up on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 Hey Schundog, I defer. You're probably right, you have a lot more experience than me and I hadn't thought about getting lost in the mix, but it sounds like a good bet that he would. Tone pot manipulation works at home but probably that kind of sound would get lost in the mix up on stage. I just remembered reading an article how metal shredders that scoop the mids have to play extremely loud to cut through the mix, which is why they like it so much. I believe most "boost" pedals are mid boost pedals (which coincidentally is what the Eric Clapton Strat has built in.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koula901 Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 yeah . . . you've got a lot of ideas to play around with. you can also get your scooped sound and just mic the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I bet a big cardboard box lined with foam would do the job? just place it over the amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridethatbike Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I think the problem with this idea is that you aren't muffling the energy across the spectrum. Depending on materials, depth of material, construction techniques, etc, you are going to be screwing up your sound. No sense stuffing a $2k+ amp in there to have your harmonics and all the sweetness muffled out. Conversely, if you have a cab with some undesirable eq, you may be able to engineer that out with one of these. You'd have to have a sound lab to do that though, or just be plain lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trouble Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 When I play at church these days, my Blues Junior is just off stage, pointed backwards, mic-ed up, and coveraround the top, front, and back with acoustic foam rubber pieces. No plexi-glass shield, although that's what we do around and over the drum kit, and mic it up. After I watched your video, this was one of the suggestions at the end. I'm just not sure you'd want to lug it around everywhere you play. Grubber has an attenuator for sale currently? Good Luck. The foamboard 2 section box is very close to what pro's use onstage now, or maybe offstage is more correct. It's a great solution to the volume problem, makes it easy to get a great sound at low levels, and would be a bitch to lug around to club gigs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koula901 Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I just use my volume pedal to bring the sound down and still get all that great tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genericmusic Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Daisy chain a couple amps together using one as a preamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plexirocker 68 Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 just go to lowes or home depot. get 2 18x24 1/4" sheets of lexan, packing tape the center seam, folds to a 1/2 inch thick, lightweight. I never leave the house without it, works GREAT and way cheaper than the clearsonic panels, under 40 bucks plexi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 It sounds like you like a scooped sound, Detroit, or the dumble sound. Dumble scooped? A Dumble is the exact opposite of scooped. Big, fat, mids with subtly rolled off highs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted February 23, 2013 Author Share Posted February 23, 2013 just go to lowes or home depot. get 2 18x24 1/4" sheets of lexan, packing tape the center seam, folds to a 1/2 inch thick, lightweight. I never leave the house without it, works GREAT and way cheaper than the clearsonic panels, under 40 bucks plexi Does that really work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blunote Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 I've read a lot of threads on these forums regarding the purchase of new amps, pedals, screens, plexi-shields. Everyone wants to run their amps at the "sweet spot" and keep volumes at reasonable levels. Really guys, for the cost of a couple of pedals, some ouf you should just bite the bullet and buy a quality attenuator you can use with any of your amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffB Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 I've read a lot of threads on these forums regarding the purchase of new amps, pedals, screens, plexi-shields. Everyone wants to run their amps at the "sweet spot" and keep volumes at reasonable levels. Really guys, for the cost of a couple of pedals, some ouf you should just bite the bullet and buy a quality attenuator you can use with any of your amps. Some amps I love cranked and thats there only attraction for me. They have no use at low volumes. They need speaker break up to help the preamp and power amp smooth out. No attenuation of the amp itself is going to help that final part of the sound. But to honest after watching the vid and having tried a screen I would rather just hear the amp than a muffled version of a good thing or the sound of my amp through monitors. Im a dedicated stomp user. I went that route when I discovered speaker break up is just as important to me as power amp break up. Seemed like emulating sounds would be easier than chasing an unobtainable ideal. I can pretty much have the same sounds at any volume. I still want a Deluxe Reverb and a JTM45 that I dont use below 7. Those are the sounds that yank my chain and the volume I want to hear them at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted February 23, 2013 Author Share Posted February 23, 2013 Some amps I love cranked and thats there only attraction for me. They have no use at low volumes. They need speaker break up to help the preamp and power amp smooth out. No attenuation of the amp itself is going to help that final part of the sound. But to honest after watching the vid and having tried a screen I would rather just hear the amp than a muffled version of a good thing or the sound of my amp through monitors. Im a dedicated stomp user. I went that route when I discovered speaker break up is just as important to me as power amp break up. Seemed like emulating sounds would be easier than chasing an unobtainable ideal. I can pretty much have the same sounds at any volume. I still want a Deluxe Reverb and a JTM45 that I dont use below 7. Those are the sounds that yank my chain and the volume I want to hear them at. I'd like another 18 watt clone. Maybe one day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plexirocker 68 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Does that really work? yes you can't make a final decision by the clearsonic panel vid, try it, sure it soften the highs but you can move the panels around to open the sound up some more and keep your stage volume down and from "spreadin the stage" the biggest thing it lowers stage volume and in smaller places it helps our out front sound immensely I'm a big amp loud kinda guy but since using this it really helps a lot in real world sound solutions man, it's a cheap thing to try plexi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blunote Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Some amps I love cranked and thats there only attraction for me. They have no use at low volumes. They need speaker break up to help the preamp and power amp smooth out. No attenuation of the amp itself is going to help that final part of the sound. But to honest after watching the vid and having tried a screen I would rather just hear the amp than a muffled version of a good thing or the sound of my amp through monitors. Im a dedicated stomp user. I went that route when I discovered speaker break up is just as important to me as power amp break up. Seemed like emulating sounds would be easier than chasing an unobtainable ideal. I can pretty much have the same sounds at any volume. I still want a Deluxe Reverb and a JTM45 that I dont use below 7. Those are the sounds that yank my chain and the volume I want to hear them at. Well, I've got the Deluxe Reverb and have run it through an "Alex's Attenuator" and a Dr. Z Brake Lite. The "Alex" has circuitry that mimics various charactoristics an amp will see with at speaker attached. It's also more adjustable at higher attenuation settings. That said, my ears don't hear a lot of difference between the Dr. Z and the Alex. As far as the contribution of speaker breakup -I guess that's personal preference. All I can say is my DR sounds just as great attenuated with the volume at 7 or 8 as it does when it's not attenuated -with or without pedals. I don't expect I'm hearing much speaker breakup since the speaker is rated at 60 or 75 watts and the amp is rated for 22. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockabilly69 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I always say the wattage needs to be right for the gig. I would rather have many amps and a few gtrs than vice versa. I surely can't see putting plexi up in front of a multi speaker rig. Isn't that why you buy a multi speaker rig, for coverage??? For smaller gigs I use lower wattage amp that can be cranked with an ext cab for coverage. I also like inefficient speakers! My 18 watt clone just gets dirtier when it gets past 5 which isn't loud to begin with. In tough situations I let my pedal board do what the amp can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I always say the wattage needs to be right for the gig. I would rather have many amps and a few gtrs than vice versa. I surely can't see putting plexi up in front of a multi speaker rig. Isn't that why you buy a multi speaker rig, for coverage??? For smaller gigs I use lower wattage amp that can be cranked with an ext cab for coverage. I also like inefficient speakers! My 18 watt clone just gets dirtier when it gets past 5 which isn't loud to begin with. In tough situations I let my pedal board do what the amp can't. words of wisdom!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Great advice...wish I had the ability to follow it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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