The Cool Thing About Using ADA Gear

[Dante]

So, I was playing a private party last Friday night at a country club (very snooty crowd, but they did party hard, lots of drinks). Of course, there's a guy somewhere in the crowd that plays guitar & prods you for information. I'm always happy to spread the Gospel of ADA and inform people of their true potential.

These days, most folks have a combo amp or a stack that has two, maybe three (or sometimes four) channels. Then, they either use a multi-effects pedal or a bunch of stomp boxes, or both. I'm not saying that's bad, that's just the most common setup I see from other guys. Now, when I show up with a rack and two tiny speaker cabs (that weigh as much as my old car), they generally don't think much of the 'stack' because it's looks like a bass rig (I guess). After the first set, that's when they come asking what the hell that is.

Here's my pitch:

Y'know how cool it is to play through a Boogie?
Y'know how cool it is to play through a modded Marshall head?
Have you ever felt the transparent goodness of a Fender combo cranked way up?

Now, what if you could have all that in one amp? Hell, what if you could have 128 different tones in your rig? That's what this does.

Of course, there are other programmable amps & preamps out there, but y'know...my drug of choice is gonna be the originator  :ada-big:

[El Chiguete]

Preach the gospel!!!

BTW can you tell what is your main go to Boggie, Marshall and transparent Fender preset settings?

[Dante]

Hey El,

I'll post them when I get home. Briefly; I use both my preamps to get all those tones, but I prefer the MP-1 Classic for the Modded Marshall tones, the MP-2 for the cleans and both are even for the Boogie tones, with the slight edge going to the MP-2 for it's EQ section alone.

[Batsinthebelltower]

for sure dante , the ada is without doubt the most versatile . I recently had a lend of a mesa single rectifier , and it was cool for sure, but once you get a good sound , its like how do you save this ? You have to keep it that way and if you turn the nobs its gone . 128 presets is where its at !

[rnolan]

+1, the ADAs' are still (albeit a little older) the best preamps I've ever come across. The move from a '72 Marshall to MP1 was so easy, suddenly I had 128 of them (if I wanted it at different vols and FXs which I did..), then MP2 took me to even better heights, the classic seems to be the glue in between, would love to get one... 240v please if any one wants to part with it ? Though MJMP does have 220v transformer so 110v models considered..

[El Chiguete]

Dante Im still waiting on your patches :)

[Dante]

Dante Im still waiting on your patches :)

Whooops, I guess so! Here's a good coupla tones from my Classic:

Modern Rock
Voice = Distortion
OD1 = 7.6
OD2 = 6.5
Master = 5.8
Bass = 12
Mid = -8
Treb = 0
Pres = 6
Gate = t3.8
Chorus = out

Metal
Voice = Brown
OD1 = 9.0
OD2 = 9.0
Master = 7.2
Bass = 8
Mid = -10
Treb = -2
Pres = 4
Gate = t2.8
Chorus = out

This is from the bank of patches for my Goldtop Ibanez, which has a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge. Mahogany body with maple cap, 3pc Maple neck with rosewood fretboard. YMMV

[El Chiguete]

Dante besides the Bass values we have a very similar EQ in that we us the mids in -8 or -10 and the Treb and Pres around/bellow 0 or not much above.

[Systematic Chaos]

I'm always amazed when I see how you guys set your Bass and Mids.....especially with the specific bass center freq of the ADA...
Our soundman would go nuts if I kept pumping my bass freq that high, so would our bass player cuz I'd rob him of his "playground".
And the mids is what makes the guit cut through  :dunno:
For me:
bass -2/0/+2
Mid -4/-2/0
Treb 0/+2/+4
Pres -2/-4

YMMV....

[rabidgerry]

I'm always amazed when I see how you guys set your Bass and Mids.....especially with the specific bass center freq of the ADA...
Our soundman would go nuts if I kept pumping my bass freq that high, so would our bass player cuz I'd rob him of his "playground".
And the mids is what makes the guit cut through  :dunno:
For me:
bass -2/0/+2
Mid -4/-2/0
Treb 0/+2/+4
Pres -2/-4

YMMV....

Not only

I'm with you SC.  The reason I have much less bass is because it sounds like ASS!  Boomy shit.  But I guess this is all dependent on everyone elses cabs and the rooms they are in.  I find a lot less bass in some venues than others so a boost can be sometimes required.  Bass and to a lesser extent hi end is something that I find might need a tweak or too constantly from room to room.

I currently have my stock MP1 at -2 on the bass and that's the one I have been using in a live set up (not gigged it yet.)

[Dante]

It all depends on the rest of the gear. Sometimes, I take a patch from somebody else on the Depot, and it's a fizzy mess.

It could be my cabs, but I'd say they're very transparent...in that, they are wildly underpowered. One speaker is rated at 150w (EV Force), the other is 200w (EVM12L), and I'm sending 50w per side into them to keep them clean. I don't like speaker break up. My suspicion is that other users' cabs may be adding bass  :dunno:  and that would make my bass levels sound big and farty (like me - okay farty, I'm not big)

Could this be? or....could it be that my cabs sound thin & lack bottom end? I find the latter hard to believe. My cabs weigh more than my old car, and like I said, I'm not pushing them at all.

[rabidgerry]

I said the same thing, it all depends.  But sometimes these things really freak me out and I think there is something up with my setup if I find I need to make extreme cuts in EQing.

I found it bizarre that i needed to cut everything on my stock MP1 in a live setup.

Not sure about your cabs Dante, all I know is in my practice room bass is um a little too available.  However if I play in an more open and wider room on the stage, the bass is suddenly gone.  So I put a lot of it down to room acoustics.

My practice room for a while was killing me with BOOM!  I realised that my 4x 2x12"  cabs were coupling and providing an intestine rumbling amount of bass that I couldn't cut out with out dropping like close to -20db.  The bass was also syncing up with the bass players bass and it was just extreme.  How I sorted the issue was by seperating each cab and not stacking them.  I also have them stacked high on milk crates. Tomorrow I shall post the patch I'm rocking with my MP1 with my live rig.  I still have not gigged it yet lol!!!  Only just getting it where I want with my current setup.  I found a good patch for me to build on so I should be rolling forward now with the MP1 and I can switch between that and the Peavey Rockmaster depending on what I want from gig to gig as I can take both.