Making Music

[Dr. Gonzo]

15 hours ago, Mpache said:

@Dr. Gonzo @Mel81x

Forge FC (rival team) fans actually attacked me for some of the lyrics 

That's hilarious 

[Mpache]

I already talked to Gonzo about this. @Mel81x if I want to make my voice sound better live, would this be a good bet?

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002W0Z8DU?linkCode=gs2&tag=sustainpunc0c-20

[Mpache]

Or is this one better?

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00GM0NX3S?linkCode=gs2&tag=sustainpunc0c-20

[Mpache]

Another one.

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

@Mel81x ... do you know of any good YouTube channels that focus on little technique warmups and exercises?

No like specific techniques or exercises in more. I’ve just been doing guitar “workouts” on some weekends to try to just overall have better technique. But I’ve mostly just been doing some exercises I have from an old instructional book (and CD... but I don’t have a CD player anymore, the Xbox won’t recoginise it even ) full of exercises. But I’m getting a bit bored of doing the same ones over and over.

[Mel81x+]

17 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

@Mel81x ... do you know of any good YouTube channels that focus on little technique warmups and exercises?

No like specific techniques or exercises in more. I’ve just been doing guitar “workouts” on some weekends to try to just overall have better technique. But I’ve mostly just been doing some exercises I have from an old instructional book (and CD... but I don’t have a CD player anymore, the Xbox won’t recoginise it even ) full of exercises. But I’m getting a bit bored of doing the same ones over and over.

Whose videos have you been following? I think i have some from Jon Petrucci that are good but I'd have to look.

[Dr. Gonzo]

9 hours ago, Mel81x said:

Whose videos have you been following? I think i have some from Jon Petrucci that are good but I'd have to look.

I've been watching Bernth & Ben Eller on YouTube for some exercises, but I've mostly been messing around with that book I told you about (Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar). I don't necessarily need to look into shred exercises tbh... I'm interested in any sort of guitar exercises that might make me better in other regards.

Just seen an interesting one on Jazz chords (which I never fucking use ever), but I'm at the office right now so I can't really grab a guitar and put that to the test 

[Happy Blue]

I'm thinking about selling my peavey mh and getting the boss katana mk2 head instead  

[Dr. Gonzo]

5 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

I'm thinking about selling my peavey mh and getting the boss katana mk2 head instead  

I probably wouldn't, if I were you. But I guess it depends what you're looking to use the amp for.

I used the Katana mk1 50W combo as a practice amp for a few months - I think it's a brilliant amp with a lot of great tones. The 100W is better (especially the head, because the fact you can use it with the built in speaker as a "big but little" amp is very cool) + having an FX loop is pretty great.

My issue with the Katana was sort of a "this amp is a jack of all trades, but not really a master of any" type of amp. You can get a lot of good tones, for probably any genre out of the Katana, not gonna lie it's got the Peavey 6505 series absolutely DESTROYED on versatility.

The obvious flipside is the 6505 is a one trick pony... but it just does that one trick so fucking well, it is ridiculous. And that trick is making fantastic gainy tones - I can even get a really fucking fantastic blues tone from the 6505. Anything more than just a bit of distortion, and I think you can make the 6505 sound absolutely fantastic. I'm sure a part of it is... I've got a lot of experience with the amp. But I know how to dial in shitloads of great tones with just a 6505 (and sometimes an overdrive pedal... but the overdrive I basically always leave on the same settings lol) - especially high gain tones.

I think the Katana's a brilliant amp and it's truly impressive with how many features they packed into the amp... but I do think you have to be prepared for doing a LOT of tweaking with your computer to get the tones you're imagining in your head to come out of your speaker cabinet.

And I've seen your guitars and I know what you like to play... tbh, the 6505 MH seems like a pretty great little amp for you.

I totally understand the desire/need to have something more versatile - and why I ended up selling my Katana was I already had a little versatile machine in my Mooer modeler that, imo, was more versatile and significantly easier to make little tweaks to. So I'd maybe take a look at the Mooer GE series (the GE150 and above are all quality, but I think the GE150 is pretty cheap... and has all the features of the 200 that I have... but it's also easier to use) - you can run your guitar into the input of that, then put the mono output going into the FX return on your 6505 and turn the cab sim off... then the Mooer just acts as a solid state pre-amp to your amp's power amp (oh, do this on the clean channel btw).

But it's also worth noting, before I had the Katana... I had the Boss GT-1000 - and while I loved having every Boss FX pedal ever made in one unit (which is similar to the Katana)... I did not like the amp models as much as, well, almost every other modeler I've ever used. And the Katana uses some of the exact same amp tones as the GT-1000. So I'm a bit biased because the 5150/6505 are probably my favourite amps of all time, and while Boss is one of my favourite companies... their amp tones just leave a little something extra missing to me. And at the end of the day, it's all personal preference.

tl;dr - 

If you want the versatility of other amps and shitloads of effects available in one unit... I'd take a look at some modelers you can use in conjunction with your current amp. That way you've got all the tones your 6505 can do so well... plus extras.

If you just want one amp that has everything in it and is versatile as fuck - yeah, why not go for the Boss Katana?

[Happy Blue]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I probably wouldn't, if I were you. But I guess it depends what you're looking to use the amp for.

I used the Katana mk1 50W combo as a practice amp for a few months - I think it's a brilliant amp with a lot of great tones. The 100W is better (especially the head, because the fact you can use it with the built in speaker as a "big but little" amp is very cool) + having an FX loop is pretty great.

My issue with the Katana was sort of a "this amp is a jack of all trades, but not really a master of any" type of amp. You can get a lot of good tones, for probably any genre out of the Katana, not gonna lie it's got the Peavey 6505 series absolutely DESTROYED on versatility.

The obvious flipside is the 6505 is a one trick pony... but it just does that one trick so fucking well, it is ridiculous. And that trick is making fantastic gainy tones - I can even get a really fucking fantastic blues tone from the 6505. Anything more than just a bit of distortion, and I think you can make the 6505 sound absolutely fantastic. I'm sure a part of it is... I've got a lot of experience with the amp. But I know how to dial in shitloads of great tones with just a 6505 (and sometimes an overdrive pedal... but the overdrive I basically always leave on the same settings lol) - especially high gain tones.

I think the Katana's a brilliant amp and it's truly impressive with how many features they packed into the amp... but I do think you have to be prepared for doing a LOT of tweaking with your computer to get the tones you're imagining in your head to come out of your speaker cabinet.

And I've seen your guitars and I know what you like to play... tbh, the 6505 MH seems like a pretty great little amp for you.

I totally understand the desire/need to have something more versatile - and why I ended up selling my Katana was I already had a little versatile machine in my Mooer modeler that, imo, was more versatile and significantly easier to make little tweaks to. So I'd maybe take a look at the Mooer GE series (the GE150 and above are all quality, but I think the GE150 is pretty cheap... and has all the features of the 200 that I have... but it's also easier to use) - you can run your guitar into the input of that, then put the mono output going into the FX return on your 6505 and turn the cab sim off... then the Mooer just acts as a solid state pre-amp to your amp's power amp (oh, do this on the clean channel btw).

But it's also worth noting, before I had the Katana... I had the Boss GT-1000 - and while I loved having every Boss FX pedal ever made in one unit (which is similar to the Katana)... I did not like the amp models as much as, well, almost every other modeler I've ever used. And the Katana uses some of the exact same amp tones as the GT-1000. So I'm a bit biased because the 5150/6505 are probably my favourite amps of all time, and while Boss is one of my favourite companies... their amp tones just leave a little something extra missing to me. And at the end of the day, it's all personal preference.

tl;dr - 

If you want the versatility of other amps and shitloads of effects available in one unit... I'd take a look at some modelers you can use in conjunction with your current amp. That way you've got all the tones your 6505 can do so well... plus extras.

If you just want one amp that has everything in it and is versatile as fuck - yeah, why not go for the Boss Katana?

Thanks for all the info mate   ..i was looking for a more brutal tone with a deep punch with it as i play on my own and like a lot of low end with the high gain, i noticed the Katana mk2 head has a deep mode and the brown sound seem ok from the video's i've seen  ..my peavey mini has never really wowed me, maybe it's the eminence governor 2x12 cab i've paired it with or maybe it needs new tubes?  no warning lights come on but can only get an ok tone out of it, maybe it's my settings or the fact i only play at bedroom volumes so not cranking it, another reason why i think the solid state katana head might be a better fit for me

What are your settings for the most brutal sound? do you have the bright switch in or out? 

[Dr. Gonzo]

44 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

Thanks for all the info mate   ..i was looking for a more brutal tone with a deep punch with it as i play on my own and like a lot of low end with the high gain, i noticed the Katana mk2 head has a deep mode and the brown sound seem ok from the video's i've seen  ..my peavey mini has never really wowed me, maybe it's the eminence governor 2x12 cab i've paired it with or maybe it needs new tubes?  no warning lights come on but can only get an ok tone out of it, maybe it's my settings or the fact i only play at bedroom volumes so not cranking it, another reason why i think the solid state katana head might be a better fit for me

What are your settings for the most brutal sound? do you have the bright switch in or out? 

What wattage are you running the MH? For bedroom volumes drop run it at the absolute lowest wattage, so knock it into 1watt. You lose headroom compared to 20w or 5w... but you don’t need the amp’s maximum headroom. And it’s still plenty fucking loud tbh 

You probably don’t need new valves, at least not yet. They last a lot longer than I’d have expected, plus yeah there’s the warning lights.

For a brutal tone at 1W, first just put everything at 6 or something and dial in the post-gain to a volume you like that’s not going to be too loud.

Most of the high gain tone with the amp is coming from the pre-amp, but your volume might be impacting why you don’t like the low end sounds now. But that’s the first thing I’d set, get the volume at where you’re comfortable with it and where you’re not pissing off everyone around you.

You’ve got the Behringer 808 tubescreamer clone, yeah? We’ll be needing an overdrive for the settings I recommend, I think. At least, I’d do it with an overdrive. So here’s a brutal death metal tone.

Lead channel 

Pre-gain (if post gain volume is lower than 4): 6 or 6.5 (I wouldn’t go past 7, gets very fizzy imo)

Pre-gain (if post-gain volume is higher than 4): 4 - I never go above 4 on the pre-gain when I can play loudly (same fizzy issue)

Low: 5 or 6

Mids: fucking around with this one will probably make a huge impact on how you sound. For something super brutal I’d probably go with a 7 here. Imo anything from 4-7 would work here it just depends what you’re going for. If it sounds too “honky” at 7, just drop it a bit.

High: I’d probably go with 6 here

Presence: 7

Resonance: 4 (MESS WITH THIS ONE IF YOU DONT LIKE YOUR LOW END TOO)

Now turn your overdrive off for a second. Give it a few chugs and play a few riffs, see if you like how it sounds. Then make sure your pedal levels are: gain - all the way down, level - all the way up, tone... you will determine where you want that.

Now kick the pedal on and it should have massively tightened up your low end. Set the tone to how you think it sounds best.

That should get you nice and brutal sounding. Other than that... idk much about those speakers but I do know that 6505s pair nicely with vintage 30 speakers.

[Happy Blue]

39 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

What wattage are you running the MH? For bedroom volumes drop run it at the absolute lowest wattage, so knock it into 1watt. You lose headroom compared to 20w or 5w... but you don’t need the amp’s maximum headroom. And it’s still plenty fucking loud tbh 

You probably don’t need new valves, at least not yet. They last a lot longer than I’d have expected, plus yeah there’s the warning lights.

For a brutal tone at 1W, first just put everything at 6 or something and dial in the post-gain to a volume you like that’s not going to be too loud.

Most of the high gain tone with the amp is coming from the pre-amp, but your volume might be impacting why you don’t like the low end sounds now. But that’s the first thing I’d set, get the volume at where you’re comfortable with it and where you’re not pissing off everyone around you.

You’ve got the Behringer 808 tubescreamer clone, yeah? We’ll be needing an overdrive for the settings I recommend, I think. At least, I’d do it with an overdrive. So here’s a brutal death metal tone.

Lead channel 

Pre-gain (if post gain volume is lower than 4): 6 or 6.5 (I wouldn’t go past 7, gets very fizzy imo)

Pre-gain (if post-gain volume is higher than 4): 4 - I never go above 4 on the pre-gain when I can play loudly (same fizzy issue)

Low: 5 or 6

Mids: fucking around with this one will probably make a huge impact on how you sound. For something super brutal I’d probably go with a 7 here. Imo anything from 4-7 would work here it just depends what you’re going for. If it sounds too “honky” at 7, just drop it a bit.

High: I’d probably go with 6 here

Presence: 7

Resonance: 4 (MESS WITH THIS ONE IF YOU DONT LIKE YOUR LOW END TOO)

Now turn your overdrive off for a second. Give it a few chugs and play a few riffs, see if you like how it sounds. Then make sure your pedal levels are: gain - all the way down, level - all the way up, tone... you will determine where you want that.

Now kick the pedal on and it should have massively tightened up your low end. Set the tone to how you think it sounds best.

That should get you nice and brutal sounding. Other than that... idk much about those speakers but I do know that 6505s pair nicely with vintage 30 speakers.

Think i have it on 20watt as the 1w sounded a little weak but will play around with the settings in a bit as guess i'm not having it loud enough for the 20w mode lol ..yeah, i got the tube screamer clone, i use it with my new Warrior with the passives in but seems a bit ott with the active 81's and ends up with too much high range and lose that bottom end  ..i have my mids around 10am, never been a big fan of having them up high, lose that bottom end again, everything else is about 2pm (7ish on the dial) presence at 12oclock and res about 2pm  ..do you have them 2 little switches pressed in or out? think it's bright and something else

Here is a comparison of the vintage 30's and my speakers, skip to 2mins  ..think mine sound duller but more sinister! what do you think?  ..maybe i do need more mids with these? 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

45 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

Think i have it on 20watt as the 1w sounded a little weak but will play around with the settings in a bit as guess i'm not having it loud enough for the 20w mode lol ..yeah, i got the tube screamer clone, i use it with my new Warrior with the passives in but seems a bit ott with the active 81's and ends up with too much high range and lose that bottom end  ..i have my mids around 10am, never been a big fan of having them up high, lose that bottom end again, everything else is about 2pm (7ish on the dial) presence at 12oclock and res about 2pm  ..do you have them 2 little switches pressed in or out? think it's bright and something else

Here is a comparison of the vintage 30's and my speakers, skip to 2mins  ..think mine sound duller but more sinister! what do you think?  ..maybe i do need more mids with these? 

 

I’ll check that video out in a little bit, that might change my opinion. It’s always hard with YouTube videos because it all depends on how everything is mic’d up and sometimes in a room it sounds completely different. Watching a film with my wife now.

But without watching anything... it’s 2x12 speakers from one of the best speaker companies out there... I feel like they probably don’t need replacing . I’m hesitant to tell anyone to replace something that’s already very nice.

If 1W sounds a bit shit, bump it up to 5W. But yeah, on 20w you probably can’t have the post up to what you’d want for a more thumpy low end. But either way, scaling the power down will allow you to turn the post-gain up higher and that will probably get you a bit more of the tone you were looking for.

And tbh there’s tons of great ways to dial in the 6505 - so I’m sure your settings also sound great and heavy as fuck. It’s a pretty great amp.

[Mel81x+]

9 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I've been watching Bernth & Ben Eller on YouTube for some exercises, but I've mostly been messing around with that book I told you about (Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar). I don't necessarily need to look into shred exercises tbh... I'm interested in any sort of guitar exercises that might make me better in other regards.

Just seen an interesting one on Jazz chords (which I never fucking use ever), but I'm at the office right now so I can't really grab a guitar and put that to the test 

I think Bernth and Ben Eller make good instructional videos although this is the thing with practice right? It never stops and no matter how many times you do it you still have to go back to it haha. 

As for jazz chords, i will say this, they create sounds that could be very useful in any genre of music but with more heavier tones they really do get brittle once you tack on gain and other things. Still, they are good for finger exercising and if you dont use them a lot they can be quite a challenge on day 1. I'd say the best exercise and as stupid as it may sound is neck traversal with variations. over the years ive seen exercises that focus practice on picking, speed, etc but neck traversal is very crucial to me as it teaches the person how to utilize the neck to play in octaves, etc. Try this exercise if you havent already.

He's got the charisma of cardboard but hes not wrong in what he teaches lol.

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Mel81x said:

I think Bernth and Ben Eller make good instructional videos although this is the thing with practice right? It never stops and no matter how many times you do it you still have to go back to it haha. 

As for jazz chords, i will say this, they create sounds that could be very useful in any genre of music but with more heavier tones they really do get brittle once you tack on gain and other things. Still, they are good for finger exercising and if you dont use them a lot they can be quite a challenge on day 1. I'd say the best exercise and as stupid as it may sound is neck traversal with variations. over the years ive seen exercises that focus practice on picking, speed, etc but neck traversal is very crucial to me as it teaches the person how to utilize the neck to play in octaves, etc. Try this exercise if you havent already.

He's got the charisma of cardboard but hes not wrong in what he teaches lol.

holy shit you were not wrong about that guys charisma  - good info though. My dad taught me a similar lesson when I was a kid. Invaluable stuff really, thinking about the fretboard terms of octaves and intervals 

The jazz chords are a pretty great stretch, which I sort of need a bit as while I’ve had a pretty good recovery from a severed tendon... it’s still a bit tight in my fretting hand. I wasn’t intending on using them as hand stretching exercises... but I think I will from now on.

Also @Happy Blue after listening to the clips... I don’t think your speakers need to be replaced - those should definitely be giving you some more of the low end thump you’re missing.

I am 95% sure you’ll be able to get a bit closer to what you’re wanting with 1W or 5W - so give that a try. And generally if you want a “bigger” sound at lower volume you can pump the gain up to more than you’d normally use with the amp at louder volumes. So just do a few little tweaks with the wattage down first before you give up on that brilliant little amp.

I am admittedly a 5150/6505 fanboy though 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Oh also I don’t have the bright switch clicked in @Happy Blue - I do sometimes but... very rarely

[Happy Blue]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Oh also I don’t have the bright switch clicked in @Happy Blue - I do sometimes but... very rarely

What about the other switch next to it?  ..it's 7am here, time to wake up the street! 

[Happy Blue]

23 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Also @Happy Blue after listening to the clips... I don’t think your speakers need to be replaced - those should definitely be giving you some more of the low end thump you’re missing.

I am 95% sure you’ll be able to get a bit closer to what you’re wanting with 1W or 5W - so give that a try. And generally if you want a “bigger” sound at lower volume you can pump the gain up to more than you’d normally use with the amp at louder volumes. So just do a few little tweaks with the wattage down first before you give up on that brilliant little amp.

I am admittedly a 5150/6505 fanboy though 

 

That's what i thought when i bought the cab, they more low end than top end arnt they, i think Mick from Slipknot uses them or did use them  ..do you think they might need more middle?   ..i will have a good mess with it shortly and let you know how i get on, might see how well my phone records it 

[Mel81x+]

im curious to see what tone that amp gives out now.

[Happy Blue]

Ok, had a good mess around, got it sounding beefy but muffled on the 1watt setting ..on tell you click the overdrive pedal on then it clears it right up but keeps that chunky bottom ..cheers @Dr. Gonzo it seems I needed an insane amount of gain with the low watt setting and the overdrive as boost & eq to get it sounding good, still sounds crap without the pedal because the amount of bass i have on

Here are my settings  

 

[CaaC (John)+]

4 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

 

That's what i thought when i bought the cab, they more low end than top end arnt they, i think Mick from Slipknot uses them or did use them  ..do you think they might need more middle?   ..i will have a good mess with it shortly and let you know how i get on, might see how well my phone records it 

Every time I see a post by you I think we have another @Happy Blue just joined because this is not there 

[Happy Blue]

2 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Every time I see a post by you I think we have another @Happy Blue just joined because this is not there 

No, i use my real face now! 

[CaaC (John)+]

4 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

No, i use my real face now! 

 Oh right...

[Dr. Gonzo]

8 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

What about the other switch next to it?  ..it's 7am here, time to wake up the street! 

Isn’t the crunch switch to make the clean channel more dirty?

I’m not 100% sure  - mines not clicked in, for what it’s worth. I think if you wanna play some Zeppelin, Sabbath, Van Halen, maybe some Maiden & Judas Priest (I’d still use the red channel for those 2 and make them sound a bit heavier lol) - you’d want that clicked in on the green channel.

Gonna be honest though; I mostly just use the one channel.

4 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

Ok, had a good mess around, got it sounding beefy but muffled on the 1watt setting ..on tell you click the overdrive pedal on then it clears it right up but keeps that chunky bottom ..cheers @Dr. Gonzo it seems I needed an insane about of gain with the low watt setting and the overdrive as boost & eq to get it sounding good, still sounds crap without the pedal because the amount of bass i have on

Here are my settings  

 

Yeah, I don’t know what it is about high gain amps... but imo using a tubescreamer style OD to tighten up flubby low end almost always seems to work really nicely.

If you ever use a Mesa Boogie Double or Triple Rectifier... it’s an extreme difference in the low end with an OD compared to without it. I think it’s why you find so many tubescreamer style pedals on so many metalhead’s pedalboards.

Does make me wonder how the fuck James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine (I think Dave Mustaine’s amps have a boost built in though) get their tones without overdrives 

But happy to help! Getting those 6505 tones at low volume is one of the big selling points of the amp - so I’m glad we could bring you THE BRUTALITY but also not have you blow out your ear drums 

With that OD pedal, I think you’ll find you can now fuck around with the amp’s EQ and gain a lot and get a ton of really high quality high gain tones

9 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

 

That's what i thought when i bought the cab, they more low end than top end arnt they, i think Mick from Slipknot uses them or did use them  ..do you think they might need more middle?   ..i will have a good mess with it shortly and let you know how i get on, might see how well my phone records it 

I thought it was sort of similar sounding to the Celestion Greenbacks that you typically find in Marshall cabs.

I’ll tell you what though, I thought the combo of both the Vintage 30 & the The Governor in his 2x12 sounded fucking incredible. Really liked the way the 2 sounded at the same time.

[Happy Blue]

9 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Isn’t the crunch switch to make the clean channel more dirty?

I’m not 100% sure  - mines not clicked in, for what it’s worth. I think if you wanna play some Zeppelin, Sabbath, Van Halen, maybe some Maiden & Judas Priest (I’d still use the red channel for those 2 and make them sound a bit heavier lol) - you’d want that clicked in on the green channel.

Gonna be honest though; I mostly just use the one channel.

Yeah, I don’t know what it is about high gain amps... but imo using a tubescreamer style OD to tighten up flubby low end almost always seems to work really nicely.

If you ever use a Mesa Boogie Double or Triple Rectifier... it’s an extreme difference in the low end with an OD compared to without it. I think it’s why you find so many tubescreamer style pedals on so many metalhead’s pedalboards.

Does make me wonder how the fuck James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine (I think Dave Mustaine’s amps have a boost built in though) get their tones without overdrives 

But happy to help! Getting those 6505 tones at low volume is one of the big selling points of the amp - so I’m glad we could bring you THE BRUTALITY but also not have you blow out your ear drums 

With that OD pedal, I think you’ll find you can now fuck around with the amp’s EQ and gain a lot and get a ton of really high quality high gain tones

I thought it was sort of similar sounding to the Celestion Greenbacks that you typically find in Marshall cabs.

I’ll tell you what though, I thought the combo of both the Vintage 30 & the The Governor in his 2x12 sounded fucking incredible. Really liked the way the 2 sounded at the same time.

You could be right, i only use the green channel to use my Entombed pedal  which sounds brutal through this amp & speaker combo  ..i haven't used many different amps to be fair, i was very happy with my line 6 spider 2 for a long time at bedroom volumes, used it for about 10years and still going strong today, don't know why this amp gets so much hate, it's got some great pre sets and nailed metallica's ride the lightning sound, only sounds crap when you have the volume right up lol

When you look at gear rundowns they all seem to uses tube screamers or the MXR overdrive, the guy from cannibal corpse used 2 for some reason  bet its just so he can say he uses two   ..instead of changing amp i might just put a pedal board together instead, them cheap pedals i have sound good so will stick with them

You are right, the vintage 30 and the Governor really sounded great together and i might even do that to my cab, the high end of the 30 with the low end of the Governor sounded dynamic, a great in your face full fat sound!  

What speaker is in your peavey combo?  or do you have the head now too?