Figuring out my Peavey Vypyr VIP 1

[KuruPrionz]

Not only should you RTFM, you shouldn't skim the the paragraph that describes how excruciatingly simple it is to save a program to the amp's banks of presets.

That skim kept me from moving forward for a bit, to create a preset, choose one of 3 locations in one of the banks and then hold that bank switch down until it blinks. Done.

 

If you are changing the tone you are currently using, it is as easy as tweaking your tone and pressing the bank switch button down until it blinks.

There is even a simple way to restart the amp and it will allow any type of preset on any of the 4 banks (with 3 preset each for a total of 12 presets).

Otherwise there are 2 banks for electric guitar (6 presets total), one for acoustic guitar (3 presets) and one for bass (3 presets).

 

They really did make this easy to do on the fly at a gig. That's what I like, easy. I've got the amp pretty well sussed out, I am getting some excellent tones out of it.

I did find the standard 8" speaker to be profoundly uninspiring, I cut a new plywood baffle, mounted a Peavey Scorpion 10" speaker, used some vintage grille cloth I salvaged from on old thrift store organ.

 

That changed the amp completely, it is a small, light tone monster now. I have the original silver Sanpera 1 pedal, the pedal would not switch, it was volume only. A page i downloaded from Peavey (attached) made

it easy to learn to adjust the throw so the switch engages the wah. Getting it perfect takes some tweaking, I got it working but it's too easy so I need to go back in and make it a bit stiffer.

 

Then, I read up on the Mk II version of the Sanpera 1, the black one. They did add a couple of features. The one I LOVE is that now if you chose Bank A and preset 3, once you've chosen it then that same footswitch that selected the preset becomes the Tap Tempo switch for that preset so you can sync your delay up with the song you are playing. That's pretty much genius, I'll probably have to get it for that feature alone. The other feature is that there are now 3 available functions for the pedal - Volume, Wah and Expression. That could open up strange new worlds, something to experiment with at least.

 

Last but not least, the new X series of Vypyrs is due on the market soon. Advance photos show that the front is all grille cloth and the controls are on the backside of the top, like so many amps are configured.

That means you could just remove the Peavey logo from the front and nobody will know what it is at all. Stealth, good for telling tall tales to other musicians.

 

I mostly use guitar amps for gigging and I do love playing through my Boss Katana 50 MkII combo but this Vypyr system is appealing for a number of reasons. It's small and light, it's very versatile with a small, light control pedal that needs a single cord and no power supply (simple), it has a Wah and could have Tap Tempo on the pedal and most important, it really sounds amazing if you learn it and dial it.

 

I'm in the "slightly distorted but distinctly my guitar tone" to "a bit more distorted so it sings" camp but I also love getting a bit freaky. The rotary speaker tones are good on these amps (very, very good on the Katana too) and I'm wondering if I can use the expression pedal to smoothly blend from a more "normal" tone to the reverse delay - just for one. That's a celestial sound and pretty fun.

 

I've said this before but dialing a Vypyr for what I love involves choosing an amp - I prefer the Classic and the Twin - setting the amp in the Green (cleanish) or orange (less cleanish) mode, turning the Post Gain all the way up and keeping the Pre Gain down fairly low. EQ as needed and the only control that isn't managed by a preset is the Master Volume. After making presets you will want to go back and adjust them to all have sensible volume settings so nothing sticks out as too loud or too quiet.

 

I still think TransTube is Hartley Peavey's greatest contribution to guitar amps, an all analog solid state circuit that has been painstakingly tweaked to emulate the behavior of a complete tube amp circuit, including the sound of the output transformer and the reactive "push back" of the speaker. It's genius and my opinion is that it gets overlooked because the speakers need to be replaced. Big whoop, almost all of my amps have needed the speaker replaced.

[KuruPrionz]

Saturday we played an outdoor wedding reception. I brought the Boss Katana 50. I programmed it recently, in my condo and not up loud.

The bride offered the use of her PA, she sat in with us at the end of our set. When we dedicated 2 channels to her voice and guitar, I lost being able to mic my amp.

 

The band leader, soundman told me "Just turn it up, a lot." So I switched to the 25 watt mode and dialed up the Master Volume. Then he said "turn up the bass and turn down the treble."

You can do that, if you are completely familiar with the 2 buttons that are used to select the presets when the footswitch is not present. Where it gets a bit weird is that those 2 buttons select 1 of 2 banks and 1 of 2 presets within those banks and they do not light up for 2 of those sounds. It would be easy to turn a clean setting into a distortion setting and vice versa and we were supposed to start playing. So I told him no.

 

I loaned my amp to a friend for a gig the previous weekend and he kept trying to adjust it, only to have it go back to how it was programmed. That's what programs do. It didn't stop him from setting the knobs all wonky. The knobs on a Katana tell you nothing about the sound that is coming out, you are on your own go guess as best you can. I stayed on the neck pickup and picked up near the neck and we were OK. Analog, real world solutions to digital problems!!!!

 

One of the things I LOVE about the Vypyr series is that there is a ring of LEDs around each knob except the master volume - which cannot be programmed.

With a glance, on any preset, you can know exactly what your settings are. If you change them and want to save them, then you push and hold the bank button for that preset, which is always on when the preset is selected and the color of the LED tells you which preset you are in.

 

I could have tweaked my presets on the Vypyr in a very short time, knowing exactly what I was doing. That's the point of the lights they put on it. It is designed so you can tweak it on the fly, live without wasting time. I'm pretty sure I'll be switching to Vypyr for live shows. I may use the Katana as the second amp in a stereo rig, it has a ton of great effects and textures.

[Caevan O’Shite]

All of the above tells me that if I had to choose between the Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 and the Boss Katana 50 ("So I switched to the 25 watt mode"- what's that, 25w/channel Left and Right stereo, making "50w", SS? Blechk... Dismal.),

 

I'd not even look at the Katana and hope for the best of luck with the Peavey.

 

Though I'd avoid either of them.

[KuruPrionz]

All of the above tells me that if I had to choose between the Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 and the Boss Katana 50 ("So I switched to the 25 watt mode"- what's that, 25w/channel Left and Right stereo, making "50w", SS? Blechk... Dismal.),

 

I'd not even look at the Katana and hope for the best of luck with the Peavey.

 

Though I'd avoid either of them.

 

 

The Katana is a great amp, make no mistake about it. There is a switch next to the master volume that goes from 50 watts to 25 watts to 1/2 watt (that's 0.5 watts) to silent stage.

I usually run it at half a watt, it sounds great that way, let's you turn up the master volume a bit. When I first got my Katana 100, I was running direct from the Line Out on the amp and switched it to silent stage.

The monitors sounded great, just like the amp and I mean exactly like the amp.

 

That's a sweet feature to be honest. I gigged the 100 for a while but it was bigger, louder and heavier than I needed and when the 50 came out with 4 presets and it uses the footswitch that I already had and used with the Cube 40gx, I went ahead with the Katana 50.

 

I have no regrets, it will get gigged. The Peavey Vypyr VIP3 has a feature that is similar, it's a knob next to the master volume that takes the amp from 100 watts down to 1 watt. TransTube sounds amazing if you can turn up the back end, they really emulated that aspect of tube amps (the most important part in my opinion).

 

The VIP 1 is small and light and 20 watts which is plenty. It does have the post gain knob so you can just about get the same lovely tube sound with it.

With the Scorpion 10" in it, it is a scary little beast.

 

And, you would miss out on some great tones by avoiding both of those amps. Yeah, I know... tubes rule. 9 Mesas, a dozen assorted Fenders, an Allen, a RedPlate, a Frenzel, vintage Supros, Kays, Magnetones and still in possession of a hand wired "clone" of a Fender Tweed Deluxe 5D3 and another hand wired clone of a the Top Cut channel of a 1958 Vox AC 15.

And other stuff I can't think of right now...

 

I KNOW all about tube amps (and tubes, I have a box full of nice ones including Amperex Bugle Boy ECC83s from the early 60's).

And, both the Vypyr and the Katana are keepers.

 

So, stuff that in your pipe and smoke it!!!!!

I'm pretty sure a lot of tube fanatics would have egg on their face if you did a blindfold tone test with tube amps and tossed the Vypyr in the mix.

Because, honestly, some tube amps sound like crap to me (I hated my Rivera era Concert until it was WAY too loud) and some (Mesa comes to mind) sound amazing but you will need to spend a good chunk of time tweaking your tone until you find that slender sliver of splendidness.

 

Then, you'll be out there happily gigging and some tube related nightmare will hose your joy. It's happened too many times, the last time was the last time.

[KuruPrionz]

Since all threads on the Guitar Forum go off topic at one point or another, here we go.

 

My first catastrophic tube failure was at a gig. I had a Mesa Boogie Mk III head with reverb and EQ that I bought brand new (something I almost never do) and I built a 1-12" Theil cabinet with an EV speaker in it to go with. I'd played a few gigs with it and had swapped in all SPAX7 tubes from Mesa - This was back when they were still using Sylvania tubes made in the USA and the SPAX7 preamp tubes tested out as the best tubes in Mesa's inventory. The Mark III had a buttload of them, all in the front of the amp.

 

We did sound check, everything was great. We hit the stage, I played one note and total silence. I messed with the amp a bit, nothing.

I borrowed a horrible GK combo amp from the guitarist in the other band. It sounded terrible but it got me through the gig.

 

At home, when I had time to trouble shoot, I found that V1, the first SPAX7 in the circuit - had failed completely. Even if I'd had a full set of replacement tubes, and hot pads to remove the old tubes - which you really don't want to ever move hot tubes, you can damage them - it would have taken me 15 20 minutes in a well lit room with a work bench and this was a dimly lit stage with no work area.

 

Tube dies, amp is no longer useful. Over the years, I had other incidents with other tube amps and always the same thing, a tube went south.

You can test them all day long (I have a Hickok tube tester) and still not know the time. It isn't a matter of IF tubes will fail, it is a matter of WHEN they will fail.

 

So I would try a solid state amp and not like it much. I did play hundreds of gigs with a Peavey LA400 with is like the Nashville 400 with 210 watts but has a 12" Black Widow speaker. It might be the loudest 1-12 combo ever made, you could easily drown out a Marshall half stack with it. I used a RAT pedal and while I didn't like the tone much I consoled myself with the fact that it always worked.

 

I would buy a tube amp and a tube would cause a problem and round and round we go.

 

The LAST time it happened was just 3 or 4 years back. I took a Red Plate Blues Machine (used $1500+) to an important New Years Eve gig after playing it without problems for months. That's a Dumble clone and a really nice one, I liked playing on it, until...

There we were, 15 minutes from start time, doing sound check. Suddenly, my beloved amp is about half the volume and doesn't sound great. I take a look and don't see anything and there isn't time or a good place to work on it anyway. I played that entire gig just limping that amp along, profoundly frustrating. When I took a look at it the next day, I found the bias had drifted for some reason. You needed tools to adjust it, nobody could have messed with it. I spend half an hour rebiasing it (it needs to be fully warmed up) and it sounded great again. So I sold it.

 

Don't miss it, don't want another one. I get really close to that Dumble tone with the Vypyr and the tones I get from the Katana are nothing to sneeze at either. Solid state has arrived, it is more than good enough, less expensive and more reliable.

The best amp is the one that works, period. Even Bruce Zinky will tell you that.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I wasn't making a 'Tube GOOD, SS/Digital BAD' statement, not at all; primarily just reacting to your description of the Katana and its being such a huge PIA and failure on that gig, the equivalent of driving the rest of the way home on two "doughnut" spares. I also wasn't going off-topic in the least.

 

Personally, I, myself, I would look to and have other alternatives to tube-amps in particular and amps in general if necessary, beside a Katana.

 

For light-weight amps without tubes, I was impressed with the new Fender "Tone Master" Twin and Deluxe Reverb combos; one of those with a few of my favorite pedals would be great to gig with.

 

I have a Strymon Iridium, a fairly small pedal, which would be phenomenal plugged into a power-amp and speakers or PA and monitors.

 

I've used digital-modeler/multi-effects units before, connected to PA and monitors alone, and also in parallel with a real-live tube-amp (this was a real win-win in many ways).

 

I could also use a tube-amp with a direct send to PA and monitors, with or without a speaker-cab (in particular, my Egnater Rebel 30 MkII head, a rather small amp, would be great for this); the onboard Line Out of some, and/or the reactive-load filtered line-out from a GT Electronics Speaker Emulator or a Rivera RockCrusher Attenuator.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: SS amps

 

Quilter just announced some new products into their line

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Announcing-two-new-additions-to-the-Quilter-Artist-Series.html?soid=1104275316479&aid=Psj0DEgATaQ

[Winston Psmith]

Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting, but it sounds to me like the Katana behaves more like a MFX or Modeling Amp, in that it keeps reverting to preset parameters? I can see where that would be a huge PITA in a live setting where, as in the OP, you have to change settings on the fly.

 

Still, even on my various MFX, cranking up the Output Volume is easy enough - there's one dedicated knob - and if I had to change settings within an Amp Model, for more Bass, or less Gain, I can hit one button to get into the Amp Menu, and make adjustments quickly. I can't understand why a real-world Amp wouldn't allow you to make real-time changes?

 

This reminds me of Roland's short-lived VGA-3 & VGA-7 Amps, which incorporated Roland's VG/Virtual Guitar processing into real-world Amps. Of course, you could only access the VG processing if you had a Guitar equipped with a GK-2 or GK-3 13-pin Hex Pickup. It was a cumbersome system, and a major marketing FAIL. Most players didn't have, or want, a GK pickup mounted onto their prize Guitar, and the folks who had embraced the Virtual Guitar technology didn't really need to haul large Guitar Amps around anymore. I have to wonder if they're repeating some of the same mistakes with the Katana?

 

As I say, maybe I'm misinterpreting the situation Kuru Prionz described. OTOH, I have seen a LOT of 50-Watt Katana Amps in GC's Used Gear listings, enough to make me wonder why so many people bought them, and then unloaded them.

[KuruPrionz]

Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting, but it sounds to me like the Katana behaves more like a MFX or Modeling Amp, in that it keeps reverting to preset parameters? I can see where that would be a huge PITA in a live setting where, as in the OP, you have to change settings on the fly.

 

Still, even on my various MFX, cranking up the Output Volume is easy enough - there's one dedicated knob - and if I had to change settings within an Amp Model, for more Bass, or less Gain, I can hit one button to get into the Amp Menu, and make adjustments quickly. I can't understand why a real-world Amp wouldn't allow you to make real-time changes?

 

This reminds me of Roland's short-lived VGA-3 & VGA-7 Amps, which incorporated Roland's VG/Virtual Guitar processing into real-world Amps. Of course, you could only access the VG processing if you had a Guitar equipped with a GK-2 or GK-3 13-pin Hex Pickup. It was a cumbersome system, and a major marketing FAIL. Most players didn't have, or want, a GK pickup mounted onto their prize Guitar, and the folks who had embraced the Virtual Guitar technology didn't really need to haul large Guitar Amps around anymore. I have to wonder if they're repeating some of the same mistakes with the Katana?

 

As I say, maybe I'm misinterpreting the situation Kuru Prionz described. OTOH, I have seen a LOT of 50-Watt Katana Amps in GC's Used Gear listings, enough to make me wonder why so many people bought them, and then unloaded them.

 

You can change parameters on the fly with the Katana, I did it with the Katana 100 and in a way the 50 is simpler. You could make all of your presets manually, without the computer interface.

The problem here is my lack of familiarity with how the 2 bank buttons respond with regards to which channel is which and the time crunch. The band before us overstayed their scheduled time and there were 3 bands scheduled for the wedding with us in the middle. Outdoors in a neighborhood you have to respect the noise regulations. It was a Saturday evening so we were probably fine there but the band was going to start soon, not wait around for me and it's really hard to dial an amp with a band blasting away.

 

To add to that, I intentionally set my amp up to be a bit brighter so it would cut through the mix without being way too loud. That is a balancing act of sorts. I also set it to sound great on 1/2 watt and that is a different tone than 25 watts because you can turn the master volume up and that starts to emulate the output section of a tube amp more. 25 watts sounds more "solid state" at the level I needed since I was not mic'ed up. Our usual practice is to have a mic on my amp, I brought the mic and stand and had the cable run to the PA before I was told I wasn't getting mic'ed.

 

Under that combination of my ignorance, a short deadline and an unusual circumstance, the Katana was not as simple as I would have wished. Once I had the Katana 100 dialed, I played a lot of gigs with it and never changed anything. I'll be tweaking a bit this week and our gig Saturday I will be mic'ed up. I should be good to go or close at least, we had no problem at that venue the last time I played and I used the same presets. The mic position makes a huge difference in what the audience hears, near the edge of the cone the highs are less prominent and with my stage volume much lower since I don't have to fill the room with the amp, the difference is pretty profound. So that's a consideration as well.

 

As to the proliferation of used Katana 50s, first you should check to see if they are the original amp or the MIK II. The original amp had 2 presets, total. Which is why I passed on it.

The MK II has 4, I can gig with that. I played many gigs with a Roland Cube 40gx which had a clean sound, a dirty sound and one preset, all footswitchable. I got by because I could just step back, turn up the delay, set the tap tempo on the amp and there was my 4th preset.

 

I think other reason that Katanas may be getting returned is that the amp itself has quite a few options but you do need to do a software surf to get all 60 Boss pedals. That said, they don't really look like the pedals either, there are more controls to allow you to really get the sound you want. I happen to love that feature but I can see where it might be an obstacle to somebody who doesn't want to tweak on a screen. You give me 7 knobs on a chorus and I'll figure out what they do and how to make the sound I want. Others may prefer the 2 knobs that are on the pedal.

 

Do I overthink all this shit? Probably but I get results once I've sussed out most stuff.

 

You ever tweak a Mesa Boogie? That can often be "one tweak on this knob means another tweak on that knob, which means I need to adjust the EQ which means I need to go back to the first knob, etc. They can be pretty "fiddley" too, halfway into the first set you more or less have it dialed for the room.

[KuruPrionz]

I wasn't making a 'Tube GOOD, SS/Digital BAD' statement, not at all; primarily just reacting to your description of the Katana and its being such a huge PIA and failure on that gig, the equivalent of driving the rest of the way home on two "doughnut" spares. I also wasn't going off-topic in the least.

 

Personally, I, myself, I would look to and have other alternatives to tube-amps in particular and amps in general if necessary, beside a Katana.

 

For light-weight amps without tubes, I was impressed with the new Fender "Tone Master" Twin and Deluxe Reverb combos; one of those with a few of my favorite pedals would be great to gig with.

 

I have a Strymon Iridium, a fairly small pedal, which would be phenomenal plugged into a power-amp and speakers or PA and monitors.

 

I've used digital-modeler/multi-effects units before, connected to PA and monitors alone, and also in parallel with a real-live tube-amp (this was a real win-win in many ways).

 

I could also use a tube-amp with a direct send to PA and monitors, with or without a speaker-cab (in particular, my Egnater Rebel 30 MkII head, a rather small amp, would be great for this); the onboard Line Out of some, and/or the reactive-load filtered line-out from a GT Electronics Speaker Emulator or a Rivera RockCrusher Attenuator.

 

No worries Sir Caevan, see my response to Winston above. And it wasn't a disaster, I had fun playing and up loud as I was I could get some fun feedback sounds. Earplugs in tight!!!!!

[Larryz]

+1 Caevan, I have the Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb and it's been my all time favorite amp. The only downside is the price at around $800 bucks but even that doesn't bother me. Since it has almost no magnet on the speaker, no transformer, light speaker cab, no tubes, almost no chassis, etc., it weighs in around 20lbs vs 40lbs for a tube Deluxe. Like Kuru's Vypyr in the mix, a lot of tubers would have trouble picking out an SS amp blindfolded against not only other tube amps, but against a Deluxe Reverb tube amp. I know what he means by kicking the amp up to 25watts when he got kicked out of the PA at the brides wedding gig so she could play. I always run my Deluxe on 1 watt but I can kick it up to 22watts if I had to play a larger venue without using the PA. The 22 SS watts Fender puts out is meant to keep up with a 22 Tube watt Deluxe so it's actually a 100 watt amp. I haven't run any pedals in front of the amp as it does what I want going straight in. I'll bet she'd sing like a champ if you ran some of your cool pedals into one. I can't even imagine running a Tonemaster Twin Reverb as I know it would blow my ears off LoL!

 

+1 Kuru, on getting rid of those tube breakdowns. I used to pack around an 80lb Twin Reverb with 2 JBL's. It never broke down on me but in my bag I also carried a 6L6 and a 12 AX7 and a 120volt AC fuse and some strings. You won't be able to find those out in the boonies country bars and grange halls we used to play at. I was just paranoid back then LoL! Later in life I carried a direct in on my pedal board just in case my amp broke down, I could go to the PA if needed. One thing you said about the gig when you lost your spot on the PA, was your "bandleader soundman" telling you how to adjust your amp volume, bass and treble. I think you should be in charge of those adjustments when you're standing right in front of your own amp on stage. I can see the leader standing back in the audience and having you turn the volume up or down, but other than that, it's your sound the way you want it IMHO. Even when going to the PA via mic or cable, you should craft your own sound and send it to the FOH. Hopefully the soundman will like what you are sending...

[KuruPrionz]

+1 Caevan, I have the Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb and it's been my all time favorite amp. The only downside is the price at around $800 bucks but even that doesn't bother me. Since it has almost no magnet on the speaker, no transformer, light speaker cab, no tubes, almost no chassis, etc., it weighs in around 20lbs vs 40lbs for a tube Deluxe. Like Kuru's Vypyr in the mix, a lot of tubers would have trouble picking out an SS amp blindfolded against not only other tube amps, but against a Deluxe Reverb tube amp. I know what he means by kicking the amp up to 25watts when he got kicked out of the PA at the brides wedding gig so she could play. I always run my Deluxe on 1 watt but I can kick it up to 22watts if I had to play a larger venue without using the PA. The 22 SS watts Fender puts out is meant to keep up with a 22 Tube watt Deluxe so it's actually a 100 watt amp. I haven't run any pedals in front of the amp as it does what I want going straight in. I'll bet she'd sing like a champ if you ran some of your cool pedals into one. I can't even imagine running a Tonemaster Twin Reverb as I know it would blow my ears off LoL!

 

+1 Kuru, on getting rid of those tube breakdowns. I used to pack around an 80lb Twin Reverb with 2 JBL's. It never broke down on me but in my bag I also carried a 6L6 and a 12 AX7 and a 120volt AC fuse and some strings. You won't be able to find those out in the boonies country bars and grange halls we used to play at. I was just paranoid back then LoL! Later in life I carried a direct in on my pedal board just in case my amp broke down, I could go to the PA if needed. One thing you said about the gig when you lost your spot on the PA, was your "bandleader soundman" telling you how to adjust your amp volume, bass and treble. I think you should be in charge of those adjustments when you're standing right in front of your own amp on stage. I can see the leader standing back in the audience and having you turn the volume up or down, but other than that, it's your sound the way you want it IMHO. Even when going to the PA via mic or cable, you should craft your own sound and send it to the FOH. Hopefully the soundman will like what you are sending...

 

Thanks Larryz, the bandleader just happens to be a great soundman too. He's heard me play many times and probably was wondering why the difference.

As I mentioned, where you put the microphone to the speaker makes a BIG difference. Mic the center of the cone and you will get brittle highs barking through the PA. Mic near the edge of the cone and it's much smoother. At 1/2 a watt, the higher master volume smooths things out a bit and I am careful with my mic placement.

 

So it wasn't a sound out front that either of us are used to hearing. He asked me to do it and understood when I declined. Not a problem. We get along great in this band.

I'll be tweaking my amp a bit today and Saturday I bet it sounds perfect. Then I'll just leave it.

 

I'd get one of those Fenders but for me the $800 is a barrier and so is not having all the fun toys built in. I LOVE the Katana's rotary speaker sound, with some grit on my tone I can imitate a Hammond good enough for bar gigging.

There are some great and weird sounds on the Vypyr too, I think the two in stereo could deliver beyond what either by itself does and the pedal board would still be simple and small.

I am phobic about the whole pedalboard thing. The guy who was subbing for me had a pedalboard disaster and it took 15 minutes to unsnarl the mess. In the end he just pulled his favorite distortion and used it straight into the amp.

 

And somehow he was surprised by how much better a guitar sounds if you don't run it through a bunch of chords, jacks and circuits. One of the things I love about the Katana and the Vypyr is that everything I could ever want or need is already inside a small light box and I can just plug in one guitar cord and go.

[Winston Psmith]

@Kuru Prionz - All good, thanks for the thoughtful response.

 

FWIW, nearly all of the used Katana 50's I've seen listed online were the MKII model. Not sure I could live with just 4 User Presets, though . . .

[KuruPrionz]

@Kuru Prionz - All good, thanks for the thoughtful response.

 

FWIW, nearly all of the used Katana 50's I've seen listed online were the MKII model. Not sure I could live with just 4 User Presets, though . . .

 

And that's fine too. The Katana 100 had 4 presets per bank and 2 banks so 8 presets but the bigger 6 button footswitch took it another step.

You could choose one of the presets and then switch the far right switch and it turned the first 4 switches into a pedal board. 1 let you switch in/out distortion, 2 let you switch in/out an effect of your choice, 3 was tap tempo for delay (if you chose delay for #2) and 4 allowed you to switch reverb in/out.

 

Preset 1 could be distorted with no reverb or clean with chorus and reverb, just as an example. It's a great layout and works well but it was more switching than I like. I found myself getting snarled up and playing the wrong sound for the song.

 

On the 50 I have a gritty clean tone, a grittier lead tone, both with reverb, that's one bank and where I stay most of the time. The other bank has a somewhat gritty rotary speaker sound and a heavily overdriven lead tone with a single delay up fairly loud. I just use the tap tempo switch on the amp, easy. If I am in my clean tone I can switch to my lead tone or I can switch to my rotary tone by changing banks. With any preset you chose there are 2 others just one switch away. That's enough fun for me. It's only 2 switches, I like that too.

 

I am focused on simplicity, I don't want stuff on the floor and I don't want knobs and switches on my guitars. The entire gig last Saturday I kept the guitar on the front pickup (I do this most of the time anyway), the SPC cranked and while I did a few volume swells on one song, I had the volume cranked up all the way the rest of the time.

 

I change my volume and tone with my pick force and pick position. You need a heavy pick and a light touch to do that, at least I do.

I've got a vintage Gretsch Supertron on it's way from TV Jones, I had it rewound because it was extremely low output and the resistance was around 180 ohms, stock is about 4.8 Kohms. I am thinking I will mount that near the neck on an old boogered Melody Maker I have with a great neck and just have an output jack. No switches, no knobs. I can always add them later but I want to see if I even need them.

[KuruPrionz]

Re: SS amps

 

Quilter just announced some new products into their line

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Announcing-two-new-additions-to-the-Quilter-Artist-Series.html?soid=1104275316479&aid=Psj0DEgATaQ

 

 

Thanks Danny, I've bookmarked and will take a look at them.

[Larryz]

 

Thanks Larryz, the bandleader just happens to be a great soundman too. He's heard me play many times and probably was wondering why the difference.

As I mentioned, where you put the microphone to the speaker makes a BIG difference. Mic the center of the cone and you will get brittle highs barking through the PA. Mic near the edge of the cone and it's much smoother. At 1/2 a watt, the higher master volume smooths things out a bit and I am careful with my mic placement.

 

So it wasn't a sound out front that either of us are used to hearing. He asked me to do it and understood when I declined. Not a problem. We get along great in this band.

I'll be tweaking my amp a bit today and Saturday I bet it sounds perfect. Then I'll just leave it.

 

 

+1 on the mic placement when sending your guitar amp to the PA. Your amp works as your monitor and going to the PA allows for smaller more portable amps. Stage volumes can get tricky. It's great to have a great soundman in the band and get along so well that you can agree to disagree if needed. Back in the day our bands did not mic instruments to the PA. Our soundman just worked the PA and each of us had to set our bass, drums and guitars to fill the hall and stay under the vocals. We would do a sound check and take turns going out front to hear what the audience would hear. It was actually a lot of fun doing it that way. I always like hearing what the audience hears and having good monitors is a must when sending instruments and vocal mics to the PA. IEM's came out after I stopped using my PA so I never had a chance to experience them. I don't think I would like using them though and I know they could cause hearing issues if bands are not super concerned with volume levels. We were always concerned with stage volumes and protecting our ears so I think sending signals to the PA and having the mains facing out, with lower volume on the monitors/amps was a better way to go.