The Watering Hole

Here is a link to the Duncan Amp Pages.  Download the tone stack calculator.  It is free and a very useful tool in understanding how tone stacks work.  

http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/index.html

Before you say "why do I need this," I think it's important to understand the frequency response of your rig to at least a basic level.  This can answer TONS of questions when you are chasing a certain tone.  One thing that is great about this free calculator is that it shows you graphically the interaction between your tone controls.  Something many don't know exists, or certainly don't understand.  I've heard people say, "whey I turn my mids down, why does my bass change too?" and things like that.  This calculator will SHOW you what happens to the whole frequency response when you turn a dial.  VERY HELPFUL INFO!  

And, because I love you all, what I'm offering to do in this thread is, for anyone who has a schematic for their amp, or if Dar or I have one, I'll do a file you can load into the calculator which is YOUR tone stack. For example, I already have one for the Classic 30 and 50 that many of us use.  So you can load YOUR tone stack into the calc and use it to see how it works.  

I'll put the Classic 30/50 tone stack file up this weekend, and take any requests for others starting immediately.  

Why do I need this?

CraigBert — Jul 25, 2008Why do I need this?

Why does craig need this?

For all the recording you do!! :D

Wait, who the hell am I to talk... :o

You know Craig, you, I and Howie could make up the best band nobody has heard (including ourselves). ;D

Yeah!  And we could go by the scientic sound acoustic name of "Black Noise!" ;D

I don't know about you, but our first CD (perhaps entitled "Adventures in Silence?" practically writes itself doesn't it?

Let's see... What else could we name ourselves?

Melodys for the Deaf?

Volume Flat Line?

Zero Db?

The Beatles?  :D

I don't now about you guys but I hear myself almost every night.   :)

IF, I can take this back to a serious thread, you DO need to know what you want, what your rig does, what your pedals do, etc etc etc, FREQUENCY-WISE!  

Rocket made a remark in his recording threads that using SPAN he tuned things "frequency wise" when trying to sound like someone.  He said that that was THE most important thing.  I know how important the character of distortion is and all that, but he said the frequency response was the most important thing.

I know what he means.  If you are in a constant "I want to improve my tone" mode, or even a "hey, I finally got the tone I always wanted" but you don't really know why or how to recreate it...  you need to know what it IS that you want.  

So many things are frequency dependent...  you don't have to want to get all technical to have a need for some knowledge in this area.  Even if you have one guitar, one amp, no pedals and YOUR PERFECT TONE, you need to understand the importance of frequency response.  "My amp sounded great til I heard it with a different speaker, then it sounded better.  Why?"  My XXX pedal is perfect solo boost with my YYY guitar, but not with my ZZZ guitar.  Why?"  

IMO, understanding the frequency response of your signal chain as a whole, is the beginning of understanding your rig.  Then you can make educated decisions on what to change to get where you want to be.