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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Amp Settings Question
Amp Settings Question
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Littoral
696 posts
Dec 28, 2012
3:02 PM
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Hi, I’m picking up a new amp soon (Peavey) because the guy I heard playing though one sounded great (I played through it too). I’m getting the amp for $150. He sent me an email listing his settings and I’d like to hear any thoughts on his interpretation about how to use the A/AB adjustment and any other thoughts you have on the settings. Thanks
Here are my settings with the VK112. The only modification I’ve made to the amp is a speaker swap with an Eminence Texas Heat. The stock ValveKing speaker is actually a really great speaker for harp because it tends to be a little on the dark side and really attenuates the highs, at least to my ear.
Input: #2 (low gain)
Bass: anywhere from 3 o’clock to full-on
Middle: 12 o’clock
Treble: anywhere from full-off to 9 o’clock
Reverb: Off
Bright: I sometimes activate this switch to cut through the mix a little better. It’s like using a presence control at full tilt.
On rear of amp:
Resonance: IN (Loose setting – more bottom end)
Texture: Full Left (100% Class A) – This (allegedly) cuts power from 50 watts down to 20. It allows the amp to break up a little sooner. It’s subtle, but is definitely there. Volume will not suffer in Class A mode. (Amplifier Rule #1 – It takes a tenfold increase in power to double the volume output. So, in theory, a 50-watt Bassman is only twice as loud as a 5-watt Fender Champ, provided they are playing through the same speaker compliment. Too many people get sucked into the power rating hype. More power will give you more headroom, but not make the amp louder, per se. Guitar players need lots of headroom for playing rhythm chords and stuff, because that requires a lot of power from the amp. However, since harp playing tends to be a lot of single notes with a few 3-note chords here and there, we do not tax the amp’s power section as much as a guitar with six strings. Consequently, we get more bang out of any given amp, because the power is more efficiently used. Gary Primich used a 1959 Fender 3X10 Bandmaster pushing 26 watts. I saw him play about 8 times and never once did he mic his amp.)
Here is what I’ve found to be true:
• With Texture on full Class A and Resonance IN (loose), you get an old tweed Fender sound – early breakup, more compressed with less volume spikes, smooth
• With the Texture on full Class A/B and Resonance OUT (tight), you get a blackface Fender sound – punchy, a lot of attack with later breakup
Littoral Adding: here’s the description of Texture from the Peavey site:
What Is Texture™?
If you haven't turned a ValveKing around, you've only heard half of the story. The rear panel is where you'll find the patented Texture control, which adjusts the amp's response characteristics from modern Class A/B push-pull to vintage Class A, or ANY tone between the two. From metal to jazz and modern to vintage, the ValveKing has the tonal options you are looking for.
"With the Texture knob set fully to the A/B position, the amp runs at full power, hitting hard and offering tons of headroom. As you rotate the knob toward Class A operation, the amp becomes increasingly sweet, with a softer attack and lower volume. Even order harmonics are added in the process, and the power output can drop to as little as 40 watts. This useful and well integrated circuit should be standard equipment on every tube amp." - Guitar World
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Thievin' Heathen
114 posts
Dec 28, 2012
5:11 PM
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Wow! Congrats on the new amp. All I know to tell you on knob setting is bass up & treble down, and you want to use those "Bright" switches very sparingly.
I put 5751's in V1 on all my tube amps and I have an AU7 in the lead channel on my Peavey Bravo which makes it useable. Switching out tubes will probably negate the previous owner's setting advice, but that is just as well anyway. I can't imagine setting an amp up once and leaving it alone.
Being that it is already there, go ahead and try the reverb. Think of it as a poor man's delay pedal.
$150 was a steal.
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rbeetsme
1014 posts
Dec 28, 2012
5:54 PM
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Most players I know set the bass high, treble low and the middle nearly off. However, not all amps are identical. Good luck with the Peavey, let us know how you like it.
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5F6H
1467 posts
Dec 29, 2012
4:28 AM
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The texture control will drop clean power, but even though you are not making the amp's rated clean W RMS (amp wattage ratings refer to clean signals, at settings harp players never use, at signal levels harp players never use - they're just a diagnostic state, not particlarly relevant) the amp tone may be more desirable and useable volume, though somewhat distorted (a good thing in most folk's book) may increase.
When dialling in/modding/optimising amps for harp we often end up ultimately reducing their clean capability, even the way we set the tone controls can do this, but an amp that makes a genuine, average 20-30W "real world" watts on the bandstand can be plenty loud enough with a regular 4-5 piece blues combo...I have played on stage (others have too) with amps that make ~10W and been plenty loud because those amps had high voltages, big power supplies and large efficient speaker arrays.
The thing to remember is that we hear in dB not in Watts, like a fast car is fast because it hits a certain number of miles an hour, not because it has a certain number of BHP...they can and do dovetail most of the time, but equally there are situations where they have little relevance to each other.
The principal isn't new, but I believe Peavey have applied for a patent to cover their interpretation of how it physically applied. Variations of this idea have been around for 2 decades as a creative application and much longer ago than that as a "happy accident", it has been widely used on amps in general, including some harp amps and can be applied in a number of ways to any push-pull amp. It doesn't affect bias current (despite the fact it's arbitrary title suggests it might) so don't worry about burning up your tubes early.
It basically just turns down one power tube, similar to Gerald Weber's 'Waveform symmetry control' on the TC35 harp amp. You could get a similar effect with your Concert by putting a 12DW7 in V6 (next to the power tubes), or by mismatching plate current on a pair of power tubes (making sure the hotter tube is not dangerously hot).
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Last Edited by on Dec 29, 2012 6:50 AM
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