Leaving the boost

Discuss the stuff that makes your ears bleed.

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Olderama
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Leaving the boost

Post by Olderama »

So I have my splawn and I've historically always had some kind of boost in front of any amp be it tube or digital.
I'm trying really hard this time to enjoy just the amp without a boost or even a gate to make it quiet.
I think it leads back to my yearning for a good chugging metal amp
But... I'm over it I think and I'm trying to retrain my ear to appreciate the flubb

It's difficult tho

Will it happen 🤔? Overtime
:mental:

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by jeremyb »

You should buy my XP booster clone, embrace the boost!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by Olderama »

jeremyb wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:34 pm You should buy my XP booster clone, embrace the boost!
Bloody hell not helping much lol
:mental:

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by jeremyb »

Olderama wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:02 pm
jeremyb wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:34 pm You should buy my XP booster clone, embrace the boost!
Bloody hell not helping much lol
:lol:
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by hercules »

What do you mean by “flub”?

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by Cdog »

@Oldie: diggin the new avatar... very metal! :)

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by jeremyb »

hercules wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 6:47 am What do you mean by “flub”?
Metal guys often use a tubescreamer with the gain right down and volume up to give the amp a tighter sound. I think in that situation its probably the mid boost and the cut in highs and lows while pushing the front end harder which leads to a natural compression which makes the tightness.

That said, I don't think I'd describe a tube amp without that setup as flubby :mental:
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by hercules »

Ah right. I remember watching a Mesa video with Andy Timmons and the engineer talked about EQ in a way that really helped me get a nice tight sound from my MkV:35.

After two pedalboard deaths at live gigs I’ve made sure I’m happy with my straight amp tone…mostly it means cutting the lows and then using the graphic EQ to bring back certain frequencies.

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by Optical »

I've kinda been on the same roundabout in the past. From an 'everything must be boosted' to no boosts..
These days I seem to be playing only amps that dont need a boost, which is a shame in a way

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by sizzlingbadger »

Depends on the amp circuit, basically for high gain amps... If the tone stack is before the overdrive section then just back the bass control off and the flub will go away. Some amps then allow you to get the low end back after the drive section so you get some thump. Mesa do this with their graphic EQ, other amps can do it in the power section with resonance controls.

If the tone stack is after the overdrive circuit then you need a pedal to reduce the bass before that overdrive circuit, or a guitar with bass cut, like the Yamaha Revestar's and Reverends.

Unfortunately a lot of amp designs copy the Fender/Marshall input stage which boosts a lot of low frequencies, sounds great clean (as was intended back then). Some amp designers like Soldano, reduce the cathode bypass cap on the input to cut the low frequencies, these amps have a good tight low end. They make up the low end thump later on the amp.
Last edited by sizzlingbadger on Wed Oct 05, 2022 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by olegmcnoleg »

I use a Fulltone FatBoost, it is very hard to turn that off also. I think it is designed to round out & warm up clean tone, not so much to cut bass--though it can do that too. It is subtle, but I love it. Nothing wrong with leaving it on all the time, except of course then you need a second one to act as a solo boost!

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by Danger Mouse »

Olderama wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:16 pm So I have my splawn and I've historically always had some kind of boost in front of any amp be it tube or digital.
I'm trying really hard this time to enjoy just the amp without a boost or even a gate to make it quiet.
I think it leads back to my yearning for a good chugging metal amp
But... I'm over it I think and I'm trying to retrain my ear to appreciate the flubb

It's difficult tho

Will it happen 🤔? Overtime
I don't think it will happen with that amp, if it's anything like the Splawn I played through (the one airdad asked me to check out in the cashies years ago). It was glorious, but definitely needed a boost.

Just get a Pepers Dirty Tree and never need another boost again (and accept that you'll never be able to play through a high gain amp again without one).
The older I get, the more disappointed in myself I become.

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Re: Leaving the boost

Post by Olderama »

Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 2:31 pm
Olderama wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:16 pm So I have my splawn and I've historically always had some kind of boost in front of any amp be it tube or digital.
I'm trying really hard this time to enjoy just the amp without a boost or even a gate to make it quiet.
I think it leads back to my yearning for a good chugging metal amp
But... I'm over it I think and I'm trying to retrain my ear to appreciate the flubb

It's difficult tho

Will it happen 🤔? Overtime
I don't think it will happen with that amp, if it's anything like the Splawn I played through (the one airdad asked me to check out in the cashies years ago). It was glorious, but definitely needed a boost.

Just get a Pepers Dirty Tree and never need another boost again (and accept that you'll never be able to play through a high gain amp again without one).
Yeah I have been scouring the forums and Splawns do not like the tube screamer circuits in front as they have a high amount of mids as it is.
I'm trying to keep out of the rabbit hole and train my ears to embrace the boostless sound and move on from the tight metal chug.
The Splawn sounds glorious and to colour it is a crime :winky:
:mental:

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