Hi all, here's an excuse to show off my new setup.
I was down at the music store and saw a mint used switchazel pedal ABY pedal. So it suddenly came to my mind to try it out with my MP1 and JCM 2000. I always thought the MP1 was a little thin sounding but it has that 80's mid range that I can't get on my amps even with pre distortion eq and post and all that fun stuff. It sounds way too thin if i want that cheesy 80's mid range So I thought why not pair it up with a tube amp.
As soon as I hooked everything up, I got this huge sound. Even my wife commented on how great it sounds. and this was before I bothered re eqing everything. When running 2 amps with high gain, I really had to thin out the sound a little because I was getting too much low mids. It sounded huge, but muddy. This is where I had to sit down and really mess with my EQ pedal and rack EQ. here is how signal chain goes. (low volume settings, i got kids and wife)
guitar- KORG pitchblack tuner switchazel aby pedal- output 1: Ibanez TS9 - ADA MP1 - FX loop - Fostex 3120 spring reverb - ART 31 band EQ - Mosvalve poweramp - Orange 2x12
output 2: Diamond compressor - MXR mirco amp - Earthquaker devices palisades overdrive - BOSS NS2 - JCM 2000 - FX loop- BOSS ce5 - MXR 10 band EQ - Fostex 3120 spring reverb - Rivera Rockcrusher attenuator - MESA 2X12
Patch setting on ADA B:0, M:-2 T:4 P:2 OD1:4.4 OD2:4.4 dip in EQ from 80hz down, -2 250hz, +1 1khz, +1 2.5khz. 8 o clock on presence knob on Mosvalve
settings on JCM 2000: P:5, T:5, M:4.5, B:5.5 red channel volume: 4, gain: 5.5. -20 DB on Attenuator. -1 31.25hz, -1 16khz.
ADA is boosted with TS9 on 0 gain and volume @ 3 o clock
JCM 2000 is boosted with Palisades with 0 gain and volume @ 2 o clock
results:
cheesy 80's mids from the MP1 and the treble and bass from the JCM 2000. I find that setting the MP1 with low gain and boosting adds an extra layer of distortion giving me a more solid and focus thump. Using an attenuator allows me to cook those power tubes without going death on the JCM. By running 2 amps together, you can get the take characteristics of the amps and combine them. It is very tricky to balance the eq of the amps because you may get a frequency that overpowers other frequencies especially if both amps are somewhat similar since the ADA is based off a modded marshall.