joegarcia

[quote name='maxrossell' post='658821' date='Nov 19 2009, 02:11 AM']What bass are you playing? Is it active? If not, did you try rolling off the bass volume a little?[/quote] Yea, it's an active bass but I tried with a passive too. Rolling off the bass stopped the breakup but then it wasn't bassy enough I spent a long time playing with eq and different gain structures but couldn't get enough crushing low without nasty breakup. I don't mind it not being clean at all but it's not a pleasant kind of distortion really. Thinking about these: [url="http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=644"]http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=644[/url]

Tried my new amp today for the first time (thanks again Gareth!) and it's fantastic. However, when I really dug in I got a 'bottoming out' sound which sounded like nasty speaker breakup. It's not speaker breakup and the drive led was coming on, there seemed to be no good middle ground with the gain control between being too quiet and distorting in an unpleasant way. I know there are compressor/limiter options but I'd like to know if anyone knows what 12ax7's might get more headroom out of the preamp. I've been told Philips are good for this but they cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions? It needs five of them so can't be [i]too[/i] pricey. It has EHX in at the moment I think. Was thinking of putting ECC81's in there as they are lower gain but am worried it won't drive the poweramp hard enough. Any ideas?

Traded my MM Sabre with Gareth for his SVT-II, top guy to deal with. Thanks so much mate.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='654550' date='Nov 14 2009, 03:25 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Trace-Elliot-Amp_W0QQitemZ280423547297QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item414a8bc1a1"]Get this[/url]. If you can collect.[/quote] Thats a lot of bang for buck!

Or, you could get a A/B/Y box and switch between the two channels/have both channels on to switch between different eq settings or levels.

Also might be worth lining the lid with some foam so that when it's closed they're held in place.

Just stick a patch lead between the inputs, it just means you are going into both channels so you drive more valves and eq.

No idea about the DI on the Mesa I'm afraid but would be surprised if it was of poor quality. What sort of venues are you playing and how would you describe your sound? If you are only playing small venues (upto about 120 capacity) and are fairly loud on stage it is debatable whether mic'ing is needed as the audience are likely to hear quite a lot of your amp out front anyway. As for mics suggestions, there are lots of threads about them on here already but I'd personally avoid kick mics like D112's and Beta52a's. These usually scoop out lots of low mids which may sound muddy for kick drums but are generally needed for bass. I'd go with something with a good low mid and bass response, perhaps with a slight lift around 2/3k. I personally rate the Beyer M88, Sennheiser MD421, Shure SM7b and EV RE20 for bass but I often get great results from an SM57 or Sennheiser 606, particularly if used with a DI to get the low end. I always think of it as DI for low end and mic for character.