20 posts
A very short clip (couple seconds of some early Halen, why not, everyone else does it, lol)...really just a mic placement test thingy with my new Rebel 30 head.
Only had this thing a week now but have played the hell out of it and have to say no issues (tube failure, weird rattles, whatever) have surfaced (knocks on desk). I love its tone, both clean to crunch. It does a great brown sound IMO.
Dirty Rhythm Clip
Daaaaance the night away...
Sounds like it's got some real potential...
Yes, yes on good Brown Sound. Nails it pretty damn well. Nice score and playing Derek!
Nice, it sounds great as does the playing. Sounds Marshall like to me. At least it sounded like the one I had long long ago (only to get that tone, it had to be ear shattering)(the hundred watt Plexi that is).
Do you think the thing can do overdriven and clean blues? If so clips, clips, clips.
What a sound !! I like it !! :)
Ciao !
Marco
Thanks, all. The best thing about it, that was at minimal volume, I even have the wattage setting at 1W, lol!
Just for a goof, here's the Splawn doing the same exact thing, same mic placement as well. Just sounds a little meaner maybe, but really, the Eggy definietly has some Marshall flavor. The verb in the Rebel sample was from the amp.
QRod sampleDBM, it can easily do the dirty, overdriven blues thing and also a smooth/clean blues. I'll fool around with it some more and see if I can attempt something (I'm a horrid blues player) in that style over one of the FNJ's as a backing. May take a while though, I've mostly been dialing in the 6v6 settings while trying to get that brownish rhythm thing, the EL84 side was too sharp for that (with gain up) but might be better on cleaner settings.
both sound clips sound good to me although it has that sound of low volume. Not sure how to describe this, but certainly in my own experience the "low volume" recorded sound can only be got rid of by pumping up the volume big time and you then get a different sound. Again, this is not something that I find easy to put into words. Having said that, still sounds good :)
Thanks for the input, Jon. The Rebel clip was low volume but the Splawn was cranked - so I'm pretty happy to actually have a similar-ish sound out of the Egnater at such a lower volume! Main thing with those clips was really the mic setup, I think I have a solid spot for both amps now, sounding good to me anyway, nice and balanced from low, mids and high without harshness, fizz or whoof, etc. Playing with the amp knobs now (and volume to taste ;)) is just the gravy.
DBM, turned a few knobs on the amp, grabbed my new Legacy and tried to wank out some low gain stuff, flubs allowed, lol. I've never been a bluesy player so I'm not up on dialing in a true blues tone, guess this clip was a starting point fwiw. The first is dry so you could hear the amp characteristics vs hiding them in a sea of verb like the second sample. This was bumped up to 15 watts by the way, still very tolerable volume level IMO.
Low Gain Wank (Dry) Low Gain Wank (Wet)
Cool amigo still Marshally but warmer by a bit. Nice.
Derek, one thing I've found about the watts knob, is that your tone does change because the more watts you remove, the more headroom you remove. Once you've had more time with the amp, you'll find that most times, more watts but lower master sounds better because the watts knob progressively removes bottom, then low mids. You're tone will be fatter at any given volume with more "watts" and less "master." Many Rebel 20 owners at TGP have said that you learn to balance those two to get what you want. Many have also said that they never turn the watts knob down below half because it starts to negatively affect tone. I agree with that. I've had mine for over a year now and even when I'm playing at LOW volumes, the tone is better with the knob at 12:00 and master adjusted to desired output. I think the first clip sounds a bit "pinched" and that's what I hear when I turn mine way down as well.
What are your other settings on the amp? Like Charger said, has potential. I think the watts knob will fatten it up a bit and then I'd really like it. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the chime in, Howie, was hoping you would. Watts and vol were way low, funny thing is, I don't NEED it that low, just don't hear much diff between the lower watts setting vs cranked - BUT, my problem is I've never been a good "real time" tweaker, it always takes making a clip, setting the guitar down and coming back later to clearly hear where I'm at. You can also see my bass dial set way down there, I was miking a G12H30 and the low end on it is massive, only real way to compensate when tracking that single spk is turning down the lows on the amp (as opposed to post EQing, I like to get it as close as possible right off). I'll dime the watts knob and try another clip later and compare 'em! Betting/hoping you're right, I like the balance, just needs to be fatter/thicker!! BTW, still stock tubes, personally think they sound fine. (=
One thing I've learned is the "tube mix" knob is fairly subtle, seems there is a mcuh more drastic difference in the amps tone when switching from the channel 2 to 1 (duh). As dbm noted, that lower gain clip I put up is still "Marshally", its still channel 2 with way less gain....channel one is where the Fendery tones reside. Guess I'll be tackling that channel with some clips soon enough...
Hmmm...I definitely like the Splawn more for Brown-Sound Marshall stuff. There is just something more substantial to the sound.
It's not entirely unusual to have to dial down bass on some amps. My Mark V was very counter-intuitive when it came to getting a good sound. On the lead channel, the bass resided between 9-11 o'clock at most. Same with the mids and the treble was around 2 o'clock. Anything higher than noon on the lead channel and the sound became mud. To high on the mids and it could get edgy. Dialing down the bass was actually a Mesa suggested setting and worked pretty well.
Derek, this thread might go on for a while. I have lots of thoughts after a year with the Rebel 20. But seeing your settings really helps. Everything else being equal, I'd say you'll find a fatter version of that same tone with the watts knob at 12:00 and the master down even below 9:00 (wherever that same volume level is). I know I do with the 20.
I'll be very interested to hear your thoughts on the tube mix knobs once you've had LOTS of time with the amp. One thing to remember here... the more you USE the powertubes, the more you'll hear the effect of that knob. The lower the volume, and the lower the watts knob, the less difference you'll hear. Open those two knobs up, and the difference becomes more clear. But, it's still not night and day, but if you crank the watts and master and add gain to taste (and let the amp open up some to louder volumes) you WILL hear the difference in the tubes.
Charger liked the 12:00 setting while he was using mine at Bertapalooza, and there is good reason for that as it's truly a middle ground that sounds good no matter what gain range you use. I will say that I've been leaning heavily to all the way EL84, but qualify that with the fact that the amp is completely stock right now. I haven't swapped any pre or power tubes, nor have I opened it up to adjust bias, which is a whole world of fine tuning. In theory, a guy could do something like bias the 6V6's for clean glassy tone, and bias the EL84s hot for more harmonic content... just saying.
Lastly, regarding the EQ, for a small amp, this amp has a lot of bottom end content. The cool thing is, the "bright" switch and treble knob are at different frequencies, and the "Tight" switch and the bass knob are as well, so experimentation is certainly in order. You can get some SUPER cool sparkling clean tones with the bright switch on but the treble around 10:00. And some very good gain tones with the Tight switch on and bass knob adjusted to taste. I know you just got this, so you've got a lot of fun ahead.
P.S. Oh, and, I still wish I could sell mine, by a 30 head for under $200. I think it would be a worthy upgrade to get two channels, verb, and the recording output. That said, I still really dig the 20. Best barely over $500 I ever spent. And congrats on a very cool score with the 30!
Awesome tones & nice playing!
Me want Rebel! :)
Thanks again fellers. I guess the honeymoon is still way early, in fact, probably too early for me to have started a thread with clips, lol, shoulda waited til I get more familiar with it but I was stoked from what I heard thus far, had to share. I'll keep tweaking and experimenting...
Thanks for the tips DTR, gonna try some of that out today I hope.
EDIT: couple more samples of the same thing just to keep the comparisons easy for me. Maxed out the watts knob and upped the volume a little more on the Rebel. Made a couple new clips of the Quick Rod as well.
After days of clip making and dial twisting I simply can't get the crunch channel on the Rebel 30 to sound as "big" as the Splawn...ironic that a small amp head doesn't sound as big as my full sized head? That shouldn't matter, probably just my inexperience with the new amp, but whatever, so far the crunch channel just seems "OK" to me on the Eggy, but again, thats coming from a spoiled Splawn owner. The clean channel is the reason I bought it newayz and it crushes the Q-Rod there.
Splawn 1st gear (plexi), OD 1Splawn 1st gear (plexi), OD 2Rebel 30 Take 2
Those clips are all really nice... Stop making me GAS for something I'll never have time to use!
j/k, good inspiration here. Just need more time...
Thanks, Zilla! Its 'getting there' anyway!
Shame isn't it? We have all this juicy gear, a wealth of help on the net to capture great sounds and seldom have more than an hour here or there to play with it all, pfft!
Great Metal sound. the Splawn is a bit warmer but the Egnater sounds real good too a little thinner, and more metal. Nice stuff and playing.