Just a wee thought

[MythSte]

Does turning up the gain in a fully solid state head give a change in tone?

Answers on a postcard?

[BOD2]

Are you looking for an "authoritave" answer or an educated guess ?

If it's the latter then I would say yes it could, although it might depend on the amp design.

[MythSte]

Either or really! It dosnt affect me very much, i used to notice it a bit with my GK but not so much with the markbass.

[xgsjx]

According to the MB manual (& I think it's the same for all amps, as it was on the TE rigs I used), you should turn the volume on the bass guitar full up, turn the volume right down (no sound) on the amp & set the gain so when you play a string at it's hardest the clip light comes on, then reduce the gain very slightly.

I set mines like this but also have the volume on the bass rolled back about 1/6 once I've done that & turn the volume on the amp up a bit further if needed.

I think the difference you'll get in tone if you increase it past the clip level is a bit of digital distortion, which to 99.99% of folk sounds crap.

[rmorris]

re: "I think the difference you'll get in tone if you increase it past the clip level is a bit of digital distortion, which to 99.99% of folk sounds crap. "

Why digital distortion ? We are talking solid state (opamp and / or transistors ) here aren't we so it would be 'solid state' analogue distortion.

[MythSte]

Just like to add, im well aware about how to set gain etc. I just wondered if the extra voltage would change the EQ paremeters or anything. It was a back of the head niggle as i have nothing better to think about! ^_^

[Guest]

on my iAmp it seemed to make no tonal difference unless at extremes so i used more to set the range of the master volume knob. The only thing i would say if set too low and the master boosted to compensate you get a bit of extra noise.

Edited June 11, 2008 by steve-norris

[xgsjx]

I don't know why digital distortion, just what I read somewhere else. I could be wrong on what it's called tho.

I also didn't mean to imply that you don't know how to set gain etc, just trying to offer to anyone reading anything I learn (which I dare say there's more people on here know more than me as opposed to knowing less ), that way if I put something forward & it's incorrect then someone will correct me (hopefully) & we all gain that knowledge.

[MythSte]

[quote name='xgsjx' post='217252' date='Jun 11 2008, 10:36 PM']I don't know why digital distortion, just what I read somewhere else. I could be wrong on what it's called tho.

I also didn't mean to imply that you don't know how to set gain etc, just trying to offer to anyone reading anything I learn (which I dare say there's more people on here know more than me as opposed to knowing less ), that way if I put something forward & it's incorrect then someone will correct me (hopefully) & we all gain that knowledge.[/quote]

Yeah i realised i might have sounded a bit narky with my reply, sorry! Im sure someone will find it very helpful, and thanks for chiming in! ^_^

And as for the digital distortion... im really not sure what the correct term is! Im sure if we ask nicely BFM or AC will pop their heads round!

[xgsjx]

No worries buddy, reading back on my comment it does sound not how I meant it to. I do that all the time with the woman

[Mr. Foxen]

Its hard clipping or square wave distortion. Solid state has a very specific point where it stops amplifying, so on the wiggly line graph, it would just stop when you tried to make the wave too big and square off the top and bottom of the peaks and troughs, in a way that is not harmonically pleasing to the ear.

[umph]

aye solid states don't handle being cranked to well they distort pretty badly in my experience

[bass_ferret]

Some amps have trick curcuits for what they call soft clipping - basically they have a limiter built into the power stage and buffers built into the input stage to stop clipping.

[lowhand_mike]

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='217323' date='Jun 12 2008, 12:56 AM']Some amps have trick curcuits for what they call soft clipping - basically they have a limiter built into the power stage and buffers built into the input stage to stop clipping.[/quote]

some peaveys have that, i know the 115 combo that i used to use had it and it ment it could be pushed much harder than most amps at the same size, and in that respect it did change the sound, but as its almost a pre effect built in then its not really the boost in gain that changes the sound rather the 'effect' that does it.
heres a nice bit about clipping on the peavey site

[url="http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/concepts/clippingrevisited.cfm"]http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/co...ngrevisited.cfm[/url]

[rmorris]

heres a nice bit about clipping on the peavey site

[url="http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/concepts/clippingrevisited.cfm"]http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/co...ngrevisited.cfm[/url]
[/quote]


nice peavey link.

worth saying that not all solid state front ends distort the same way depending on the circuitry eg. op amp ( iintegrated or discrete ) with negative feedback or open loop FET transistor etc.

[rmorris]

sorry - obviously I haven't got the hang of the 'quoting' mechanism here yet.