Latency and the Quest for Tone

Last week was especially hectic and I did not have the opportunity to update this blog. One of the threads I was looking into last week was the quest to improve the current guitar rig that I use. I returned my Mesa Boogie F-50 for a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue. Actually, I tried a Fender Custom Vibrolux first. The issue with both the Mesa and the Vibrolux is the significant hiss at idle. For my applications in the studio and on stage I cannot tolerate the level of hiss. With the 65 Deluxe I see some good points but there are several improvements that I need to make. Currently on the pedalboard:

• Analog Man Juicer compression pedal
• Analog Man modified Ibanez TS-9 distortion pedal
• Boss NS-2 noise suppressor
• Ernie Ball volume pedal
• Fender stage tuner
• Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus
• Line Six DL 4 Delay Modeler

The TS-9 does not match well to the amp. A very solid-state distortion effect. This amp seems to match well with the Soldano Supercharger and Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor pedals. I’m going to try the Tube Factor since it’s a lot less noisy.

Some comments off the Harmony Central review section:

This amp has the best sounding, most soulful clean tone I’ve ever heard. Very sweet, soft compression when driven. I find myself playing through preamp one most of the time, though the reverb and vibrato channel is nice too, just a little more trebley. I usually run the treble down a bit, maybe around 4ish, and the bass up around 7.

Buy a Weber 12F150D speaker and install it. Buy some Electro Harmonix or NOS Philips tubes from thetubestore.com and install them (yes, ALL of the tubes). Re-bias the amp to spec. Enjoy your new amp!!!!!……… For about $200, plus the cost of the DRRI, you will have an amp that rivals the sound of many “boutique” amps that cost nearly twice as much! You MUST do these mods in order for this amp to sound its best. There are other mods (replacing caps, etc.) available on the web that will tweek the sound a bit more, but the above changes will provide at least a 200% improvement over the stock tone IMO.”