Emohawk wrote:
...As Brent always tells us it is extremely difficult to capture how an amp feels live with a recording, no matter how nice your gear is...
...Clean clips:
These sound a little too compressed & middy to my ears. I would hope for the amp to sound a little more open & "bouncy". That may just be the character of the Jensen Blackbird, or an artifact caused by J-rock's recording setup. The cleans sound a little sterile & lifeless. Reminds me of the cleans on my Traynor YCS100 - it's just clean, but not really all that alive.
I realize that a Tweed/F-series has a darker/warmer character than a Blackface/AB763, but I didn't think it was a huge difference. I've built both and based on those I expected this to be more open & round, especially with the 6L6 in there.
I wonder how it would sound through a Jensen P10 series. Does the Blackbird sound this compressed live? Stephen noted that it sounds brighter live, but is it also more open overall?
...When run through my Fane (clone) loaded Triwatt cab those same amps make me salivate uncontrollably. Perhaps I just like a slightly more relaxed/open/hi-fi character to my tone, and this is all just personal taste talking.
One side note here - most of the OD clips were done with an Explorer, and if it has the stock 500T in the bridge, that's probably part of the reason I disliked them. I absolutely DETEST that pickup! The reason is it's too undefined & muddy (IMO). I dislike it so much I once sold an SG because it had one...and anyone who knows me will tell you that I LOVE SG's! It was a 24-fret with an ebony board too (drool) If your Explorer doesn't have the stock 500T, well, disregard this paragraph!
A microphone a couple of inches away from a speaker will never sound the same as an amp does from several feet away interacting with a room... however, if it sounds good through a microphone a few inches away, you can bet it'll sound great in a nice room from a distance... when people say "my amp sounds great live but sucks for recording" I'm inclined to think that the room/environment is masking what the amp REALLY sounds like... but IME, any amp that sounded good with mics up close, sounded pretty great everywhere else too... when I get the new and improved Tramp back, I'll record some room with it to give a more accurate "live" context...
I'm not sure "open" and "bouncy" is how I'd characterize the Tramp - these are more things I'd associate with Stephen's Deluxe and TC15. The Tramp has more thickness, more of a low-mid focus thing that makes it warm and vintage sounding. The top is very smooth and dark and perhaps even a little compressed sounding - different from Stephen's other designs for sure... but in my multi-Trinity arsenal, that's a REALLY good thing - the one place in my work that I would always go for something non-Trinity is when I wanted a tone with a darker top end. The Tramp solves this.
Admittedly, the amp is a little darker than I anticipated as well, but I LOVE it, and certainly don't think it's top-deficient!! And just for the record, I haven't heard it with the 6L6!
I suggested a Jensen P10R (a la the Super Reverb) to Stephen also, I think it would sound GREAT - especially if the new 'Tude mode works as advertised... P10's breakup is gorgeous!
When the Tramp was at the Chapel, we did test it briefly through my 410 with TTC's and I thought it sounded FANTASTIC - hard to make a fair comparison with a single 10 and four 10's though... I would anticipate though that a TTC could be a little toppier and more open...
I think it is your personal taste talking Emo!! You're just not going to get what you get from the Triwatt/Fane combo out of the Tramp - it's not supposed to be the same... it's totally different but EQUALLY COOL imo...
Interesting on the 500T... I don't have a ton of experience with them, but interestingly Rob had a LP with a 500T in it at our little Tramp session and both Mark and I were drooling over the tones coming out of it!! I don't think I have any clips with it (Rob arrived late so all of the clips are Mark playing) but when I get the Tramp back, I'll get Rob back to see if we can demonstrate what we were all drooling about!!
Anyway, I'll be at the studio in a couple of hours and I'll take care of those clips first thing... they're very informal though, and the majority I have no idea what guitar or settings we used - I just let the hard disk roll while we played/tweaked... hopefully they'll shed some light on what we were hearing that night!!
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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter
www.slyfichapel.com