Help...not happy with tone

[chrismilne]

I haven't been playing much in the past few years (kids/family), and I keep feeling that something isn't right with my setup. I have an Egnater M4->Peavey Classic 50/50 Tube poweramp->Marshall 4x12 (or a Bogner 1x12 cube). It doesn't have much punch, my blackface module on any guitar other than a single coil breaks up quickly (in a bad way), the distortion modules aren't great. I also have a Peavey Triple XXX that i use with the Marshall, and the gain sounds better, the clean (all thought sterile) has a cleaner tone.

I've tried changing messing with the level of the poweramp vs the master level, vs the module level, but i'm still coming up far short of where i want to be. I've recently changed the M4's tubes, I did change out the Peavey with a carver (solid state) just to make sure nothing terrible was going on there but it sounds about the same. I know they aren't the best poweramps, but i could almost buy a boogie head for the price of a boogie poweramp so i'm not ready to go there unless i'm sure i'll get great results. I have all stock Randall or Egnater modules except I recently aquired a Salvado Deluxe module. I've been playing with Musicman Silhouette Special, Axis guitars and a BC Rich Warlock (1987 USA Custom), and a Custom shop Strat. The cleans aren't terrible with the single coils but not a lot of punch either.

Any help would be appreciated, i was ready to go all in on my MTS rig and get new modules but now i'm on the fence. Is it my power section, something wrong with my gear or my ears, or is it just not for me anymore? I used to be happy with my tone years ago when i went down the MTS path...

 

[Mattfig]

Hmmmm, sorry to hear of your tonal troubles....Sounds like something is awry with your system...

Can you give more details? Do you plug straight into the amp or pedals? Do you use the loops? Did you check cables? What levels do you have the M4 set at?

Thanks.

 

[chrismilne]

I'll try to get some clips/pictures together in the upcoming days when i can.

i did have 3 pedals (high quality ones) between my preamp and poweramp (TC Electronics Triple Delay, Strymon MObius and STrymon Flint) but i removed them and no change. I used to have a TC Electronics G Major between them but it died. So i was just running cable out of the M4 (output) straight in to my poweramp, then straight to the Marshall. I also tried an old Crate Celestion 4x12 but no upgrade there either.

 

[withmittens]

I would recommend starting with nothing and adding things to see what happens.

plug straight into your amp with tubes you know are good and known good cables. Then at the RM4 in the loop, then the pedals........

Make sure you test all tubes. Check you speaker connections and only add one single thing at a time

 

[chrismilne]

Thanks. I may try taking it in to my Triple XXX's FX return as well to see how it sounds in that power section as a comparison.

Yesterday i was playing just one cable in to the preamp, one cable to the poweramp, one speaker cable to the Marshall 4x12. I replaced the tubes recently in the Egnater M4 (3 tubes) with the same type that was in there before (also because i thought i needed to improve the tone somewhere). I did not change any of the tubes in the modules. I also played around with the Blackface by lowering the module volume and using the mater volume, vice versa, lowering the gain etc. It was sounding just awful with humbuckers, the single coil was ok but a little weak. The other modules sound a little weak as well, even the Salvado Deluxe (which sounds the best of what i have) isn't doing it for me.

 

[Jaded Faith]

I would wager that you should look at the tubes in your M4. It sounds to me like something isn't right.

 

[chrismilne]

Thanks for the reply. I did recently retube it with Sovtek tubes (the same that came with the unit)...i'll try to get some recording of it over the holiday break

 

[Corium_AZ]

Agree completely. That thing should sound pretty damn nice as is. I had a stock blackface when I first got into mts and it sounded great. Got plenty clean and overdrove really nice. Definitely something not right there. Try some known good tubes (ie, pull em from one of your other amps that are working properly, and just pop em in there to check function). Also, clean all the used input & output jacks. Next, if your comfortable with such things, open her up & have a look around, check for burnt resistors, diodes, etc, leaky caps, etc. it may be really obvious...

Hope you sort it out soon!