The art of HUSHsshhhhhh part 2

Sometimes, infact most times buying an expensive low powered amp is not always viable, it may not even give you the sound you want. Yes, my 59 AC10 twin rocks, but it's still not quiet, and the bottom end just doesn't feel the same on the tiny low powered amps, so how do we get our big rigs to rock out at low level.
I'll share with you a little trick that i've used very succesfully around the office. Firstly, i'm not a big fan of attenuators, i know many swear by them, but for me the fundemantal change in tone is too drastic.
Here's a nifty little trick to try.
I set my rig up as I would normally and turn it up to a decent stage volume, (oh it sounds so good!)but at this level it is completely impractical for anything except full on rocking out.
OK, now from the output of my rig which normally goes into my amp i put a fab sounding low gain OD pedal. I've had great results with a King Of Tone, HotCake, Kingsley Jester, even a Blues Driver. I set the pedal up to be almost transparent so you can't tell when you have it on or off. After this is done i simply use the master volume on the pedal to turn down the entire rig.
The cool thing about this approach is the pedal compresses like the back end of the amp when it's cooking so you still get a bit of that natural feel even though the volume is really low.
Try it and see what you think!

playing queit - the art to hush

I played in bands for many years fronted by female artists. They were fantastic but a consistent problem was stage volume. After this it was bands with the boys and balls to the walls rocking out! Now with the new prog project the levels are much more controlled. Instantly, as soon as the volume drops that old 'quiet tone syndrome' comes back. So how do you do it? Get that tone at low levels? There are so many elements to great tone but one thing that stays consistent is the relationship between the amps' output stage and quality of tone. One of the most popular modern boutique amps being made today is the 15 watt ac15 style amp. The advantage these amps have is that you can turn them up without killing people. And when that output stage gets working you get that lovely output stage clipping that sounds so fab. Pair this with a matched low powered speaker and those great tones start to emerge. However, 15 watts is still by no means quiet. its generally ok if using a drummer but sometimes the use of a less efficient speaker is needed to get the amp cooking.
Over the next few days we'll have a look at some more techniques to get the best tome at low volume.

more madness on the way

I wish i could tell you more, i really do, but let me just say i haven't slept in 3 days, we've been working around the clock on a new tone toy and it is going to be stella! Hopefully we'l have it ready to go for NAMM, in fact we hope to have a couple of new toys ready for NAMM in Jan, so i'll keep you all in the loop, pun semi intended.