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Up to Discussions in M5 / M9 / M13
2638 Views 5 Replies Latest reply: Apr 25, 2010 10:55 AM by Tombolino RSS
Karl_Houseknecht Expert Line 6 User
Karl_Houseknecht
3,374 posts since
Jan 25, 2007
Currently Being Moderated

Mar 18, 2010 6:19 AM

M13 Distortion Tip

Here's the one tip that I think made the world of difference in trying to use the M13 distortions instead of the distortions on my amp.  Hehe...sometimes even if you have a cool all-tube amp, it's not practical to get the stage volume to where you need it to be for the tone to be there, so pedals are a must.

 

Tip: On the clean channel of your amp, increase the gain until it's still clean, but you start getting into that really touch sensitive territory.  On both the Mesa 5:50 I'm using right now and on the TSL100 I was using, this was about 3/4 of the way up.  You have the gain too low and your tones will be kind of bland.  But increase to this sweet spot and the distortions on the M13 start behaving a lot more dynamically.  This is also the case with real stomps.

  • srspud Just Startin'
    srspud
    36 posts since
    May 13, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    Mar 18, 2010 2:29 PM (in response to Karl_Houseknecht)
    Re: M13 Distortion Tip

    It's funny you should mention this. Just last weekend at a gig I did this and my Bugera V22 sounded so much better with the M13. It does work. It sounds and feels better this way. Great tip Karl and thanks for mentioning it.

    • Karl_Houseknecht Expert Line 6 User
      Karl_Houseknecht
      3,374 posts since
      Jan 25, 2007
      Currently Being Moderated
      Mar 18, 2010 2:36 PM (in response to srspud)
      Re: M13 Distortion Tip

      No problem.  It's actually something basic that you might do without thinking to get a good clean tone anyway, but it translates into big tone when you run a pedal into it.

      • dbagchee Just Startin'
        dbagchee
        157 posts since
        Apr 12, 2007
        Currently Being Moderated
        Mar 19, 2010 1:51 AM (in response to Karl_Houseknecht)
        Re: M13 Distortion Tip

        Good tip. What about the levels of the channel volume and master volume?  I'm not sure if I should turn the channel volume to 50% and use the master to get the level I want or vice versa. Also what about using 50 vs 100 watts? These may seem like dumb questions but Im still a newb with tubes.

        • Karl_Houseknecht Expert Line 6 User
          Karl_Houseknecht
          3,374 posts since
          Jan 25, 2007
          Currently Being Moderated
          Mar 19, 2010 5:15 AM (in response to dbagchee)
          Re: M13 Distortion Tip

          dbagchee wrote:

           

          Good tip. What about the levels of the channel volume and master volume?  I'm not sure if I should turn the channel volume to 50% and use the master to get the level I want or vice versa. Also what about using 50 vs 100 watts? These may seem like dumb questions but Im still a newb with tubes.

           

          On the amp I have now, a Mesa 5:50, and on my old TSL100, there are separate master volumes for each channel.  When I tweaked in my tones, I had the volume up pretty darn loud.  How loud you play the amp at a gig depends on your situation.  If I were to gig this amp with my 80's Hair band, it'd be at a good volume.  But on stage at church, I turned it down to pretty much the minimum volume at 50 watts.  It's pretty quiet but still sounds and feels good.  Yeah, I'd go for 50 watts over 100 if you're trying to control stage volume, but even 50 watts is a darn loud amp.  It's less about the watts and more about how many speakers you have moving air.  Even a 5 watt amp pushing a 412 can be LOUD.

           

          The whole moral of the story here is that you have a heck of a lot more control over your stage volume running pedals into a clean tube amp than you do trying to run your tube amp's overdrive channel and still get decent tone.

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