west5786 Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 I’m an acoustic guitar player just picking guitar up again after around 10 years or so. Decided to get an electric (Squire Classic Vibes 70’s Thinline Tele and an amp (Catalyst 60) as well. Played the guitar through my dad’s modeling amp (Fender) and had no problems. Got my Cat today and turned it on to tried the Clean voicing (the whole reason I got the amp was for clean playing, and I thought it had gotten broke in shipping. Pretty much had to crank channel and master volume on the amp and volume on guitar to even hear it. Tried with headphone and again, it was like the volume was at 10-20 percent. you change to the other voicing and they just about blow you away. I know nothing about amplifiers, am I missing something? I got the foot pedal to be able to switch channels, but with voice volume being so wildly different there is no way I could switch it without blowing the roof off the house. I will play with it more tonight, but feel like something is wrong. you can add some boost, but then it just makes it sound overdriven and is not the sound I am after. Any insight anyone might have would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rd2rk Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 In Manual mode, Clean amp, all knobs at noon, .5w setting, I'm easily bouncing between 70-85db with my Squier Affinity Tele. As measured with an industrial-strength db meter mounted on the wall 12 feet from the amp. Maybe yours IS defective. You mentioned the "voices" being wildly different volume wise, and capable of "blowing the roof off the house". That was not the case with mine, even with the factory presets, they were nicely balanced. Using the same settings as above, cycling through the amps, they are all at the same db level. The Hi-Gain amp SEEMs louder, but isn't actually. If you put the attenuator all the way up, it WILL blow the roof off. I have the Cat100, so my closest setting to yours is 50w, but that's PLENTY loud for an average bar band. At that attenuator setting, the same amp settings EASILY hit 100db. Maybe you got a defective return that a previous owner messed with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
west5786 Posted January 24, 2023 Author Share Posted January 24, 2023 rd2rk, hmm, I did notice the inner box was open, it came from Sweetwater and I thought maybe they tested it before shipping. I played with it some more, and figured when ordering I could room practice at 0.5 watts, but ya, I’m at about full guitar volume and 60-70% channel and master volume to even hear it (at 30 watt I think). I’ll have to try 60 watt tomorrow, but if you told me you could play a bar gig on Clean I would laugh right at you. I’ll check it out tomorrow and maybe contact Sweetwater. Maybe I just need to play with it more? I do have to say I am really quite disappointed. Wish I had more experience with amps. Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hevimental Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 Use potentiometers master, chanel volume and gain. It will be loud for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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