Making Music

[Dr. Gonzo]

7 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

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?

 

I got the MH pretty recently second hand off reverb. I’d sold the combo over a year ago and I got a Joyo VIVO (it’s a 6505 knockoff) to replace it. I liked that more than the Katana too, tbh. But I missed having a real 3 band EQ. I’ve still got the Joyo but I don’t really use it ever, the 6505MH is a lot better. Having a valve power section (the Joyo just has 1 preamp tube, solid state power section though) does make a difference where you’re in the room playing.

I’ve only got a 1x12 with a vintage 30 currently - I think anything bigger than that and my wife would have been pretty pissed off . At my friends house when I go jam, I run it through a Mesa oversize 4x12 with 4 vintage 30s... and it sounds incredible.

It’s probably my favourite amp I’ve ever owned - just because I can get the sound I want in my bedroom... but I can also get it playing with other people and keeping up with a drummer.

If/when I’m living somewhere just a bit bigger, I’ll probably get myself a 2x12 and... I quite liked how your speaker sounds with mine, I could see myself getting the same setup.

As someone with the 6505MH & a fairly affordable pedalboard... I think that’s a great route to go. Loads of good & cheap pedals out there, especially if you buy second hand.

[Happy Blue]

Cool, do you find the heads better than the combo?  ..if you get a 2x12 just stand it on one end so it takes the same amount of space as the 1x12 you get the 2x12 vintage 30 cab and we can swap a speaker each  

These pedal boards are £99 from Andertons and the pedals are like £22 to £30 new so this might be a better option than the katana head and a bit cheaper, get a vintage 30 and my sound should improve ..I dont think pickups really matter when you can EQ them with pedals etc, was going to put Nazgul's in my new Jackson but thinking it might be a waste of £174

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

58 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

Cool, do you find the heads better than the combo?  ..if you get a 2x12 just stand it on one end so it takes the same amount of space as the 1x12 you get the 2x12 vintage 30 cab and we can swap a speaker each  

These pedal boards are £99 from Andertons and the pedals are like £22 to £30 new so this might be a better option than the katana head and a bit cheaper, get a vintage 30 and my sound should improve ..I dont think pickups really matter when you can EQ them with pedals etc, was going to put Nazgul's in my new Jackson but thinking it might be a waste of £174

 

I bought a Chinese knockoff PedalTrain off Amazon to make my pedalboard. But if you’re only sticking with Behringer something like that’s probably fine. I don’t use all that many pedals tbh, in fact there’s 2 I never really use on my pedalboard I should probably take off and sell.

Also, yeah I think the heads are better than the combo. I don’t know what speaker was in the combo, but it was just alright. Having a separate cabinet with a nice speaker is just... nicer. Plus being able to use more reasonable power for low volumes... and not having to carry the fucking combo around... it’s just all around better.

Also, imo pickups are definitely important - but probably the last thing that need changing if you’re looking for a certain tone. Right now, all 3 guitars I own have very different pickup tones - and I like that because it gives each guitar its unique character. But most of tone comes from the amp and cab - so imo pickups make a difference, but it’s not as big of a difference as some people think.

Obvious caveat there is single coils v humbuckers 

[Happy Blue]

4 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I bought a Chinese knockoff PedalTrain off Amazon to make my pedalboard. But if you’re only sticking with Behringer something like that’s probably fine. I don’t use all that many pedals tbh, in fact there’s 2 I never really use on my pedalboard I should probably take off and sell.

Also, yeah I think the heads are better than the combo. I don’t know what speaker was in the combo, but it was just alright. Having a separate cabinet with a nice speaker is just... nicer. Plus being able to use more reasonable power for low volumes... and not having to carry the fucking combo around... it’s just all around better.

Also, imo pickups are definitely important - but probably the last thing that need changing if you’re looking for a certain tone. Right now, all 3 guitars I own have very different pickup tones - and I like that because it gives each guitar its unique character. But most of tone comes from the amp and cab - so imo pickups make a difference, but it’s not as big of a difference as some people think.

Obvious caveat there is single coils v humbuckers 

I don't think i need all the pedal slots but it will be nice to have the extra space just incase  ..think i will need the nose gate, EQ, Chorus, Overdrive, my bright pink Swedish death metal pedal , Wah, Delay, mimiq doubler pedal (doubles the signal to sound like 2 to 4 guitars, really cool pedal) Mr Black ThuderClaw distortion pedal for all the weird heavy industrial sounds and maybe Amptweeker Fat Metal pedal  ..as for the pickups, the standard jackson high outputs sound a bit rubbish on there own but with that overdrive pedal at them settings above it sounds better than my EMG  81's or Blackouts with them using the overdrive or not, i was really surprised how much the tube screamer clone transformed the sound of them from dull to hot, they scream for fun with that pedal but keep the low meaty end too when chugging ..i still might get the Nazgul's because they look better and sound awesome but it was a real eye opener 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Oh I need to buy that bright pink pedal - thanks for reminding me 

[Happy Blue]

49 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Oh I need to buy that bright pink pedal - thanks for reminding me 

It's about £20 but sounds amazing, max all the settings out just back the distortion off a smidge, tune your guitar to C standard  

[Happy Blue]

@Dr. Gonzo This will give some idea of where i am with the amp sound, recorded raw with my phone in front of the cab to try capture the in room sound, you will need good headphones or speakers to pick up the low end, fair bit of clipping so if i miss any notes it's probably just the sound clipping in and out   ..you might need the password MH 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80n737

[Mel81x+]

52 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

@Dr. Gonzo This will give some idea of where i am with the amp sound, recorded raw with my phone in front of the cab to try capture the in room sound, you will need good headphones or speakers to pick up the low end, fair bit of clipping so if i miss any notes it's probably just the sound clipping in and out   ..you might need the password MH 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80n737

Phew that chug.

[Mel81x+]

So, my FocusRite decided to kick the bucket and start causing all kinds of problems so I upgraded to this.

I'd recommend it to folks who want something easy with a lot of options for mixing channels like voice/instrument, etc. Its user interface is simple, has a loopback and its has four connectors which allow stereo grouping.

[Happy Blue]

29 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

Phew that chug.

Sound quality is not the best and sounds terrible on low quality speakers, doesn't pick the bottom end up on my laptop but sounds more like the sound i'm getting my decent headphones   ..never really done any recording, will have to figure out how to record into my PC, i have a scarlet FR but don't really use it, got it for bias amp

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

@Dr. Gonzo This will give some idea of where i am with the amp sound, recorded raw with my phone in front of the cab to try capture the in room sound, you will need good headphones or speakers to pick up the low end, fair bit of clipping so if i miss any notes it's probably just the sound clipping in and out   ..you might need the password MH 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80n737

The most brutal rendition of Crazy Train I’ve ever heard

[Happy Blue]

18 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The most brutal rendition of Crazy Train I’ve ever heard

Too much low end?   ..think that vintage 30 would brighten it up a bit

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, Happy Blue said:

Too much low end?   ..think that vintage 30 would brighten it up a bit

I didn’t think it was too much. But if you think so, I’d probably tweak the bass/resonance/presence knobs a bit to see if you can tame it a bit while keeping it as heavy as you like. Also the tone knob on your OD pedal. I’d mess around with those before changing a speaker. Fucking around with the resonance can usually tighten up the bass quite a bit.

Unless you’ve got money burning your hole in your pocket and you want to get another speaker  - like we said, that 2x12 with both was pretty fucking cool sounding

[Happy Blue]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I didn’t think it was too much. But if you think so, I’d probably tweak the bass/resonance/presence knobs a bit to see if you can tame it a bit while keeping it as heavy as you like. Also the tone knob on your OD pedal. I’d mess around with those before changing a speaker. Fucking around with the resonance can usually tighten up the bass quite a bit.

Unless you’ve got money burning your hole in your pocket and you want to get another speaker  - like we said, that 2x12 with both was pretty fucking cool sounding

The bass sounded ok to me, came across a little muffled on the recording, like we said think a combo of mine with the V30 would sound better, i will mess around with the pedal some more, that was the Jackson high output pickups too, they duller sounding than the EMG's but chugg better  ..nope, not got money to burn, blew that on my new Audi that's due to land in May 

[Dr. Gonzo]

3 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

The bass sounded ok to me, came across a little muffled on the recording, like we said think a combo of mine with the V30 would sound better, i will mess around with the pedal some more, that was the Jackson high output pickups too, they duller sounding than the EMG's but chugg better  ..nope, not got money to burn, blew that on my new Audi that's due to land in May 

It’s always hard to record straight from the phone though, so getting it to sound just like it does in the room’s a big ask. I wasn’t overpowered with bass, so I think it sounded pretty good for a phone recording

[Happy Blue]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It’s always hard to record straight from the phone though, so getting it to sound just like it does in the room’s a big ask. I wasn’t overpowered with bass, so I think it sounded pretty good for a phone recording

I think it captured the tone rather well, how does the Katana mk2 brown sound compare to that?

[Dr. Gonzo]

5 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

I think it captured the tone rather well, how does the Katana mk2 brown sound compare to that?

Idk about the mk2 specifically, but imo the channel voices on YouTube don’t sound much different from the mk1...

... and I think the tones you’ve recorded are MUCH better than the Katana’s brown sound. I don’t think the Katana does a bad job of making good high gain tones... I just think the 6505 is so much fucking better at it

The Katana series is brilliant for what it is. Versatile as fuck and affordable. But I think if you’ve got a specific tone profile you’re chasing, an amp that excels in those tones is always going to sound better than an amp meant to be able to be genreless and usable by everyone. And I think it’s so cool they’re useful as gigging amps and as practice amps and can have a middle ground in a mode that’s probably meant for studios... but we’ve got the same thing with the 1W, 5W 20W settings imo.

If I didn’t have a modeler, I’d probably have kept my Katana. But I think there’s a reason I had to keep chasing an actual amp with the 6505 sound before finally heading back to a smaller 6505.

I will say, I thought the effects built into the software of the Katana were top notch. But I didn’t have a foot switch and I like to be able to keep playing while I switch effects on/off (and I didn’t have the Boss footswitch), so I didn’t get to experience the coolness fully

[Happy Blue]

24 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Idk about the mk2 specifically, but imo the channel voices on YouTube don’t sound much different from the mk1...

... and I think the tones you’ve recorded are MUCH better than the Katana’s brown sound. I don’t think the Katana does a bad job of making good high gain tones... I just think the 6505 is so much fucking better at it

The Katana series is brilliant for what it is. Versatile as fuck and affordable. But I think if you’ve got a specific tone profile you’re chasing, an amp that excels in those tones is always going to sound better than an amp meant to be able to be genreless and usable by everyone. And I think it’s so cool they’re useful as gigging amps and as practice amps and can have a middle ground in a mode that’s probably meant for studios... but we’ve got the same thing with the 1W, 5W 20W settings imo.

If I didn’t have a modeler, I’d probably have kept my Katana. But I think there’s a reason I had to keep chasing an actual amp with the 6505 sound before finally heading back to a smaller 6505.

I will say, I thought the effects built into the software of the Katana were top notch. But I didn’t have a foot switch and I like to be able to keep playing while I switch effects on/off (and I didn’t have the Boss footswitch), so I didn’t get to experience the coolness fully

Well i'm glad i asked you who has owned both amps before wasting £300 on the head   ..think i've just become tone def to the 6505 playing it so long but now i can sit and compare my recording to other videos, it's fucking brutal isn't it!  that's on the 1 watt setting too with the sound low, the head and cab cost me around £500 2nd hand, think i would struggle to buy another rig for that price range that would be that brutal  .. my phone struggled on the trem picking but picked up the chugging well but slightly muffled, will have to learn how to record properly lol

I was looking at the orange dark terror too   ..the Victory Kracken sounds good but twice the price of our MH

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Happy Blue said:

Well i'm glad i asked you who has owned both amps before wasting £300 on the head   ..think i've just become tone def to the 6505 playing it so long but now i can sit and compare my recording to other videos, it's fucking brutal isn't it!  that's on the 1 watt setting too with the sound low, the head and cab cost me around £500 2nd hand, think i would struggle to buy another rig for that price range that would be that brutal  .. my phone struggled on the trem picking but picked up the chugging well but slightly muffled, will have to learn how to record properly lol

I was looking at the orange dark terror too   ..the Victory Kracken sounds good but twice the price of our MH

Yeah, for that price I think your setup is around one of the best you could put together. Like I said, other than the pure versatility of the Katana - I think it's other big plus is that it's an amp you can use in a lot of different settings in that you can play in your bedroom but you can also make it keep up with a drummer. Our amp is the same tbh - not the same volume capability of the full sized head, obviously, but we can keep up with a drummer and mic'd up, it could be gigged with too.

It's a great little amp and for bringing the brutality, I'd always prefer it to the Katana.

I think the Dark Terror is a cool little amp. Imo though, it's an even less versatile amp than our MH. Just that EQ shape knob for either an extreme mids scoop or an extreme mids boost. You can get good old school cranked amp on the edge of breakup tones with it, but with it's high gain tone it's sort of a definite one trick pony imo. My biggest issue with it was simply... I don't think I like Orange high gain tones very much. I think they're cool amps and a lot of people can sound really great with the various high gain Oranges out there. In my own experience though, I could never tighten up the low end to what I wanted.

I've never played any Victory amps... but I've seen loads of demo videos of them. I think they're all really impressive amps. 

[Happy Blue]

@Dr. Gonzo This is one of my favourite tones, think i'm chasing this with my Mini Head   ..the pink Behringer is a metal zone clone, might try that in the red channel  like Cannibal Corpse do on the dual rectifier with my EMG guitar

 

[Happy Blue]

Holy shit!! this guy gets the Cannibal Corpse tone with the Peavey 6505 MH & Boss Metal Zone 2 pedal working as a slave in the effects return loop, V30 speakers!   

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

12 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

Holy shit!! this guy gets the Cannibal Corpse tone with the Peavey 6505 MH & Boss Metal Zone 2 pedal working as a slave in the effects return loop, V30 speakers!   

 

If the Metal Zone is in the FX return... it should be bypassing the pre-amp entirely (although I don't know how that works with different channels). A bit interesting, Ola Englund did demonstrate that this "meme" pedal is pretty immense when you use it in the FX loop.

Airis Effects are a company I've been interested in for a while... but they're very expensive. I wonder how expensive their MT-2 mod is... because I bet you we could find some cheap second hand ones and send those in to mod. But they're a pretty premium boutique pedal company, so I doubt it'd be very cheap. Although, I also wonder if Behringer make a clone of it like they do with the HM-2 & that hot pink pedal.

Ahh yep, found the Behringer clone: Behringer Ultra-Metal 300! I think Behringer shite is actually pretty hard to mod (I know it's fairly difficult to rehouse the insides into metal enclosures)... but I have always been interested in the MT-2 (because I know Marty Friedman of the golden era of Megadeth used one pretty extensively) and after seeing that Ola video where he used it as a pre-amp in his Randall Satan... I thought it was even more interesting of a pedal.

I also think if we mess around enough with the pre-gain, presence & resonance... we can get very close to sounding like a Rectifier. It's not perfect, it probably can't be perfect because of us having completely different tubes in the power section (I'm pretty sure) but I think we could come quite close. And I do have that modeler I can just run into my MH's FX return to get a Dual Recto clone going through the amp's power section

I don't think I have a guitar downtuned enough to play Cannibal Corpse riffs effectively though  - I've got one in D Standard & 2 in Standard tuning. I don't know what Cannibal Corpse use, I assume B standard, so I'd probably need to fuck with the truss rod if I changed tunings & string gauges. Not sure I want to do that!

[Happy Blue]

7 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

If the Metal Zone is in the FX return... it should be bypassing the pre-amp entirely (although I don't know how that works with different channels). A bit interesting, Ola Englund did demonstrate that this "meme" pedal is pretty immense when you use it in the FX loop.

Airis Effects are a company I've been interested in for a while... but they're very expensive. I wonder how expensive their MT-2 mod is... because I bet you we could find some cheap second hand ones and send those in to mod. But they're a pretty premium boutique pedal company, so I doubt it'd be very cheap. Although, I also wonder if Behringer make a clone of it like they do with the HM-2 & that hot pink pedal.

Ahh yep, found the Behringer clone: Behringer Ultra-Metal 300! I think Behringer shite is actually pretty hard to mod (I know it's fairly difficult to rehouse the insides into metal enclosures)... but I have always been interested in the MT-2 (because I know Marty Friedman of the golden era of Megadeth used one pretty extensively) and after seeing that Ola video where he used it as a pre-amp in his Randall Satan... I thought it was even more interesting of a pedal.

I also think if we mess around enough with the pre-gain, presence & resonance... we can get very close to sounding like a Rectifier. It's not perfect, it probably can't be perfect because of us having completely different tubes in the power section (I'm pretty sure) but I think we could come quite close. And I do have that modeler I can just run into my MH's FX return to get a Dual Recto clone going through the amp's power section

I don't think I have a guitar downtuned enough to play Cannibal Corpse riffs effectively though  - I've got one in D Standard & 2 in Standard tuning. I don't know what Cannibal Corpse use, I assume B standard, so I'd probably need to fuck with the truss rod if I changed tunings & string gauges. Not sure I want to do that!

You want the Behringer heavy metal HM300, it only has 4 dials on it, the ultra is a different pedal and has more dials  ...i tried it in the FX return and it sounded garbage, the battery in my pedal has almost gone though, the light barley comes on  just picked up some more 9V's so will try it again later, will change them in my guitars too, they still have the factory battery in lol  ..not really seen any of Airis effect pedals, i tend to buy the cheapest that sounds good as i only play on my own these days for fun 

Cannibal Corpse are using 7 strings these days in A & B tunings, my 7 string is in B standard but not been able to get it sounding good on the 6505 yet, i use it on my line 6 spider 2, sounds brutal on that (till you turn the volume up lol)

[Dr. Gonzo]

15 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

You want the Behringer heavy metal HM300, it only has 4 dials on it, the ultra is a different pedal and has more dials  ...i tried it in the FX return and it sounded garbage, the battery in my pedal has almost gone though, the light barley comes on  just picked up some more 9V's so will try it again later, will change them in my guitars too, they still have the factory battery in lol  ..not really seen any of Airis effect pedals, i tend to buy the cheapest that sounds good as i only play on my own these days for fun 

Cannibal Corpse are using 7 strings these days in A & B tunings, my 7 string is in B standard but not been able to get it sounding good on the 6505 yet, i use it on my line 6 spider 2, sounds brutal on that (till you turn the volume up lol)

In that second video they’re using an Airis modded Boss MT-2 which is a different pedal to what the HM300 is replicating (thats copying the Boss HM-2 I think, it’s what Entombed & all the Swedeath bands that aren’t melo-death use). But I think the UM300 is Behringer’s copy of the MT-2.

That’s why I mentioned that stuff. I’m definitely getting that hot pink HM300 onto my pedalboard ASAP - I just can’t find them in stock anywhere right now 

[Happy Blue]

28 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

In that second video they’re using an Airis modded Boss MT-2 which is a different pedal to what the HM300 is replicating (thats copying the Boss HM-2 I think, it’s what Entombed & all the Swedeath bands that aren’t melo-death use). But I think the UM300 is Behringer’s copy of the MT-2.

That’s why I mentioned that stuff. I’m definitely getting that hot pink HM300 onto my pedalboard ASAP - I just can’t find them in stock anywhere right now 

Here you go mate £16 + £8 shipping https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_hm300.htm  ..it's so good i bought 2 of them incase one breaks  ..Entombed's sound for £16, what a steal!!   ...i might need to pay more attention watching them videos again lol, thinking of getting the Maxon overdrive pedal though for there newer sound