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Looper's Delight
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On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 04:18, Andreas Willers wrote:
> > Greg House wrote:
> > Well I'm not a huge fan of the THD amps. Something about the one I
>played
> > through sounded stiff or harsh to me. Anyway for what I intedn to use
>it
> > for, if it has a preamp, it would HAVE to have an fx loop. What I'd be
> > using it for is running a standalone preamp into. There are lots of
> > standalone preamps and standalone power amps, and there lots of guys
>who
> > like power amp saturation, so why aren't there any standalone power
>amps
> > designed to give "vintage" sound and pleasing overdrive? Actually my
> > biggest dilemma of all is how to use rackmount FX with a cranked, low
>watt,
> > vintage style amp. For example, lets say I want to use a Dr. Z Rt. 66
>with
> > an EDP, how the hell can I? That's not even so tricky. What about
>this: the
> > Rt. 66 through something like the Sherman Filter Bank, or a Pitch
>Shifter,
> > where being able to have the signal 100% wet or close to it is
>important?
> > Is there no option for the truly tone-obsessed that will neither
>compromise
> > the "vintage" tone or the modern processing/mangling capabilites?
>
> Yes, that's a dilemma. I use single channel, older guitar amps ('65 Ampeg
> Reverberocket, '58 Gibson GA-20) all without effect loops exclusively
> because I had my rack gear (t.c. G-force, EDP) modified for better
>frequency
> response and am using a buffer/router before my effects. I use pedals
>for my
> overdrive needs - before the looper(s) - easy and very controlled.
>
> Using the cranked sound of one of those small amps and combining that
>with a
> looping setup would be quite a task! I never tried it because I am afraid
> this could be rather hard to balance volumewise and also because I use
>100%
> wet-type effects (whammy, compression, filters) that just don't work in a
> setup like that. But it could be done with some tinkering I think. You
>can
> lift a line out from your amp by tapping the signal from the loudspeaker.
> You'd have to knock down the signal to line level with some resistors (I
>had
> an amp tec doing this - works well) or you'd have to mike the amp
>(possibly
> in one of those isolation cabinets...), which increases schlepping factor
> and setup time considerably.
>
> My general feeling is that the playing styles through a cranked amp
> (expressive and raw) and the one for looping (a little more controlled)
>do
> not mix so well and that a I am quite happy if I send the whole schmutz
>to
> two (or sometimes three) nice sounding amps (vintage Jensen alnico
>speakers
> are indispensible for me!) with a good overdrive pedal (BJF Baby Blue
> Overdrive). I just make shure that my main loop (usually EDP) is running
> through one amp only, the other one is free for a nicely separated solo
> tone.
I used to have that problem too. Now i just run my loops through a
cranked tube amp! Actually, i don't crank the amp much... just enough to
get it clipping a bit and fat-sounding. I depend on pedals for the heavy
grunge (a Prescription Electronics Germ (also my clean buffer), the fuzz
in a cheap Danelectro wah, and my beloved Rat). Oh, and everything gets
looped. I clean out my loops by manually turning feedback to zero, then
turn it back up to start looping again. I fade in and out by turning
knobs. Well, the Echotron loops, at least... the Vortex gets different
rules, as does the analog echo.
The beauty of this setup is that my looped tone gets TONE, that whole
magnifying-glass effect of a hot tube amp and lots of gain. For years,
i've thought of distortion in the guitar chain as a sort of microscope,
magnifying tiny details. It leads me to making lots of small sounds,
just touches and squeals. Plus, with the semi-hollow guitar, it feeds
back trivially, and much of my loopage is just layers of feedback at
different pitches.
The disadvantage, at this point, is that everything gets looped whether
i want it to or not. Hopefully i'll make it more flexible later, without
losing the rich tone and touch-sensitivity.
--
-dave
"...'cause she knows that it's demanding to defeat those evil
machines..."
-The Flaming Lips, _Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1_